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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery
+
+Author: L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [eBook #17321]
+[Most recently updated: January 31, 2023]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Spines]
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT
+
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+
+
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+
+
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+
+
+
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+
+
+Copyright 1906
+
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece1]
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece1-text]
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage1]
+
+[Illustration: Versa1]
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
+
+It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations
+in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume
+have been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in
+those countries. The greater number of the photographs here published
+were taken by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest
+Leroux, of Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number
+of plates from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent
+discoveries in Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell & Co., of
+London, for kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs
+issued by them.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
+which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt
+and Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the
+publication of Prof. Maspero’s _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
+l’Orient Classique_, and includes short descriptions of the excavations
+from which these results have been obtained. It is in no sense a
+connected and continuous history of these countries, for that has
+already been written by Prof. Maspero, but is rather intended as an
+appendix or addendum to his work, briefly recapitulating and describing
+the discoveries made since its appearance. On this account we
+have followed a geographical rather than a chronological system of
+arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has been made to suggest
+to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of events.
+
+At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and
+activity, both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and
+every season’s work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends
+our knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were
+unknown to the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added
+to Egyptian history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the
+primitive Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing
+a hitherto totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization.
+Further than this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest
+historical kings of Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from
+material as yet unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties
+of Babylon. Important discoveries have also been made with regard to
+isolated points in the later historical periods. We have therefore
+attempted to include the most important of these in our survey of recent
+excavations and their results. We would again remind the reader that
+Prof. Maspero’s great work must be consulted for the complete history of
+the period, the present volume being, not a connected history of Egypt
+and Western Asia, but a description and discussion of the manner in
+which recent discovery and research have added to and modified our
+conceptions of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. The Discovery of Prehistoric Egypt
+
+II. Abydos and the First Three Dynasties
+
+III. Memphis and the Pyramids
+
+IV. Recent Excavations in Western Asia and the Dawn of Chaldæan History
+
+V. Elam and Babylon, the Country of the Sea and the Kassites
+
+VI. Early Babylonian Life and Customs
+
+VII. Temples and Tombs of Thebes
+
+VIII. The Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires in the Light of Recent
+Research
+
+IX. The Last Days of Ancient Egypt
+
+
+
+
+EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+
+_In the Light of Recent Excavation and Research_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+
+
+During the last ten years our conception of the beginnings of Egyptian
+antiquity has profoundly altered. When Prof. Maspero published the
+first volume of his great _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples des l’Orient
+Classique_, in 1895, Egyptian history, properly so called, still began
+with the Pyramid-builders, Sne-feru, Khufu, and Khafra (Cheops and
+Chephren), and the legendary lists of earlier kings preserved at Abydos
+and Sakkara were still quoted as the only source of knowledge of the
+time before the IVth Dynasty. Of a prehistoric Egypt nothing was known,
+beyond a few flint flakes gathered here and there upon the desert
+plateaus, which might or might not tell of an age when the ancestors
+of the Pyramid-builders knew only the stone tools and weapons of the
+primeval savage.
+
+Now, however, the veil which has hidden the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization from us has been lifted, and we see things, more or less,
+as they actually were, unobscured by the traditions of a later day.
+Until the last few years nothing of the real beginnings of history in
+either Egypt or Mesopotamia had been found; legend supplied the only
+material for the reconstruction of the earliest history of the oldest
+civilized nations of the globe. Nor was it seriously supposed that any
+relics of prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia ever would be found. The
+antiquity of the known history of these countries already appeared
+so great that nobody took into consideration the possibility of our
+discovering a prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia; the idea was too remote
+from practical work. And further, civilization in these countries had
+lasted so long that it seemed more than probable that all traces
+of their prehistoric age had long since been swept away. Yet the
+possibility, which seemed hardly worth a moment’s consideration in 1895,
+is in 1905 an assured reality, at least as far as Egypt is concerned.
+Prehistoric Babylonia has yet to be discovered. It is true, for example,
+that at Mukay-yar, the site of ancient Ur of the Chaldees, burials
+in earthenware coffins, in which the skeletons lie in the doubled-up
+position characteristic of Neolithic interments, have been found; but
+there is no doubt whatever that these are burials of a much later date,
+belonging, quite possibly, to the Parthian period. Nothing that may
+rightfully be termed prehistoric has yet been found in the Euphrates
+valley, whereas in Egypt prehistoric antiquities are now almost as well
+known and as well represented in our museums as are the prehistoric
+antiquities of Europe and America.
+
+With the exception of a few palasoliths from the surface of the Syrian
+desert, near the Euphrates valley, not a single implement of the Age
+of Stone has yet been found in Southern Mesopotamia, whereas Egypt
+has yielded to us the most perfect examples of the flint-knapper’s
+art known, flint tools and weapons more beautiful than the finest that
+Europe and America can show. The reason is not far to seek. Southern
+Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities, which
+doubtless mark the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are
+situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the
+Euphrates; so that all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country
+would seem to have disappeared, buried deep beneath city-mounds, clay
+and marsh. It is the same in the Egyptian Delta, a similar country; and
+here no traces of the prehistoric culture of Egypt have been found. The
+attempt to find them was made last year at Buto, which is known to be
+one of the most antique centres of civilization, and probably was one of
+the earliest settlements in Egypt, but without success. The infiltration
+of water had made excavation impossible and had no doubt destroyed
+everything belonging to the most ancient settlement. It is not going too
+far to predict that exactly the same thing will be found by any explorer
+who tries to discover a Neolithic stratum beneath a city-mound of
+Babylonia. There is little hope that prehistoric Chaldæa will ever be
+known to us. But in Egypt the conditions are different. The Delta is
+like Babylonia, it is true; but in the Upper Nile valley the river flows
+down with but a thin border of alluvial land on either side, through the
+rocky and hilly desert, the dry Sahara, where rain falls but once in two
+or three years. Antiquities buried in this soil in the most remote
+ages are preserved intact as they were first interred, until the modern
+investigator comes along to look for them. And it is on the desert
+margin of the valley that the remains of prehistoric Egypt have been
+found. That is the reason for their perfect preservation till our own
+day, and why we know prehistoric Egypt so well.
+
+The chief work of Egyptian civilization was the proper irrigation of
+the alluvial soil, the turning of marsh into cultivated fields, and the
+reclamation of land from the desert for the purposes of agriculture.
+Owing to the rainless character of the country, the only means
+of obtaining water for the crops is by irrigation, and where the
+fertilizing Nile water cannot be taken by means of canals, there
+cultivation ends and the desert begins. Before Egyptian civilization,
+properly so called, began, the valley was a great marsh through which
+the Nile found its way north to the sea. The half-savage, stone-using
+ancestors of the civilized Egyptians hunted wild fowl, crocodiles,
+and hippopotami in the marshy valley; but except in a few isolated
+settlements on convenient mounds here and there (the forerunners of the
+later villages), they did not live there. Their settlements were on
+the dry desert margin, and it was here, upon low tongues of desert hill
+jutting out into the plain, that they buried their dead. Their simple
+shallow graves were safe from the flood, and, but for the depredations
+of jackals and hyenas, here they have remained intact till our own
+day, and have yielded up to us the facts from which we have derived our
+knowledge of prehistoric Egypt. Thus it is that we know so much of the
+Egyptians of the Stone Age, while of their contemporaries in Mesopotamia
+we know nothing, nor is anything further likely to be discovered.
+
+But these desert cemeteries, with their crowds of oval shallow graves,
+covered by only a few inches of surface soil, in which the Neolithic
+Egyptians lie crouched up with their flint implements and polished
+pottery beside them, are but monuments of the later age of prehistoric
+Egypt. Long before the Neolithic Egyptian hunted his game in the
+marshes, and here and there essayed the work of reclamation for the
+purposes of an incipient agriculture, a far older race inhabited the
+valley of the Nile. The written records of Egyptian civilization go back
+four thousand years before Christ, or earlier, and the Neolithic Age of
+Egypt must go back to a period several thousand years before that. But
+we can now go back much further still, to the Palaeolithic Age of Egypt.
+At a time when Europe was still covered by the ice and snows of the
+Glacial Period, and man fought as an equal, hardly yet as a superior,
+with cave-bear and mammoth, the Palaeolithic Egyptians lived on the
+banks of the Nile. Their habitat was doubtless the desert slopes, often,
+too, the plateaus themselves; but that they lived entirely upon the
+plateaus, high up above the Nile marsh, is improbable. There, it is
+true, we find their flint implements, the great pear-shaped weapons of
+the types of Chelles, St. Acheul, and Le Moustier, types well known
+to all who are acquainted with the flint implements of the “Drift” in
+Europe. And it is there that the theory, generally accepted hitherto,
+has placed the habitat of the makers and users of these implements.
+
+The idea was that in Palaeolithic days, contemporary with the Glacial
+Age of Northern Europe and America, the climate of Egypt was entirely
+different from that of later times and of to-day. Instead of dry desert,
+the mountain plateaus bordering the Nile valley were supposed to have
+been then covered with forest, through which flowed countless streams
+to feed the river below. It was suggested that remains of these streams
+were to be seen in the side ravines, or wadis, of the Nile valley, which
+run up from the low desert on the river level into the hills on either
+hand. These wadis undoubtedly show extensive traces of strong water
+action; they curve and twist as the streams found their easiest way
+to the level through the softer strata, they are heaped up with great
+water-worn boulders, they are hollowed out where waterfalls once fell.
+They have the appearance of dry watercourses, exactly what any mountain
+burns would be were the water-supply suddenly cut off for ever, the
+climate altered from rainy to eternal sun-glare, and every plant and
+tree blasted, never to grow again. Acting on the supposition that this
+idea was a correct one, most observers have concluded that the climate
+of Egypt in remote periods was very different from the dry, rainless one
+now obtaining. To provide the water for the wadi streams, heavy
+rainfall and forests are desiderated. They were easily supplied, on the
+hypothesis. Forests clothed the mountain plateaus, heavy rains fell, and
+the water rushed down to the Nile, carving out the great watercourses
+which remain to this day, bearing testimony to the truth. And the
+flints, which the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the plateau-forests made
+and used, still lie on the now treeless and sun-baked desert surface.
+
+[Illustration: 007.jpg THE BED OF AN ANCIENT WATERCOURSE IN THE WADIYÊN,
+THEBES.]
+
+This is certainly a very weak conclusion. In fact, it seriously damages
+the whole argument, the water-courses to the contrary notwithstanding.
+The palæoliths are there. They can be picked up by any visitor. There
+they lie, great flints of the Drift types, just like those found in the
+gravel-beds of England and Belgium, on the desert surface where they
+were made. Undoubtedly where they were made, for the places where
+they lie are the actual ancient flint workshops, where the flints were
+chipped. Everywhere around are innumerable flint chips and perfect
+weapons, burnt black and patinated by ages of sunlight. We are taking
+one particular spot in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but
+there are plenty of others, such as the Wadi esh-Shêkh on the right bank
+of the Nile opposite Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought
+back specimens of flint tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the
+Neolithic periods.
+
+The Palæolithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited of
+late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof. Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen Sturge,
+and Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall. The
+weapons illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton, and are
+now preserved in the British Museum. Among these flints shown we notice
+two fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St. Acheul, with curious
+adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left and right. Below, to
+the right, is a very primitive instrument of Chellean type, being merely
+a sharpened pebble. Above, to left and right, are two specimens of the
+curious half-moon-shaped instruments which are characteristic of
+the Theban flint field and are hardly known elsewhere. All have the
+beautiful brown patina, which only ages of sunburn can give. The
+“poignard” type to the left, at the bottom of the plate, is broken off
+short.
+
+[Illustration: 008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.
+From the desert plateau and slopes west of Thebes.]
+
+In the smaller illustration we see some remarkable types: two scrapers
+or knives with strongly marked “bulb of percussion” (the spot where the
+flint-knapper struck and from which the flakes flew off), a very regular
+_coup-de-poing_ which looks almost like a large arrowhead, and on the
+right a much weathered and patinated scraper which must be of immemorial
+age.
+
+[Illustration: 009.jpg (right): PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS. From Man,
+March, 1905.]
+
+This came from the top plateau, not from the slopes (or subsidiary
+plateaus at the head of the _wadis_), as did the great St. Acheulian
+weapons. The circular object is very remarkable: it is the half of the
+ring of a “morpholith “(a round flinty accretion often found in the
+Theban limestone) which has been split, and the split (flat) side
+carefully bevelled. Several of these interesting objects have been
+found in conjunction with Palæolithic implements at Thebes. No doubt the
+flints lie on the actual surface where they were made. No later water
+action has swept them away and covered them with gravel, no later human
+habitation has hidden them with successive deposits of soil, no gradual
+deposit of dust and rubbish has buried them deep. They lie as they were
+left in the far-away Palæolithic Age, and they have lain there till
+taken away by the modern explorer.
+
+But this is not the case with all the Palæolithic flints of Thebes. In
+the year 1882 Maj.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers discovered Palæolithic flints in the
+deposit of diluvial detritus which lies between the cultivation and the
+mountains on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor. Many of these are
+of the same type as those found on the surface of the mountain plateau
+which lies at the head of the great _wadi_ of the Tombs of the Kings,
+while the diluvial deposit is at its mouth. The stuff of which the
+detritus is composed evidently came originally from the high plateau,
+and was washed down, with the flints, in ancient times.
+
+This is quite conceivable, but how is it that the flints left behind
+on the plateau remain on the original ancient surface? How is it
+conceivable that if (on the old theory) these plateaus were in
+Palæolithic days clothed with forest, the Palæolithic flints could even
+in a single instance remain undisturbed from Palæolithic times to the
+present day, when the forest in which they were made and the forest soil
+on which they reposed have entirely disappeared? If there were woods and
+forests On the heights, it would seem impossible that we should find,
+as we do, Palæolithic implements lying _in situ_ on the desert surface,
+around the actual manufactories where they were made. Yet if the
+constant rainfall and the vegetation of the Libyan desert area in
+Palæolithic days is all a myth (as it most probably is), how came the
+embedded palaeoliths, found by Gen. Pitt-Rivers, in the bed of diluvial
+detritus which is apparently _débris_ from the plateau brought down by
+the Palæolithic _wadi_ streams?
+
+Water erosion has certainly formed the Theban _wadis_. But this water
+erosion was probably not that which would be the result of perennial
+streams flowing down from wooded heights, but of torrents like those
+of to-day, which fill the _wadis_ once in three years or so after heavy
+rain, but repeated at much closer intervals. We may in fact suppose
+just so much difference in meteorological conditions as would make it
+possible for sudden rain-storms to occur over the desert at far more
+frequent intervals than at present. That would account for the detritus
+bed at the mouth of the _wadi_, and its embedded flints, and at the
+same time maintain the general probability of the idea that the desert
+plateaus were desert in Palæolithic days as now, and that early man only
+knapped his flints up there because he found the flint there. He himself
+lived on the slopes and nearer the marsh.
+
+This new view seems to be much sounder and more probable than the old
+one, maintained by Flinders Petrie and Blanckenhorn, according to which
+the high plateau was the home of man in Palæolithic times, when the
+rainfall, as shown by the valley erosion and waterfalls, must have
+caused an abundant vegetation on the plateau, where man could live and
+hunt his game.[1] Were this so, it is patent that the Palæolithic
+flints could not have been found on the desert surface as they are. Mr.
+H. J. L. Beadnell, of the Geological Survey of Egypt, to whom we are
+indebted for the promulgation of the more modern and probable view,
+says: “Is it certain that the high plateau was then clothed with
+forests? What evidence is there to show that it differed in any
+important respect from its present aspect? And if, as I suggest, desert
+conditions obtained then as now, and man merely worked his flints along
+the edges of the plateaus overlooking the Nile valley, I see no reason
+why flint implements, dating even from Palæolithic times should not in
+favourable cases still be found in the spots where they were left,
+surrounded by the flakes struck off in manufacture. On the flat
+plateaus the occasional rains which fall--once in three or four
+years--can effect but little transport of material, and merely lower
+the general level by dissolving the underlying limestone, so that the
+plateau surface is left with a coating of nodules and blocks of
+insoluble flint and chert. Flint implements might thus be expected to
+remain in many localities for indefinite periods, but they would
+certainly become more or less ‘patinated,’ pitted on the surface, and
+rounded at the angles after long exposure to heat, cold, and blown
+sand.” This is exactly the case of the Palæolithic flint tools from the
+desert plateau.
+
+    [1] Petrie, _Nagada and Ballas_, p. 49.
+
+[Illustration: 012.jpg UPPER DESERT PLATEAU, WHERE PALEOLITHIC
+IMPLEMENTS ARE FOUND, Thebes: 1,400 leet above the Nile.]
+
+We do not know whether Palæolithic man in Egypt was contemporary with
+the cave-man of Europe. We have no means of gauging the age of the
+Palæolithic Egyptian weapons, as we have for the Neolithic period.
+The historical (dynastic) period of Egyptian annals began with the
+unification of the kingdom under one head somewhere about 4500 B.C. At
+that time copper as well as stone weapons were used, so that we may say
+that at the beginning of the historical age the Egyptians were living
+in the “Chalcolithic” period. We can trace the use of copper back for
+a considerable period anterior to the beginning of the Ist Dynasty,
+so that we shall probably not be far wrong if we do not bring down the
+close of the purely Neolithic Age in Egypt--the close of the Age of
+Stone, properly so called--later than +5000 B.C. How far back in the
+remote ages the transition period between the Palæolithic and Neolithic
+Ages should be placed, it is utterly impossible to say. The use of stone
+for weapons and implements continued in Egypt as late as the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty, about 2500-2000 B.C. But these XIIth Dynasty stone
+implements show by their forms how late they are in the history of the
+Stone Age. The axe heads, for instance, are in form imitations of
+the copper and bronze axe heads usual at that period; they are stone
+imitations of metal, instead of the originals on whose model the metal
+weapons were formed. The flint implements of the XIIth Dynasty were
+a curious survival from long past ages. After the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty stone was no longer used for tools or weapons, except for the
+sacred rite of making the first incision in the dead bodies before
+beginning the operations of embalming; for this purpose, as Herodotus
+tells us, an “Ethiopian stone” was used. This was no doubt a knife of
+flint or chert, like those of the Neolithic ancestors of the Egyptians,
+and the continued use of a stone knife for this one purpose only is a
+very interesting instance of a ceremonial survival. We may compare the
+wigs of British judges.
+
+[Illustration: 014.jpg FLINT KNIFE]
+
+We have no specimen of a flint knife which can definitely be asserted to
+have belonged to an embalmer, but of the archaistic flint weapons of the
+XIIth Dynasty we have several specimens. They were found by Prof. Petrie
+at the place named by him “Kahun,” the site of a XIIth Dynasty town
+built near the pyramid of King Usertsen (or Senusret) II at Illahun,
+at the mouth of the canal leading from the Nile valley into the
+oasis-province of the Payyum. These Kahun flints, and others of probably
+the same period found by Mr. Seton-Karr at the very ancient flint
+works in the Wadi esh-Shêkh, are of very coarse and poor workmanship
+as compared with the stone-knapping triumphs of the late Neolithic and
+early Chalcolithic periods. The delicacy of the art had all been lost.
+But the best flint knives of the early period--dating to just a little
+before the time of the Ist Dynasty, when flint-working had attained its
+apogee, and copper had just begun to be used--are undoubtedly the most
+remarkable stone weapons ever made in the world. The grace and utility
+of the form, the delicacy of the fluted chipping on the side, and
+the minute care with which the tiny serrations of the cutting edge,
+serrations so small that often they can hardly be seen with the naked
+eye, are made, can certainly not be parallelled elsewhere. The art
+of flint-knapping reached its zenith in Ancient Egypt. The specimen
+illustrated has a handle covered with gold decorated with incised
+designs representing animals.
+
+The prehistoric Egyptians may also fairly be said to have attained
+greater perfection than other peoples in the Neolithic stage of culture,
+in other arts besides the making of stone tools and weapons. Their
+pottery is of remarkable perfection. Now that the sites of the Egyptian
+prehistoric settlements have been so thoroughly explored by competent
+archæologists (and, unhappily, as thoroughly pillaged by incompetent
+natives), this prehistoric Egyptian pottery has become extremely well
+known. In fact, it is so common that good specimens may be bought
+anywhere in Egypt for a few piastres. Most museums possess sets of this
+pottery, of which great quantities have been brought back from Egypt
+by Prof. Petrie and other explorers. It is of very great interest,
+artistically as well as historically. The potter’s wheel was not yet
+invented, and all the vases, even those of the most perfect shape, were
+built up by hand. The perfection of form attained without the aid of the
+wheel is truly marvellous.
+
+The commonest type of this pottery is a red polished ware vase with
+black top, due to its having been baked mouth downward in a fire, the
+ashes of which, according to Prof. Petrie, deoxidized the hæmatite
+burnishing, and so turned the red colour to black. “In good examples
+the hæmatite has not only been reduced to black magnetic oxide, but
+the black has the highest polish, as seen on fine Greek vases. This is
+probably due to the formation of carbonyl gas in the smothered fire.
+This gas acts as a solvent of magnetic oxide, and hence allows it to
+assume a new surface, like the glassy surface of some marbles subjected
+to solution in water.” This black and red ware appears to be the most
+ancient prehistoric Egyptian pottery known. Later in date are a red
+ware and a black ware with rude geometrical incised designs, imitating
+basketwork, and with the incised lines filled in with white. Later again
+is a buff ware, either plain or decorated with wavy lines, concentric
+circles, and elaborate drawings of boats sailing on the Nile, ostriches,
+fish, men and women, and so on.
+
+[Illustration: 017.jpg (right) BUFF WARE VASE, Predynastic period,
+before 4000 B.C.]
+
+These designs are in deep red. With this elaborate pottery the Neolithic
+ceramic art of Egypt reached its highest point; in the succeeding period
+(the beginning of the historic age) there was a decline in workmanship,
+exhibiting clumsy forms and bad colour, and it is not until the time of
+the IVth Dynasty that good pottery (a fine polished red) is once more
+found. Meanwhile the invention of glazed pottery, which was unknown to
+the prehistoric Egyptians, had been made (before the beginning of the
+Ist Dynasty). The unglazed ware of the first three dynasties was bad,
+but the new invention of light blue glazed faience (not porcelain
+properly so called) seems to have made great progress, and we possess
+fine specimens at the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The prehistoric
+Egyptians were also proficient in other arts. They carved ivory and they
+worked gold, which is known to have been almost the first metal worked
+by man; certainly in Egypt it was utilized for ornament even before
+copper was used for work. We may refer to the illustration of a flint
+knife with gold handle, already given.[2]
+
+    [2] See illustration.
+
+The date of the actual introduction of copper for tools and weapons into
+Egypt is uncertain, but it seems probable that copper was occasionally
+used at a very early period. Copper weapons have been found in
+pre-dynastic graves beside the finest buff pottery with elaborate red
+designs, so that we may say that when the flint-working and pottery of
+the Neolithic Egyptians had reached its zenith, the use of copper was
+already known, and copper weapons were occasionally employed. We can
+thus speak of the “Chalcolithic” period in Egypt as having already begun
+at that time, no doubt several centuries before the beginning of the
+historical or dynastic age. Strictly speaking, the Egyptians remained
+in the “Chalcolithic” period till the end of the XIIth Dynasty, but in
+practice it is best to speak of this period, when the word is used, as
+extending from the time of the finest flint weapons and pottery of the
+prehistoric age (when the “Neolithic” period may be said to close) till
+about the IId or IIId Dynasty. By that time the “Bronze,” or, rather,
+“Copper,” Age of Egypt had well begun, and already stone was not in
+common use.
+
+The prehistoric pottery is of the greatest value to the archæologist,
+for with its help some idea may be obtained of the succession of periods
+within the late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Age. The enormous number of
+prehistoric graves which have been examined enables us to make an
+exhaustive comparison of the different kinds of pottery found in
+them, so that we can arrange them in order according to pottery they
+contained. By this means we obtain an idea of the development of
+different types of pottery, and the sequence of the types. Thus it is
+that we can say with some degree of confidence that the black and red
+ware is the most ancient form, and that the buff with red designs is one
+of the latest forms of prehistoric pottery. Other objects found in the
+graves can be classified as they occur with different pottery types.
+
+With the help of the pottery we can thus gain a more or less reliable
+conspectus of the development of the late “Neolithic” culture of Egypt.
+This system of “sequence-dating” was introduced by Prof. Petrie, and is
+certainly very useful. It must not, however, be pressed too far or be
+regarded as an iron-bound system, with which all subsequent discoveries
+must be made to fit in by force. It is not to be supposed that all
+prehistoric pottery developed its series of types in an absolutely
+orderly manner without deviations or throws-back. The work of man’s
+hands is variable and eccentric, and does not develop or evolve in an
+undeviating course as the work of nature does. It is a mistake, very
+often made by anthropologists and archæologists, who forget this
+elementary fact, to assume “curves of development,” and so forth, or
+semi-savage culture, on absolutely even and regular lines. Human culture
+has not developed either evenly or regularly, as a matter of fact.
+Therefore we cannot always be sure that, because the Egyptian black and
+red pottery does not occur in graves with buff and red, it is for
+this reason absolutely earlier in date than the latter. Some of the
+development-sequences may in reality be contemporary with others instead
+of earlier, and allowance must always be made for aberrations and
+reversions to earlier types.
+
+This caveat having been entered, however, we may provisionally
+accept Prof. Petrie’s system of sequence-dating as giving the best
+classification of the prehistoric antiquities according to development.
+So it may fairly be said that, as far as we know, the black and red
+pottery (“sequence-date 30--“) is the most ancient Neolithic Egyptian
+ware known; that the buff and red did not begin to be used till about
+“sequence-date 45;” that bone and ivory carvings were commonest in the
+earlier period (“sequence-dates 30-50”); that copper was almost unknown
+till “sequence-date 50,” and so on. The arbitrary numbers used range
+from 30 to 80, in order to allow for possible earlier and later
+additions, which may be rendered necessary by the progress of discovery.
+The numbers are of course as purely arbitrary and relative as those
+of the different thermometrical systems, but they afford a convenient
+system of arrangement. The products of the prehistoric Egyptians are, so
+to speak, distributed on a conventional plan over a scale numbered from
+30 to 80, 30 representing the beginning and 80 the close of the term,
+so far as its close has as yet been ascertained. It is probable that
+“sequence-date 80” more or less accurately marks the beginning of the
+dynastic or historical period.
+
+This hypothetically chronological classification is, as has been said,
+due to Prof. Petrie, and has been adopted by Mr. Randall-Maclver and
+other students of prehistoric Egypt in their work.[3] To Prof. Petrie
+then is due the credit of systematizing the study of Egyptian
+prehistoric antiquities; but the further credit of having _discovered_
+these antiquities themselves and settled their date belongs not to him
+but to the distinguished French archæologist, M. J. de Morgan, who was
+for several years director of the museum at Giza, and is now chief of
+the French archæological delegation in Persia, which has made of late
+years so many important discoveries. The proof of the prehistoric date
+of this class of antiquities was given, not by Prof. Petrie after his
+excavations at Dendera in 1897-8, but by M. de Morgan in his volume,
+_Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte: l’Âge de la Pierre et les
+Métaux_, published in 1895-6. In this book the true chronological
+position of the prehistoric antiquities was pointed out, and the
+existence of an Egyptian Stone Age finally decided. M. de Morgan’s work
+was based on careful study of the results of excavations carried on for
+several years by the Egyptian government in various parts of Egypt, in
+the course of which a large number of cemeteries of the primitive type
+had been discovered. It was soon evident to M. de Morgan that these
+primitive graves, with their unusual pottery and flint implements,
+could be nothing less than the tombs of the prehistoric Egyptians, the
+Egyptians of the Stone Age.
+
+    [3] _El Amra and Abydos_, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902.
+
+Objects of the prehistoric period had been known to the museums for many
+years previously, but owing to the uncertainty of their provenance and
+the absence of knowledge of the existence of the primitive cemeteries,
+no scientific conclusions had been arrived at with regard to them; and
+it was not till the publication of M. de Morgan’s book that they were
+recognized and classified as prehistoric. The necropoles investigated
+by M. de Morgan and his assistants extended from Kawâmil in the north,
+about twenty miles north of Abydos, to Edfu in the south. The chief
+cemeteries between these two points were those of Bât Allam, Saghel
+el-Baglieh, el-’Amra, Nakâda, Tûkh, and Gebelên. All the burials were
+of simple type, analogous to those of the Neolithic races in the rest
+of the world. In a shallow, oval grave, excavated often but a few inches
+below the surface of the soil, lay the body, cramped up with the knees
+to the chin, sometimes in a rough box of pottery, more often with only
+a mat to cover it. Ready to the hand of the dead man were his flint
+weapons and tools, and the usual red and black, or buff and red, pots
+lay beside him; originally, no doubt, they had been filled with the
+funeral meats, to sustain the ghost in the next world. Occasionally a
+simple copper weapon was found. With the body were also buried slate
+palettes for grinding the green eye-paint which the Egyptians loved even
+at this early period. These are often carved to suggest the forms of
+animals, such as birds, bats, tortoises, goats, etc.; on others are
+fantastic creatures with two heads. Combs of bone, too, are found,
+ornamented in a similar way with birds’ or goats’ heads, often double.
+And most interesting of all are the small bone and ivory figures of men
+and women which are also found. These usually have little blue beads for
+eyes, and are of the quaintest and naivest appearance conceivable. Here
+we have an elderly man with a long pointed beard, there two women with
+inane smiles upon their countenances, here another woman, of better work
+this time, with a child slung across her shoulder. This figure, which
+is in the British Museum, must be very late, as prehistoric Egyptian
+antiquities go. It is almost as good in style as the early Ist Dynasty
+objects. Such were the objects which the simple piety of the early
+Egyptian prompted him to bury with the bodies of his dead, in order that
+they might find solace and contentment in the other world.
+
+All the prehistoric cemeteries are of this type, with the graves pressed
+closely together, so that they often impinge upon one another. The
+nearness of the graves to the surface is due to the exposed positions,
+at the entrances to _wadis_, in which the primitive cemeteries are
+usually found. The result is that they are always swept by the winds,
+which prevent the desert sand from accumulating over them, and so have
+preserved the original level of the ground. From their proximity to
+the surface they are often found disturbed, more often by the agency of
+jackals than that of man.
+
+Contemporaneously with M. de Morgan’s explorations, Prof. Flinders
+Petrie and Mr. J. Quibell had, in the winter of 1894-5, excavated in
+the districts of Tukh and Nakada, on the west bank of the Nile opposite
+Koptos, a series of extensive cemeteries of the primitive type, from
+which they obtained a large number of antiquities, published in their
+volume Nagada and Dallas. The plates giving representations of the
+antiquities found were of the highest interest, but the scientific value
+of the letter-press is vitiated by the fact that the true historical
+position of the antiquities was not perceived by their discoverers, who
+came to the conclusion that these remains were those of a “New Pace” of
+Libyan invaders. This race, they supposed, had entered Egypt after the
+close of the flourishing period of the “Old Kingdom” at the end of the
+VIth Dynasty, and had occupied part of the Nile valley from that time
+till the period of the Xth Dynasty.
+
+This conclusion was proved erroneous by M. de Morgan almost as soon
+as made, and the French archæologist’s identification of the primitive
+remains as pre-dynastic was at once generally accepted. It was obvious
+that a hypothesis of the settlement of a stone-using barbaric race in
+the midst of Egypt at so late a date as the period immediately preceding
+the XIIth Dynasty, a race which mixed in no way with the native
+Egyptians themselves, and left no trace of their influence upon the
+later Egyptians, was one which demanded greater faith than the simple
+explanation of M. de Morgan.
+
+The error of the British explorers was at once admitted by Mr. Quibell,
+in his volume on the excavations of 1897 at el-Kab, published in
+1898.[4] Mr. Quibell at once found full and adequate confirmation of M.
+de Morgan’s discovery in his diggings at el-Kab. Prof. Petrie admitted
+the correctness of M. de Morgan’s views in the preface to his volume
+Diospolis Parva, published three years later in 1901.[5] The preface to
+the first volume of M. de Morgan’s book contained a generous
+recognition of the method and general accuracy of Prof. Petrie’s
+excavations, which contrasted favourably, according to M. de Morgan,
+with the excavations of others, generally carried on without scientific
+control, and with the sole aim of obtaining antiquities or literary
+texts.[6] That M. de Morgan’s own work was carried out as
+scientifically and as carefully is evident from the fact that his
+conclusions as to the chronological position of the prehistoric
+antiquities have been shown to be correct. To describe M. de Morgan’s
+discovery as a “happy guess,” as has been done, is therefore beside the
+mark.
+
+    [4] El-Kab. Egyptian Research Account, 1897, p. 11.
+
+    [5] Diospolis Parva. Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901, p. 2.
+
+    [6] Recherches: Age de la Pierre, p. xiii.
+
+Another most important British excavation was that carried on by
+Messrs. Randall-Maclver and Wilkin at el-’Amra. The imposing lion-headed
+promontory of el-’Amra stands out into the plain on the west bank of the
+Nile about five miles south of Abydos. At the foot of this hill M. de
+Morgan found a very extensive prehistoric necropolis, which he examined,
+but did not excavate to any great extent, and the work of thoroughly
+excavating it was performed by Messrs. Randall-MacIver and Wilkin for
+the Egypt Exploration Fund. The results have thrown very great light
+upon the prehistoric culture of Egypt, and burials of all prehistoric
+types, some of them previously unobserved, were found. Among the most
+interesting are burials in pots, which have also been found by Mr.
+Garstang in a predynastic necropolis at Ragagna, north of Abydos. One
+of the more remarkable observations made at el-’Amra was the progressive
+development of the tombs from the simplest pot-burial to a small brick
+chamber, the embryo of the brick tombs of the Ist Dynasty. Among the
+objects recovered from this site may be mentioned a pottery model of
+oxen, a box in the shape of a model hut, and a slate “palette” with what
+is perhaps the oldest Egyptian hieroglyph known, a representation of the
+fetish-sign of the god Min, in relief. All these are preserved in the
+British Museum. The skulls of the bodies found were carefully preserved
+for craniometric examination.
+
+In 1901 an extensive prehistoric cemetery was being excavated by Messrs.
+Reisner and Lythgoe at Nag’ed-Dêr, opposite Girga, and at el-Ahaiwa,
+further north, another prehistoric necropolis has been excavated by
+these gentlemen, working for the University of California.
+
+[Illustration: 027.jpg CAMP OF THE EXPEDITION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
+CALIFORNIA AT NAG’ ED-DÊR, 1901.]
+
+The cemetery of Nag’ed-Dêr is of the usual prehistoric type, with its
+multitudes of small oval graves, excavated just a little way below the
+surface. Graves of this kind are the most primitive of all. Those at
+el-’Amra are usually more developed, often, as has been noted, rising to
+the height of regular brick tombs. They are evidently later, nearer to
+the time of the Ist Dynasty. The position of the Nag’ed-Dêr cemetery is
+also characteristic. It lies on the usual low ridge at the entrance to a
+desert _wadi_, which is itself one of the most picturesque in this
+part of Egypt, with its chaos of great boulders and fallen rocks. An
+illustration of the camp of Mr. Reisner’s expedition at Nag’ed-Dêr is
+given above. The excavations of the University of California are carried
+out with the greatest possible care and are financed with the greatest
+possible liberality. Mr. Reisner has therefore been able to keep an
+absolutely complete photographic record of everything, even down to
+the successive stages in the opening of a tomb, which will be of the
+greatest use to science when published.
+
+For a detailed study of the antiquities of the prehistoric period the
+publications of Prof. Petrie, Mr. Quibell, and Mr. Randall-Maclver are
+more useful than that of M. de Morgan, who does not give enough details.
+Every atom of evidence is given in the publications of the British
+explorers, whereas it is a characteristic of French work to give
+brilliant conclusions, beautifully illustrated, without much of the
+evidence on which the conclusions are based. This kind of work does not
+appeal to the Anglo-Saxon mind, which takes nothing on trust, even
+from the most renowned experts, and always wants to know the why and
+wherefore. The complete publication of evidence which marks the British
+work will no doubt be met with, if possible in even more complete
+detail, in the American work of Messrs. Reisner, Lythgoe, and Mace (the
+last-named is an Englishman) for the University of California, when
+published. The question of speedy versus delayed publication is a very
+vexing one. Prof. Petrie prefers to publish as speedily as possible; six
+months after the season’s work in Egypt is done, the full publication
+with photographs of everything appears. Mr. Reisner and the French
+explorers prefer to publish nothing until they have exhaustively studied
+the whole of the evidence, and can extract nothing more from it. This
+would be admirable if the French published their discoveries fully, but
+they do not. Even M. de Morgan has not approached the fulness of
+detail which characterizes British work and which will characterize Mr.
+Reisner’s publication when it appears. The only drawback to this method
+is that general interest in the particular excavations described tends
+to pass away before the full description appears.
+
+Prof. Petrie has explored other prehistoric sites at Abadiya, and Mr.
+Quibell at el-Kab. M. de Morgan and his assistants have examined a large
+number of sites, ranging from the Delta to el-Kab. Further research has
+shown that some of the sites identified by M. de Morgan as prehistoric
+are in reality of much later date, for example, Kahun, where the late
+flints of XIIth Dynasty date were found. He notes that “large numbers
+of Neolithic flint weapons are found in the desert on the borders of
+the Fayyum, and at Helwan, south of Cairo,” and that all the important
+necropoles and kitchen-middens of the predynastic people are to be found
+in the districts of Abydos and Thebes, from el-Kawamil in the North to
+el-Kab in the South. It is of course too soon to assert with confidence
+that there are no prehistoric remains in any other part of Egypt,
+especially in the long tract between the Fayyûm and the district of
+Abydos, but up to the present time none have been found in this region.
+
+This geographical distribution of the prehistoric remains fits in
+curiously with the ancient legend concerning the origin of the ancestors
+of the Egyptians in Upper Egypt, and supports the much discussed theory
+that they came originally to the Nile valley from the shores of the Red
+Sea by way of the Wadi Hammamat, which debouches on to the Nile in the
+vicinity of Koptos and Kus, opposite Ballas and Tûkh. The supposition
+seems a very probable one, and it may well be that the earliest
+Egyptians entered the valley of the Nile by the route suggested and
+then spread northwards and southwards in the valley. The fact that their
+remains are not found north of el-Kawâmil nor south of el-Kab might
+perhaps be explained by the supposition that, when they had extended
+thus far north and south from their original place of arrival, they
+passed from the primitive Neolithic condition to the more highly
+developed copper-using culture of the period which immediately preceded
+the establishment of the monarchy. The Neolithic weapons of the Fayyûm
+and Hel-wân would then be the remains of a different people, which
+inhabited the Delta and Middle Egypt in very early times. This people
+may have been of Mediterranean stock, akin to the primitive inhabitants
+of Palestine, Greece, Italy, and Spain; and they no doubt were identical
+with the inhabitants of Lower Egypt who were overthrown and conquered by
+Kha-sekhem and the other Southern founders of the monarchy (who belonged
+to the race which had come from the Red Sea by the Wadi Hammamat), and
+so were the ancestors of the later natives of Lower Egypt. Whether the
+Southerners, whose primitive remains we find from el-Kawâmil to el-Kab,
+were of the same race as the Northerners whom they conquered, cannot
+be decided. The skull-form of the Southerners agrees with that of the
+Mediterranean races. But we have no nécropoles of the Northerners to
+tell us much of their peculiarities. We have nothing but their flint
+arrowheads.
+
+But it should be observed that, in spite of the present absence of all
+primitive remains (whether mere flints, or actual graves with bodies and
+relics) of the primeval population between the Fayyûm and el-Kawâmil,
+there is no proof that the primitive race of Upper Egypt was not
+coterminous and identical with that of the lower country. It
+might therefore be urged that the whole Neolithic population was
+“Mediterranean” by its skull-form and body-structure, and specifically
+“Nilotic” (indigenous Egyptian) in its culture-type. This is quite
+possible, but we have again to account for the legends of distant origin
+on the Red Sea coast, the probability that one element of the Egyptian
+population was of extraneous origin and came from the east into the Nile
+valley near Koptos, and finally the historical fact of an advance of the
+early dynastic Egyptians from the South to the conquest of the North.
+The latter fact might of course be explained as a civil war analogous
+to that between Thebes and Asyût in the time of the IXth Dynasty, but
+against this explanation is to be set the fact that the contemporary
+monuments of the Southerners exhibit the men of the North as of foreign
+and non-Egyptian ethnic type, resembling Libyans. It is possible that
+they were akin to the Libyans; and this would square very well with the
+first theory, but it may also be made to fit in with a development of
+the second, which has been generally accepted.
+
+According to this view, the whole primitive Neolithic population of
+North and South was Miotic, indigenous in origin, and akin to the
+“Mediterraneans “of Prof. Sergi and the other ethnologists. It was not
+this population, the stone-users whose nécropoles have been found by
+Messrs. de Morgan, Pétrie, and Maclver, that entered the Nile valley by
+the Wadi Hammamat. This was another race of different ethnic origin,
+which came from the Red Sea toward the end of the Neolithic period,
+and, being of higher civilization than the native Nilotes, assumed the
+lordship over them, gave a great impetus to the development of their
+culture, and started at once the institution of monarchy, the knowledge
+of letters, and the use of metals. The chiefs of this superior tribe
+founded the monarchy, conquered the North, unified the kingdom, and
+began Egyptian history. From many indications it would seem probable
+that these conquerors were of Babylonian origin, or that the culture
+they brought with them (possibly from Arabia) was ultimately of
+Babylonian origin. They themselves would seem to have been Semites,
+or rather proto-Semites, who came from Arabia to Africa by way of
+the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and proceeded up the coast to about the
+neighbourhood of Kusêr, whence the Wadi Hammamat offered them an open
+road to the valley of the Nile. By this route they may have entered
+Egypt, bringing with them a civilization, which, like that of the other
+Semites, had been profoundly influenced and modified by that of the
+Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia. This Semitic-Sumerian culture,
+mingling with that of the Nilotes themselves, produced the civilization
+of Ancient Egypt as we know it.
+
+This is a very plausible hypothesis, and has a great deal of evidence in
+its favour. It seems certain that in the early dynastic period two
+races lived in Egypt, which differed considerably in type, and also,
+apparently, in burial customs. The later Egyptians always buried the
+dead lying on their backs, extended at full length. During the period of
+the Middle Kingdom (XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) the head was usually turned
+over on to the left side, in order that the dead man might look through
+the two great eyes painted on that side of the coffin. Afterward the
+rigidly extended position was always adopted. The Neolithic Egyptians,
+however, buried the dead lying wholly on the left side and in a
+contracted position, with the knees drawn up to the chin. The bodies
+were not embalmed, and the extended position and mummification were
+never used. Under the IVth Dynasty we find in the necropolis of Mêdûm
+(north of the Payyûm) the two positions used simultaneously, and the
+extended bodies are mummified. The contracted bodies are skeletons, as
+in the case of most of the predynastic bodies. When these are found with
+flesh, skin, and hair intact, their preservation is due to the dryness
+of the soil and the preservative salts it contains, not to intentional
+embalming, which was evidently introduced by those who employed the
+extended position in burial. The contracted position is found as late as
+the Vth Dynasty at Dashasha, south of the Eayyûm, but after that date it
+is no longer found.
+
+The conclusion is obvious that the contracted position without
+mummification, which the Neolithic people used, was supplanted in the
+early dynastic period by the extended position with mummification, and
+by the time of the VIth Dynasty it was entirely superseded. This points
+to the supersession of the burial customs of the indigenous Neolithic
+race by those of another race which conquered and dominated the
+indigenes. And, since the extended burials of the IVth Dynasty are
+evidently those of the higher nobles, while the contracted ones are
+those of inferior people, it is probable that the customs of extended
+burial and embalming were introduced by a foreign race which founded the
+Egyptian monarchical state, with its hierarchy of nobles and officials,
+and in fact started Egyptian civilization on its way. The conquerors of
+the North were thus not the descendants of the Neolithic people of the
+South, but their conquerors; in fact, they dominated the indigenes both
+of North and South, who will then appear (since we find the custom of
+contracted burial in the North at Dashasha and Mêdûm) to have originally
+belonged to the same race.
+
+The conquering race is that which is supposed to have been of Semitic or
+proto-Semitic origin, and to have brought elements of Sumerian culture
+to savage Egypt. The reasons advanced for this supposition are the
+following:--
+
+(1) Just as the Egyptian race was evidently compounded of two elements,
+of conquered “Mediterraneans” and conquering x, so the Egyptian language
+is evidently compounded of two elements, the one Nilotic, perhaps
+related in some degree to the Berber dialects of North Africa, the other
+not x, but evidently Semitic.
+
+(2) Certain elements of the early dynastic civilization, which do not
+appear in that of the earlier pre-dynastic period, resemble well-known
+elements of the civilization of Babylonia. We may instance the use of
+the cylinder-seal, which died out in Egypt in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty, but was always used in Babylonia from the earliest to the
+latest times. The early Egyptian mace-head is of exactly the same
+type as the early Babylonian one. In the British Museum is an Egyptian
+mace-head of red breccia, which is identical in shape and size with
+one from Babylonia (also in the museum) bearing the name of
+Shargani-shar-ali (i.e. Sargon, King of Agade), one of the earliest
+Chaldæan monarchs, who must have lived about the same time as the
+Egyptian kings of the IId-IIId Dynasties, to which period the Egyptian
+mace-head may also be approximately assigned. The Egyptian art of the
+earliest dynasties bears again a remarkable resemblance to that of early
+Babylonia. It is not till the time of the IId Dynasty that Egyptian art
+begins to take upon itself the regular form which we know so well, and
+not till that of the IVth that this form was finally crystallized. Under
+the 1st Dynasty we find the figure of man or, to take other instances,
+that of a lion, or a hawk, or a snake, often treated in a style very
+different from that in which we are accustomed to see a man, a lion, a
+hawk, or a snake depicted in works of the later period. And the striking
+thing is that these early representations, which differ so much from
+what we find in later Egyptian art, curiously resemble the works of
+early Babylonian art, of the time of the patesis of Shirpurla or the
+Kings Shargani-shar-ali and Narâm-Sin. One of the best known relics
+of the early art of Babylonia is the famous “Stele of Vultures” now in
+Paris. On this we see the enemies of Eannadu, one of the early rulers
+of Shirpurla, cast out to be devoured by the vultures. On an Egyptian
+relief of slate, evidently originally dedicated in a temple record of
+some historical event, and dating from the beginning of the Ist Dynasty
+(practically contemporary, according to our latest knowledge, with
+Eannadu), we have an almost exactly similar scene of captives being cast
+out into the desert, and devoured by lions and vultures. The two reliefs
+are curiously alike in their clumsy, naïve style of art. A further
+point is that the official represented on the stele, who appears to be
+thrusting one of the bound captives out to die, wears a long fringed
+garment of Babylonish cut, quite different from the clothes of the later
+Egyptians.
+
+(3) There are evidently two distinct and different main strata in the
+fabric of Egyptian religion. On the one hand we find a mass of myth and
+religious belief of very primitive, almost savage, cast, combining
+a worship of the actual dead in their tombs--which were supposed
+to communicate and thus form a veritable “underworld,” or, rather,
+“under-Egypt”--with veneration of magic animals, such as jackals, cats,
+hawks, and crocodiles. On the other hand, we have a sun and sky worship
+of a more elevated nature, which does not seem to have amalgamated with
+the earlier fetishism and corpse-worship until a comparatively late
+period. The main seats of the sun-worship were at Heliopolis in the
+Delta and at Edfu in Upper Egypt. Heliopolis seems always to have been
+a centre of light and leading in Egypt, and it is, as is well known,
+the On of the Bible, at whose university the Jewish lawgiver Moses is
+related to have been educated “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” The
+philosophical theories of the priests of the Sun-gods, Râ-Harmachis and
+Turn, at Heliopolis seem to have been the source from which sprang the
+monotheistic heresy of the Disk-Worshippers (in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty), who, under the guidance of the reforming King Akhunaten,
+worshipped only the disk of the sun as the source of all life, the door
+in heaven, so to speak, through which the hidden One Deity poured
+forth heat and light, the origin of life upon the earth. Very early
+in Egyptian history the Heliopolitans gained the upper hand, and the
+Râ-worship (under the Vth Dynasty, the apogee of the Old Kingdom) came
+to the front, and for the first time the kings took the afterwards
+time-honoured royal title of “Son of the Sun.” It appears then as a
+more or less foreign importation into the Nile valley, and bears most
+undoubtedly a Semitic impress. Its two chief seats were situated, the
+one, Heliopolis, in the North on the eastern edge of the Delta,--just
+where an early Semitic settlement from over the desert might be expected
+to be found,--the other, Edfu, in the Upper Egyptian territory south
+of the Thebaïd, Koptos, and the Wadi Ham-mamat, and close to the chief
+settlement of the earliest kings and the most ancient capital of Upper
+Egypt.
+
+(4) The custom of burying at full length was evidently introduced into
+Egypt by the second, or x race. The Neolithic Egyptians buried in the
+cramped position. The early Babylonians buried at full length, as far
+as we know. On the same “Stele of Vultures,” which has already been
+mentioned, we see the burying at full length of dead warriors.[7] There
+is no trace of any _early_ burial in Babylonia in the cramped position.
+The tombs at Warka (Erech) with cramped bodies in pottery coffins are
+of very late date. A further point arises with regard to embalming. The
+Neolithic Egyptians did not embalm the dead. Usually their cramped
+bodies are found as skeletons. When they are mummified, it is merely
+owing to the preservative action of the salt in the soil, not to any
+process of embalming. The second, or x race, however, evidently
+introduced the custom of embalming as well as that of burial at full
+length and the use of coffins. The Neolithic Egyptian used no box or
+coffin, the nearest approach to this being a pot, which was inverted
+over the coiled up body. Usually only a mat was put over the body.
+
+    [7] See illustration.
+
+[Illustration: 038.jpg Portion of the “Stele of Vultures” Found at
+Telloh]
+
+[Illustration: 038-text.jpg]
+
+Now it is evident that Babylonians and Assyrians, who buried the dead at
+full length in chests, had some knowledge of embalming. An Assyrian king
+tells us how he buried his royal father:--
+
+     “Within the grave, the secret place,
+     In kingly oil, I gently laid him.
+     The grave-stone marketh his resting-place.
+     With mighty bronze I sealed its entrance,
+     And I protected it with an incantation.”
+
+The “kingly oil” was evidently used with the idea of preserving the body
+from decay. Salt also was used to preserve the dead, and Herodotus
+says that the Babylonians buried in honey, which was also used by the
+Egyptians. No doubt the Babylonian method was less perfect than the
+Egyptian, but the comparison is an interesting one, when taken in
+connection with the other points of resemblance mentioned above.
+
+We find, then, that an analysis of the Egyptian language reveals a
+Semitic element in it; that the early dynastic culture had certain
+characteristics which were unknown to the Neolithic Egyptians but are
+closely parallelled in early Babylonia; that there were two elements in
+the Egyptian religion, one of which seems to have originally belonged to
+the Neolithic people, while the other has a Semitic appearance; and that
+there were two sets of burial customs in early Egypt, one, that of the
+Neolithic people, the other evidently that of a conquering race, which
+eventually prevailed over the former; these later rites were analogous
+to those of the Babylonians and Assyrians, though differing from them
+in points of detail. The conclusion is that the x or conquering race
+was Semitic and brought to Egypt the Semitic elements in the Egyptian
+religion and a culture originally derived from that of the Sumerian
+inhabitants of Babylonia, the non-Semitic parent of all Semitic
+civilizations.
+
+The question now arises, how did this Semitic people reach Egypt? We
+have the choice of two points of entry: First, Heliopolis in the North,
+where the Semitic sun-worship took root, and, second, the Wadi Hamma-mat
+in the South, north of Edfu, the southern centre of sun-worship, and
+Hierakonpolis (Nekheb-Nekhen), the capital of the Upper Egyptian kingdom
+which existed before the foundation of the monarchy. The legends which
+seem to bring the ancestors of the Egyptians from the Red Sea coast have
+already been mentioned. They are closely connected with the worship
+of the Sky and Sun god Horus of Edfu. Hathor, his nurse, the “House of
+Horus,” the centre of whose worship was at Dendera, immediately opposite
+the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat, was said to have come from Ta-neter,
+“The Holy Land,” i.e. Abyssinia or the Red Sea coast, with the company
+or _paut_ of the gods. Now the Egyptians always seem to have had some
+idea that they were connected racially with the inhabitants of the Land
+of Punt or Puenet, the modern Abyssinia and Somaliland. In the time of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty they depicted the inhabitants of Punt as greatly
+resembling themselves in form, feature, and dress, and as wearing the
+little turned-up beard which was worn by the Egyptians of the earliest
+times, but even as early as the IVth Dynasty was reserved for the
+gods. Further, the word _Punt_ is always written without the hieroglyph
+determinative of a foreign country, thus showing that the Egyptians did
+not regard the Punites as foreigners. This certainly looks as if the
+Punites were a portion of the great migration from Arabia, left behind
+on the African shore when the rest of the wandering people pressed on
+northwards to the Wadi Hammamat and the Nile. It may be that the modern
+Gallas and Abyssinians are descendants of these Punites.
+
+Now the Sky-god of Edfu is in legend a conquering hero who advances
+down the Nile valley, with his _Mesniu_, or “Smiths,” to overthrow the
+people of the North, whom he defeats in a great battle near Dendera.
+This may be a reminiscence of the first fights of the invaders with the
+Neolithic inhabitants. The other form of Horus, “Horus, son of Isis,”
+has also a body of retainers, the _Shemsu-Heru_, or “Followers of
+Horns,” who are spoken of in late texts as the rulers of Egypt before
+the monarchy. They evidently correspond to the dynasties of _Manes_,
+Νεκύες or “Ghosts,” of Manetho, and are probably intended for the early
+kings of Hierakonpolis.
+
+The mention of the Followers of Horus as “Smiths” is very interesting,
+for it would appear to show that the Semitic conquerors were notable
+as metal-users, that, in fact, their conquest was that old story in the
+dawn of the world’s history, the utter overthrow and subjection of the
+stone-users by the metal-users, the primeval tragedy of the supersession
+of flint by copper. This may be, but if the “Smiths” were the Semitic
+conquerors who founded the kingdom, it would appear that the use of
+copper was known in Egypt to some extent before their arrival, for we
+find it in the graves of the late Neolithic Egyptians, very sparsely
+from “sequence-date 30” to “45,” but afterwards more commonly. It was
+evidently becoming known. The supposition, however, that the “Smiths”
+ were the Semitic conquerors, and that they won their way by the aid of
+their superior weapons of metal, may be provisionally accepted.
+
+In favour of the view which would bring the conquerors by way of the
+Wadi Hammamat, an interesting discovery may be quoted. Immediately
+opposite Den-dera, where, according to the legend, the battle between
+the _Mesniu_ and the aborigines took place, lies Koptos, at the mouth of
+the Wadi Hammamat. Here, in 1894, underneath the pavement of the ancient
+temple, Prof. Petrie found remains which he then diagnosed as belonging
+to the most ancient epoch of Egyptian history. Among them were some
+extremely archaic statues of the god Min, on which were curious
+scratched drawings of bears, _crioceras-shells_, elephants walking over
+hills, etc., of the most primitive description. With them were lions’
+heads and birds of a style then unknown, but which we now know to belong
+to the period of the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. But the statues of
+Min are older. The _crioceras-shells_ belong to the Red Sea. Are we to
+see in these statues the holy images of the conquerors from the Red Sea
+who reached the Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, and set up the
+first memorials of their presence at Koptos? It may be so, or the Min
+statues may be older than the conquerors, and belong to the Neolithic
+race, since Min and his fetish (which we find on the slate palette from
+el-’Amra, already mentioned) seem to belong to the indigenous Nilotes.
+In any case we have in these statues, two of which are in the Ashmolean
+Museum at Oxford, probably the most ancient cult-images in the world:
+
+This theory, which would make all the Neolithic inhabitants of Egypt
+one people, who were conquered by a Semitic race, bringing a culture of
+Sumerian origin to Egypt by way of the Wadi Hammamat, is that generally
+accepted at the present time. It may, however, eventually prove
+necessary to modify it. For reasons given above, it may well be that the
+Neolithic population was itself not indigenous, and that it reached the
+Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, spreading north and south
+from the mouth of the _wadi_. It may also be considered probable that
+a Semitic wave invaded Egypt by way of the Isthmus of Suez, where
+the early sun-cultus of Heliopolis probably marks a primeval Semitic
+settlement. In that case it would seem that the _Mesniu_ or “Smiths,”
+ who introduced the use of metal, would have to be referred to the
+originally Neolithic pre-Semitic people, who certainly were acquainted
+with the use of copper, though not to any great extent. But this is not
+a necessary supposition. The _Mesniu_ are closely connected with the
+Sky-god Horus, who was possibly of Semitic origin, and another Semitic
+wave, quite distinct from that which entered Egypt by way of the
+Isthmus, may very well also have reached Egypt by the Wadi Hammamat, or,
+equally possibly, from the far south, coming down to the Nile from the
+Abyssinian mountains. The legend of the coming of Hathor from Ta-neter
+may refer to some such wandering, and we know that the Egyptians of the
+Old Kingdom communicated with the Land of Punt, not by way of the Red
+Sea coast as Hatshepsut did, but by way of the Upper Nile. This would
+tally well with the march of the _Mesniu_ northwards from Edfu to their
+battle with the forces of Set at Dendera.
+
+In any case, at the dawn of connected Egyptian history, we find two main
+centres of civilization in Egypt, Heliopolis and Buto in the Delta
+in the North, and Edfu and Hierakonpolis in the South. Here were
+established at the beginning of the Chalcolithic stage of culture, we
+may say, two kingdoms, of Lower and Upper Egypt, which were eventually
+united by the superior arms of the kings of Upper Egypt, who imposed
+their rule upon the North but at the same time removed their capital
+thither. The dualism of Buto and Hierakonpolis really lasted throughout
+Egyptian history. The king was always called “Lord of the Two Lands,”
+ and wore the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt; the snakes of Buto and
+Nekhebet (the goddess of Nekheb, opposite Nekhen or Hierakonpolis)
+always typified the united kingdom. This dualism of course often led to
+actual division and reversion to the predynastic order of things, as,
+for instance, in the time of the XXIst Dynasty.
+
+It might well seem that both the impulses to culture development in the
+North and South came from Semitic inspiration, and that it was to
+the Semitic invaders in North and South that the founding of the two
+kingdoms was due. This may be true to some extent, but it is at the same
+time very probable that the first development of political culture at
+Hierakonpolis was really of pre-Semitic origin. The kingdom of Buto,
+since its capital is situated so near to the seacoast, may have owed
+its origin to oversea Mediterranean connections. There is much in
+the political constitution of later Egypt which seems to have been of
+indigenous and pre-Semitic origin. Especially does this seem to be so in
+the case of the division and organization of the country into nomes. It
+is obvious that so soon as agriculture began to be practised on a large
+scale, boundaries would be formed, and in the unique conditions of
+Egypt, where all boundaries disappear beneath the inundation every
+year, it is evident that the fixing of division-lines as permanently as
+possible by means of landmarks was early essayed. We can therefore with
+confidence assign the formation of the nomes to very early times. Now
+the names of the nomes and the symbols or emblems by which they were
+distinguished are of very great interest in this connection. They are
+nearly all figures of the magic animals of the primitive religion, and
+fetish-emblems of the older deities. The names are, in fact, those of
+the territories of the Neolithic Egyptian tribes, and their emblems are
+those of the protecting tribal demons. The political divisions of the
+country seem, then, to be of extremely ancient origin, and if the nomes
+go back to a time before the Semitic invasions, so may also the kingdoms
+of the South and North.
+
+Of these predynastic kingdoms we know very little, except from legendary
+sources. The Northerners who were conquered by Aha, Narmer, and
+Khâsekhehiui do not look very much like Egyptians, but rather resemble
+Semites or Libyans. On the “Stele of Palermo,” a chronicle of early
+kings inscribed in the period of the Vth Dynasty, we have a list of
+early kings of the North,--Seka, Desau, Tiu, Tesh, Nihab, Uatjântj,
+Mekhe. The names are primitive in form. We know nothing more about them.
+Last year Mr. C. T. Currelly attempted to excavate at Buto, in order to
+find traces of the predynastic kingdom, but owing to the infiltration of
+water his efforts were unsuccessful. It is improbable that anything is
+now left of the most ancient period at that site, as the conditions in
+the Delta are so very different from those obtaining in Upper Egypt.
+There, at Hierakonpolis, and at el-Kab on the opposite bank of the Nile,
+the sites of the ancient cities Nekhen and Nekheb, the excavators have
+been very successful. The work was carried out by Messrs. Quibell and
+Green, in the years 1891-9. Prehistoric burials were found on the hills
+near by, but the larger portion of the antiquities were recovered from
+the temple-ruins, and date back to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty,
+exactly the time when the kings of Hierakonpolis first conquered the
+kingdom of Buto and founded the united Egyptian monarchy.
+
+The ancient temple, which was probably one of the earliest seats of
+Egyptian civilization, was situated on a mound, now known as _el-Kom
+el-ahmar_, “the Red Hill,” from its colour. The chief feature of the
+most ancient temple seems to have been a circular mound, revetted by a
+wall of sandstone blocks, which was apparently erected about the end of
+the predynastic period. Upon this a shrine was probably erected. This
+was the ancient shrine of Nekhen, the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy.
+Close by it were found some of the most valuable relics of the earliest
+Pharaonic age, the great ceremonial mace-heads and vases of Narmer and
+“the Scorpion,” the shields or “palettes” of the same Narmer, the vases
+and stelas of Khâsekhemui, and, of later date, the splendid copper
+colossal group of King Pepi I and his son, which is now at Cairo. Most
+of the 1st Dynasty objects are preserved in the Ashmo-lean Museum at
+Oxford, which is one of the best centres for the study of early Egyptian
+antiquities. Narmer and Khâsekhemui are, as we shall see, two of the
+first monarchs of all Egypt. These sculptured and inscribed mace-heads,
+shields, etc., are monuments dedicated by them in the ancestral shrine
+at Hierakonpolis as records of their deeds. Both kings seem to have
+waged war against the Northerners, the _Anu_ of Heliopolis and the
+Delta, and on these votive monuments from Hierakonpolis we find
+hieroglyphed records of the defeat of the _Anu_, who have very
+definitely Semitic physiognomies.
+
+On one shield or palette we see Narmer clubbing a man of Semitic
+appearance, who is called the “Only One of the Marsh” (Delta), while
+below two other Semites fly, seeking “fortress-protection.” Above is a
+figure of a hawk, symbolizing the Upper Egyptian king, holding a rope
+which is passed through the nose of a Semitic head, while behind is a
+sign which may be read as “the North,” so that the whole symbolizes the
+leading away of the North into captivity by the king of the South. It
+is significant, in view of what has been said above with regard to the
+probable Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan Northerners, to find the
+people typical of the North-land represented by the Southerners as
+Semites. Equally Semitic is the overthrown Northerner on the other
+side of this well-known monument which we are describing; he is being
+trampled under the hoofs and gored by the horns of a bull, who, like the
+hawk, symbolizes the king. The royal bull has broken down the wall of a
+fortified enclosure, in which is the hut or tent of the Semite, and the
+bricks lie about promiscuously.
+
+In connection with the Semitic origin of the Northerners, the form of
+the fortified enclosures on both sides of this monument (that to whose
+protection the two Semites on one side fly, and that out of which the
+kingly bull has dragged the chief on the other) is noticeable. As usual
+in Egyptian writing, the hieroglyph of these buildings takes the form of
+a plan. The plan shows a crenelated enclosure, resembling the walls of
+a great Babylonian palace or temple, such as have been found at Telloh,
+Warka, or Mukayyar. The same design is found in Egypt at the Shuret
+ez-Zebib, an Old Kingdom fortress at Abydos, in the tomb of King Aha at
+Nakâda, and in many walls of mastaba-tombs of the early time. This is
+another argument in favour of an early connection between Egypt and
+Babylonia. We illustrate a fragment of another votive shield or palette
+of the same kind, now in the museum of the Louvre, which probably came
+originally from Hierakonpolis. It is of exactly similar workmanship to
+that of Narmer, and is no doubt a fragment of another monument of that
+king. On it we see the same subject of the overthrowing of a Northerner
+(of Semitic aspect) by the royal bull. On one side, below, is a
+fortified enclosure with crenelated walls of the type we have described,
+and within it a lion and a vase; below this another fort, and a bird
+within it. These signs may express the names of the two forts, but,
+owing to the fact that at this early period Egyptian orthography was
+not yet fixed, we cannot read them. On the other side we see a row of
+animated nome-standards of Upper Egypt, with the symbols of the god Min
+of Koptos, the hawk of Horus of Edfu, the ibis of Thot of Eshmunên, and
+the jackals of Anubis of Abydos, which drag a rope; had we the rest
+of the monument, we should see, bound at the end of the rope, some
+prisoner, king, or animal symbolic of the North. On another slate
+shield, which we also reproduce, we see a symbolical representation of
+the capture of seven Northern cities, whose names seem to mean the “Two
+Men,” the “Heron,” the “Owl,” the “Palm,” and the “Ghost” Cities.
+
+“Ghost City” is attacked by a lion, “Owl City” by a hawk, “Palm City” by
+two hawk nome-standards, and another, whose name we cannot guess at, is
+being opened up by a scorpion.
+
+[Illustration: 050.jpg (left) OBVERSE OF A SLATE RELIEF.]
+
+The operating animals evidently represent nomes and tribes of the Upper
+Egyptians. Here again we see the same crenelated walls of the Northern
+towns, and there is no doubt that this slate fragment also, which is
+preserved in the Cairo Museum, is a monument of the conquests of Narmer.
+It is executed in the same archaic style as those from Hierakonpolis.
+The animals on the other side no doubt represent part of the spoil of
+the North.
+
+Returning to the great shield or palette found by Mr. Quibell, we see
+the king coming out, followed by his sandal-bearer, the _Hen-neter_ or
+“God’s Servant,”[8] to view the dead bodies of the slain Northerners which
+lie arranged in rows, decapitated, and with their heads between their
+feet. The king is preceded by a procession of nome-standards.
+
+[Illustration: 051.jpg (right)]
+
+Above the dead men are symbolic representations of a hawk perched on a
+harpoon over a boat, and a hawk and a door, which doubtless again refer
+to the fights of the royal hawk of Upper Egypt on the Nile and at the
+gate of the North. The designs on the mace-heads refer to the same
+conquest of the North.
+
+     [8] In his commentary (Hierakonpolis, i. p. 9) on this scene,
+     Prof. Petrie supposes that the seven-pointed star sign means
+     “king,” and compares the eight-pointed star “used for king
+     in Babylonia.” The eight-pointed star of the cuneiform
+     script does not mean “king,” but “god.” The star then ought
+     to mean “god,” and the title “servant of a god,” and this
+     supposition may be correct. _Hen-neter_, “god’s servant,”
+      was the appellation of a peculiar kind of priest in later
+     days, and was then spelt with the ordinary sign for a god,
+     the picture of an axe. But in the archaic period, with which
+     we are dealing, a star like the Babylonian sign may very
+     well have been used for “god,” and the title of Narmer’s
+     sandal-bearer may read _Hen-neter_. He was the slave of the
+     living god Narmer. All Egyptian kings were regarded as
+     deities, more or less.
+
+The monuments Khâsekhemui, a king, show us that he conquered the North
+also and slew 47,209 “Northern Enemies.” The contorted attitudes of the
+dead Northerners were greatly admired and sketched at the time, and were
+reproduced on the pedestal of the king’s statue found by Mr. Quibell,
+which is now at Oxford. It was an age of cheerful savage energy, like
+most times when kingdoms and peoples are in the making. About 4000 B.C.
+is the date of these various monuments.
+
+[Illustration: 052.jpg OBVERSE OP A SLATE RELIEF.]
+
+Khâsekhemui probably lived later than Narmer, and we may suppose that
+his conquest was in reality a re-conquest. He may have lived as late
+as the time of the IId Dynasty, whereas Narmer must be placed at the
+beginning of the Ist, and his conquest was probably that which first
+united the two kingdoms of the South and North. As we shall see in
+the next chapter, he is probably one of the originals of the legendary
+“Mena,” who was regarded from the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty onwards
+as the founder of the kingdom, and was first made known to Europe by
+Herodotus, under the name of “Menés.”
+
+[Illustration: 053.jpg REVERSE OF A SLATE RELIEF, REPRESENTING ANIMALS.]
+
+Narmer is therefore the last of the ancient kings of Hierakonpolis, the
+last of Manetho’s “Spirits.” We may possibly have recovered the names of
+one or two of the kings anterior to Narmer in the excavations at Abydos
+(see Chapter II), but this is uncertain. To all intents and purposes we
+have only legendary knowledge of the Southern kingdom until its close,
+when Narmer the mighty went forth to strike down the Anu of the North,
+an exploit which he recorded in votive monuments at Hierakonpolis, and
+which was commemorated henceforward throughout Egyptian history in the
+yearly “Feast of the Smiting of the Anu.” Then was Egypt for the first
+time united, and the fortress of the “White Wall,” the “Good Abode” of
+Memphis, was built to dominate the lower country. The Ist Dynasty was
+founded and Egyptian history began.
+
+[Illustration: 054.jpg ]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+
+
+Until the recent discoveries had been made, which have thrown so much
+light upon the early history of Egypt, the traditional order and names
+of the kings of the first three Egyptian dynasties were, in default of
+more accurate information, retained by all writers on the history of the
+period. The names were taken from the official lists of kings at Abydos
+and elsewhere, and were divided into dynasties according to the system
+of Manetho, whose names agree more or less with those of the lists and
+were evidently derived from them ultimately. With regard to the fourth
+and later dynasties it was clear that the king-lists were correct, as
+their evidence agreed entirely with that of the contemporary monuments.
+But no means existed of checking the lists of the first three dynasties,
+as no contemporary monuments other than a IVth Dynasty mention of a IId
+Dynasty king, Send, had been found. The lists dated from the time of
+the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, so that it was very possible that with
+regard to the earliest dynasties they might not be very correct. This
+conclusion gained additional weight from the fact that no monuments of
+these earliest kings were ever discovered; it therefore seemed probable
+that they were purely legendary figures, in whose time (if they ever did
+exist) Egypt was still a semi-barbarous nation. The jejune stories told
+about them by Manetho seemed to confirm this idea. Mena, the reputed
+founder of the monarchy, was generally regarded as a historical figure,
+owing to the persistence of his name in all ancient literary accounts
+of the beginnings of Egyptian history; for it was but natural to suppose
+that the name of the man who unified Egypt and founded Memphis would
+endure in the mouths of the people. But with regard to his successors
+no such supposition seemed probable, until the time of Sneferu and the
+pyramid-builders.
+
+This was the critical view. Another school of historians accepted all
+the kings of the lists as historical _en bloc_, simply because the
+Egyptians had registered their names as kings. To them Teta, Ateth, and
+Ata were as historical as Mena.
+
+Modern discovery has altered our view, and truth is seen to lie between
+the opposing schools, as usual. The kings after Mena do not seem to be
+such entirely unhistorical figures as the extreme critics thought;
+the names of several of them, e.g. Merpeba, of the Ist Dynasty, are
+correctly given in the later lists, and those of others were simply
+misread, e. g. that of Semti of the same dynasty, misread “Hesepti” by
+the list-makers. On the other hand, Mena himself has become a somewhat
+doubtful quantity. The real names of most of the early monarchs of Egypt
+have been recovered for us by the latest excavations, and we can now see
+when the list-makers of the XIXth Dynasty were right and when they were
+wrong, and can distinguish what is legendary in their work from what is
+really historical. It is true that they very often appear to have been
+wrong, but, on the other hand, they were sometimes unexpectedly near
+the mark, and the general number and arrangement of their kings
+seems correct; so that we can still go to them for assistance in the
+arrangement of the names which are communicated to us by the newly
+discovered monuments. Manetho’s help, too, need never be despised
+because he was a copyist of copyists; we can still use him to direct our
+investigations, and his arrangement of dynasties must still remain the
+framework of our chronological scheme, though he does not seem to have
+been always correct as to the places in which the dynasties originated.
+
+More than the names of the kings have the new discoveries communicated
+to us. They have shed a flood of light on the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization and art, supplementing the recently ascertained facts
+concerning the prehistoric age which have been described in the
+preceding chapter. The impulse to these discoveries was given by the
+work of M. de Morgan, who excavated sites of the early dynastic as
+well as of the predynastic age. Among these was a great mastaba-tomb at
+Nakâda, which proved to be that of a very early king who bore the name
+of Aha, “the Fighter.” The walls of this tomb are crenelated like
+those of the early Babylonian palaces and the forts of the Northerners,
+already referred to. M. de Morgan early perceived the difference between
+the Neolithic antiquities and those of the later archaic period of
+Egyptian civilization, to which the tomb at Nakâda belonged. In the
+second volume of his great work on the primitive antiquities of Egypt
+_(L’Age des Métaux et lé Tombeau Royale de Négadeh)_, he described
+the antiquities of the Ist Dynasty which had been found at the time he
+wrote. Antiquities of the same primitive period and even of an earlier
+date had been discovered by Prof. Flinders Petrie, as has already been
+said, at Koptos, at the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat. But though Prof.
+Petrie correctly diagnosed the age of the great statues of the god
+Min which he found, he was led, by his misdating of the “New Race”
+ antiquities from Ballas and Tûkh, also to misdate several of the
+primitive antiquities,--the lions and hawks, for instance, found at
+Koptos, he placed in the period between the VIIth and Xth Dynasties;
+whereas they can now, in the light of further discoveries at Abydos, be
+seen to date to the earlier part of the Ist Dynasty, the time of Narmer
+and Aha.
+
+It is these discoveries at Abydos, coupled with those (already
+described) of Mr. Quibell at Hierakonpolis, which have told us most of
+what we know with regard to the history of the first three dynasties.
+At Abydos Prof. Petrie was not himself the first in the field, the site
+having already been partially explored by a French Egyptologist, M.
+Amélineau. The excavations of M. Amélineau were, however, perhaps
+not conducted strictly on scientific lines, and his results have been
+insufficiently published with very few photographs, so that with the
+best will in the world we are unable to give M. Amélineau the full
+credit which is, no doubt, due to him for his work. The system of Prof.
+Petrie’s publications has been often, and with justice, criticized, but
+he at least tells us every year what he has been doing, and gives us
+photographs of everything he has found. For this reason the epoch-making
+discoveries at Abydos have been coupled chiefly with the name of Prof.
+Petrie, while that of M. Amélineau is rarely heard in connection with
+them. As a matter of fact, however, M. Amélineau first excavated the
+necropolis of the early kings at Abydos, and discovered most of the
+tombs afterwards worked over by Prof. Petrie and Mr. Mace. Yet most of
+the important scientific results are due to the later explorers, who
+were the first to attempt a classification of them, though we must
+add that this classification has not been entirely accepted by the
+scientific world.
+
+The necropolis of the earliest kings of Egypt is situated in the great
+bay in the hills which lies behind Abydos, to the southwest of the main
+necropolis. Here, at holy Abydos, where every pious Egyptian wished to
+rest after death, the bodies of the most ancient kings were buried. It
+is said by Manetho that the original seat of their dominion was This,
+a town in the vicinity of Abydos, now represented by the modern Grîrga,
+which lies a few miles distant from its site (el-Birba). This may be a
+fact, but we have as yet obtained no confirmation of it. It may well be
+that the attribution of a Thinite origin to the Ist and IId Dynasties
+was due simply to the fact that the kings of these dynasties were buried
+at Abydos, which lay within the Thinite nome. Manetho knew that they
+were buried at Abydos, and so jumped to the conclusion that they lived
+there also, and called them “Thinites.”
+
+[Illustration: 060.jpg PROF. PETRIE’S CAMP AT ABYDOS, 1901.]
+
+Their real place of origin must have been Hierakonpolis, where the
+pre-dynastic kingdom of the South had its seat. The Hid Dynasty was no
+doubt of Memphite origin, as Manetho says. It is certain that the
+seat of the government of the IVth Dynasty was at Memphis, where the
+pyramid-building kings were buried, and we know that the sepulchres
+of two Hid Dynasty kings, at least, were situated in the necropolis of
+Memphis (Sakkâra-Mêdûm). So that probably the seat of government was
+transferred from Hierakonpolis to Memphis by the first king of the Hid
+Dynasty. Thenceforward the kings were buried in the Memphite necropolis.
+
+The two great nécropoles of Memphis and Abydos were originally the
+seats of the worship of the two Egyptian gods of the dead, Seker and
+Khentamenti, both of whom were afterwards identified with the Busirite
+god Osiris. Abydos was also the centre of the worship of Anubis, an
+animal-deity of the dead, the jackal who prowls round the tombs at
+night. Anubis and Osiris-Khentamenti, “He who is in the West,” were
+associated in the minds of the Egyptians as the protecting deities of
+Abydos. The worship of these gods as the chief Southern deities of the
+dead, and the preeminence of the necropolis of Abydos in the South, no
+doubt date back before the time of the Ist Dynasty, so that it would
+not surprise us were burials of kings of the predynastic Hierakonpolite
+kingdom discovered at Abydos. Prof. Petrie indeed claims to have
+discovered actual royal relics of that period at Abydos, but this seems
+to be one of the least certain of his conclusions. We cannot definitely
+state that the names “Ro,” “Ka,” and “Sma” (if they are names at all,
+which is doubtful) belong to early kings of Hierakonpolis who were
+buried at Abydos. It may be so, but further confirmation is desirable
+before we accept it as a fact; and as yet such confirmation has not been
+forthcoming. The oldest kings, who were certainly buried at Abydos, seem
+to have been the first rulers of the united kingdom of the North and
+South, Aha and his successors. N’armer is not represented. It may
+be that he was not buried at Abydos, but in the necropolis of
+Hierakonpolis. This would point to the kings of the South not having
+been buried at Abydos until after the unification of the kingdom.
+
+That Aha possessed a tomb at Abydos as well as another at Nakâda seems
+peculiar, but it is a phenomenon not unknown in Egypt. Several kings,
+whose bodies were actually buried elsewhere, had second tombs at Abydos,
+in order that they might _possess_ last resting-places near the tomb
+of Osiris, although they might not prefer to _use_ them. Usertsen (or
+Senusret) III is a case in point. He was really buried in a pyramid at
+Illahun, up in the North, but he had a great rock tomb cut for him in
+the cliffs at Abydos, which he never occupied, and probably had never
+intended to occupy. We find exactly the same thing far back at the
+beginning of Egyptian history, when Aha possessed not only a great
+mastaba-tomb at Nakâda, but also a tomb-chamber in the great necropolis
+of Abydos. It may be that other kings of the earliest period also had
+second sepulchres elsewhere. It is noteworthy that in none of the early
+tombs at Abydos were found any bodies which might be considered those
+of the kings themselves. M. Amélineau discovered bodies of attendants
+or slaves (who were in all probability purposely strangled and buried
+around the royal chamber in order that they should attend the king
+in the next world), but no royalties. Prof. Petrie found the arm of a
+female mummy, who may have been of royal blood, though there is nothing
+to show that she was. And the quaint plait and fringe of false hair,
+which were also found, need not have belonged to a royal mummy. It is
+therefore quite possible that these tombs at Abydos were not the actual
+last resting-places of the earliest kings, who may really have been
+buried at Hierakonpolis or elsewhere, as Aha was. Messrs. Newberry
+and Gtarstang, in their _Short History of Egypt_, suppose that Aha was
+actually buried at Abydos, and that the great tomb with objects bearing
+his name, found by M. de Morgan at Nakâda, is really not his, but
+belonged to a royal princess named Neit-hetep, whose name is found in
+conjunction with his at Abydos and Nakâda. But the argument is equally
+valid turned round the other way: the Nakâda tomb might just as well be
+Aha’s and the Abydos one Neit-hetep’s. Neit-hetep, who is supposed by
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang to have been Narmer’s daughter and Aha’s
+wife, was evidently closely connected with Aha, and she may have been
+buried with him at Nakâda and commemorated with him at Abydos.[1] It is
+probable that the XIXth Dynasty list-makers and Manetho considered the
+Abydos tombs to have been the real graves of the kings, but it is by no
+means impossible that they were wrong.
+
+     [1] A princess named Bener-ab (“Sweet-heart”), who may have
+     been Aha’s daughter, was actually buried beside his tomb at
+     Abydos.
+
+This view of the royal tombs at Abydos tallies to a great extent with
+that of M. Naville, who has energetically maintained the view that M.
+Amélineau and Prof. Petrie have not discovered the real tombs of the
+early kings, but only their contemporary commemorative “tombs” at
+Abydos. The only real tomb of the Ist Dynasty, therefore, as yet
+discovered is that of Aha at Nakâda, found by M. de Morgan. The fact
+that attendant slaves were buried around the Abydos tombs is no bar to
+the view that the tombs were only the monuments, not the real graves,
+of the kings. The royal ghosts would naturally visit their commemorative
+chambers at Abydos, in order to be in the company of the great Osiris,
+and ghostly servants would be as necessary to their Majesties at Abydos
+as elsewhere.
+
+It must not be thought that this revised opinion of the Abydos tombs
+detracts in the slightest degree from the importance of the discovery of
+M. Amélineau and its subsequent and more detailed investigation by Prof.
+Petrie. These monuments are as valuable for historical purposes as
+the real tombs themselves. The actual bodies of these primeval kings
+themselves we are never likely to find. The tomb of Aha at Nakâda had
+been completely rifled in ancient times.
+
+The commemorative tombs of the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties at
+Abydos lie southwest of the great necropolis, far within the bay in the
+hills. Their present aspect is that of a wilderness of sand hillocks,
+covered with masses of fragments of red pottery, from which the site has
+obtained the modern Arab name of _Umm el-Ga’ab_, “Mother of Pots.” It
+is impossible to move a step in any direction without crushing some
+of these potsherds under the heel. They are chiefly the remains of the
+countless little vases of rough red pottery, which were dedicated here
+as _ex-votos_ by the pious, between the XIXth and XXVIth Dynasties, to
+the memory of the ancient kings and of the great god Osiris, whose tomb,
+as we shall see, was supposed to have been situated here also.
+
+[Illustration: 065.jpg (right) THE TOMB OF KING DEN AT ABYDOS. About
+4000 B.C.]
+
+Intermingled with these later fragments are pieces of the original
+Ist Dynasty vases, which were filled with wine and provisions and were
+placed in the tombs, for the refreshment and delectation of the royal
+ghosts when they should visit their houses at Abydos. These were thrown
+out and broken when the tombs were violated. Here and there one sees a
+dip in the sand, out of which rise four walls of great bricks, forming
+a rectangular chamber, half-filled with sand. This is one of the royal
+tomb-chambers of the Ist Dynasty. That of King Den is illustrated above.
+A straight staircase descends into it from the ground-level above. In
+several of the tombs the original flooring of wooden beams is still
+preserved. Den’s is the most magnificent of all, for it has a floor of
+granite blocks; we know of no other instance of stone being used for
+building in this early age. Almost every tomb has been burnt at some
+period unknown. The brick walls are burnt red, and many of the alabaster
+vases are almost calcined. This was probably the work of some unknown
+enemy.
+
+The wide complicated tombs have around the main chamber a series of
+smaller rooms, which were used to store what was considered necessary
+for the use of the royal ghost. Of these necessaries the most
+interesting to us are the slaves, who were, as there is little reason to
+doubt, purposely killed and buried round the royal chamber so that their
+spirits should be on the spot when the dead king came to Abydos; thus
+they would be always ready to serve him with the food and other things
+which had been stored in the tomb with them and placed under their
+charge. There were stacks of great vases of wine, corn, and other food;
+these were covered up with masses of fat to preserve the contents,
+and they were corked with a pottery stopper, which was protected by
+a conical clay sealing, stamped with the impress of the royal
+cylinder-seal. There were bins of corn, joints of oxen, pottery dishes,
+copper pans, and other things which might be useful for the ghostly
+cuisine of the tomb. There were numberless small objects, used, no
+doubt, by the dead monarch during life, which he would be pleased to see
+again in the next world,--carved ivory boxes, little slabs for grinding
+eye-paint, golden buttons, model tools, model vases with gold tops,
+ivory and pottery figurines, and other _objets d’art_; the golden royal
+seal of judgment of King Den in its ivory casket, and so forth. There
+were memorials of the royal victories in peace and war, little ivory
+plaques with inscriptions commemorating the founding of new buildings,
+the institution of new religious festivals in honour of the gods, the
+bringing of the captives of the royal bow and spear to the palace, the
+discomfiture of the peoples of the North-land.
+
+[Illustration: 067.jpg CONICAL VASE-STOPPERS. From Abydos. 1st Dynasty:
+about 4000 B.C.]
+
+All these things, which have done so much to reconstitute for us the
+history of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy, were placed
+under the care of the dead slaves whose bodies were buried round the
+empty tomb-chamber of their royal master in Abydos.
+
+The killing and entombment of the royal servants is of the highest
+anthropological interest, for it throws a vivid light upon the manners
+of the time. It shows the primeval Egyptians as a semi-barbaric people
+of childishly simple ways of thought. The king was dead. For all his
+kingship he was a man, and no man was immortal in this world. But yet
+how could one really die? Shadows, dreams, all kinds of phenomena which
+the primitive mind could not explain, induced the belief that, though
+the outer man might rot, there was an inner man which could not die
+and still lived on. The idea of total death was unthinkable. And where
+should this inner man still live on but in the tomb to which the outer
+man was consigned? And here, doubtless it was believed, in the house to
+which the body was consigned, the ghost lived on. And as each ghost had
+his house with the body, so no doubt all ghosts could communicate with
+one another from tomb to tomb; and so there grew up the belief in a
+tomb-world, a subterranean Egypt of tombs, in which the dead Egyptians
+still lived and had their being. Later on the boat of the sun, in which
+the god of light crossed the heavens by day, was thought to pass through
+this dead world between his setting and his rising, accompanied by the
+souls of the righteous. But of this belief we find no trace yet in the
+ideas of the Ist Dynasty. All we can see is that the _sahus_, or bodies
+of the dead, were supposed to reside in awful majesty in the tomb,
+while the ghosts could pass from tomb to tomb through the mazes of
+the underworld. Over this dread realm of dead men presided a dead god,
+Osiris of Abydos; and so the necropolis of Abydos was the necropolis of
+the underworld, to which all ghosts who were not its rightful citizens
+would come from afar to pay their court to their ruler. Thus the man
+of substance would have a monumental tablet put up to himself in this
+necropolis as a sort of _pied-à-terre_, even if he could not be buried
+there; for the king, who, for reasons chiefly connected with local
+patriotism, was buried near the city of his earthly abode, a second tomb
+would be erected, a stately mansion in the city of Osiris, in which his
+ghost could reside when it pleased him to come to Abydos.
+
+Now none could live without food, and men living under the earth needed
+it as much as men living on the earth. The royal tomb was thus provided
+with an enormous amount of earthly food for the use of the royal ghost,
+and with other things as well, as we have seen. The same provision had
+also to be made for the royal resting-place at Abydos. And in both cases
+royal slaves were needed to take care of all this provision, and to
+serve the ghost of the king, whether in his real tomb at Nakâda, or
+elsewhere, or in his second tomb at Abydos. Ghosts only could serve
+ghosts, so that of the slaves ghosts had to be made. That was easily
+done; they died when their master died and followed him to the tomb.
+No doubt it seemed perfectly natural to all concerned, to the slaves as
+much as to anybody else. But it shows the child’s idea of the value of
+life. An animate thing was hardly distinguished at this period from an
+inanimate thing. The most ancient Egyptians buried slaves with their
+kings as naturally as they buried jars of wine and bins of corn with
+them. Both were buried with a definite object. The slaves had to die
+before they were buried, but then so had the king himself. They all had
+to die sometime or other. And the actual killing of them was no worse
+than killing a dog, no worse even than “killing” golden buttons and
+ivory boxes. For, when the buttons and boxes were buried with the king,
+they were just as much dead as the slaves. Of the sanctity of _human_
+life as distinct from other life, there was probably no idea at all. The
+royal ghost needed ghostly servants, and they were provided as a matter
+of course.
+
+But as civilization progressed, the ideas of the Egyptians changed
+on these points, and in the later ages of the ancient world they were
+probably the most humane of the peoples, far more so than the Greeks,
+in fact. The cultured Hellenes murdered their prisoners of war without
+hesitation. Who has not been troubled in mind by the execution of Mkias
+and Demosthenes after the surrender of the Athenian army at Syracuse?
+When we compare this with Grant’s refusal even to take Lee’s sword
+at Appomattox, we see how we have progressed in these matters; while
+Gylippus and the Syracusans were as much children as the Ist Dynasty
+Egyptians. But the Egyptians of Gylippus’s time had probably advanced
+much further than the Greeks in the direction of rational manhood. When
+Amasis had his rival Apries in his power, he did not put him to death,
+but kept him as his coadjutor on the throne. Apries fled from him,
+allied himself with Greek pirates, and advanced against his generous
+rival. After his defeat and murder at Momemphis, Amasis gave him a
+splendid burial. When we compare this generosity to a beaten foe with
+the savagery of the Assyrians, for instance, we see how far the later
+Egyptians had progressed in the paths of humanity.
+
+The ancient custom of killing slaves was first discontinued at the death
+of the lesser chieftains, but we find a possible survival of it in the
+case of a king, even as late as the time of the XIth Dynasty; for at
+Thebes, in the precinct of the funerary temple of King Neb-hapet-Râ
+Mentuhetep and round the central pyramid which commemorated his memory,
+were buried a number of the ladies of his _harîm_. They were all buried
+at one and the same time, and there can be little doubt that they were
+all killed and buried round the king, in order to be with him in the
+next world. Now with each of these ladies, who had been turned into
+ghosts, was buried a little waxen human figure placed in a little model
+coffin. This was to replace her own slave. She who went to accompany
+the king in the next world had to have her own attendant also. But, not
+being royal, a real slave was not killed for her; she only took with her
+a waxen figure, which by means of charms and incantations would, when
+she called upon it, turn into a real slave, and say, “Here am I,” and do
+whatever work might be required of her. The actual killing and burial
+of the slaves had in all cases except that of the king been long
+“commuted,” so to speak, into a burial with the dead person of
+_ushabtis_, or “Answerers,” little figures like those described above,
+made more usually of stone, and inscribed with the name of the deceased.
+They were called “Answerers” because they answered the call of their
+dead master or mistress, and by magic power became ghostly servants.
+Later on they were made of wood and glazed _faïence_, as well as stone.
+By this means the greater humanity of a later age sought a relief from
+the primitive disregard of the death of others.
+
+Anthropologically interesting as are the results of the excavations at
+Umm el-Gra’ab, they are no less historically important. There is no need
+here to weary the reader with the details of scientific controversy; it
+will suffice to set before him as succinctly and clearly as possible the
+net results of the work which has been done.
+
+Messrs. Amélineau and Petrie have found the secondary tombs and have
+identified the names of the following primeval kings of Egypt. We
+arrange them in their apparent historical order.
+
+1. Aha Men (?).
+
+2. Narmer (or Betjumer) Sma (?).
+
+3. Tjer (or Khent). Besh.
+
+4. Tja Ati.
+
+5. Den Semti.
+
+6. Atjab Merpeba.
+
+7. Semerkha Nekht.
+
+8. Qâ Sen.
+
+9. Khâsekhem (Khâsekhemui)
+
+10. Hetepsekhemui.
+
+11. Räneb.
+
+12. Neneter.
+
+13. Sekhemab Perabsen.
+
+
+Two or three other names are ascribed by Prof. Petrie to the
+Hierakonpolite dynasty of Upper Egypt, which, as it occurs before the
+time of Mena and the Ist Dynasty, he calls “Dynasty 0.” Dynasty 0,
+however, is no dynasty, and in any case we should prefer to call the
+“predynastic” dynasty “Dynasty I.” The names of “Dynasty minus One,”
+ however, remain problematical, and for the present it would seem safer
+to suspend judgment as to the place of the supposed royal names “Ro” and
+“Ka”(Men-kaf), which Prof. Petrie supposes to have been those of two
+of the kings of Upper Egypt who reigned before Mena. The king
+“Sma”(“Uniter”) is possibly identical with Aha or Narmer, more
+probably the latter. It is not necessary to detail the process by which
+Egyptologists have sought to identify these thirteen kings with the
+successors of Mena in the lists of kings and the Ist and IId Dynasties
+of Manetho. The work has been very successful, though not perhaps quite
+so completely accomplished as Prof. Petrie himself inclines to believe.
+The first identification was made by Prof. Sethe, of Gottingen, who
+pointed out that the names Semti and Merpeba on a vase-fragment found
+by M. Amélineau were in reality those of the kings Hesepti and Merbap
+of the lists, the Ousaphaïs and Miebis of Manetho. The perfectly certain
+identifications are these:--
+
+5. Den Semti = Hesepti, _Ousaphaïs_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+6. Atjab Merpeba = Merbap, _Miebis_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+7. Semerkha Nekht= Shemsu or Semsem (?), _Semempres_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+8. Qâ Sen = Qebh, _Bienehhes_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+9. Khâsekhemui Besh = Betju-mer (?), _Boethos_, IId Dynasty.
+
+10. Neneter = Bineneter, _Binothris_, IId Dynasty.
+
+
+Six of the Abydos kings have thus been identified with names in the
+lists and in Manetho; that is to say, we now know the real names of six
+of the earliest Egyptian monarchs, whose appellations are given us
+under mutilated forms by the later list-makers. Prof. Petrie further
+identifies (4) Tja Ati with Ateth, (3) Tjer with Teta, and (1) Aha with
+Mena. Mena, Teta, Ateth, Ata, Hesepti, Merbap, Shemsu (?), and Qebh are
+the names of the 1st Dynasty as given in the lists. The equivalent of
+Ata Prof. Petrie finds in the name “Merneit,” which is found at Umm
+el-Ga’ab. But there is no proof whatever that Merneit was a king; he
+was much more probably a prince or other great personage of the reign
+of Den, who was buried with the kings. Prof. Petrie accepts the
+identification of the personal name of Aha as “Men,” and so makes him
+the only equivalent of Mena. But this reading of the name is still
+doubtful. Arguing that Aha must be Mena, and having all the rest of the
+kings of the Ist Dynasty identified with the names in the lists, Prof.
+Petrie is compelled to exclude Narmer from the dynasty, and to relegate
+him to “Dynasty 0,” before the time of Mena. It is quite possible,
+however, that Narmer was the successor, not the predecessor, of Mena.
+He was certainly either the one or the other, as the style of art in his
+time was exactly the same as that in the time of Aha. The “Scorpion,”
+ too, whose name is found at Hierakonpolis, certainly dates to the same
+time as Narmer and Aha, for the style of his work is the same. And it
+may well be that he is not to be counted as a separate king, belonging
+to “Dynasty 0 “(or “Dynasty -I”) at all, but as identical with Narmer,
+just as “Sma” may also be. We thus find that the two kings who left the
+most developed remains at Hierakonpolis are the two whose monuments at
+Abydos are the oldest of all on that site. That is to say, the kings
+whose monuments record the conquest of the North belong to the period
+of transition from the old Hierakonpolite dominion of Upper Egypt to the
+new kingdom of all Egypt. They, in fact, represent the “Mena” or Menés
+of tradition. It may be that Aha bore the personal name of _Men_, which
+would thus be the original of Mena, but this is uncertain. In any case
+both Aha and Narmer must be assigned to the Ist Dynasty, with the result
+that we know of more kings belonging to the dynasty than appear in the
+lists.
+
+Nor is this improbable. Manetho’s list is evidently based upon old
+Egyptian lists derived from the authorities upon which the king-lists of
+Abydos and Sakkâra were based. These old lists were made under the
+XIXth Dynasty, when an interest in the oldest kings seems to have been
+awakened, and the ruling monarchs erected temples at Abydos in their
+honour. This phenomenon can only have been due to a discovery of Umm
+el-Ga’ab and its treasures, the tombs of which were recognized as
+the burial-places (real or secondary) of the kings before the
+pyramid-builders. Seti I. and his son Ramses then worshipped the kings
+of Umm el-Ga’ab, with their names set before them in the order, number,
+and spelling in which the scribes considered they ought to be inscribed.
+It is highly probable that the number known at that time was not quite
+correct. We know that the spelling of the names was very much garbled
+(to take one example only, the signs for _Sen_ were read as one sign
+_Qebh_), so that one or two kings may have been omitted or displaced.
+This may be the case with Narmer, or, as his name ought possibly to be
+read, _Betjumer_. His monuments show by their style that he belongs to
+the very beginning of the Ist Dynasty. No name in the Ist Dynasty list
+corresponds to his. But one of the lists gives for the first king of the
+IId Dynasty (the successor of “Qebh” = Sen) a name which may also be read
+Betjumer, spelt syllabically this time, not ideographically. On this
+account Prof. Naville wishes to regard the Hierakonpolite monuments of
+Narmer as belonging to the IId Dynasty, but, as we have seen, they are
+among the most archaic known, and certainly must belong to the beginning
+of the Ist Dynasty. It is therefore probable that Khasekhemui Besh
+and Narmer (Betjumer?) were confused by this list-maker, and the
+name Betjumer was given to the first king of the IId Dynasty, who was
+probably in reality Khasekhemui. The resemblance of _Betju_ to _Besh_
+may have contributed to this confusion.
+
+So Narmer (or Betjumer) found his way out of his proper place at the
+beginning of the 1st Dynasty. Whether Aha was also called “Men” or not,
+it seems evident that he and Narmer were jointly the originals of the
+legendary Mena. Narmer, who possibly also bore the name of Sma, “the
+Uniter,” conquered the North. Aha, “the Fighter,” also ruled both South
+and North at the same period. Khasekhemui, too, conquered the North, but
+the style of his monuments shows such an advance upon that of the days
+of Aha and Narmer that it seems best to make him the successor of Sen
+(or “Qebh “), and, explaining the transference of the name Betjumer
+to the beginning of the IId Dynasty as due to a confusion with
+Khasekhemui’s personal name Besh, to make Khasekhemui the founder of the
+IId Dynasty. The beginning of a new dynasty may well have been marked
+by a reassertion of the new royal power over Lower Egypt, which may have
+lapsed somewhat under the rule of the later kings of the Ist Dynasty.
+
+Semti is certainly the “Hesepti” of the lists, and Tja Ati is probably
+“Ateth.” “Ata” is thus unidentified. Prof. Petrie makes him = Merneit,
+but, as has already been said, there is no proof that the tomb of
+Merneit is that of a king. “Teta” may be Tjer or Khent, but of this
+there is no proof. It is most probable that the names “Teta,” “Ateth,”
+ and “Ata” are all founded on Ati, the personal name of Tja. The king
+Tjer is then not represented in the lists, and “Mena” is a compound of
+the two oldest Abydos kings, Narmer (Betjumer) Sma (?) and Aha Men (?).
+
+These are the bare historical results that have been attained with
+regard to the names, identity, and order of the kings. The smaller
+memorials that have been found with them, especially the ivory plaques,
+have told us of events that took place during their reigns; but, with
+the exception of the constantly recurring references to the conquest of
+the North, there is little that can be considered of historical interest
+or importance. We will take one as an example. This is the tablet No.
+32,650 of the British Museum, illustrated by Prof. Petrie, _Royal Tombs_
+i (Egypt Exploration Fund), pi. xi, 14, xv, 16. This is the record of
+a single year, the first in the reign of Semti, King of Upper and Lower
+Egypt. On it we see a picture of a king performing a religious dance
+before the god Osiris, who is seated in a shrine placed on a dais. This
+religious dance was performed by all the kings in later times. Below we
+find hieroglyphic (ideographic) records of a river expedition to fight
+the Northerners and of the capture of a fortified town called An. The
+capture of the town is indicated by a broken line of fortification,
+half-encircling the name, and the hoe with which the emblematic hawks
+on the slate reliefs already described are armed; this signifies the
+opening and breaking down of the wall.
+
+On the other half of the tablet we find the viceroy of Lower Egypt,
+Hemaka, mentioned; also “the Hawk (i. e. the king) seizes the seat of
+the Libyans,” and some unintelligible record of a jeweller of the palace
+and a king’s carpenter. On a similar tablet (of Sen) we find the words
+“the king’s carpenter made this record.” All these little tablets are
+then the records of single years of a king’s life, and others like them,
+preserved no doubt in royal archives, formed the base of regular annals,
+which were occasionally carved upon stone. We have an example of one of
+these in the “Stele of Palermo,” a fragment of black granite, inscribed
+with the annals of the kings up to the time of the Vth Dynasty, when
+the monument itself was made. It is a matter for intense regret that the
+greater portion of this priceless historical monument has disappeared,
+leaving us but a piece out of the centre, with part of the records
+of only six kings before Snefru. Of these six the name of only one,
+Neneter, of the lid Dynasty, whose name is also found at Abydos, is
+mentioned. The only important historical event of Neneter’s reign seems
+to have occurred in his thirteenth year, when the towns or palaces of
+_Ha_ (“North”) and Shem-Râ (“The Sun proceeds”) were founded. Nothing
+but the institution and celebration of religious festivals is recorded
+in the sixteen yearly entries preserved to us out of a reign of
+thirty-five years. The annual height of the Nile is given, and the
+occasions of numbering the people are recorded (every second year):
+nothing else. Manetho tells us that in the reign of Binothris, who
+is Neneter, it was decreed that women could hold royal honours and
+privileges. This first concession of women’s rights is not mentioned on
+the strictly official “Palermo Stele.”
+
+More regrettable than aught else is the absence from the “Palermo Stele”
+ of that part of the original monument which gave the annals of the
+earliest kings. At any rate, in the lines of annals which still exist
+above that which contains the chronicle of the reign of Neneter no
+entry can be definitely identified as belonging to the reigns of Aha
+or Narmer. In a line below there is a mention of the “birth of
+Khâsekhemui,” apparently a festival in honour of the birth of that king
+celebrated in the same way as the reputed birthday of a god. This shows
+the great honour in which Khâsekhemui was held, and perhaps it was he
+who really finally settled the question of the unification of North and
+South and consolidated the work of the earlier kings.
+
+As far as we can tell, then, Aha and Narmer were the first conquerors
+of the North, the unifiers of the kingdom, and the originals of the
+legendary Mena. In their time the kingdom’s centre of gravity was still
+in the South, and Narmer (who is probably identical with “the Scorpion”)
+dedicated the memorials of his deeds in the temple of Hierakonpolis. It
+may be that the legend of the founding of Memphis in the time of “Menés”
+ is nearly correct (as we shall see, historically, the foundation may
+have been due to Merpeba), but we have the authority of Manetho for
+the fact that the first two dynasties were “Thinite” (that is, Upper
+Egyptian), and that Memphis did not become the capital till the time of
+the Hid Dynasty. With this statement the evidence of the monuments fully
+agrees. The earliest royal tombs in the pyramid-field of Memphis date
+from the time of the Hid Dynasty, so that it is evident that the kings
+had then taken up their abode in the Northern capital. We find that soon
+after the time of Khâsekhemui the king Perabsen was especially connected
+with Lower Egypt. His personal name is unknown to us (though he may
+be the “Uatjnes” of the lists), but we do know that he had two
+banner-names, Sekhem-ab and Perabsen. The first is his hawk or
+Horus-name, the second his Set-name; that is to say, while he bore the
+first name as King of Upper Egypt under the special patronage of Horus,
+the hawk-god of the Upper Country, he bore the second as King of Lower
+Egypt, under the patronage of Set, the deity of the Delta, whose fetish
+animal appears above this name instead of the hawk. This shows how
+definitely Perabsen wished to appear as legitimate King of Lower as well
+as Upper Egypt. In later times the Theban kings of the XIIth Dynasty,
+when they devoted themselves to winning the allegiance of the
+Northerners by living near Memphis rather than at Thebes, seem to have
+been imitating the successors of Khâsekhemui.
+
+Moreover, we now find various evidences of increasing connection with
+the North. A princess named Ne-maat-hap, who seems to have been the
+mother of Sa-nekht, the first king of the Hid Dynasty, bears the name of
+the sacred Apis of Memphis, her name signifying “Possessing the right of
+Apis.” According to Manetho, the kings of the Hid Dynasty are the first
+Memphites, and this seems to be quite correct. With Ne-maat-hap the
+royal right seems to have been transferred to a Memphite house. But the
+Memphites still had associations with Upper Egypt: two of them, Tjeser
+Khet-neter and Sa-nekht, were buried near Abydos, in the desert at Bêt
+Khallâf, where their tombs were discovered and excavated by Mr. Garstang
+in 1900. The tomb of Tjeser is a great brick-built mastaba, forty feet
+high and measuring 300 feet by 150 feet. The actual tomb-chambers are
+excavated in the rock, twenty feet below the ground-level and sixty feet
+below the top of the mastaba. They had been violated in ancient times,
+but a number of clay jar-sealings, alabaster vases, and bowls belonging
+to the tomb furniture were found by the discoverer. Sa-nekht’s tomb is
+similar. In it was found the preserved skeleton of its owner, who was a
+giant seven feet high.
+
+[Illustration: 082.jpg THE TOMB OF KING TJESER AT BÊT KHALLÂF. About
+3700 B.C.]
+
+It is remarkable that Manetho chronicles among the kings of the early
+period a king named Sesokhris, who was five cubits high. This may have
+been Sa-nekht.
+
+Tjeser had two tombs, one, the above-mentioned, near Abydos, the
+other at Sakkâra, in the Memphite pyramid-field. This is the famous
+Step-Pyramid. Since Sa-nekht seems really to have been buried at Bêt
+Khal-laf, probably Tjeser was, too, and the Step-Pyramid may have been
+his secondary or sham tomb, erected in the necropolis of Memphis as a
+compliment to Seker, the Northern god of the dead, just as Aha had his
+secondary tomb at Abydos in compliment to Khentamenti. Sne-feru, also,
+the last king of the Hid Dynasty, seems to have had two tombs. One of
+these was the great Pyramid of Mêdûm, which was explored by Prof. Petrie
+in 1891, the other was at Dashûr. Near by was the interesting necropolis
+already mentioned, in which was discovered evidence of the continuance
+of the cramped position of burial and of the absence of mummification
+among a certain section of the population even as late as the time of
+the IVth Dynasty. This has been taken to imply that the fusion of the
+primitive Neolithic and invading sub-Semitic races had not been effected
+at that time.
+
+With the IVth Dynasty the connection of the royal house with the South
+seems to have finally ceased. The governmental centre of gravity was
+finally transferred to Memphis, and the kings were thenceforth for
+several centuries buried in the great pyramids which still stand in
+serried order along the western desert border of Egypt, from the Delta
+to the province of the Fayyum. With the latest discoveries in this
+Memphite pyramid-field we shall deal in the next chapter.
+
+The transference of the royal power to Memphis under the Hid Dynasty
+naturally led to a great increase of Egyptian activity in the Northern
+lands. We read in Manetho of a great Libyan war in the reign of
+Neche-rophes, and both Sa-nekht and Tjeser seem to have finally
+established Egyptian authority in the Sinaitic peninsula, where their
+rock-inscriptions have been found.
+
+In 1904 Prof. Petrie was despatched to Sinai by the Egypt Exploration
+Fund, in order finally to record the inscriptions of the early kings
+in the Wadi Maghara, which had been lately very much damaged by the
+operations of the turquoise-miners. It seems almost incredible that
+ignorance and vandalism should still be so rampant in the twentieth
+century that the most important historical monuments are not safe from
+desecration in order to obtain a few turquoises, but it is so. Prof.
+Petrie’s expedition did not start a day too soon, and at the suggestion
+of Sir William Garstin, the adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, the
+majority of the inscriptions have been removed to the Cairo Museum for
+safety and preservation. Among the new inscriptions discovered is one of
+Sa-nekht, which is now in the British Museum. Tjeser and Sa-nekht were
+not the first Egyptian kings to visit Sinai. Already, in the days of the
+1st Dynasty, Semerkha had entered that land and inscribed his name upon
+the rocks. But the regular annexation, so to speak, of Sinai to Egypt
+took place under the Memphites of the Hid Dynasty.
+
+With the Hid Dynasty we have reached the age of the pyramid-builders.
+The most typical pyramids are those of the three great kings of the IVth
+Dynasty, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, at Giza near Cairo. But, as
+we have seen, the last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, also had one
+pyramid, if not two; and the most ancient of these buildings known to
+us, the Step-Pyramid of Sakkâra, was erected by Tjeser at the beginning
+of that dynasty. The evolution of the royal tombs from the time of the
+1st Dynasty to that of the IVth is very interesting to trace. At the
+period of transition from the predynastic to the dynastic age we have
+the great mastaba of Aha at Nakâda, and the simplest chamber-tombs
+at Abydos. All these were of brick; no stone was used in their
+construction. Then we find the chamber-tomb of Den Semti at Abydos
+with a granite floor, the walls being still of brick. Above each of the
+Abydos tombs was probably a low mound, and in front a small chapel, from
+which a flight of steps descended into the simple chamber. On one of the
+little plaques already mentioned, which were found in these tombs, we
+have an archaic inscription, entirely written in ideographs, which
+seems to read, “The Big-Heads (i. e. the chiefs) come to the tomb.” The
+ideograph for “tomb” seems to be a rude picture of the funerary chapel,
+but from it we can derive little information as to its construction.
+Towards the end of the Ist Dynasty, and during the lid, the royal tombs
+became much more complicated, being surrounded with numerous chambers
+for the dead slaves, etc. Khâsekhemui’s tomb has thirty-three such
+chambers, and there is one large chamber of stone. We know of no other
+instance of the use of stone work for building at this period except in
+the royal tombs. No doubt the mason’s art was still so difficult that it
+was reserved for royal use only.
+
+Under the Hid Dynasty we find the last brick mastabas built for royalty,
+at Bêt Khallâf, and the first pyramids, in the Memphite necropolis.
+In the mastaba of Tjeser at Bêt Khallâf stone was used for the great
+portcullises which were intended to bar the way to possible plunderers
+through the passages of the tomb. The Step-Pyramid at Sakkâra is, so to
+speak, a series of mastabas of stone, imposed one above the other; it
+never had the continuous casing of stone which is the mark of a true
+pyramid. The pyramid of Snefru at Mêdûm is more developed. It also
+originated in a mastaba, enlarged, and with another mastaba-like
+erection on the top of it; but it was given a continuous sloping casing
+of fine limestone from bottom to top, and so is a true pyramid. A
+discussion of recent theories as to the building of the later pyramids
+of the IVth Dynasty will be found in the next chapter.
+
+In the time of the Ist Dynasty the royal tomb was known by the name of
+“Protection-around-the-Hawk, i.e. the king”(_Sa-ha-heru_); but under
+the Hid and IVth Dynasties regular names, such as “the Firm,” “the
+Glorious,” “the Appearing,” etc., were given to each pyramid.
+
+[Illustration: 086.jpg FALSE DOOR OF THE TOMB OF TETA, about 3600 B.C.]
+
+We must not omit to note an interesting point in connection with the
+royal tombs at Abydos, In that of King Khent or Tjer (the reading of
+the ideograph is doubtful) M. Amélineau found a large bed or bier of
+granite, with a figure of the god Osiris lying in state sculptured in
+high relief upon it. This led him to jump to the conclusion that he
+had found the tomb of the god Osiris himself, and that a skull he found
+close by was the veritable cranium of the primeval folk-hero, who,
+according to the euhemerist theory, was the deified original of the god.
+The true explanation is given by Dr. Wallis Budge in his _History of
+Egypt_, i, p. 19. It is a fact that the tomb of Tjer was regarded by
+the Egyptians of the XIXth Dynasty as the veritable tomb of Osiris.
+They thought they had discovered it, just as M. Amélineau did. When the
+ancient royal tombs of Umm el-Ga’ab were rediscovered and identified at
+the beginning of the XIXth Dynasty, and Seti I built the great temple of
+Abydos to the divine ancestors in honour of the discovery, embellishing
+it with a relief of himself and his son Ramses making offerings to the
+names of his predecessors (the “Tablet of Abydos “), the name of King
+Khent or Tjer (which is perhaps the really correct original form) was
+read by the royal scribes as “Khent” and hastily identified with the
+first part of the name of the god _Khent-amenti_ Osiris, the lord of
+Abydos. The tomb was thus regarded as the tomb of Osiris himself, and
+it was furnished with a great stone figure of the god lying on his bier,
+attended by the two hawks of Isis and Nephthys; ever after the site was
+visited by crowds of pilgrims, who left at Umm el-Ga’ab the thousands of
+little votive vases whose fragments have given the place its name of the
+“Mother of Pots.” This is the explanation of the discovery of the “Tomb
+of Osiris.” We have not found what M. Amélineau seems rather naively to
+have thought possible, a confirmation of the ancient view that Osiris
+was originally a man who ruled over Egypt and was deified after his
+death; but we have found that the Egyptians themselves were more or less
+euhemerists, and did think so.
+
+It may seem remarkable that all this new knowledge of ancient Egypt is
+derived from tombs and has to do with the resting-places of the kings
+when dead, rather than with their palaces or temples when living. Of
+temples at this early period we have no trace. The oldest temple in
+Egypt is perhaps the little chapel in front of the pyramid of Snefru at
+Mêdûm. We first hear of temples to the gods under the IVth Dynasty, but
+of the actual buildings of that period we have recovered nothing but one
+or two inscribed blocks of stone. Prof. Petrie has traced out the plan
+of the oldest temple of Osiris at Abydos, which may be of the time of
+Khufu, from scanty evidences which give us but little information. It is
+certain, however, that this temple, which is clearly one of the oldest
+in Egypt, goes back at least to his time. Its site is the mound
+called Kom es-Sultan, “The Mound of the King,” close to the village of
+el-Kherba, and on the borders of the cultivation northeast of the royal
+tombs at Umm el-Oa’ab.
+
+Of royal palaces we have more definite information. North of the Kom
+es-Sultan are two great fortress-enclosures of brick: the one is known
+as _Sûnet es-Zebîb_, “the Storehouse of Dried Orapes;” the other is
+occupied by the Coptic monastery of Dêr Anba Musâs. Both are certainly
+fortress-palaces of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy. We
+know from the small record-plaques of this period that the kings were
+constantly founding or repairing places of this kind, which were always
+great rectangular enclosures with crenelated brick walls like those of
+early Babylonian buildings.
+
+We have seen that the Northern Egyptian possessed similar
+fortress-cities which were captured by Narmer. These were the seats of
+the royal residence in various parts of the country. Behind their walls
+was the king’s house, and no doubt also a town of nobles and retainers,
+while the peasants lived on the arable land without.
+
+[Illustration: 089.jpg THE SHUNET EZ-ZEBIB: THE FORTRESS-TOWN, About
+3900 B.C.]
+
+The Shûnet ez-Zebîb and its companion fortress were evidently the royal
+cities of the 1st and IId Dynasties at Abydos. The former has been
+excavated by Mr. E. R. Ayrton for the Egypt Exploration Fund, under the
+supervision of Prof. Petrie. He found jar-sealings of Khâsekhemui and
+Perabsen. In later times the place was utilized as a burial-place for
+ibis-mummies (it had already been abandoned as a city before the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty), and from this fact it received the name of _Shenet
+deb-hib_, or “Storehouse of Ibis Burials.” The Arab invaders adapted
+this name to their own language in the nearest form which would have
+any meaning, as _Shûnet ez-Zebïb_, “the Storehouse of Dried Grapes.”
+ The Arab word _shûna_ (“Barn” or “Storehouse”) was, it should be noted,
+taken over from the Coptic _sheune,_ which is the old-Egyptian _shenet_.
+The identity of _sheune_ or _shûna_ with the German “Scheune” is a
+quaint and curious coincidence. In the illustration of the Shûnet
+ez-Zebib the curved line of crenelated wall, following the contour of
+the hill, should be noted, as it is a remarkable example of the building
+of this early period.
+
+It will have been seen from the foregoing description of what
+far-reaching importance the discoveries at Abydos have been. A new
+chapter of the history of the human race has been opened, which contains
+information previously undreamt of, information which Egyptologists
+had never dared to hope would be recovered. The sand of Egypt indeed
+conceals inexhaustible treasures, and no one knows what the morrow’s
+work may bring forth.
+
+_Ex Africa semper aliquid novi!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+
+
+Memphis, the “beautiful abode,” the “City of the White Wall,” is said
+to have been founded by the legendary Menés, who in order to build it
+diverted the stream of the Nile by means of a great dyke constructed
+near the modern village of Koshêsh, south of the village of Mitrahêna,
+which marks the central point of the ancient metropolis of Northern
+Egypt. It may be that the city was founded by Aha or Narmer, the
+historical originals of Mena or Menés; but we have another theory with
+regard to its foundation, that it was originally built by King Merpeba
+Atjab, whose tomb was also discovered at Abydos near those of Aha and
+Narmer. Merpeba is the oldest king whose name is absolutely identified
+with one occurring in the XIXth Dynasty king-lists and in Manetho. He
+is certainly the “Merbap” or “Merbepa” (“Merbapen”) of the lists and the
+_Miebis_ of Manetho. In both the lists and in Manetho he stands fifth in
+order from Mena, and he was therefore the sixth king of the Ist Dynasty.
+The lists, Manetho, and the small monuments in his own tomb agree in
+making him the immediate successor of Semti Den (Ousaphaïs), and from
+the style of these latter it is evident that he comes after Tja, Tjer,
+Narmer, and Aha. That is to say, the contemporary evidence makes him the
+fifth king from Aha, the first original of “Menés.”
+
+Now after the piety of Seti I had led him to erect a great temple at
+Abydos in memory of the ancient kings, whose sepulchres had probably
+been brought to light shortly before, and to compile and set up in the
+temple a list of his predecessors, a certain pious snobbery or snobbish
+piety impelled a worthy named Tunure, who lived at Memphis, to put up in
+his own tomb at Sakkâra a tablet of kings like the royal one at Abydos.
+If Osiris-Khentamenti at Abydos had his tablet of kings, so should
+Osiris-Seker at Sakkâra. But Tunure does not begin his list with Mena;
+his initial king is Merpeba. For him Merpeba was the first monarch to be
+commemorated at Sakkâra. Does not this look very much as if the strictly
+historical Merpeba, not the rather legendary and confused Mena, was
+regarded as the first Memphite king? It may well be that it was in
+the reign of Merpeba, not in that of Aha or Narmer, that Memphis was
+founded.
+
+The XIXth Dynasty lists of course say nothing about Mena or Merpeba
+having founded Memphis; they only give the names of the kings, nothing
+more. The earliest authority for the ascription of Memphis to “Menés”,
+is Herodotus, who was followed in this ascription, as in many other
+matters, by Manetho; but it must be remembered that Manetho was writing
+for the edification of a Greek king (Ptolemy Philadelphus) and his Greek
+court at Alexandria, and had therefore to evince a respect for the great
+Greek classic which he may not always have really felt. Herodotus is
+not, of course, accused of any wilful misstatement in this or in any
+other matter in which his accuracy is suspected. He merely wrote
+down what he was told by the Egyptians themselves, and Merpeba was
+sufficiently near in time to Aha to be easily confounded with him by
+the scribes of the Persian period, who no doubt ascribed everything
+to “Mena” that was done by the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties.
+Therefore it may be considered quite probable that the “Menés” who
+founded Memphis was Merpeba, the fifth or sixth king of the Ist Dynasty,
+whom Tunure, a thousand years before the time of Herodotus and his
+informants, placed at the head of the Memphite “List of Sakkâra.”
+
+The reconquest of the North by Khâsekhemui doubtless led to a further
+strengthening of Memphis; and it is quite possible that the deeds of
+this king also contributed to make up the sum total of those ascribed to
+the Herodotean and Manethonian Menés.
+
+It may be that a town of the Northerners existed here before the time of
+the Southern Conquest, for Phtah, the local god of Memphis, has a very
+marked character of his own, quite different from that of Khen-tamenti,
+the Osiris of Abydos. He is always represented as a little bow-legged
+hydrocephalous dwarf very like the Phoenician _Kabeiroi_. It may be
+that here is another connection between the Northern Egyptians and the
+Semites. The name “Phtah,” the “Opener,” is definitely Semitic. We may
+then regard the dwarf Phtah as originally a non-Egyptian god of the
+Northerners, probably Semitic in origin, and his town also as antedating
+the conquest. But it evidently was to the Southerners that Memphis owed
+its importance and its eventual promotion to the position of capital of
+the united kingdom. Then the dwarf Phtah saw himself rivalled by another
+Phtah of Southern Egyptian origin, who had been installed at Memphis by
+the Southerners. This Phtah was a sort of modified edition of Osiris, in
+mummy-form and holding crook and whip, but with a refined edition of
+the Kabeiric head of the indigenous Phtah. The actual god of “the White
+Wall” was undoubtedly confused vith the dead god of the necropolis,
+whose name was Seker or Sekri (Sokari), “the Coffined.” The original
+form of this deity was a mummied hawk upon a coffin, and it is very
+probable that he was imported from the South, like the second Phtah, at
+the time of the conquest, when the great Northern necropolis began
+to grow up as a duplicate of that at Abydos. Later on we find Seker
+confused with the ancient dwarf-god, and it is the latter who was
+afterwards chiefly revered as Phtah-Socharis-Osiris, the protector of
+the necropolis, the mummied Phtah being the generally recognized ruler
+of the City of the White Wall.
+
+It is from the name of Seker that the modern Sak-kâra takes its title.
+Sakkâra marks the central point of the great Memphite necropolis, as it
+is the nearest point of the western desert to Memphis. Northwards the
+necropolis extended to Griza and Abu Roâsh, southwards, to Daslmr;
+even the nécropoles of Lisht and Mêdûm may be regarded as appanages of
+Sakkâra. At Sakkâra itself Tjeser of the IIId Dynasty had a pyramid,
+which, as we have seen, was probably not his real tomb (which was
+the great mastaba at Bêt Khallâf), but a secondary or sham tomb
+corresponding to the “tombs” of the earliest kings at Umm el-Ga’ab in
+the necropolis of Abydos. Many later kings, however, especially of the
+Vith Dynasty, were actually buried at Sakkâra. Their tombs have all been
+thoroughly described by their discoverer, Prof. Maspero, in his history.
+The last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, was buried away down south at
+Mêdûm, in splendid isolation, but he may also have had a second pyramid
+at Sakkâra or Abu Roash.
+
+The kings of the IVth Dynasty were the greatest of the pyramid builders,
+and to them belong the huge edifices of Griza. The Vth Dynasty favoured
+Abusîr, between Cîza and Sakkâra; the Vith, as we have said, preferred
+Sakkâra itself. With them the end of the Old Kingdom and of Memphite
+dominion was reached; the sceptre fell from the hands of the Memphite
+kings and was taken up by the princes of Herakleopolis (Ahnasyet
+el-Medina, near Béni Suêf, south of the Eayyûm) and Thebes. Where the
+Herakleopolite kings were buried we do not know; probably somewhere in
+the local necropolis of the Gebel es-Sedment, between Ahnasya and the
+Fayyûm. The first Thebans (the XIth Dynasty) were certainly buried at
+Thebes, but when the Herakleopolites had finally disappeared, and all
+Egypt was again united under one strong sceptre, the Theban kings seem
+to have been drawn northwards. They removed to the seat of the dominion
+of those whom they had supplanted, and they settled in the neighbourhood
+of Herakleopolis, near the fertile province of the Fayyûm, and between
+it and Memphis. Here, in the royal fortress-palace of Itht-taui,
+“Controlling the Two Lands,” the kings of the XIIth Dynasty lived,
+and they were buried in the nécropoles of Dashûr, Lisht, and Illahun
+(Hawara), in pyramids like those of the old Memphite kings. These facts,
+of the situation of Itht-taui, of their burial in the southern an ex of
+the old necropolis of Memphis, and of the fori of their tombs (the
+true Upper Egyptian and Thebian form was a rock-cut gallery and chamber
+driven deep into the hill), show how solicitous were the Amenemhats
+and Senusrets of the suffrages of Lower Egypt, how anxious they were to
+conciliate the ancient royal pride of Memphis.
+
+Where the kings of the XIIIth Dynasty and the Hyksos or “Shepherds” were
+buried, we do not know. The kings of the restored Theban empire were
+all interred at Thebes. There are, in fact, no known royal sepulchres
+between the Fayyûm and Abydos. The great kings were mostly buried in
+the neighbourhood of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. The sepulchres of the
+“Middle Empire”--the XIth to XIIIth Dynasties--in the neighbourhood
+of the Fayyûm may fairly be grouped with those of the same period at
+Dashûr, which belongs to the necropolis of Memphis, since it is only a
+mile or two south of Sakkâra.
+
+It is chiefly with regard to the sepulchres of the kings that the most
+momentous discoveries of recent years have been made at Thebes, and at
+Sakkâra, Abusîr, Dashûr, and Lisht, as at Abydos. For this reason we
+deal in succession with the finds in the nécropoles of Abydos, Memphis,
+and Thebes respectively. And with the sepulchres of the “Old Kingdom,”
+ in the Memphite necropolis proper, we have naturally grouped those of
+the “Middle Kingdom” at Dashûr, Lisht, Illahun, and Hawara.
+
+Some of these modern discoveries have been commented on and illustrated
+by Prof. Maspero in his great history. But the discoveries that have
+been made since this publication have been very important,--those at
+Abusîr, indeed, of first-rate importance, though not so momentous as
+those of the tombs of the Ist and IId Dynasties at Abydos, already
+described. At Abu Roash and at Gîza, at the northern end of the Memphite
+necropolis, several expeditions have had considerable success, notably
+those of the American Dr. Reisner, assisted by Mr. Mace, who excavated
+the royal tombs at Umm el-Ga’ab for Prof. Petrie, those of the
+German Drs. Steindorff and Borchardt,--the latter working for the
+_Beutsch-Orient Gesellschaft_,--and those of other American excavators.
+Until the full publication of the results of these excavations appears,
+very little can be said about them. Many mastaba-tombs have, it is
+understood, been found, with interesting remains. Nothing of great
+historical importance seems to have been discovered, however. It is
+otherwise when we come to the discoveries of Messrs. Borchardt and
+Schâfer at Abusîr, south of Gîza and north of Sakkâra. At this place
+results of first-rate historical importance have been attained.
+
+The main group of pyramids at Abusir consists of the tombs of the kings
+Sahurà, Neferarikarâ, and Ne-user-Râ, of the Vth Dynasty. The pyramids
+themselves are smaller than those of Gîza, but larger than those of
+Sakkâra. In general appearance and effect they resemble those of Gîza,
+but they are not so imposing, as the desert here is low. Those of Gîza,
+Sakkâra, and Dashûr owe much of their impressiveness to the fact that
+they are placed at some height above the cultivated land. The excavation
+and planning of these pyramids were carried out by Messrs. Borchardt and
+Schâfer at the expense of Baron von Bissing, the well-known Egyptologist
+of Munich, and of the _Deutsch-Orient Gesell-schaft_ of Berlin. The
+antiquities found have been divided between the museums of Berlin and
+Cairo.
+
+One of the most noteworthy discoveries was that of the funerary temple
+of Ne-user-Râ, which stood at the base of his pyramid. The plan is
+interesting, and the granite lotus-bud columns found are the most
+ancient yet discovered in Egypt. Much of the paving and the wainscoting
+of the walls was of fine black marble, beautifully polished. An
+interesting find was a basin and drain with lion’s-head mouth, to
+carry away the blood of the sacrifices. Some sculptures in relief were
+discovered, including a gigantic representation of the king and the
+goddess Isis, which shows that in the early days of the Vth Dynasty the
+king and the gods were already depicted in exactly the same costume as
+they wore in the days of the Ramses and the Ptolemies. The hieratic art
+of Egypt had, in fact, now taken on itself the final outward appearance
+which it retained to the very end. There is no more of the archaism
+and absence of conventionality, which marks the art of the earliest
+dynasties.
+
+We can trace by successive steps the swift development of Egyptian art
+from the rude archaism of the Ist Dynasty to its final consummation
+under the Vth, when the conventions became fixed. In the time of
+Khäsekhemui, at the beginning of the IId Dynasty, the archaic character
+of the art has already begun to wear off. Under the same dynasty we
+still have styles of unconventional naïveté, such as the famous Statue
+“No. 1” of the Cairo Museum, bearing the names of Kings Hetepahaui,
+Neb-râ, and Neneter. But with the IVth Dynasty we no longer look for
+unconventionality. Prof. Petrie discovered at Abydos a small ivory
+statuette of Khufu or Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Gîza.
+The portrait is a good one and carefully executed. It was not till
+the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, indeed, that the Egyptians ceased
+to portray their kings as they really were, and gave them a purely
+conventional type of face. This convention, against which the heretical
+King Amenhetep IV (Akhunaten) rebelled, in order to have himself
+portrayed in all his real ungainliness and ugliness, did not exist till
+long after the time of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+
+[Illustration: 100.jpg STATUE NO. 1 OF THE CAIRO MUSEUM, About 3900
+B.C.]
+
+The kings of the XIIth Dynasty especially were most careful that their
+statues should be accurate portraits; indeed, the portraits of Usertsen
+(Senusret) III vary from a young face to an old one, showing that the
+king was faithfully depicted at different periods of his life.
+
+But the general conventions of dress and deportment were finally fixed
+under the Vth Dynasty. After this time we no longer have such absolutely
+faithful and original presentments as the other little ivory statuette
+found by Prof. Petrie at Abydos (now in the British Museum), which shows
+us an aged monarch of the Ist Dynasty. It is obvious that the features
+are absolutely true to life, and the figure wears an unconventionally
+party-coloured and bordered robe of a kind which kings of a later day
+may have worn in actual life, but which they would assuredly never be
+depicted as wearing by the artists of their day. To the end of Egyptian
+history, the kings, even the Roman emperors, were represented on the
+monuments clothed in the official costume of their ancestors of the IVth
+and Vth Dynasties, in the same manner as we see Khufu wearing his robe
+in the little figure from Abydos, and Ne-user-Rà on the great
+relief from Abusîr. There are one or two exceptions, such as the
+representations of the original genius Akhunaten at Tell el-Amarna and
+the beautiful statue of Ramses II at Turin, in which we see these kings
+wearing the real costume of their time, but such exceptions are very
+rare.
+
+The art of Abusîr is therefore of great interest, since it marks the end
+of the development of the priestly art. Secular art might develop as it
+liked, though the crystallizing influence of the ecclesiastical canon is
+always evident here also. But henceforward it was an impiety, which only
+an Akhunaten could commit, to depict a king or a god on the walls of a
+temple otherwise (except so far as, the portrait was concerned) than as
+he had been depicted in the time of the Vth Dynasty.
+
+Other buildings have been excavated by the Germans at Abusîr, notably
+the usual town of mastaba-tombs belonging to the chief dignitaries of
+the reign, which is always found at the foot of a royal pyramid of this
+period. Another building of the highest interest, belonging to the same
+age, was also excavated, and its true character was determined. This is
+a building at a place called er-Rîgha or Abû Ghuraib, “Father of Crows,”
+ between Abusîr and Gîza. It was formerly supposed to be a pyramid, but
+the German excavations have shown that it is really a temple of the
+Sun-god Râ of Heliopolis, specially venerated by the kings of the Vth
+Dynasty, who were of Heliopolitan origin. The great pyramid-builders of
+the IVth Dynasty seem to have been the last true Memphites. At the end
+of the reign of Shepseskaf, the last monarch of the dynasty, the sceptre
+passed to a Heliopolitan family. The following VIth Dynasty may again
+have been Memphite, but this is uncertain. The capital continued to be
+Memphis, and from the beginning of the Hid Dynasty to the end of the Old
+Kingdom and the rise of Herakle-opolis and Thebes, Memphis remained the
+chief city of Egypt.
+
+The Heliopolitans were naturally the servants of the Sun-god above all
+other gods, and they were the first to call themselves “Sons of the
+Sun,” a title retained by the Pharaohs throughout all subsequent
+history. It was Ne-user-Râ who built the Sun-temple of Abu Ghuraib,
+on the edge of the desert, north of his pyramid and those of his two
+immediate predecessors at Abusir. As now laid bare by the excavations of
+1900, it is seen to consist of an artificial mound, with a great court
+in front to the eastward. On the mound was erected a truncated obelisk,
+the stone emblem of the Sun-god. The worshippers in the court below
+looked towards the Sun’s stone erected upon its mound in the west,
+the quarter of the sun’s setting; for the Sun-god of Heliopolis was
+primarily the setting sun, Tum-Râ, not Râ Harmachis, the rising sun,
+whose emblem is the Great Sphinx at Gîza, which looks towards the east.
+The sacred emblem of the Heliopolitan Sun-god reminds us forcibly of the
+Semitic _bethels_ or _baetyli_, the sacred stones of Palestine, and may
+give yet another hint of the Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan cult.
+In the court of the temple is a huge circular altar of fine alabaster,
+several feet across, on which slain oxen were offered to the Sun, and
+behind this, at the eastern end of the court, are six great basins of
+the same stone, over which the beasts were slain, with drains running
+out of them by which their blood was carried away. This temple is a most
+interesting monument of the civilization of the “Old Kingdom” at the time
+of the Vth Dynasty.
+
+At Sakkâra itself, which lies a short distance south of Abusir, no new
+royal tombs have, as has been said, been discovered of late years. But a
+great deal of work has been done among the private mastaba-tombs by the
+officers of the _Service des Antiquités_, which reserves to itself the
+right of excavation here and at Dashûr. The mastaba of the sage and
+writer Kagernna (or rather Gemnika, “I-have-found-a-ghost,” which
+sounds very like an American Indian appellation) is very fine.
+“I-have-found-a-ghost” lived in the reign of the king Tatkarâ Assa, the
+“Tancheres” of Manetho, and he wrote maxims like his great contemporary
+Phtahhetep (“Offered to Phtah”), who was also buried at Sakkâra. The
+officials of the _Service des Antiquités_ who cleaned the tomb unluckily
+misread his name Ka-bi-n (an impossible form which could only mean,
+literally translated, “Ghost-soul-of” or “Ghost-soul-to-me”), and they
+have placed it in this form over the entrance to his tomb. This mastaba,
+like those, already known, of Mereruka (sometimes misnamed “Mera”)
+and the famous Ti, both also at Sakkâra, contains a large number of
+chambers, ornamented with reliefs. In the vicinity M. Grébaut, then
+Director of the Service of Antiquities, discovered a very interesting
+Street of Tombs, a regular Via Sacra, with rows of tombs of the
+dignitaries of the VIth Dynasty on either side of it. They are generally
+very much like one another; the workmanship of the reliefs is fine, and
+the portrait of the owner of the tomb is always in evidence.
+
+Several of the smaller mastabas have lately been disposed of to the
+various museums, as they are liable to damage if they remain where they
+stand; moreover, they are not of great value to the Museum of Cairo,
+but are of considerable value to various museums which do not already
+possess complete specimens of this class of tombs. A fine one, belonging
+to the chief Uerarina, is now exhibited in the Assyrian Basement of the
+British Museum; another is in the Museum of Leyden; a third at Berlin,
+and so on. Most of these are simple tombs of one chamber. In the centre
+of the rear wall we always see the _stele_ or gravestone proper,
+built into the fabric of the tomb. Before this stood the low table
+of offerings with a bowl for oblations, and on either side a tall
+incense-altar. From the altar the divine smoke (_senetr_) arose when
+the _hen-ka_, or priest of the ghost (literally, “Ghost’s Servant”),
+performed his duty of venerating the spirits of the deceased, while the
+_Kher-heb_, or cantor, enveloped in the mystic folds of the leopard-skin
+and with bronze incense-burner in hand, sang the holy litanies and
+spells which should propitiate the ghost and enable him to win his way
+to ultimate perfection in the next world.
+
+The stele is always in the form of a door with pyloni-form cornice. On
+either side is a figure of the deceased, and at the sides are carved
+prayers to Anubis, and at a later date to Osiris, who are implored to
+give the funerary meats and “everything good and pure on which the god
+there (as the dead man in the tomb has been constituted) lives;” often
+we find that the biography and list of honorary titles and dignities of
+the deceased have been added.
+
+Sakkâra was used as a place of burial in the latest as well as in the
+earliest time. The Egyptians of the XXVIth Dynasty, wearied of the long
+decadence and devastating wars which had followed the glorious epoch of
+the conquering Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, turned for
+a new and refreshing inspiration to the works of the most ancient kings,
+when Egypt was a simple self-contained country, holding no intercourse
+with outside lands, bearing no outside burdens for the sake of pomp and
+glory, and knowing nothing of the decay and decadence which follows in
+the train of earthly power and grandeur. They deliberately turned their
+backs on the worn-out and discredited imperial trappings of the Thothmes
+and Ramses, and they took the supposed primitive simplicity of the
+Snefrus, the Khufus, and the Ne-user-Râs for a model and ensampler to
+their lives. It was an age of conscious and intended archaism, and in
+pursuit of the archaistic ideal the Mem-phites of the Saïte age had
+themselves buried in the ancient necropolis of Sakkâra, side by side
+with their ancestors of the time of the Vth and VIth Dynasties. Several
+of these tombs have lately been discovered and opened, and fitted with
+modern improvements. One or two of them, of the Persian period, have
+wells (leading to the sepulchral chamber) of enormous depth, down which
+the modern tourist is enabled to descend by a spiral iron staircase. The
+Serapeum itself is lit with electricity, and in the Tombs of the Kings
+at Thebes nothing disturbs the silence but the steady thumping pulsation
+of the dynamo-engine which lights the ancient sepulchres of the
+Pharaohs. Thus do modern ideas and inventions help us to see and so to
+understand better the works of ancient Egypt. But it is perhaps a little
+too much like the Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. The interiors of
+the later tombs are often decorated with reliefs which imitate those of
+the early period, but with a kind of delicate grace which at once marks
+them for what they are, so that it is impossible to confound them with
+the genuine ancient originals from which they were adapted.
+
+Riding from Sakkâra southwards to Dashûr, we pass on the way the
+gigantic stone mastaba known as the _Mastabat el-Fara’ûn_, “Pharaoh’s
+Bench.” This was considered to be the tomb of the Vth Dynasty king,
+Unas, until his pyramid was found by Prof. Maspero at Sakkâra. From its
+form it might be thought to belong to a monarch of the Hid Dynasty, but
+the great size of the stone blocks of which it is built seems to point
+rather to the XIIth. All attempts to penetrate its secret by actual
+excavation have been unavailing.
+
+Further south across the desert we see from the Mastabat el-Fara’ûn
+four distinct pyramids, symmetrically arranged in two lines, two in each
+line. The two to the right are great stone erections of the usual
+type, like those of Gîza and Abusîr, and the southernmost of them has a
+peculiar broken-backed appearance, due to the alteration of the angle
+of inclination of its sides during construction. Further, it is covered
+almost to the ground by the original casing of polished white limestone
+blocks, so that it gives a very good idea of the original appearance
+of the other pyramids, which have lost their casing. These two
+pyramids very probably belong to kings of the Hid Dynasty, as does the
+Step-Pyramid of Sakkâra. They strongly resemble the Gîza type, and
+the northernmost of the two looks very like an understudy of the Great
+Pyramid. It seems to mark the step in the development of the royal
+pyramid which was immediately followed by the Great Pyramid. But no
+excavations have yet proved the accuracy of this view. Both pyramids
+have been entered, but nothing has been found in them. It is very
+probable that one of them is the second pyramid of Snefru.
+
+The other two pyramids, those nearest the cultivation, are of very
+different appearance. They are half-ruined, they are black in colour,
+and their whole effect is quite different from that of the stone
+pyramids. For they are built of brick, not of stone. They are pyramids,
+it is true, but of a different material and of a different date from
+those which we have been describing. They are built above the sepulchres
+of kings of the XIIth Dynasty, the Theban house which transferred
+its residence northwards to the neighbourhood of the ancient Northern
+capital. We have, in fact, reached the end of the Old Kingdom at
+Sakkâra; at Dashûr begin the sepulchres of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramids
+are still built, but they are not always of stone; brick is used,
+usually with stone in the interior. The general effect of these brick
+pyramids, when new, must have been indistinguishable from that of the
+stone ones, and even now, when it has become half-ruined, such a great
+brick pyramid as that of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Dashûr is not
+without impressiveness. After all, there is no reason why a brick
+building should be less admirable than a stone one. And in its own way
+the construction of such colossal masses of bricks as the two eastern
+pyramids of Dashûr must have been as arduous, even as difficult, as that
+of building a moderate-sized stone pyramid. The photograph of the brick
+pyramids of Dashûr on this page shows well the great size of these
+masses of brickwork, which are as impressive as any of the great brick
+structures of Babylonia and Assyria.
+
+    [Illustration: EXTERIOR OF THE SOUTHERN BRICK PYRAMID OF DASHÛR:
+    XIITH DYNASTY.
+    Excavated by M. de Morgan, 1895. This is the secondary tomb of
+    Amenemhat III; about 2200 B.C.
+
+The XIIth Dynasty use of brick for the royal tombs was a return to the
+custom of earlier days, for from the time of Aha to that Tjeser, from
+the 1st Dynasty to the Hid, brick had been used for the building of the
+royal mastaba-tombs, out of which the pyramids had developed.
+
+At this point, where we take leave of the great pyramids of the Old
+Kingdom, we may notice the latest theory as to the building of these
+monuments, which has of late years been enunciated by Dr. Borchardt, and
+is now generally accepted. The great Prussian explorer Lepsius, when he
+examined the pyramids in the ‘forties, came to the conclusion that each
+king, when he ascended the throne, planned a small pyramid for himself.
+This was built in a few years’ time, and if his reign were short, or if
+he were unable to enlarge the pyramid for other reasons, it sufficed for
+his tomb. If, however, his reign seemed likely to be one of some length,
+after the first plan was completed he enlarged his pyramid by building
+another and a larger one around it and over it. Then again, when this
+addition was finished, and the king still reigned and was in possession
+of great resources, yet another coating, so to speak, was put on to the
+pyramid, and so on till colossal structures like the First and Second
+Pyramid of Giza, which, we know, belonged to kings who were unusually
+long-lived, were completed. And finally the aged monarch died, and was
+buried in the huge tomb which his long life and his great power had
+enabled him to erect. This view appeared eminently reasonable at the
+time, and it seemed almost as though we ought to be able to tell whether
+a king had reigned long or not by the size of his pyramid, and even
+to obtain a rough idea of the length of his reign by counting the
+successive coats or accretions which it had received, much as we tell
+the age of a tree by the rings in its bole. A pyramid seemed to have
+been constructed something after the manner of an onion or a Chinese
+puzzle-box.
+
+Prof. Pétrie, however, who examined the Griza pyramids in 1881, and
+carefully measured them all up and finally settled their trigonometrical
+relation, came to the conclusion that Lepsius’s theory was entirely
+erroneous, and that every pyramid was built and now stands as it was
+originally planned. Dr.
+
+[Illustration: 111.jpg THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA DURING THE INUNDATION.]
+
+Borchardt, however, who is an architect by profession, has examined
+the pyramids again, and has come to the conclusion that Prof. Pétrie’s
+statement is not correct, and that there is an element of truth in
+Lepsius’s hypothesis. He has shown that several of the pyramids, notably
+the First and Second at Giza, show unmistakable signs of a modified,
+altered, and enlarged plan; in fact, long-lived kings like Khufu seem
+to have added considerably to their pyramids and even to have entirely
+remodelled them on a larger scale. This has certainly been the case with
+the Great Pyramid. We can, then, accept Lepsius’s theory as modified by
+Dr. Borchardt.
+
+Another interesting point has arisen in connection with the Great
+Pyramid. Considerable difference of opinion has always existed between
+Egyptologists and the professors of European archaeology with regard
+to the antiquity of the knowledge of iron in Egypt. The majority of
+the Egyptologists have always maintained, on the authority of the
+inscriptions, that iron was known to the ancient Egyptians from the
+earliest period. They argued that the word for a certain metal in old
+Egyptian was the same as the Coptic word for “iron.” They stated that in
+the most ancient religious texts the Egyptians spoke of the firmament
+of heaven as made of this metal, and they came to the conclusion that it
+was because this metal was blue in colour, the hue of iron or steel; and
+they further pointed out that some of the weapons in the tomb-paintings
+were painted blue and others red, some being of iron, that is to
+say, others of copper or bronze. Finally they brought forward as
+incontrovertible evidence an actual fragment of worked iron, which had
+been found between two of the inner blocks, down one of the air-shafts,
+in the Great Pyramid. Here was an actual piece of iron of the time of
+the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C.
+
+This conclusion was never accepted by the students of the development of
+the use of metal in prehistoric Europe, when they came to know of it.
+No doubt their incredulity was partly due to want of appreciation of the
+Egyptological evidence, partly to disinclination to accept a conclusion
+which did not at all agree with the knowledge they had derived from
+their own study of prehistoric Europe. In Southern Europe it was quite
+certain that iron did not come into use till about 1000 B.C.; in Central
+Europe, where the discoveries at Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut exhibit
+the transition from the Age of Bronze to that of Iron, about 800 B.C.
+The exclusively Iron Age culture of La Tène cannot be dated earlier than
+the eighth century, if as early as that. How then was it possible that,
+if iron had been known to the Egyptians as early as 3500 B.C., its
+knowledge should not have been communicated to the Europeans until over
+two thousand years later? No; iron could not have been really known to
+the Egyptians much before 1000 B.C. and the Egyptological evidence was
+all wrong. This line of argument was taken by the distinguished
+Swedish archaeologist, Prof. Oscar Montelius, of Upsala, whose previous
+experience in dealing with the antiquities of Northern Europe, great as
+it was, was hardly sufficient to enable him to pronounce with authority
+on a point affecting far-away African Egypt. And when dealing with Greek
+prehistoric antiquities Prof. Montelius’s views have hardly met with
+that ready agreement which all acknowledge to be his due when he is
+giving us the results of his ripe knowledge of Northern antiquities. He
+has, in fact, forgotten, as most “prehistoric” archaeologists do forget,
+that the antiquities of Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, the Semites,
+the bronze-workers of Benin, the miners of Zimbabwe, and the Ohio
+mound-builders are not to be treated all together as a whole, and that
+hard and fast lines of development cannot be laid down for them, based
+on the experience of Scandinavia.
+
+We may perhaps trace this misleading habit of thought to the influence
+of the professors of natural science over the students of Stone Age and
+Bronze Age antiquities. Because nature moves by steady progression and
+develops on even lines--_nihil facit per sal-tum_--it seems to have been
+assumed that the works of man’s hands have developed in the same way,
+in a regular and even scheme all over the world. On this supposition it
+would be impossible for the great discovery of the use of iron to have
+been known in Egypt as early as 3500 B.C. for this knowledge to have
+remained dormant there for two thousand years, and then to have
+been suddenly communicated about 1000 B.C. to Greece, spreading with
+lightning-like rapidity over Europe and displacing the use of bronze
+everywhere. Yet, as a matter of fact, the work of man does develop
+in exactly this haphazard way, by fits and starts and sudden leaps of
+progress after millennia of stagnation. Throwsback to barbarism are just
+as frequent. The analogy of natural evolution is completely inapplicable
+and misleading.
+
+Prof. Montelius, however, following the “evolutionary” line of thought,
+believed that because iron was not known in Europe till about 1000 B.C.
+it could not have been known in Egypt much earlier; and in an important
+article which appeared in the Swedish ethnological journal _Ymer_ in
+1883, entitled _Bronsaldrn i Egypten_ (“The Bronze Age in Egypt”), he
+essayed to prove the contrary arguments of the Egyptologists wrong. His
+main points were that the colour of the weapons in the frescoes was of
+no importance, as it was purely conventional and arbitrary, and that the
+evidence of the piece of iron from the Great Pyramid was insufficiently
+authenticated, and therefore valueless, in the absence of other definite
+archaeological evidence in the shape of iron of supposed early date. To
+this article the Swedish Egyptologist, Dr. Piehl, replied in the same
+periodical, in an article entitled _Bronsaldem i Egypten_, in which he
+traversed Prof. Montelius’s conclusions from the Egyptological point of
+view, and adduced other instances of the use of iron in Egypt, all,
+it is true, later than the time of the IVth Dynasty. But this protest
+received little notice, owing to the fact that it remained buried in
+a Swedish periodical, while Prof. Montelius’s original article was
+translated into French, and so became well-known.
+
+For the time Prof. Montelius’s conclusions were generally accepted, and
+when the discoveries of the prehistoric antiquities were made by M. de
+Morgan, it seemed more probable than ever that Egypt had gone through a
+regular progressive development from the Age of Stone through those of
+copper and bronze to that of iron, which was reached about 1100 or 1000
+B.C. The evidence of the iron fragment from the Great Pyramid was put on
+one side, in spite of the circumstantial account of its discovery
+which had been given by its finders. Even Prof. Pétrie, who in 1881
+had accepted the pyramid fragment as undoubtedly contemporary with that
+building, and had gone so far as to adduce additional evidence for its
+authenticity, gave way, and accepted Montelius’s view, which held its
+own until in 1902 it was directly controverted by a discovery of Prof.
+Pétrie at Abydos. This discovery consisted of an undoubted fragment of
+iron found in conjunction with bronze tools of VIth Dynasty date; and it
+settled the matter.[1] The VIth Dynasty date of this piece of iron, which
+was more probably worked than not (since it was buried with tools), was
+held to be undoubted by its discoverer and by everybody else, and, if
+this were undoubted, the IVth Dynasty date of the Great Pyramid fragment
+was also fully established. The discoverers of the earlier fragment had
+no doubt whatever as to its being contemporary with the pyramid, and
+were supported in this by Prof. Pétrie in 1881. Therefore it is now
+known to be the fact that iron was used by the Egyptians as early as
+3500 B.C.[2]
+
+     [1] See H. R. Hall’s note on “The Early Use of Iron in Egypt,”
+      in _Man_ (the organ of the Anthropological Society of
+     London), iii (1903), No. 86.
+
+     [2] Prof. Montelius objected to these conclusions in a review
+     of the British Museum “Guide to the Antiquities of the
+     Bronze Age,” which was published in Man, 1005 (Jan.), No 7.
+     For an answer to these objections, see Hall, ibid., No. 40.
+
+It would thus appear that though the Egyptians cannot be said to have
+used iron generally and so to have entered the “Iron Age” before about
+1300 B.C. (reign of Ramses II), yet iron was well known to them and had
+been used more than occasionally by them for tools and building purposes
+as early as the time of the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C. Certainly
+dated examples of its use occur under the IVth, VIth, and XIIIth
+Dynasties. Why this knowledge was not communicated to Europe before
+about 1000 B.C. we cannot say, nor are Egyptologists called upon to find
+the reason. So the Great Pyramid has played an interesting part in the
+settlement of a very important question.
+
+It was supposed by Prof. Pétrie that the piece of iron from the Great
+Pyramid had been part of some arrangement employed for raising the
+stones into position. Herodotus speaks of the machines, which were used
+to raise the stones, as made of little pieces of wood. The generally
+accepted explanation of his meaning used to be that a small crane or
+similar wooden machine was used for hoisting the stone by means
+of pulley and rope; but M. Legrain, the director of the works of
+restoration in the Great Temple of Karnak, has explained it differently.
+Among the “foundation deposits” of the XVIIIth Dynasty at Dêr el-Bahari
+and elsewhere, beside the little plaques with the king’s name and the
+model hoes and vases, was usually found an enigmatic wooden object like
+a small cradle, with two sides made of semicircular pieces of wood,
+joined along the curved portion by round wooden bars. M. Legrain has now
+explained this as a model of the machine used to raise heavy stones from
+tier to tier of a pyramid or other building, and illustrations of
+the method of its use may be found in Choisy’s _Art de Bâtir chez les
+anciens Egyptiens_. There is little doubt that this primitive machine
+is that to which Herodotus refers as having been used in the erection of
+the pyramids.
+
+The later historian, Diodorus, also tells us that great mounds or ramps
+of earth were used as well, and that the stones were dragged up these
+to the requisite height. There is no doubt that this statement also is
+correct. We know that the Egyptians did build in this very way, and
+the system has been revived by M. Legrain for his work at Karnak, where
+still exist the remains of the actual mounds and ramps by which the
+great western pylon was erected in Ptolemaïc times. Work carried on
+in this way is slow and expensive, but it is eminently suited to the
+country and understood by the people. If they wish to put a great stone
+architrave weighing many tons across the top of two columns, they do not
+hoist it up into position; they rear a great ramp or embankment of earth
+against the two pillars, half-burying them in the process, then drag
+the architrave up the ramp by means of ropes and men, and put it into
+position. Then the ramp is cleared away. This is the ancient system
+which is now followed at Karnak, and it is the system by which, with the
+further aid of the wooden machines, the Great Pyramid and its compeers
+were erected in the days of the IVth Dynasty. _Plus cela change, plus
+c’est la même chose_.
+
+The brick pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty were erected in the same way,
+for the Egyptians had no knowledge of the modern combination of wooden
+scaffolding and ladders. There was originally a small stone pyramid of
+the same dynasty at Dashûr, half-way between the two brick ones, but
+this has now almost disappeared. It belonged to the king Amenemhat II,
+while the others belonged, the northern to Usertsen (Sen-usret) III, the
+southern to Amenemhat III. Both these latter monarchs had other tombs
+elsewhere, Usertsen a great rock-cut gallery and chamber in the cliff at
+Abydos, Amenemhat a pyramid not very far to the south, at Hawara, close
+to the Fayyûm. It is uncertain whether the Hawara pyramid or that of
+Dashûr was the real burial-place of the king, as at neither place is his
+name found alone. At Hawara it is found in conjunction with that of his
+daughter, the queen-regnant Se-bekneferurâ (Skemiophris), at Dashûr with
+that of a king Auabrâ Hor, who was buried in a small tomb near that of
+the king, and adjoining the tombs of the king’s children. Who King Hor
+was we do not quite know. His name is not given in the lists, and was
+unknown until M. de Morgan’s discoveries at Dashûr. It is most probable
+that he was a prince who was given royal honours during the lifetime of
+Amenemhat III, whom he predeceased.[3] In the beautiful wooden statue
+of him found in his tomb, which is now in the Cairo Museum, he is
+represented as quite a youth. Amenemhat III was certainly succeeded by
+Amenemhat IV, and it is impossible to intercalate Hor between them.
+
+     [3] See below, p. 121. Possibly he was a son of Amenemhat III.
+
+The identification of the owners of the three western pyramids of Dashûr
+is due to M. de Morgan and his assistants, Messrs. Legrain and Jéquier,
+who excavated them from 1894 till 1896. The northern pyramid, that of
+Usertsen (Senusret) III, is not so well preserved as the southern. It is
+more worn away, and does not present so imposing an appearance. In
+both pyramids the outer casing of white stone has entirely disappeared,
+leaving only the bare black bricks. Each stood in the midst of a great
+necropolis of dignitaries of the period, as was usually the case.
+Many of the mastabas were excavated by M. de Morgan. Some are of older
+periods than the XIIth Dynasty, one belonging to a priest of King
+Snefru, Aha-f-ka (“Ghost-fighter”), who bore the additional titles of
+“director of prophets and general of infantry.” There were pluralists
+even in those days. And the distinction between the privy councillor
+(Geheimrat) and real privy councillor (Wirk-licher-Greheimrat) was quite
+familiar; for we find it actually made, many an old Egyptian officially
+priding himself in his tomb on having been a real privy councillor! The
+Egyptian bureaucracy was already ancient and had its survivals and its
+anomalies even as early as the time of the pyramid-builders.
+
+In front of the pyramid of Usertsen (Senusret) III at one time stood the
+usual funerary temple, but it has been totally destroyed. By the side of
+the pyramid were buried some of the princesses of the royal family, in
+a series of tombs opening out of a subterranean gallery, and in this
+gallery were found the wonderful jewels of the princesses Sit-hathor and
+Merit, which are among the greatest treasures of the Cairo Museum. Those
+who have not seen them can obtain a perfect idea of their appearance
+from the beautiful water-colour paintings of them by M. Legrain, which
+are published in M. de Morgan’s work on the “Fouilles à Dahchour”
+ (Vienna, 1895). Altogether one hundred and seven objects were recovered,
+consisting of all kinds of jewelry in gold and coloured stones. Among
+the most beautiful are the great “pectorals,” or breast-ornaments, in
+the shape of pylons, with the names of Usertsen II, Usertsen III, and
+Amenemhat III; the names are surrounded by hawks standing on the sign
+for gold, gryphons, figures of the king striking down enemies, etc., all
+in _cloisonné_ work, with beautiful stones such as lapis lazuli, green
+felspar, and carnelian taking the place of coloured enamels. The massive
+chains of golden beads and cowries are also very remarkable. These
+treasures had been buried in boxes in the floor of the subterranean
+gallery, and had luckily escaped the notice of plunderers, and so by a
+fortunate chance have survived to tell us what the Egyptian jewellers
+could do in the days of the XIIth Dynasty. Here also were found two
+great Nile barges, full-sized boats, with their oars and other gear
+complete. They also may be seen in the Museum of Cairo. It can only be
+supposed that they had served as the biers of the royal mummies, and had
+been brought up in state on sledges. The actual royal chamber was not
+found, although a subterranean gallery was driven beneath the centre of
+the pyramid.
+
+The southern brick pyramid was constructed in the same way as the
+northern one. At the side of it were also found the tombs of members of
+the royal house, including that of the king Hor, already mentioned, with
+its interesting contents. The remains of the mummy of this ephemeral
+monarch, known only from his tomb, were also found. The entrails of the
+king were placed in the usual “canopic jars,” which were sealed with the
+seal of Amenemhat III; it is thus that we know that Hor died before him.
+In many of the inscriptions of this king, on his coffin and stelo, a
+peculiarly affected manner of writing the hieroglyphs is found,--the
+birds are without their legs, the snake has no tail, the bee no head.
+Birds are found without their legs in other inscriptions of this period;
+it was a temporary fashion and soon discarded.
+
+In the tomb of a princess named Nubhetep, near at hand, were found more
+jewels of the same style as those of Sit-hathor and Merit. The pyramid
+itself contained the usual passages and chambers, which were reached
+with much difficulty and considerable tunnelling by M. de Morgan. In
+fact, the search for the royal death-chambers lasted from December 5,
+1894, till March 17, 1895, when the excavators’ gallery finally struck
+one of the ancient passages, which were found to be unusually extensive,
+contrasting in this respect with the northern pyramid. The royal
+tomb-chamber had, of course, been emptied of what it contained. It must
+be remembered that, in any case, it is probable that the king was not
+actually buried here, but in the pyramid of Hawara.
+
+The pyramid of Amenemhat II, which lies between the two brick pyramids,
+was built entirely of stone. Nothing of it remains above ground, but the
+investigation of the subterranean portions showed that it was remarkable
+for the massiveness of its stones and the care with which the masonry
+was executed. The same characteristics are found in the dependent tombs
+of the princesses Ha and Khnumet, in which more jewelry was found. This
+splendid stonework is characteristic of the Middle Kingdom; we find it
+also in the temple of Mentuhetep III at Thebes.
+
+Some distance south of Dashûr is Mêdûm, where the pyramid of Sneferu
+reigns in solitude, and beyond this again is Lisht, where in the
+years 1894-6 MM. Gautier and Jéquier excavated the pyramid of Usertsen
+(Sen-usret) I. The most remarkable find was a cache of the seated
+statues of the king in white limestone, in absolutely perfect condition.
+They were found lying on their sides, just as they had been hidden. Six
+figures of the king in the form of Osiris, with the face painted red,
+were also found. Such figures seem to have been regularly set up in
+front of a royal sepulchre; several were found in front of the funerary
+temple of Mentu-hetep III, Thebes, which we shall describe later. A
+fine altar of gray granite, with representations in relief of the nomes
+bringing offerings, was also recovered. The pyramid of Lisht itself is
+not built of bricks, like those of Dashûr, but of stone. It was not,
+however, erected in so solid a fashion as those of earlier days at Gîza
+or Abusîr, and nothing is left of it now but a heap of débris. The XIIth
+Dynasty architects built walls of magnificent masonry, as we have
+seen, and there is no doubt that the stone casing of their pyramids
+was originally very fine, but the interior is of brick or rubble; the
+wonderful system of building employed by kings of the IVth Dynasty at
+Giza was not practised.
+
+South of Lisht is Illahun, and at the entrance to the province of the
+Fayyûm, and west of this, nearer the Fayyûm, is Hawara, where Prof.
+Petrie excavated the pyramids of Usertsen (Senusret) II and Amenem-hat
+III. His discoveries have already been described by Prof. Maspero in his
+history, so that it will suffice here merely to compare them with the
+results of M. de Morgan’s later work at Dashûr and that of MM. Gautier
+and Jéquier at Lisht, to note recent conclusions in connection with
+them, and to describe the newest discoveries in the same region.
+
+Both pyramids are of brick, lined with stone, like those of Dashûr, with
+some differences of internal construction, since stone walls exist in
+the interior. The central chambers and passages leading to them were
+discovered; and in both cases the passages are peculiarly complex, with
+dumb chambers, great stone portcullises, etc., in order to mislead
+and block the way to possible plunderers. The extraordinary sepulchral
+chamber of the Hawara pyramid, which, though it is over twenty-two feet
+long by ten feet wide over all, is hewn out of one solid block of hard
+yellow quartzite, gives some idea of the remarkable facility of dealing
+with huge stones and the love of utilizing them which is especially
+characteristic of the XIIth Dynasty. The pyramid of Hawara was provided
+with a funerary temple the like of which had never been known in Egypt
+before and was never known afterwards. It was a huge building far larger
+than the pyramid itself, and built of fine limestone and crystalline
+white quartzite, in a style eminently characteristic of the XIIth
+Dynasty. In actual superficies this temple covered an extent of ground
+within which the temples of Karnak, Luxor, and the Ramesseum, at Thebes,
+could have stood, but has now almost entirely disappeared, having been
+used as a quarry for two thousand years. In Roman times this destroying
+process had already begun, but even then the building was still
+magnificent, and had been noted with wonder by all the Greek visitors to
+Egypt from the time of Herodotus downwards. Even before his day it
+had received the name of the “Labyrinth,” on account of its supposed
+resemblance to the original labyrinth in Crete.
+
+That the Hawara temple was the Egyptian labyrinth was pointed out by
+Lepsius in the ‘forties of the last century. Within the last two or
+three years attention has again been drawn to it by Mr. Arthur Evans’s
+discovery of the Cretan labyrinth itself in the shape of the Minoan
+or early Mycenæan palace of Knossos, near Candia in Crete. It is
+impossible to enter here into all the arguments by which it has been
+proved that the Knossian palace is the veritable labyrinth of the
+Minotaur legend, nor would it be strictly germane to our subject were we
+to do so; but it may suffice to say here that the word
+
+[Illustration: 125.jpg (Greek word)]
+
+has been proved to be of Greek-or rather of pre-Hellenic-origin, and
+would mean in Karian “Place of the Double-Axe,” like La-braunda in
+Karia, where Zeus was depicted with a double axe (labrys) in his hand.
+The non-Aryan, “Asianic,” group of languages, to which certainly Lycian
+and probably Karian belong, has been shown by the German philologer
+Kretschmer to have spread over Greece into Italy in the period before
+the Aryan Greeks entered Hellas, and to have left undoubted traces of
+its presence in Greek place-names and in the Greek language itself.
+Before the true Hellenes reached Crete, an Asianic dialect must have
+been spoken there, and to this language the word “labyrinth” must
+originally have belonged. The classical labyrinth was “in the Knossian
+territory.” The palace of Knossos was emphatically the chief seat of the
+worship of a god whose emblem was the double-axe; it was the Knossian
+“Place of the Double-Axe,” the Cretan “Labyrinth.”
+
+It used to be supposed that the Cretan labyrinth had taken its name from
+the Egyptian one, and the, word itself was supposed to be of Egyptian
+origin. An Egyptian etymology was found for it as “_Ro-pi-ro-henet_,”
+ “Temple-mouth-canal,” which might be interpreted, with some violence to
+Egyptian construction, as “The temple at the mouth of the canal,” i.e.
+the Bahr Yusuf, which enters the Fayyûm at Hawara. But unluckily this
+word would have been pronounced by the natives of the vicinity as
+“Elphilahune,” which is not very much like
+
+[Illustration: 126.jpg (Greek word)]
+
+“_Ro-pi-ro-henet_” is, in fact, a mere figment of the philological
+imagination, and cannot be proved ever to have existed. The element
+_Ro-henet_, “canal-mouth” (according to the local pronunciation of the
+Fayyûm and Middle Egypt, called _La-hunè_), is genuine; it is the
+origin of the modern Illahun (_el-Lahun_), which is situated at the
+“canal-mouth.” However, now that we know that the word labyrinth can be
+explained satisfactorily with the help of Karian, as evidently of Greek
+(pre-Aryan) origin, and as evidently the original name of the Knossian
+labyrinth, it is obvious that there is no need to seek a far-fetched
+explanation of the word in Egypt, and to suppose that the Greeks called
+the Cretan labyrinth after the Egyptian one.
+
+The contrary is evidently the case. Greek visitors to Egypt found a
+resemblance between the great Egyptian building, with its numerous halls
+and corridors, vast in extent, and the Knossian palace. Even if very
+little of the latter was visible in the classical period, as seems
+possible, yet the site seems always to have been kept holy and free from
+later building till Roman times, and we know that the tradition of the
+mazy halls and corridors of the labyrinth was always clear, and was
+evidently based on a vivid reminiscence. Actually, one of the most
+prominent characteristics of the Knossian palace is its mazy and
+labyrinthine system of passages and chambers. The parallel between the
+two buildings, which originally caused the Greek visitors to give the
+pyramid-temple of Hawara the name of “labyrinth,” has been traced still
+further. The white limestone walls and the shining portals of “Parian
+marble,” described by Strabo as characteristic of the Egyptian
+labyrinth, have been compared with the shining white selenite or gypsum
+used at Knossos, and certain general resemblances between the Greek
+architecture of the Minoan age and the almost contemporary Egyptian
+architecture of the XIIth Dynasty have been pointed out.[4] Such
+resemblances may go to swell the amount of evidence already known, which
+tells us that there was a close connection between Egyptian and Minoan
+art and civilization, established at least as early as 2500 B.C.
+
+     [4] See H. R. Hall, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1905 (Pt.
+     ii). The Temple of the Sphinx at Gîza may also be compared
+     with those of Hawara and Knossos. It seems most probable
+     that the Temple of the Sphinx is a XIIth Dynasty building.
+
+For it must be remembered that within the last few years we have learned
+from the excavations in Crete a new chapter of ancient history, which,
+it might almost seem, shows us Greece and Egypt in regular communication
+from nearly the beginnings of Egyptian history. As the excavations which
+have told us this were carried on in Crete, not in Egypt, to describe
+them does not lie within the scope of this book, though a short sketch
+of their results, so far as they affect Egyptian history in later days,
+is given in Chapter VII. Here it may suffice to say that, as far as
+the early period is concerned, Egypt and Crete were certainly in
+communication in the time of the XIIth Dynasty, and quite possibly in
+that of the VIth or still earlier. We have IIId Dynasty Egyptian vases
+from Knossos, which were certainly not imported in later days, for no
+ancient nation had antiquarian tastes till the time of the Saïtes in
+Egypt and of the Romans still later. In fact, this communication seems
+to go so far back in time that we are gradually being led to perceive
+the possibility that the Minoan culture of Greece was in its origin an
+offshoot from that of primeval Egypt, probably in early Neolithic times.
+That is to say, the Neolithic Greeks and Neolithic Egyptians were both
+members of the same “Mediterranean” stock, which quite possibly may have
+had its origin in Africa, and a portion of which may have crossed the
+sea to Europe in very early times, taking with it the seeds of culture
+which in Egypt developed in the Egyptian way, in Greece in the Greek
+way. Actual communication and connection may not have been maintained
+at first, and probably they were not. Prof. Petrie thinks otherwise, and
+would see in the boats painted on the predynastic Egyptian vases (see
+Chapter I) the identical galleys by which, in late Neolithic
+times, commerce between Crete and Egypt was carried on across the
+Mediterranean. It is certain, however, that these boats are ordinary
+little river craft, the usual Nile _felûkas_ and _gyassas_ of the time;
+they are depicted together with emblems of the desert and cultivated
+land,-ostriches, antelopes, hills, and palm-trees,-and the thoroughly
+inland and Upper Egyptian character of the whole design springs to the
+eye. There can be no doubt whatever that the predynastic boats were not
+seagoing galleys.
+
+It was probably not till the time of the pyramid-builders that
+connection between the Greek Mediterraneans and the Nilotes was
+re-established. Thence-forward it increased, and in the time of the
+XIIth Dynasty, when the labyrinth of Amenemhat III was built, there
+seems to have been some kind of more or less regular communication
+between the two countries.
+
+It is certain that artistic ideas were exchanged between them at this
+period. How communication was carried on we do not know, but it was
+probably rather by way of Cyprus and the Syrian coast than directly
+across the open sea. We shall revert to this point when we come to
+describe the connection between Crete and Egypt in the time of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, when Cretan ambassadors visited the Egyptian court and
+were depicted in tomb paintings at Thebes. Between the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty and that of the XVIIIth this connection seems to have been very
+considerably strengthened; for at Knossos have been found an Egyptian
+statuette of an Egyptian named Abnub, who from his name must have lived
+about the end of the XIIIth Dynasty, and the top of an alabastron with
+the royal name of Khian, one of the Hyksos kings.
+
+Quite close to Hawara, at Illahun, in the ruins of the town which was
+built by Usertsen’s workmen when they were building his pyramid, Prof.
+Petrie found fragments of pottery of types which we now know well from
+excavations in Crete and Cyprus, though they were then unknown. They are
+fragments of the polychrome Cretan ware called, after the name of the
+place where it was first found in Crete, Kamares ware, and of a black
+ware ornamented with small punctures, which are often filled up with
+white. This latter ware has been found elsewhere associated with XIIIth
+Dynasty antiquities. The former is known to belong in Crete to the
+“early Minoan” period, long anterior to the “late Minoan” or “Palace”
+ period, which was contemporary with the Egyptian XVIIIth Dynasty.
+We have here another interesting proof of a connection between XIIth
+Dynasty Egypt and early Minoan Crete. The later connection, under the
+XVIIIth and following dynasties, is also illustrated in the same reign
+by Prof. Petrie’s finds of late Mycenaean objects and foreign graves at
+Medinet Gurob.[5]
+
+     [5] One man who was buried here bore the name An-Tursha,
+     “Pillar of the Tursha.” The Tursha were a people of the
+     Mediterranean, possibly Tylissians of Crete.
+
+These excavations at Hawara, Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob were carried out
+in the years 1887-9. Since then Prof. Petrie and his co-workers have
+revisited the same district, and Gurob has been re-examined (in 1904)
+by Messrs. Loat and Ayrton, who discovered there a shrine devoted to
+the worship of fish. This work was carried on at the same time as Prof.
+Petrie’s main excavation for the Egypt Exploration Fund at Annas, or
+Ahnas-yet el-Medina, the site of the ancient Henensu, the Herakleopolis
+of the Greeks. Prof. Naville had excavated there for the Egypt
+Exploration Fund in 1892, but had not completely cleared the temple.
+This work was now taken up by Prof. Petrie, who laid the whole building
+bare. It is dedicated to Hershefi, the local deity of Herakleopolis.
+This god, who was called Ar-saphes by the Greeks, and identified with
+Herakles, was in fact a form of Horus with the head of a ram; his name
+means “Terrible-Face.” The greater part of the temple dates to the time
+of the XIXth Dynasty, and nothing of the early period is left. We know,
+however, that the Middle Kingdom was the flourishing period of the
+city of Hershefi. For a comparatively brief period, between the age of
+Memphite hegemony and that of Theban dominion, Herakleopolis was the
+capital city of Egypt. The kings of the IXth and Xth Dynasties were
+Herakleopolites, though we know little of them. One, Kheti, is said to
+have been a great tyrant. Another, Nebkaurâ, is known only as a figure
+in the “Legend of the Eloquent Peasant,” a classical story much in vogue
+in later days. Another, Merikarâ, is a more real personage, for we have
+contemporary records of his days in the inscriptions of the tombs at
+Asyût, from which we see that the princes of Thebes were already wearing
+down the Northerners, in spite of the resistance of the adherents of
+Herakleopolis, among whom the most valiant were the chiefs of Asyût. The
+civil war eventuated in favour of Thebes, and the Theban XIth Dynasty
+assumed the double crown. The sceptre passed from Memphis and the North,
+and Thebes enters upon the scene of Egyptian history.
+
+With this event the Nile-land also entered upon a new era of
+development. The metropolis of the kingdom was once more shifted to the
+South, and, although the kings of the XIIth Dynasty actually resided
+in the North, their Theban origin was never forgotten, and Thebes
+was regarded as the chief city of the country. The XIth Dynasty kings
+actually reigned at Thebes, and there the later kings of the XIIIth
+Dynasty retired after the conquest of the Hyksos. The fact that with
+Thebes were associated all the heroic traditions of the struggle against
+the Hyksos ensured the final stability of the capital there when the
+hated Semites were finally driven out, and the national kingdom
+was re-established in its full extent from north to south. But for
+occasional intervals, as when Akhunaten held his court at Tell el-Amarna
+and Ramses II at Tanis, Thebes remained the national capital for six
+hundred years, till the time of the XXIId Dynasty.
+
+Another great change which differentiates the Middle Kingdom
+(XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) from the Old Kingdom was caused by Egypt’s
+coming into contact with other outside nations at this period. During
+the whole history of the Old Kingdom, Egyptian relations with the outer
+world had been nil. We have some inkling of occasional connection
+with the Mediterranean peoples, the _Ha-nebu_ or Northerners; we have
+accounts of wars with the people of Sinai and other Bedawin and negroes;
+and expeditions were also sent to the land of Punt (Somaliland) by way
+of the Upper Nile. But we have not the slightest hint of any connection
+with, or even knowledge of, the great nations of the Euphrates valley
+or the peoples of Palestine. The Babylonian king Narâm-Sin invaded the
+Sinaitic peninsula (the land of Magan) as early as 3750 b. c, about
+the time of the IIId Egyptian Dynasty. The great King Tjeser, of that
+dynasty, also invaded Sinai, and so did Snefru, the last king of the
+dynasty. But we have no hint of any collision between Babylonians and
+Egyptians at that time, nor do either of them betray the slightest
+knowledge of one another’s existence. It can hardly be that the two
+civilized peoples of the world in those days were really absolutely
+ignorant of each other, but we have no trace of any connection between
+them, other than the possible one before the founding of the Egyptian
+monarchy.
+
+This early connection, however, is very problematical. We have seen that
+there seems to be in early Egyptian civilization an element ultimately
+of Babylonian origin, and that there are two theories as to how it
+reached Egypt. One supposes that it was brought by a Semitic people of
+Arab affinities (represented by the modern Grallas), who crossed the
+Straits of Bab el-Man-deb and reached Egypt either by way of the Wadi
+Hammamat or by the Upper Nile. The other would bring it across the
+Isthmus of Suez to the Delta, where, at Heliopolis, there certainly
+seems to have been a settlement of a Semitic type of very ancient
+culture. In both cases we should have Semites bringing Babylonian
+culture to Egypt. This, as we may remind the reader, was not itself of
+Semitic origin, but was a development due to a non-Semitic people,
+the Sumerians as they are called, who, so far as we know, were the
+aboriginal inhabitants of Babylonia. The Sumerian language was of
+agglutinative type, radically distinct both from the pure Semitic idioms
+and from Egyptian. The Babylonian elements of culture which the early
+Semitic invaders brought with them to Egypt were, then, ultimately of
+Sumerian origin. Sumerian civilization had profoundly influenced the
+Semitic tribes for centuries before the Semitic conquest of Babylonia,
+and when the Sumerians became more and more a conquered race, finally
+amalgamating with their conquerors and losing their racial and
+linguistic individuality, they were conquered by an alien race but not
+by an alien culture. For the culture of the Semites was Sumerian, the
+Semitic races owing their civilization to the Sumerians. That is as
+much as to say that a great deal of what we call Semitic culture is
+fundamentally non-Semitic.
+
+In the earliest days, then, Egypt received elements of Sumerian culture
+through a Semitic medium, which introduced Semitic elements into the
+language of the people, and a Semitic racial strain. It is possible.
+that both theories as to the routes of these primeval conquerors are
+true, and that two waves of Semites entered the Nile valley towards
+the close of the Neolithic period, one by way of the Upper Nile or Wadi
+Hammamat, the other by way of Heliopolis.
+
+After the reconsolidation of the Egyptian people, with perhaps an
+autocratic class of Semitic origin and a populace of indigenous Nilotic
+race, we have no trace of further connection with the far-away centre of
+Semitic culture in Babylonia till the time of the Theban hegemony.
+Under the XIIth Dynasty we see Egyptians in friendly relations with the
+Bedawin of Idumsea and Southern Palestine. Thus Sanehat, the younger son
+of Amenemhat I, when the death of his royal father was announced, fled
+from the new king Usertsen (Senusret) into Palestine, and there married
+the daughter of the chief Ammuanshi and became a Syrian chief himself,
+only finally returning to Egypt as an old man on the assurance of the
+royal pardon and favour. We have in the reign of Usertsen (Senusret) II
+the famous visit of the Arab chief Abisha (Abêshu’) with his following
+to the court of Khnumhetep, the prince of the Oryx nome in Middle Egypt,
+as we see it depicted on the walls of Khnumhetep’s tomb at Beni Hasan.
+We see Usertsen (Senusret) III invading Palestine to chastise the land
+of Sekmem and the vile Syrians.[6]
+
+     [6] We know of this campaign from the interesting historical
+     stele of the general Sebek-khu (who took part in it), which
+     was found during Mr. Garstang’s excavations at Abydos, not
+     previously referred to above. They were carried out in 1900,
+     and resulted in the complete clearance of a part of the
+     great cemetery which had been created during the XIIth
+     Dynasty. The group of objects from the tombs of this
+     cemetery, and those of XVIIIth Dynasty tombs also found, is
+     especially valuable as showing the styles of objects in use
+     at these two periods (see Garstang, el-Ardbah, 1901).
+
+The arm of Egypt was growing longer, and its weight was being felt in
+regions where it had previously been entirely unknown. Eventually the
+collision came. Egypt collided with an Asiatic power, and got the worst
+of the encounter. So much the worse that the Theban monarchy of the
+Middle Kingdom was overthrown, and Northern Egypt was actually conquered
+by the Asiatic foreigners and ruled by a foreign house for several
+centuries. Who these conquering Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were no
+recent discovery has told us. An old idea was that they were Mongols. It
+was supposed that the remarkable faces of the sphinxes of Tanis, now
+in the Cairo Museum, which bore the names of Hyksos kings, were of
+Mongolian type, as also those of two colossal royal heads discovered
+by M. Naville at Bubastis. But M. Golénischeff has now shown that these
+heads are really those of XIIth Dynasty kings, and not of Hyksos at all.
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang have lately endeavoured to show that this
+type was foreign, and probably connected with that of the Kheta, or
+Hittites, of Northern Syria, who came into prominence as enemies of
+Egypt at a later period. They think that the type was introduced into
+the Egyptian royal family by Nefret, the queen of Usertsen (Senusret)
+II, whom they suppose to have been a Hittite princess. At the same time
+they think it probable that the type was also that of the Hyksos, whom
+they consider to have been practically Hittites. They therefore revive
+the theory of de Cara, which connects the Hyksos with the Hittites and
+these with the Pelasgi and Tyrseni.
+
+This is a very interesting theory, which, when carried out to its
+logical conclusion, would connect the Hyksos and Hittites racially with
+the pre-Hellenic “Minoan” Mycenseans of Greece, as well as with the
+Etruscans of Italy. But there is little of certainty in it. It is by no
+means impossible that we may eventually come to know that the Hittites
+(_Kheta_, the _Khatte_ of the Assyrians) and other tribes of Asia
+Minor were racially akin to the “Minoans” of Greece, but the connection
+between the Hyksos and the Hittites is to seek. The countenances of the
+Kheta on the Egyptian monuments of Ramses II’s time have an angular
+cast, and so have those of the Tanis sphinxes, of Queen Nefret, of
+the Bubastis statues, and the statues of Usertsen (Senusret) III
+and Amenemhat III. We might then suppose, with Messrs. Newberry and
+Garstang, that Nefret was a Kheta princess, who gave her peculiar racial
+traits to her son Usertsen (Senusret) III and his son Amenem-hat, were
+it not far more probable that the resemblance between this peculiar
+XIIth Dynasty type and the Kheta face is purely fortuitous.
+
+There is really no reason to suppose that the type of face presented by
+Nefret, Usertsen, and Amenemhat is not purely Egyptian. It may be seen
+in many a modern fellah, and the truth probably is that the sculptors
+have in the case of these rulers very faithfully and carefully depicted
+their portraits, and that their faces happen to have been of a rather
+hard and forbidding type. But, if we grant the contention of Messrs.
+Newberry and Garstang for the moment, where is the connection between
+these XIIth Dynasty kings and the Hyksos? All the Tanite monuments with
+this peculiar facial type which would be considered Hyksos are certainly
+of the XIIth Dynasty. The only statue of a Hyksos king, which was
+undoubtedly originally made for him and is not one of the XIIth Dynasty
+usurped, is the small one of Khian at Cairo, discovered by M. Naville at
+Bubastis, and this has no head. So that we have not the slightest idea
+of what a Hyksos looked like. Moreover, the evidence of the Hyksos names
+which are known to us points in quite a different direction. The Kheta,
+or Hittites, were certainly not Semites, yet the Hyksos names are
+definitely Semitic. In fact it is most probable that the Hyksos, or
+Shepherd Kings, were, as the classical authorities say they were, and as
+their name (_hiku-semut_ or _hihu-shasu_,) “princes of the deserts” or
+(“princes of the Bedawîn”) also testifies, purely and simply Arabs.
+
+Now it is not a little curious that almost at the same time that a nomad
+Arab race conquered Lower Egypt and settled in it as rulers (just as
+‘Amr and the followers of Islam did over two thousand years later),
+another Arab race may have imposed its rule upon Babylonia. Yet this
+may have been the case; for the First Dynasty of Babylon, to which the
+famous Hammurabi belonged, was very probably of Arab origin, to judge by
+the forms of some of the royal names. It is by no means impossible that
+there was some connection between these two conquests, and that both
+Babylonia and Egypt fell, in the period before the year 2000 B.C. before
+some great migratory movement from Arabia, which overran Babylonia,
+Palestine, and even the Egyptian Delta.
+
+In this manner Egypt and Babylonia may have been brought together
+in common subjection to the Arab. We do not know whether any regular
+communication between Egypt, under Semitic rule, and Babylonia was now
+established; but we do know that during the Hyksos period there were
+considerable relations between Egypt and over-sea Crete, and relations
+with Mesopotamia may possibly have been established. At any rate, when
+the war of liberation, which was directed by the princes of Thebes, was
+finally brought to a successful conclusion and the Arabs were expelled,
+we find the Egyptians a much changed nation. They had adopted for war
+the use of horse and chariot, which they learnt from their Semitic
+conquerors, whose victory was in all probability largely gained by their
+use, and, generally speaking, they had become much more like the Western
+Asiatic nations. Egypt was no longer isolated, for she had been forcibly
+brought into contact with the foreign world, and had learned much.
+She was no longer self-contained within her own borders. If the Semites
+could conquer her, so could she conquer the Semites. Armed with horse
+and chariot, the Egyptians went forth to battle, and their revenge was
+complete. All Palestine and Syria were Egyptian domains for five hundred
+years after the conquest by Thothmes I and III, and Ashur and Babel sent
+tribute to the Pharaoh of Egypt.
+
+The reaction came, and Egypt was thrown prostrate beneath the feet of
+Assyria; but her claim to dominion over the Western Asiatics was never
+abandoned, and was revived in all its pomp by Ptolemy Euergetes, who
+brought back in triumph to Egypt the images of the gods which had been
+removed by Assyrians and Babylonians centuries before. This claim was
+never allowed by the Asiatics, it is true, and their kings wrote to the
+proudest Pharaoh as to an absolute equal. Even the King of Cyprus calls
+the King of Egypt his brother. But Palestine was admitted to be
+an Egyptian possession, and the Phoenicians were always energetic
+supporters of the Egyptian régime against the lawless Bedawîn tribes,
+who were constantly intriguing with the Kheta or Hittite power to the
+north against Egypt.
+
+The existence of this extra-Egyptian imperial possession meant that the
+eyes of the Egyptians were now permanently turned in the direction of
+Western Asia, with which they were henceforth in constant and intimate
+communication. The first Theban period and the Hyksos invasion,
+therefore, mark a turning-point in Egyptian history, at which we may
+fitly leave it for a time in order to turn our attention to those
+peoples of Western Asia with whom the Egyptians had now come into
+permanent contact.
+
+Just as new discoveries have been made in Egypt, which have modified our
+previous conception of her history, so also have the excavators of
+the ancient sites in the Mesopotamian valley made, during the last few
+years, far-reaching discoveries, which have enabled us to add to and
+revise much of our knowledge of the history of Babylonia and Assyria. In
+Palestine and the Sinaitic peninsula also the spade has been used with
+effect, but a detailed account of work in Sinai and Palestine falls
+within the limits of a description of Biblical discoveries rather than
+of this book. The following chapters will therefore deal chiefly with
+modern discoveries which have told us new facts with regard to the
+history of the ancient Sumerians themselves, and of the Babylonians,
+Elamites, Kassites, and Assyrians, the inheritors of the ancient
+Sumerian civilization, which was older than that of Egypt, and which, as
+we have seen, probably contributed somewhat to its formation. These
+were the two primal civilizations of the ancient world. For two thousand
+years each marched upon a solitary road, without meeting the other.
+Eventually the two roads converged. We have hitherto dealt with the road
+of the Egyptians; we now describe that of the Mesopotamians, up to the
+point of convergence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA AND THE DAWN OF CHALDÆAN HISTORY
+
+
+In the preceding pages it has been shown how recent excavations in Egypt
+have revealed an entirely new chapter in the history of that country,
+and how, in consequence, our theories with regard to the origin of
+Egyptian civilization have been entirely remodelled. Excavations have
+been and are being carried out in Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries
+with no less enthusiasm and energy than in Egypt itself, and, although
+it cannot be said that they have resulted in any sweeping modification
+of our conceptions with regard to the origin and kinship of the early
+races of Western Asia, yet they have lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of the ancient history of the countries in that region of the
+world. This is particularly the case in respect of the Sumerians, who,
+so far as we know at present, were the earliest inhabitants of the
+fertile plains of Mesopotamia. The beginnings of this ancient people
+stretch back into the remote past, and their origin is still shrouded in
+the mists of antiquity. When first we come across them they have already
+attained a high level of civilization. They have built temples and
+palaces and houses of burnt and unburnt brick, and they have reduced
+their system of agriculture to a science, intersecting their country
+with canals for purposes of irrigation and to ensure a good supply of
+water to their cities. Their sculpture and pottery furnish abundant
+evidence that they have already attained a comparatively high level in
+the practice of the arts, and finally they have evolved a complicated
+system of writing which originally had its origin in picture-characters,
+but afterwards had been developed along phonetic lines. To have attained
+to this pitch of culture argues long periods of previous development,
+and we must conclude that they had been settled in Southern Babylonia
+many centuries before the period to which we must assign the earliest of
+their remains at present discovered.
+
+That this people were not indigenous to Babylonia is highly probable,
+but we have little data by which to determine the region from which
+they originally came. Prom the fact that they built their ziggurats, or
+temple towers, of huge masses of unburnt brick which rose high above
+the surrounding plain, and that their ideal was to make each “like a
+mountain,” it has been argued that they were a mountain race, and the
+home from which they sprang has been sought in Central Asia. Other
+scholars have detected signs of their origin in their language and
+system of writing, and, from the fact that they spoke an agglutinative
+tongue and at the earliest period arranged the characters of their
+script in vertical lines like the Chinese, it has been urged that
+they were of Mongol extraction. Though a case may be made out for this
+hypothesis, it would be rash to dogmatize for or against it, and it is
+wiser to await the discovery of further material on which a more certain
+decision may be based. But whatever their origin, it is certain that the
+Sumerians exercised an extraordinary influence on all races with
+which, either directly or indirectly, they came in contact. The ancient
+inhabitants of Elam at a very early period adopted in principle
+their method of writing, and afterwards, living in isolation in the
+mountainous districts of Persia, developed it on lines of their own. [*
+See Chap. V, and note.] On their invasion of Babylonia the Semites
+fell absolutely under Sumerian influence, and, although they eventually
+conquered and absorbed the Sumerians, their civilization remained
+Sumerian to the core. Moreover, by means of the Semitic inhabitants of
+Babylonia Sumerian culture continued to exert its influence on other
+and more distant races. We have already seen how a Babylonian element
+probably enters into Egyptian civilization through Semitic infiltration
+across the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb or by way of the Isthmus of Suez,
+and it was Sumerian culture which these Semites brought with them.
+In like manner, through the Semitic Babylonians, the Assyrians, the
+Kassites, and the inhabitants of Palestine and Syria, and of some
+parts of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan, all in turn experienced
+indirectly the influence of Sumerian civilization and continued in a
+greater or less degree to reproduce elements of this early culture.
+
+It will be seen that the influence of the Sumerians furnishes us with
+a key to much that would otherwise prove puzzling in the history of the
+early races of Western Asia. It is therefore all the more striking to
+recall the fact that but a few years ago the very existence of this
+ancient people was called in question. At that time the excavations in
+Mesopotamia had not revealed many traces of the race itself, and its
+previous existence had been mainly inferred from a number of Sumerian
+compositions inscribed upon Assyrian tablets found in the library
+of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh. These compositions were furnished with
+Assyrian translations upon the tablets on which they were inscribed,
+and it was correctly argued by the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, the late M.
+Oppert, Prof. Schrader, Prof. Sayce, and other scholars that they were
+written in the language of the earlier inhabitants of the country whom
+the Semitic Babylonians had displaced. But M. Halévy started a theory to
+the effect that Sumerian was not a language at all, in the proper sense
+of the term, but was a cabalistic method of writing invented by the
+Semitic Babylonian priests.
+
+[Illustration: 147.jpg LIST OF ARCHAIC CUNEIFORM SIGNS.
+
+     Drawn up by an Assyrian scribe to assist him in his studies
+     of early texts. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The argument on which the upholders of this theory mainly relied was
+that many of the phonetic values of the Sumerian signs were obviously
+derived from Semitic equivalents, and they hastily jumped to the
+conclusion that the whole language was similarly derived from Semitic
+Babylonian, and was, in fact, a purely arbitrary invention of the
+Babylonian priests. This theory ignored all questions of inherent
+probability, and did not attempt to explain why the Babylonian priests
+should have troubled themselves to make such an invention and afterwards
+have stultified themselves by carefully appending Assyrian translations
+to the majority of the Sumerian compositions which they copied out.
+Moreover, the nature of these compositions is not such as we should
+expect to find recorded in a cabalistic method of writing. They contain
+no secret lore of the Babylonian priests, but are merely hymns and
+prayers and religious compositions similar to those employed by the
+Babylonians and Assyrians themselves.
+
+But in spite of its inherent improbabilities, M. Halévy succeeded in
+making many converts to his theory, including Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch
+and a number of the younger school of German Assyriologists. More
+conservative scholars, such as Sir Henry Rawlinson, M. Oppert, and Prof.
+Schrader, stoutly opposed the theory, maintaining that Sumerian was a
+real language and had been spoken by an earlier race whom the Semitic
+Babylonians had conquered; and they explained the resemblance of some of
+the Sumerian values to Semitic roots by supposing that Sumerian had
+not been suddenly superseded by the language of the Semitic invaders
+of Babylonia, but that the two tongues had been spoken for long periods
+side by side and that each had been strongly influenced by the other.
+This very probable and sane explanation has been fully corroborated
+by subsequent excavations, particularly those that were carried out at
+Telloh in Southern Babylonia by the late M. de Sarzec. In these mounds,
+which mark the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, were
+found thousands of clay tablets inscribed in archaic characters and in
+the Sumerian language, proving that it had actually been the language of
+the early inhabitants of Babylonia; while the examples of their art and
+the representations of their form and features, which were also afforded
+by the diggings at Telloh, proved once for all that the Sumerians were
+a race of strongly marked characteristics and could not be ascribed to a
+Semitic stock.
+
+The system of writing invented by the ancient Sumerians was adopted by
+the Semitic Babylonians, who modified it to suit their own language.
+Moreover, the archaic forms of the characters, many of which under the
+Sumerians still retained resemblances to the pictures of objects from
+which they were descended, were considerably changed. The lines, of
+which they were originally composed, gave way to wedges, and the number
+of the wedges of which each sign consisted was gradually diminished, so
+that in the time of the Assyrians and the later Babylonians many of the
+characters bore small resemblance to the ancient Sumerian forms
+from which they had been derived. The reading of Sumerian and early
+Babylonian inscriptions by the late Assyrian scribes was therefore an
+accomplishment only to be acquired as the result of long study, and it
+is interesting to note that as an assistance to the reading of these
+early texts the scribes compiled lists of archaic signs. Sometimes
+opposite each archaic character they drew a picture of the object from
+which they imagined it was derived. This fact is significant as proving
+that the Assyrian scribes recognized the pictorial origin of cuneiform
+writing, but the pictures they drew opposite the signs are rather
+fanciful, and it cannot be said that their guesses were very successful.
+That we are able to criticize the theories of the Assyrians as to the
+origin and forms of the early characters is in the main due to M. de
+Sarzec’s labours, from whose excavations many thousands of inscriptions
+of the Sumerians have been recovered.
+
+The main results of M. de Sarzec’s diggings at Telloh have already been
+described by M. Maspero in his history, and therefore we need not go
+over them again, but will here confine ourselves to the results which
+have been obtained from recent excavations at Telloh and at other sites
+in Western Asia. With the death of M. de Sarzec, which occurred in his
+sixty-fifth year, on May 31, 1901, the wonderfully successful series of
+excavations which he had carried out at Telloh was brought to an end. In
+consequence it was feared at the time that the French diggings on this
+site might be interrupted for a considerable period. Such an event would
+have been regretted by all those who are interested in the early history
+of the East, for, in spite of the treasures found by M. de Sarzec in the
+course of his various campaigns, it was obvious that the site was far
+from being exhausted, and that the tells as yet unexplored contained
+inscriptions and antiquities extending back to the very earliest periods
+of Sumerian history.
+
+[Illustration: 150.jpg FRAGMENT OF A LIST OF ARCHAIC CUNEIFORM SIGNS.]
+
+     Opposite each the scribe has drawn a picture of the object
+     from which he imagined it was derived. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell & Co.
+
+The announcement which was made in 1902, that the French government had
+appointed Capt. Gaston Cros as the late M. de Sarzec’s successor, was
+therefore received with general satisfaction. The fact that Capt. Cros
+had already successfully carried out several difficult topographical
+missions in the region of the Sahara was a sufficient guarantee that the
+new diggings would be conducted on a systematic and exhaustive scale.
+
+The new director of the French mission in Chaldæa arrived at Telloh in
+January, 1903, and one of his first acts was to shift the site of the
+mission’s settlement from the bank of the Shatt el-Hai, where it had
+always been established in the time of M. de Sarzec, to the mounds where
+the actual digging took place. The Shatt el-Hai had been previously
+chosen as the site of the settlement to ensure a constant supply of
+water, and as it was more easily protected against attack by night.
+But the fact that it was an hour’s ride from the diggings caused an
+unnecessary loss of time, and rendered the strict supervision of the
+diggers a matter of considerable difficulty. During the first season’s
+work rough huts of reeds, surrounded by a wall of earth and a ditch,
+served the new expedition for its encampment among the mounds of Telloh,
+but last year these makeshift arrangements were superseded by a regular
+house built out of the burnt bricks which are found in abundance on the
+site. A reservoir has also been built, and caravans of asses bring water
+in skins from the Shatt el-Hai to keep it filled with a constant supply
+of water, while the excellent relations which Capt. Cros has established
+with the Karagul Arabs, who occupy Telloh and its neighbourhood, have
+proved to be the best kind of protection for the mission engaged in
+scientific work upon the site.
+
+The group of mounds and hillocks, known as Telloh, which marks the site
+of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, is easily distinguished from
+the flat surrounding desert. The mounds extend in a rough oval formation
+running north and south, about two and a half miles long and one and a
+quarter broad. In the early spring, when the desert is covered with a
+light green verdure, the ruins are clearly marked out as a yellow spot
+in the surrounding green, for vegetation does not grow upon them. In the
+centre of this oval, which approximately marks the limits of the ancient
+city and its suburbs, are four large tells or mounds running, roughly,
+north and south, their sides descending steeply on the east, but with
+their western slopes rising by easier undulations from the plain. These
+four principal tells are known as the “Palace Tell,” the “Tell of the
+Fruit-house,” the “Tell of the Tablets,” and the “Great Tell,” and,
+rising as they do in the centre of the site, they mark the position of
+the temples and the other principal buildings of the city.
+
+An indication of the richness of the site in antiquities was afforded
+to the new mission before it had started regular excavation and while
+it was yet engaged in levelling its encampment and surrounding it with a
+wall and ditch. The spot selected for the camp was a small mound to the
+south of the site of Telloh, and here, in the course of preparing the
+site for the encampment and digging the ditch, objects were found at
+a depth of less than a foot beneath the surface of the soil. These
+included daggers, copper vases, seal-cylinders, rings of lapis and
+cornelian, and pottery. M. de Sarzec had carried out his latest
+diggings in the Tell of the Tablets, and here Capt. Cros continued
+the excavations and came upon the remains of buildings and recovered
+numerous objects, dating principally from the period of Gudea and
+the kings of Ur. The finds included small terra-cotta figures, a
+boundary-stone of Gamil-Sin, and a new statue of Gudea, to which we will
+refer again presently.
+
+In the Tell of the Fruit-house M. de Sarzec had already discovered
+numbers of monuments dating from the earlier periods of Sumerian history
+before the conquest and consolidation of Babylonia under Sargon of
+Agade, and had excavated a primitive terrace built by the early king
+Ur-Ninâ. Both on and around this large mound Capt. Cros cut an extensive
+series of trenches, and in digging to the north of the mound he found a
+number of objects, including an alabaster tablet of Ente-mena which had
+been blackened by fire. At the foot of the tell he found a copper helmet
+like those represented on the famous Stele of Vultures discovered by
+M. de Sarzec, and among the tablets here recovered was one with an
+inscription of the time of Urukagina, which records the complete
+destruction of the city of Shirpurla during his reign, and will be
+described in greater detail later on in this chapter. On the mound
+itself a considerable area was uncovered with remains of buildings
+still in place, the use of which appears to have been of an industrial
+character. They included flights of steps, canals with raised banks,
+and basins for storing water. Not far off are the previously discovered
+wells of Bannadu, so that it is legitimate to suppose that Capt. Cros
+has here come upon part of the works which were erected at a very early
+period of Sumerian history for the distribution of water to this portion
+of the city.
+
+[Illustration: 154.jpg Obelisk of Manishtusu.]
+
+     An early Semitic king of the city of Kish in Babylonia. The
+     photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s _Délégation en Perse,
+     Mém_., t. i, pi. ix.
+
+In the Palace Tell Capt. Cros has sunk a series of deep shafts to
+determine precisely the relations which the buildings of Ur-Bau and
+Gudea, found already on this part of the site, bear to each other, and
+to the building of Adad-nadin-akhê, which had been erected there at
+a much later period. Prom this slight sketch of the work carried out
+during the last two years at Telloh it will have been seen that the
+Prench mission in Chaldæa is at present engaged in excavations of a
+most important character, which are being conducted in a regular and
+scientific manner. As the area of the excavations marks the site of the
+chief city of the Sumerians, the diggings there have yielded and
+are yielding material of the greatest interest and value for the
+reconstruction of the early history of Chaldæa. After briefly describing
+the character and results of other recent excavations in Mesopotamia and
+the neighbouring lands, we will return to the discoveries at Telloh and
+sketch the new information they supply on the history of the earliest
+inhabitants of the country.
+
+Another French mission that is carrying out work of the very greatest
+interest to the student of early Babylonian history is that which is
+excavating at Susa in Persia, under the direction of M. J. de Morgan,
+whose work on the prehistoric and early dynastic sites in Egypt has
+already been described. M. de Morgan’s first season’s digging at Susa
+was carried out in the years 1897-8, and the success with which he met
+from the very first, when cutting trenches in the mound which marks
+the acropolis of the ancient city, has led him to concentrate his main
+efforts in this part of the ruins ever since. Provisional trenches cut
+in the part of the ruins called “the Royal City,” and in others of the
+mounds at Susa, indicate that many remains may eventually be found there
+dating from the period of the Achæmenian Kings of Persia. But it is in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa that M. de Morgan has found monuments
+of the greatest historical interest and value, not only in the history
+of ancient Elam, but also in that of the earliest rulers of Chaldæa.
+
+In the diggings carried out during the first season’s work on the site,
+an obelisk was found inscribed on four sides with a long text of some
+sixty-nine columns, written in Semitic Babylonian by the orders
+of Manishtusu, a very early Semitic king of the city of Kish in
+Babylonia.[* See illustration.] The text records the purchase by the
+King of Kish of immense tracts of land situated at Kish and in
+its neighbourhood, and its length is explained by the fact that it
+enumerates full details of the size and position of each estate, and the
+numbers and some of the names of the dwellers on the estates who were
+engaged in their cultivation. After details have been given of a number
+of estates situated in the same neighbourhood, a summary is appended
+referring to the whole neighbourhood, and the fact is recorded that the
+district dealt with in the preceding catalogue and summary had been duly
+acquired by purchase by Manishtusu, King of Kish. The long text upon
+the obelisk is entirely taken up with details of the purchase of the
+territory, and therefore its subject has not any great historical value.
+Mention is made in it of two personages, one of whom may possibly
+be identified with a Babylonian ruler whose name is known from other
+sources. If the proposed identification t should prove to be correct,
+it would enable us to assign a more precise date to Manishtusu than has
+hitherto been possible. One of the personages in question was a certain
+Urukagina, the son of Engilsa, patesi of Shirpurla, and it has been
+suggested that he is the same Urukagina who is known to have occupied
+the throne of Shirpurla, though this identification would bring
+Manishtusu down somewhat later than is probable from the general
+character of his inscriptions. The other personage mentioned in the text
+is the son of Manishtusu, named Mesalim, and there is more to be said
+for the identification of this prince with Mesilim, the early King of
+Kish, who reigned at a period anterior to that of Eannadu, patesi of
+Shirpurla.
+
+The mere fact of so large and important an obelisk, inscribed with a
+Semitic text by an early Babylonian king, being found at Susa was
+an indication that other monuments of even greater interest might be
+forthcoming from the same spot; and this impression was intensified when
+a stele of victory was found bearing an inscription of Naram-Sin, the
+early Semitic King of Agade, who reigned about 3750 B.C. One face of
+this stele is sculptured with a representation of the king conquering
+his enemies in a mountainous country. [* See illustration.] The king
+himself wears a helmet adorned with the horns of a bull, and he carries
+his battle-axe and his bow and an arrow. He is nearly at the summit of
+a high mountain, and up its steep sides, along paths through the
+trees which clothe the mountain, climb his allies and warriors bearing
+standards and weapons. The king’s enemies are represented suing for
+mercy as they turn to fly before him. One grasps a broken spear, while
+another, crouching before the king, has been smitten in the throat by an
+arrow from the king’s bow. On the plain surface of the stele above the
+king’s head may be seen traces of an inscription of Narâm-Sin engraved
+in three columns in the archaic characters of his period. From the few
+signs of the text that remain, we gather that Narâm-Sin had conducted
+a campaign with the assistance of certain allied princes, including the
+Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and Lulubi, and it is not improbable that
+they are to be identified with the warriors represented on the stele as
+climbing the mountain behind Narâm-Sin.
+
+In reference to this most interesting stele of Narâm-Sin we may here
+mention another inscription of this king, found quite recently at
+Susa and published only this year, which throws additional light on
+Narâm-Sin’s allies and on the empire which he and his father Sargon
+founded. The new inscription was engraved on the base of a diorite
+statue, which had been broken to pieces so that only the base with
+a portion of the text remained. From this inscription we learn that
+Narâm-Sin was the head of a confederation of nine chief allies, or
+vassal princes, and waged war on his enemies with their assistance.
+Among these nine allies of course the Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and
+Lulubi are to be included. The new text further records that Narâm-Sin
+made an expedition against Magan (the Sinaitic peninsula), and defeated
+Manium, the lord of that region, and that he cut blocks of stone in the
+mountains there and transported them to his city of Agade, where
+from one of them he made the statue on the base of which the text was
+inscribed. It was already known from the so-called “Omens of Sargon
+and Narâm-Sin” (a text inscribed on a clay tablet from Ashur-bani-pal’s
+library at Nineveh which associates the deeds of these two early rulers
+with certain augural phenomena) that Narâm-Sin had made an expedition
+to Sinai in the course of his reign and had conquered the king of the
+country. The new text gives contemporary confirmation of this assertion
+and furnishes us with additional information with regard to the name of
+the conquered ruler of Sinai and other details of the campaign.
+
+That monuments of such great interest to the early history of Chaldæa
+should have been found at Susa in Persia was sufficiently startling,
+but an easy explanation was at first forthcoming from the fact that
+Narâm-Sin’s stele of victory had been used by the later Elamite king,
+Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, for an inscription of his own; this he had engraved
+in seven long lines along the great cone in front of Narâm-Sin, which is
+probably intended to represent the peak of the mountain. From the fact
+that it had been used in this way by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, it seemed
+permissible to infer that it had been captured in the course of a
+campaign and brought to Susa as a trophy of war. But we shall see later
+on that the existence of early Babylonian inscriptions and monuments in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa is not to be explained in this way,
+but was due to the wide extension of both Sumerian and Semitic influence
+throughout Western Asia from the very earliest periods. This subject
+will be treated more fully in the chapter dealing with the early history
+of Blam.
+
+The upper surface of the tell of the acropolis at Susa for a depth of
+nearly two metres contains remains of the buildings and antiquities
+of the Achæmenian kings and others of both later and earlier dates.
+In these upper strata of the mound are found remains of the
+Arab, Sassanian, Parthian, Seleucian, and Persian periods, mixed
+indiscriminately with one another and with Elamite objects and materials
+of all ages, from that of the earliest patesis down to that of the
+Susian kings of the seventh century B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 160.jpg BABIL.]
+
+     The most northern of the mounds which now mark the site of
+     the ancient city of Babylon; used for centuries as a quarry
+     for building materials.
+
+The reason of this mixture of the remains of many races and periods is
+that the later builders on the mound made use of the earlier building
+materials which they found preserved within it. Along the skirts of the
+mound may still be seen the foundations of the wall which formed the
+principal defence of the acropolis in the time of Xerxes, and in many
+places not only are the foundations preserved but large pieces of the
+wall itself still rise above the surface of the soil.
+
+[Illustration: 160a.jpg “STELE OF VICTORY”]
+
+[Illustration: 160a-text.jpg TEXT FOR “STELE OF VICTORY”]
+
+     Stele of Narâm-Sin, an early Semitic King of Agade in
+     Babylonia, who reigned about B. C. 3750. From the photograph
+     by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The plan of the wall is quite irregular, following the contours of the
+mound, and, though it is probable that the wall was strengthened and
+defended at intervals by towers, no trace of these now remains. The
+wall is very thick and built of unburnt bricks, and the system of
+fortification seems to have been extremely simple at this period.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: 161.jpg ROUGHLY HEWN SCULPTURE OF A LION STANDING OVER A
+FALLEN MAN, FOUND AT BABYLON.]
+
+     The group probably represents Babylon or the Babylonian king
+     triumphing over the country’s enemies. The Arabs regard the
+     figure as an evil spirit, and it is pitted with the marks of
+     bullets shot at it. They also smear it with filth when they
+     can do so unobserved; in the photograph some newly smeared
+     filth may be seen adhering to the side of the lion.
+
+The earlier citadel or fortress of the city of Susa was built at the top
+of the mound and must have been a more formidable stronghold than that
+of the Achæmenian kings, for, besides its walls, it had the additional
+protection of the steep slopes of the mound.
+
+Below the depth of two metres from the surface of the mound are found
+strata in which Elamite objects and materials are, no longer mixed with
+the remains of later ages, but here the latest Elamite remains are found
+mingled with objects and materials dating from the earliest periods of
+Elam’s history. The use of un-burnt bricks as the principal material
+for buildings erected on the mound in all ages has been another cause
+of this mixture of materials, for it has little power of resistance to
+water, and a considerable rain-storm will wash away large portions
+of the surface and cause the remains of different strata to be mixed
+indiscriminately with one another. In proportion as the trenches were
+cut deeper into the mound the strata which were laid bare showed remains
+of earlier ages than those in the upper layers, though here also remains
+of different periods are considerably mixed. The only building that has
+hitherto been discovered at Susa by M. de Morgan, the ground plan of
+which was in a comparatively good state of preservation, was a small
+temple of the god Shu-shinak, and this owed its preservation to the
+fact that it was not built of unburnt brick, but was largely composed of
+burnt brick and plaques and tiles of enamelled terra-cotta.
+
+But although the diggings of M. de Morgan at Susa have so far afforded
+little information on the subject of Elamite architecture, the separate
+objects found have enabled us to gain considerable knowledge of the
+artistic achievements of the race during the different periods of
+its existence. Moreover, the stelæ and stone records that have been
+recovered present a wealth of material for the study of the long history
+of Elam and of the kings who ruled in Babylonia during the earliest
+ages.
+
+[Illustration: 163.jpg GENERAL VIEW OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE KASR AT
+BABYLON.]
+
+     Showing the depth in the mound to which the diggings are
+     carried.
+
+The most famous of M. de Morgan’s recent finds is the long code of
+laws drawn up by Hammurabi, the greatest king of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon.[1] This was engraved upon a huge block of black diorite, and
+was found in the tell of the acropolis in the winter of 1901-2. This
+document in itself has entirely revolutionized current theories as to
+the growth and origin of the principal ancient legal codes. It proves
+that Babylonia was the fountainhead from which many later races borrowed
+portions of their legislative systems. Moreover, the subjects dealt
+with in this code of laws embrace most of the different classes of the
+Babylonian people, and it regulates their duties and their relations
+to one another in their ordinary occupations and pursuits. It therefore
+throws much light upon early Babylonian life and customs, and we shall
+return to it in the chapter dealing with these subjects.
+
+     [1] It will be noted that the Babylonian dynasties are
+     referred to throughout this volume as “First Dynasty,”
+      “Second Dynasty,” “Third Dynasty,” etc. They are thus
+     distinguished from the Egyptian dynasties, the order of
+     which is indicated by Roman numerals, e.g. “Ist Dynasty,”
+      “IId Dynasty,” “IIId Dynasty.”
+
+The American excavators at Nippur, under the direction of Mr. Haynes,
+have done much in the past to increase our knowledge of Sumerian and
+early Babylonian history, but the work has not been continued in
+recent years, and, unfortunately, little progress has been made in the
+publication of the material already accumulated. In fact, the leadership
+in American excavation has passed from the University of Pennsylvania to
+that of Chicago. This progressive university has sent out an expedition,
+under the general direction of Prof. R. F. Harper (with Dr. E. J. Banks
+as director of excavations), which is doing excellent work at Bismya,
+and, although it is too early yet to expect detailed accounts of their
+achievements, it is clear that they have already met with considerable
+success. One of their recent finds consists of a white marble statue of
+an early Sumerian king named Daudu, which was set up in the temple of
+E-shar in the city of Udnun, of which he was ruler. From its archaic
+style of workmanship it may be placed in the earliest period of Sumerian
+history, and may be regarded as an earnest of what may be expected to
+follow from the future labours of Prof. Harper’s expedition.
+
+[Illustration: 165.jpg WITHIN THE PALACE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR II.]
+
+At Fâra and at Abû Hatab in Babylonia, the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft,
+under Dr. Koldewey’s direction, has excavated Sumerian and Babylonian
+remains of the early period. At the former site they unearthed the
+remains of many private houses and found some Sumerian tablets of
+accounts and commercial documents, but little of historical interest;
+and an inscription, which seems to have come from Abu Hatab, probably
+proves that the Sumerian name of the city whose site it marks was
+Kishurra. But the main centre of German activity in Babylonia is the
+city of Babylon itself, where for the last seven years Dr. Koldewey has
+conducted excavations, unearthing the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on
+the mound termed the Kasr, identifying the temple of E-sagila under the
+mound called Tell Amran ibn-Ali, tracing the course of the sacred way
+between E-sagila and the palace-mound, and excavating temples dedicated
+to the goddess Ninmakh and the god Ninib.
+
+[Illustration: 166.jpg EXCAVATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OP NINIB AT BABYLON.]
+
+     In the middle distance may be seen the metal trucks running
+     on light rails which are employed on the work for the
+     removal of the débris from the diggings.
+
+Dr. Andrae, Dr. Koldewey’s assistant, has also completed the excavation
+of the temple dedicated to Nabû at Birs Nimrud. On the principal mound
+at this spot, which marks the site of the ancient city of Borsippa,
+traces of the ziggurat, or temple tower, may still be seen rising from
+the soil, the temple of Nabû lying at a lower level below the steep
+slope of the mound, which is mainly made up of débris from the
+ziggurat. Dr. Andrae has recently left Babylonia for Assyria, where
+his excavations at Sher-ghat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of
+Ashur, are confidently expected to throw considerable light on the early
+history of that country and the customs of the people, and already he
+has made numerous finds of considerable interest.
+
+[Illustration: 167.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND OF BIRS NIMRUD, WHICH MARKS
+THE SITE OP THE ANCIENT CITY OP BORSIPPA.]
+
+Since the early spring of 1903 excavations have been conducted at
+Kuyunjik, the site of the city of Nineveh, by Messrs. L. W. King and R.
+C. Thompson on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, and have
+resulted in the discovery of many early remains in the lower strata of
+the mound, in addition to the finding of new portions of the two palaces
+already known and partly excavated, the identification of a third
+palace, and the finding of an ancient temple dedicated to Nabû, whose
+existence had already been inferred from a study of the Assyrian
+inscriptions.[2] All these diggings at Babylon, at Ashur, and at Nineveh
+throw more light upon the history of the country during the Assyrian and
+Neo-Babylonian periods, and will be referred to later in the volume.
+
+     [2] It may be noted that excavations are also being actively
+     carried on in Palestine at the present time. Mr. Macalister
+     has for some years been working for the Palestine
+     Exploration Fund at Gezer; Dr. Schumacher is digging at
+     Megiddo for the German Palestine Society; and Prof. Sellin
+     is at present excavating at Taanach (Ta’annak) and will
+     shortly start work at Dothan. Good work on remains of later
+     historical periods is also being carried on under the
+     auspices of the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft at Ba’albek and
+     in Galilee. It would be tempting to include here a summary
+     of the very interesting results that have recently been
+     achieved in this fruitful field of archaeological research,
+     for it is true that these excavations may strictly be said
+     to bear on the history of a portion of Western Asia. But the
+     problems which they raise would more naturally be discussed
+     in a work dealing with recent excavation and research in
+     relation to the Bible, and to have summarized them
+     adequately would have increased the size of the present
+     volume considerably beyond its natural limits. They have
+     therefore not been included within the scope of the present
+     work.
+
+[Illustration: 168.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND AT SHERGHAT, WHICH MARKS THE
+SITE OF ASHUK, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE ASSYRIANS.]
+
+Meanwhile, we will return to the diggings described at the beginning
+of this chapter, as affording new information concerning the earliest
+periods of Chaldæan history.
+
+A most interesting inscription has recently been discovered by Capt.
+Cros at Telloh, which throws considerable light on the rivalry which
+existed between the cities of Shirpurla and Gishkhu, and at the same
+time furnishes valuable material for settling the chronology of the
+earliest rulers whose inscriptions have been found at Mppur and their
+relations to contemporary rulers in Shirpurla.
+
+[Illustration: 169.jpg THE MOUND OF KUYUNJIK, WHICH FORMED ONE OF THE
+PALACE MOUNDS OF THE ANCIENT ASSYRIAN CITY OF NINEVEH.]
+
+The cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla were probably situated not far from
+one another, and their rivalry is typical of the history of the early
+city-states of Babylonia. The site of the latter city, as has already
+been said, is marked by the mounds of Telloh on the east bank of the
+Shatt el-Hai, the natural stream joining the Tigris and Euphrates, which
+has been improved and canalized by the dwellers in Southern Babylonia
+from the earliest period.
+
+[Illustration: 170.jpg WINGED BULL IN THE PALACE OF SENNACHERIB ON
+KUYUNJIK, THE PRINCIPAL MOUND MARKING THE SITE OF NINEVEH.]
+
+The site of Gishkhu may be set with considerable probability not far to
+the north of Telloh on the opposite bank of the Shatt el-Hai. These
+two cities, situated so close to one another, exercised considerable
+political influence, and though less is known of Gishkhu than of
+the more famous Babylonian cities such as Ur, Brech, and Larsam, her
+proximity to Shirpurla gave her an importance which she might not
+otherwise have possessed. The earliest knowledge we possess of the
+relations existing between Gishkhu and Shirpurla refers to the reign of
+Mesilim, King of Kish, the period of whose rule may be provisionally set
+before that of Sargon of Agade, i.e, about 4000 B.C.
+
+At this period there was rivalry between the two cities, in consequence
+of which Mesilim, King of Kish, was called in as arbitrator. A record of
+the treaty of delimitation that was drawn up on this occasion has been
+preserved upon the recently discovered cone of Entemena. This document
+tells us that at the command of the god Enlil, described as “the king
+of the countries,” Ningirsu, the chief god of Shirpurla, and the god of
+Gishkhu decided to draw up a line of division between their respective
+territories, and that Mesilim, King of Kish, acting under the direction
+of his own god Kadi, marked out the frontier and set up a stele between
+the two territories to commemorate the fixing of the boundary.
+
+This policy of fixing the boundary by arbitration seems to have been
+successful, and to have secured peace between Shirpurla and Gishkhu
+for some generations. But after a period which cannot be accurately
+determined a certain patesi of Gishkhu, named Ush, was filled with
+ambition to extend his territory at the expense of Shirpurla. He
+therefore removed the stele which Mesilim had set up, and, invading the
+plain of Shirpurla, succeeded in conquering and holding a district named
+Gu-edin. But Ush’s successful raid was not of any permanent benefit to
+his city, for he was in his turn defeated by the forces of Shirpurla,
+and his successor upon the throne, a patesi named Enakalli, abandoned a
+policy of aggression, and concluded with Eannadu, patesi of Shirpurla, a
+solemn treaty concerning the boundary between their realms, the text of
+which has been preserved to us upon the famous Stele of Vultures in the
+Louvre.[3]
+
+     [3] A fragment of this stele is also preserved in the British
+     Museum. It is published in Cuneiform Texts in the British
+     Museum, Pt. vii.
+
+According to this treaty Gu-edin was restored to Shirpurla, and a deep
+ditch was dug between the two territories which should permanently
+indicate the line of demarcation. The stele of Mesilim was restored to
+its place, and a second stele was inscribed and set up as a memorial
+of the new treaty. Enakalli did not negotiate the treaty on equal terms
+with Eannadu, for he only secured its ratification by consenting to pay
+heavy tribute in grain for the supply of the great temples of Nin-girsu
+and Ninâ in Shirpurla. It would appear that under Eannadu the power
+and influence of Shirpurla were extended over the whole of Southern
+Babylonia, and reached even to the borders of Elam. At any rate, it is
+clear that during his lifetime the city of Gishkhu was content to remain
+in a state of subjection to its more powerful neighbour. But it was
+always ready to seize any opportunity of asserting itself and of
+attempting to regain its independence.
+
+[Illustration: 172.jpg CLAY MEMORIAL-TABLET OF EANNADU.]
+
+     The characters of the inscription well illustrate the
+     pictorial origin of the Sumerian system of writing.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+Accordingly, after Eannadu’s death the men of Gishkhu again took the
+offensive. At this time Urlumma, the son and successor of Enakalli, was
+on the throne of Gishkhu, and he organized the forces of the city
+and led them out to battle. His first act was to destroy the frontier
+ditches named after Ningirsu and Ninâ, the principal god and goddess of
+Shirpurla, which Eannadu, the powerful foe of Gishkhu, had caused to be
+dug. He then tore down the stele on which the terms of Eannadu’s treaty
+had been engraved and broke it into pieces by casting it into the fire,
+and the shrines which Eannadu had built near the frontier, and had
+consecrated to the gods of Shirpurla, he razed to the ground. But
+again Shirpurla in the end proved too strong for Gishkhu. The ruler
+in Shirpurla at this time was Enannadu, who had succeeded his brother
+Eannadu upon the throne. He marched out to meet the invading forces
+of the men of Gishkhu, and a battle was fought in the territory of
+Shirpurla. According to one account, the forces of Shirpurla were
+victorious, while on the cone of Ente-mena no mention is made of
+the issue of the combat. The result may not have been decisive, but
+Enannadu’s action at least checked Urlumma’s encroachments for the time.
+
+It would appear that the death of the reigning patesi in Shirpurla was
+always the signal for an attack upon that city by the men of Gishkhu.
+They may have hoped that the new ruler would prove a less successful
+leader than the last, or that the accession of a new monarch might give
+rise to internal dissensions in the city which would weaken Shirpurla’s
+power of resisting a sudden attack. As Eannadu’s death had encouraged
+Urlumma to lead out the men of Gishkhu, so the death of Enannadu seemed
+to him a good opportunity to make another bid for victory. But this time
+the result of the battle was not indecisive. Entemena had succeeded his
+father Enannadu, and he led out to victory the forces of Shir-purla. The
+battle was fought near the canal Lumma-girnun-ta, and when the men of
+Gishkhu were put to flight they left sixty of their fellows lying dead
+upon the banks of the canal. Entemena tells us that the bones of these
+warriors were left to bleach in the open plain, but he seems to have
+buried those of the men of Gishkhu who fell in the pursuit, for he
+records that in five separate places he piled up burial-mounds in which
+the bodies of the slain were interred. Entemena was not content with
+merely inflicting a defeat upon the army of Gishkhu and driving it back
+within its own borders, for he followed up his initial advantage and
+captured the capital itself. He deposed and imprisoned Urlumma, and
+chose one of his own adherents to rule as patesi of Gishkhu in his
+stead. The man he appointed for this high office was named Hi, and he
+had up to that time been priest in Ninâb. Entemena summoned him to his
+presence, and, after marching in a triumphal procession from Girsu
+in the neighbourhood of Shirpurla to the conquered city, proceeded to
+invest him with the office of patesi of Gishkhu.
+
+Entemena also repaired the frontier ditches named after Ningirsu and
+Ninâ, which had been employed for purposes of irrigation as well as for
+marking the frontier; and he gave instructions to Hi to employ the men
+dwelling in the district of Karkar on this work, as a punishment for
+the active part they had taken in the recent raid into the territory of
+Shirpurla. Entemena also restored and extended the system of canals
+in the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates, lining one of the
+principal channels with stone.
+
+[Illustration: 175.jpg MARBLE GATE]
+
+     Marble Gate-Socket Bearing An Inscription Of Entemena, A Powerful
+     Patesi, Or Viceroy, Of Shirpurla.
+     In the photograph the gate-socket is resting on its side so as to
+     show the inscription, but when in use it was set flat upon the
+     ground and partly buried below the level of the pavement of the
+     building in which it was used. It was fixed at the side of a
+     gateway and the pivot of the heavy gate revolved in the shallow
+     hole or depression in its centre. As stone is not found in the
+     alluvial soil of Babylonia, the blocks for gate-sockets had to be
+     brought from great distances and they were consequently highly
+     prized. The kings and patesis who used them in their buildings
+     generally had their names and titles engraved upon them, and they
+     thus form a valuable class of inscriptions for the study of the
+     early history. Photograph by Messrs. Man-sell & Co.
+
+He thus added greatly to the wealth of Shirpurla by increasing the area
+of territory under cultivation, and he continued to exercise authority
+in Gishkhu by means of officers appointed by himself. A record of his
+victory over Gishkhu was inscribed by Entemena upon a number of clay
+cones, that the fame of it might be preserved in future days to the
+honour of Ningirsu and the goddess Ninâ. He ends this record with a
+prayer for the preservation of the frontier. If ever in time to come the
+men of Gishkhu should break out across the frontier-ditch of Ningirsu,
+or the frontier-ditch of Ninâ, in order to seize or lay waste the lands
+of Shirpurla, whether they be men of the city of Gishkhu itself or men
+of the mountains, he prays that Enlil may destroy them and that Ningirsu
+may lay his curse upon them; and if ever the warriors of his own city
+should be called upon to defend it, he prays that they may be full of
+courage and ardour for their task.
+
+The greater part of this information with regard to the struggles
+between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, between the period of Mesilim, King of
+Kish, and that of Entemena, is supplied by the inscription of the latter
+ruler which has been found written around a small cone of clay. There is
+little doubt that the text was also engraved by the orders of Entemena
+upon a stone stele which was set up, like those of Mesilim and Eannadu,
+upon the frontier. Other copies of the inscription were probably
+engraved and erected in the cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla, and to
+ensure the preservation of the record Entemena probably had numerous
+copies of it made upon small cones of clay which were preserved and
+possibly buried in the structure of the temples of Shirpurla. Entemena’s
+foresight in this matter has been justified by results, for, while his
+great memorials of stone have perished, the preservation of one of his
+small cones has sufficed to make known to later ages his own and his
+forefathers’ prowess in their continual contests with their ancient rival
+Gishkhu.
+
+After the reign of Entemena we have little information with regard to
+the relations between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, though it is probable that
+the effects of his decisive victory continued to exercise a moderating
+influence on Gishkhu’s desire for expansion and secured a period
+of peaceful development for Shirpurla without the continual fear of
+encroachments on the part of her turbulent neighbour. We may assume that
+this period of tranquillity continued during the reigns of Enannadu II,
+Enlitarzi, and Lugal-anda, but, when in the reign of Urukagina the men
+of Gishkhu once more emerge from their temporary obscurity, they appear
+as the authors of deeds of rapine and bloodshed committed on a scale
+that was rare even in that primitive age.
+
+In the earlier stages of their rivalry Gishkhu had always been defeated,
+or at any rate checked, in her actual conflicts with Shirpurla. When
+taking the aggressive the men of Gishkhu seem generally to have confined
+themselves to the seizure of territory, such as the district of Gu-edin,
+which was situated on the western bank of the Shaft el-Hai and divided
+from their own lands only by the frontier-ditch. If they ever actually
+crossed the Shaft el-Hai and raided the lands on its eastern bank, they
+never ventured to attack the city of Shirpurla itself. And, although
+their raids were attended with some success in their initial stages, the
+ruling patesis of Shirpurla were always strong enough to check them; and
+on most occasions they carried the war into the territory of Gishkhu,
+with the result that they readjusted the boundary on their own terms.
+But it would appear that all these primitive Chalæan cities were subject
+to alternate periods of expansion and defeat, and Shirpurla was not an
+exception to the rule. It was probably not due so much to Urukagina’s
+personal qualities or defects as a leader that Shirpurla suffered
+the greatest reverse in her history during his reign, but rather to
+Gishkhu’s gradual increase in power at a time when Shirpurla herself
+remained inactive, possibly lulled into a false sense of security by the
+memory of her victories in the past. Whatever may have been the cause of
+Gishkhu’s final triumph, it is certain that it took place in Urukagina’s
+reign, and that for many years afterwards the hegemony of Southern
+Babylonia remained in her hands, while Shirpurla for a long period
+passed completely out of existence as an independent or semi-independent
+state.
+
+The evidence of the catastrophe that befell Shirpurla at this period is
+furnished by a small clay tablet recently found at Telloh during Captain
+Cros’s excavations on that site. The document on which the facts in
+question are recorded had no official character, and in all probability
+it had not been stored in any library or record chamber. The actual spot
+at Telloh where it was found was to the north of the mound in which
+the most ancient buildings have been recovered, and at the depth of two
+metres below the surface. No other tablets appear to have been found
+near it, but that fact in itself would not be sufficient evidence on
+which to base any theory as to its not having originally formed part of
+the archives of the city. Its unofficial character is attested by the
+form of the tablet and the manner in which the information upon it is
+arranged. In shape there is little to distinguish the document from the
+tablets of accounts inscribed in the reign of Urukagina, great numbers
+of which have been found recently at Telloh. Roughly square in shape,
+its edges are slightly convex, and the text is inscribed in a series of
+narrow columns upon both the obverse and the reverse. The text itself
+is not a carefully arranged composition, such as are the votive and
+historical inscriptions of early Sumerian rulers. It consists of a
+series of short sentences enumerating briefly and without detail the
+separate deeds of violence and sacrilege performed by the men of Gishkhu
+after their capture of the city. It is little more than a catalogue or
+list of the shrines and temples destroyed during the sack of the city,
+or defiled by the blood of the men of Shirpurla who were slain therein.
+No mention is made in the list of the palace of the Urukagina, or of any
+secular building, or of the dwellings of the citizens themselves. There
+is little doubt that these also were despoiled and destroyed by the
+victorious enemy, but the writer of the tablet is not concerned for the
+moment with the fate of his city or his fellow citizens. He appears to
+be overcome with the thought of the deeds of sacrilege committed against
+his gods; his mind is entirely taken up with the magnitude of the
+insult offered to the god Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla. His bare
+enumeration of the deeds of sacrilege and violence loses little by its
+brevity, and, when he has ended the list of his accusations against the
+men of Gishkhu, he curses the goddess to whose influence he attributes
+their success.
+
+No composition at all like this document has yet been recovered, and as
+it is not very long we may here give a translation of the text. It will
+be seen that the writer plunges at once into the subject of his
+charges against the men of Gishkhu. No historical _résumé_ prefaces
+his accusations, and he gives no hint of the circumstances that have
+rendered their delivery possible. The temples of his city have been
+profaned and destroyed, and his indignation finds vent in a mere
+enumeration of their titles. To his mind the facts need no comment,
+for to him it is barely conceivable that such sacred places of ancient
+worship should have been defiled. He launches his indictment against
+Gishkhu in the following terms: “The men of Gishkhu have set fire to the
+temple of E-ki [... ], they have set fire to Antashura, and they have
+carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have
+shed blood in the palace of Tirash, they have shed blood in Abzubanda,
+they have shed blood in the shrine of Enlil and in the shrine of the
+Sun-god, they have shed blood in Akhush, and they have carried away the
+silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood in the
+Gikana of the sacred grove of the goddess Ninmakh, and they have carried
+away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood
+in Baga, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have shed blood in Abzu-ega, they have set fire to
+the temple of Gatumdug, and they have carried away the silver and the
+precious stones therefrom, and have destroyed her statue! They have set
+fire to the.... of the temple E-anna of the goddess Ninni, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom, and have
+destroyed her statue! They have shed blood in Shapada, and they have
+carried away the silver and precious stones therefrom! They have....
+in Khenda, they have shed blood in the temple of Nindar in the town
+of Kiab, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Dumuzi-abzu in the town
+of Kinunir, and they have carried away the silver and the precious
+stones therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Lugaluru, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in E-engura, the temple of the goddess Ninâ, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in Sag..., the temple of Amageshtin, and the silver
+and the precious stones of Amageshtin have they carried away! They have
+removed the grain from Ginarbaniru, the field of the god Ningirsu,
+so much of it as was under cultivation! The men of Gishkhu, by the
+despoiling of Shirpurla, have committed a transgression against the god
+Ningirsu! The power that is come unto them, from them shall be taken
+away! Of transgression on the part of Urukagina, King of Girsu, there
+is none. As for Lugalzaggisi, patesi of Gishkhu, may his goddess Ni-daba
+bear on her head (the weight of) this transgression!”
+
+Such is the account, which has come down to us from the rough tablet of
+some unknown scribe, of the greatest misfortune experienced by Shirpurla
+during the long course of her history. Many of the great temples
+mentioned in the text as among those which were burnt down and despoiled
+of their treasures are referred to more than once in the votive and
+historical inscriptions of earlier rulers of Shirpurla, who occupied the
+throne before the ill-fated Urukagina. The names of some of them, too,
+are to be found in the texts of the later pate-sis of that city, so
+that it may be concluded that in course of time they were rebuilt and
+restored to their former splendour. But there is no doubt that the
+despoiling and partial destruction of Shirpurla in the reign of
+Urukagina had a lasting effect upon the fortunes of that city, and
+effectively curtailed her influence among the greater cities of Southern
+Babylonia.
+
+We may now turn our attention to the leader of the men of Gishkhu, under
+whose direction they achieved their final triumph over their ancient,
+and for long years more powerful, rival Shirpurla. The writer of our
+tablet mentions his name in the closing words of his text when he curses
+him and his goddess for the destruction and sacrilege that they have
+wrought. “As for Lugalzaggisi,” he says, “patesi of Gishkhu, may his
+goddess Nidaba bear on her head (the weight of ) this transgression!”
+ Now the name of Lugalzaggisi has been found upon a number of fragments
+of vases made of white calcite stalagmite which were discovered by Mr.
+Haynes during his excavations at Nippur. All the vases were engraved
+with the same inscription, so that it was possible by piecing the
+fragments of text together to obtain a more or less complete copy of
+the records which were originally engraved upon each of them. From
+these records we learned for the first time, not only the name of
+Lugalzaggisi, but the fact that he founded a powerful coalition of
+cities in Babylonia at what was obviously a very early period in the
+history of the country. In the text he describes himself as “King of
+Erech, king of the world, the priest of Ana, the hero of Nidaba, the
+son of Ukush, patesi of Gishkhu, the hero of Nidaba, the man who was
+favourably regarded by the sure eye of the King of the Lands (i.e.
+the god Enlil), the great patesi of Enlil, unto whom understanding was
+granted by Enki, the chosen of the Sun-god, the exalted minister of
+Enzu, endowed with strength by the Sun-god, the worshipper of Ninni, the
+son who was conceived by Nidaba, who was nourished by Ninkharsag with
+the milk of life, the attendant of Umu, priestess of Erech, the servant
+who was trained by Ninâgidkhadu, the mistress of Erech, the great
+minister of the gods.” Lugalzaggisi then goes on to describe the extent
+of his dominion, and he says: “When the god Enlil, the lord of the
+countries, bestowed upon Lugalzaggisi the kingdom of the world, and
+granted unto him success in the sight of the world, when he filled the
+lands with his power, and conquered them from the rising of the sun unto
+the setting of the same, at that time he made straight his path from the
+Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates unto the Upper Sea, and he granted
+him dominion over all from the rising of the sun unto the setting of the
+same, so that he caused the lands to dwell in peace.”
+
+Now when first the text of this inscription was published there existed
+only vague indications of the date to be assigned to Lugalzaggisi and
+the kingdom that he founded. It was clear from the titles which he bore,
+that, though Gishkhu was his native place, he had extended his authority
+far beyond that city and had chosen Erech as his capital. Moreover,
+he claimed an empire extending from “the Lower Sea of the Tigris and
+Euphrates unto the Upper Sea.” There is no doubt that the Lower Sea here
+mentioned is the Persian Gulf, and it has been suggested that the Upper
+Sea may be taken to be the Mediterranean, though it may possibly have
+been Lake Van or Lake Urmi. But whichever of these views might be
+adopted, it was clear that Lugalzaggisi was a great conqueror, and had
+achieved the right to assume the high-sounding title of lugal halama,
+“king of the world.” In these circumstances it was of the first
+importance for the study of primitive Chaldæan history and chronology
+to ascertain approximately the period at which Lugalzaggisi reigned.
+
+The evidence on which such a question could be provisionally settled was
+of the vaguest and most uncertain character, but such as it was it
+had to suffice, in the absence of more reliable data. In settling all
+problems connected with early Chaldæan chronology, the starting-point
+was, and in fact still is, the period of Sargon I, King of Agade,
+inasmuch as the date of his reign is settled, according to the reckoning
+of the scribes of Nabonidus, as about 3800 B.C. It is true that this
+date has been called in question, and ingenious suggestions for amending
+it have been made by some writers, while others have rejected it
+altogether, holding that it merely represented a guess on the part of
+the late Babylonians and could be safely ignored in the chronological
+schemes which they brought forward. But nearly every fresh discovery
+made in the last few years has tended to confirm some point in the
+traditions current among the later Babylonians with regard to the
+earlier history of their country. Consequently, reliance may be placed
+with increased confidence on the truth of such traditions as a
+whole, and we may continue to accept those statements which yet await
+confirmation from documents more nearly contemporary with the early
+period to which they refer. It is true that such a date as that assigned
+by Nabonidus to Sargon is not to be regarded as absolutely fixed, for
+Nabonidus is obviously speaking in round numbers, and we may allow for
+some minor inaccuracies in the calculations of his scribes. But it is
+certain that the later Babylonian priests and scribes had a wealth of
+historical material at their disposal which has not come down to us. We
+may therefore accept the date given by Nabonidus for Sargon of Agade
+and his son Narâm-Sin as approximately accurate, and this is also the
+opinion of the majority of writers on early Babylonian history.
+
+The diggings at Nippur furnished indications that certain inscriptions
+found on that site and written in a very archaic form of script were
+to be assigned to a period earlier than that of Sargon. One class of
+evidence was obtained from a careful study of the different levels at
+which the inscriptions and the remains of buildings were found. At a
+comparatively deep level in the mound inscriptions of Sargon himself
+were recovered, along with bricks stamped with the name of Narâm-Sin,
+his son. It was, therefore, a reasonable conclusion roughly to date the
+particular stratum in which these objects were found to the period of
+the empire established by Sargon, with its centre at Agade. Later on
+excavations were carried to a lower level, and remains of buildings
+were discovered which appeared to belong to a still earlier period
+of civilization. An altar was found standing in a small enclosure
+surrounded by a kind of curb. Near by were two immense clay vases which
+appeared to have been placed on a ramp or inclined plane leading up to
+the altar, and remains were also found of a massive brick building in
+which was an arch of brick. No inscriptions were actually found at this
+level, but in the upper level assigned to Sargon were a number of texts
+which might very probably be assigned to the pre-Sargonic period. None
+of these were complete, and they had the appearance of having been
+intentionally broken into small fragments. There was therefore something
+to be said for the theory that they might have been inscribed by the
+builders of the construction in the lowest levels of the mound, and that
+they were destroyed and scattered by some conqueror who had laid their
+city in ruins.
+
+But all such evidence derived from noting the levels at which
+inscriptions are found is in its nature extremely uncertain and liable
+to many different interpretations, especially if the strata show signs
+of having been disturbed. Where a pavement or building is still intact,
+with the inscribed bricks of the builder remaining in their original
+positions, conclusions may be confidently drawn with regard to the age
+of the building and its relative antiquity to the strata above and below
+it. But the strata in the lowest levels at Nippur, as we have seen, were
+not in this condition, and such evidence as they furnished could only be
+accepted if confirmed by independent data. Such confirmation was to be
+found by examination of the early inscriptions themselves.
+
+It has been remarked that most of them were broken into small pieces,
+as though by some invader of the country; but this was not the case with
+certain gate-sockets and great blocks of diorite which were too hard
+and big to be easily broken. Moreover, any conqueror of a city would be
+unlikely to spend time and labour in destroying materials which might
+be usefully employed in the construction of other buildings which he
+himself might erect. Stone could not be obtained in the alluvial plains
+of Babylonia and had to be quarried in the mountains and brought great
+distances.
+
+[Illustration: 188.jpg STONE GATE]
+
+     Stone Gate-Socket Bearing An Inscription of Uk-Engur, An Early King
+     of The City Of Ur. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+From any building of his predecessors which he razed to the ground, an
+invader would therefore remove the gate-sockets and blocks of stone for
+his own use, supposing he contemplated building on the site. If he left
+the city in ruins and returned to his own country, some subsequent king,
+when clearing the ruined site for building operations, might come across
+the stones, and he would not leave them buried, but would use them for
+his own construction. And this is what actually did happen in the case
+of some of the building materials of one of these early kings, from the
+lower strata of Nippur. Certain of the blocks which bore the name of
+Lugalkigubnidudu had been used again by Sargon, King of Agade, who
+engraved his own name upon them without obliterating the name of the
+former king.
+
+It followed that Lugalkigubnidudu belonged to the pre-Sargonic period,
+and, although the same conclusive evidence was not forthcoming in the
+case of Lugalzag-gisi, he also without much hesitation was set in
+this early period, mainly on the strength of the archaic forms of the
+characters employed in his inscriptions. In fact, they were held to be
+so archaic that, not only was he said to have reigned before Sargon of
+Agade, but he was set in the very earliest period of Chaldæan history,
+and his empire was supposed to have been contemporaneous with the very
+earliest rulers of Shirpurla. The new inscription found by Captain
+Cros will cause this opinion to be considerably modified. While it
+corroborates the view that Lugalzaggisi is to be set in the pre-Sargonic
+period, it proves that he lived and reigned very shortly before him. As
+we have already seen, he was the contemporary of Urukagina, who belongs
+to the middle period of the history of Shirpurla. Lugalzaggisi’s capture
+and sack of the city of Shirpurla was only one of a number of conquests
+which he achieved. His father Ukush had been merely patesi of the city
+of Gish-khu, but he himself was not content with the restricted sphere
+of authority which such a position implied, and he eventually succeeded
+in enforcing his authority over the greater part of Babylonia. From
+the fact that he styles himself King of Erech, we may conclude that
+he removed his capital from Ukush to that city, after having probably
+secured its submission by force of arms. In fact, his title of “king of
+the world” can only have been won as the result of many victories, and
+Captain Cros’s tablet gives us a glimpse of the methods by which he
+managed to secure himself against the competition of any rival. The
+capture of Shirpurla must have been one of his earliest achievements,
+for its proximity to Gish-khu rendered its reduction a necessary
+prelude to any more extensive plan of conquest. But the kingdom which
+Lugalzaggisi founded cannot have endured long.
+
+Under Sargon of Agade, the Semites gained the upper hand in Babylonia,
+and Erech, Grishkhu, and Shirpurla, as well as the other ancient cities
+in the land, fell in turn under his domination and formed part of the
+extensive empire which he ruled.
+
+Concerning the later rulers of city-states of Babylonia which succeeded
+the disruption of the empire founded by Sargon of Agade and consolidated
+by Narâm-Sin, his son, the excavations have little to tell us which has
+not already been made use of by Prof. Maspero in his history of this
+period.[4]
+
+     [4] The tablets found at Telloh by the late M. de Sarzec, and
+     published during his lifetime, fall into two main classes,
+     which date from different periods in early Chaldæan
+     history. The great majority belong to the period when the
+     city of Ur held pre-eminence among the cities of Southern
+     Babylonia, and they are dated in the reigns of Dungi, Bur-
+     Sin, Gamil-Sin, and Ine-Sin. The other and smaller
+     collection belongs to the earlier period of Sargon and
+     Narâm-Sin; while many of the tablets found in M. de Sarzec’s
+     last diggings, which were published after his death, are to
+     be set in the great gap between these two periods. Some of
+     those recently discovered, which belong to the period of
+     Dungi, contain memoranda concerning the supply of food for
+     the maintenance of officials stopping at Shirpurla in the
+     course of journeys in Babylonia and Elam, and they throw an
+     interesting light on the close and constant communication
+     which took place at this time between the great cities of
+     Mesopotamia and the neighbouring countries.
+
+[Illustration: 190.jpg STATUE OF GUDEA.]
+
+     The most famous of the later patesis, or viceroys, of
+     Shirpurla, the Sumerian city in Southern Babylonia now
+     marked by the mounds of Telloh. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell & Co.
+
+Ur, Isin, and,Larsam succeeded one another in the position of leading
+city in Babylonia, holding Mppur, Eridu, Erech, Shirpurla, and the other
+chief cities in a condition of semi-dependence upon themselves. We may
+note that the true reading of the name of the founder of the dynasty
+of Ur has now been ascertained from a syllabary to be Ur-Engur; and an
+unpublished chronicle in the British Museum relates that his son Dungi
+cared greatly for the city of Eridu, but sacked Babylon and carried off
+its spoil, together with the treasures from E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk. Such episodes must have been common at this period when each
+city was striving for hegemony. Meanwhile, Shirpurla remained the centre
+of Sumerian influence in Babylonia, and her patesis were content to owe
+allegiance to so powerful a ruler as Dungi, King of Ur, while at all
+times exercising complete authority within their own jurisdiction.
+
+During the most recent diggings that have been carried out at Telloh a
+find of considerable value to the history of Sumerian art has been
+made. The find is also of great general interest, since it enables us
+to identify a portrait of Gudea, the most famous of the later Sumerian
+patesis. In the course of excavating the Tell of Tablets Captain Cros
+found a little seated statue made of diorite. It was not found in place,
+but upside down, and appeared to have been thrown with other débris
+scattered in that portion of the mound. On lifting it from the trench it
+was seen that the head of the statue was broken off, as is the case
+with all the other statues of Gudea found at Telloh. The statue bore an
+inscription of Gudea, carefully executed and well preserved, but it
+was smaller than other statues of the same ruler that had been
+already recovered, and the absence of the head thus robbed it of any
+extraordinary interest. On its arrival at the Louvre, M. Léon Heuzey was
+struck by its general resemblance to a Sumerian head of diorite formerly
+discovered by M. de Sarzec at Telloh, which has been preserved in the
+Louvre for many years. On applying the head to the newly found statue,
+it was found to fit it exactly, and to complete the monument, and we
+are thus enabled to identify the features of Gudea. Prom a photographic
+reproduction of this statue, it is seen that the head is larger than
+it should be, in proportion to the body, a characteristic which is also
+apparent in a small Sumerian statue preserved in the British Museum.
+
+[Illustration: 192.jpg TABLET INSCRIBED IN SUMERIAN WITH DETAILS OF A
+SURVEY OF CERTAIN PROPERTY.]
+
+     Probably situated in the neighbourhood of Telloh. The
+     circular shape is very unusual, and appears to have been
+     used only for survey-tablets. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     & Co.
+
+Gudea caused many statues of himself to be made out of the hard diorite
+which he brought for that purpose from the Sinaitic peninsula, and from
+the inscriptions preserved upon them it is possible to ascertain the
+buildings in which they were originally placed. Thus one of the statues
+previously found was set up in the temple of Ninkharsag, two others in
+E-ninnû, the temple of the god Ningirsu, three more in the temple of the
+goddess Bau, one in E-anna, the temple of the goddess Ninni, and another
+in the temple of Gatumdug. The newly found statue of the king was made
+to be set up in the temple erected by Gudea at Girsu in honour of the
+god Ningishzida, as is recorded in the inscription engraved on the front
+of the king’s robe, which reads as follows:
+
+“In the day when the god Ningirsu, the strong warrior of Enlil, granted
+unto the god Ningishzida, the son of Ninâzu, the beloved of the gods,
+(the guardianship of) the foundation of the city and of the hills and
+valleys, on that day Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla, the just man who
+loveth his god, who for his master Ningirsu hath constructed his temple
+E-ninnu, called the shining Imgig, and his temple E-pa, the temple
+of-the seven zones of heaven, and for the goddess Ninâ, the queen, his
+lady, hath constructed the temple Sirara-shum, which riseth higher than
+(all) the temples in the world, and hath constructed their temples for
+the great gods of Lagash, built for his god Ningishzida his temple in
+Girsu. Whosoever shall proclaim the god Ningirsu as his god, even as
+I proclaim him, may he do no harm unto the temple of my god! May he
+proclaim the name of this temple! May that man be my friend, and may he
+proclaim my name! Gudea hath made the statue, and ‘Unto - Gudea - the
+- builder - of - the - temple - hath life-been-given hath he called its
+name, and he hath brought it into the temple.”
+
+The long name which Gudea gave to the statue, “Unto - Gudea - the -
+builder - of - the - temple - hath - life-been-given,” is characteristic
+of the practice of the Sumerian patesis, who always gave long and
+symbolical names to statues, stelae, and sacred objects dedicated and
+set up in their temples. The occasion on which the temple was built, and
+this statue erected within it, seems to have been the investiture of
+the god Ningishzida with special and peculiar powers, and it possibly
+inaugurated his introduction into the pantheon of Shirpurla. Ningishzida
+is called in the inscription the son of Ninazu, who was the husband of
+the Queen of the Underworld.
+
+In one of his aspects he was therefore probably a god of the underworld
+himself, and it is in this character that he was appointed by Ningirsu
+as guardian of the city’s foundations. But “the hills and valleys”
+ (i.e. the open country) were also put under his jurisdiction, so that
+in another aspect he was a god of vegetation. It is therefore not
+improbable that, like the god Dumuzi, or Tammuz, he was supposed to
+descend into the underworld in winter, ascending to the surface of the
+earth with the earliest green shoots of vegetation in the spring.*
+
+     * Cf. Thureau-Dangin, Rev. d’Assyr., vol. vi. (1904), p. 24.
+
+A most valuable contribution has recently been made to our knowledge of
+Sumerian religion and of the light in which these early rulers regarded
+the cult and worship of their gods, by the complete interpretation of
+the long texts inscribed upon the famous cylinders of Gudea, the patesi
+of Shirpurla, which have been preserved for many years in the Louvre.
+These two great cylinders of baked clay were discovered by the late M.
+de Sarzec so long ago as the year 1877, during the first period of his
+diggings at Telloh, and, although the general nature of their contents
+has long been recognized, no complete translation of the texts inscribed
+upon them had been published until a few months ago. M. Thureau-Dangin,
+who has made the early Sumerian texts his special study, has devoted
+himself to their interpretation for some years past, and he has just
+issued the first part of his monograph upon them. In view of the
+importance of the texts and of the light they throw upon the religious
+beliefs and practices of the early Sumerians, a somewhat detailed
+account of their contents may here be given.
+
+The occasion on which the cylinders were made was the rebuilding by
+Gudea of E-ninnû, the great temple of the god Ningirsu, in the city of
+Shirpurla. The two cylinders supplement one another, one of them having
+been inscribed while the work of construction was still in progress, the
+other after the completion of the temple, when the god Ningirsu had been
+installed within his shrine with due pomp and ceremony. It would appear
+that Southern Babylonia had been suffering from a prolonged drought, and
+that the water in the rivers and canals had fallen, so that the crops
+had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. Gudea was at a
+loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country,
+when one night he had a dream, and it was in consequence of this dream
+that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of
+Sumerian temples. By this means he secured the return of Ningirsu’s
+favour and that of the other gods, and his country once more enjoyed the
+blessings of peace and prosperity.
+
+In the opening words of the first of his cylinders Gudea describes how
+the great gods themselves took counsel and decreed that he should build
+the temple of E-ninnû and thereby restore to his city the supply of
+water it had formerly enjoyed. He records that on the day on which the
+destinies were fixed in heaven and upon earth, Enlil, the chief of the
+gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla, held converse. And Enlil,
+turning to Ningirsu, said: “In my city that which is fitting is not
+done. The stream doth not rise. The stream of Enlil doth not rise. The
+high waters shine not, neither do they show their splendour. The stream
+of Enlil bringeth not good water like the Tigris. Let the King (i.e.
+Ningirsu) therefore proclaim the temple. Let the decrees of the temple
+E-ninnû be made illustrious in heaven and upon earth!” The great gods
+did not communicate their orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed their
+wishes to him by means of a dream. And while the patesi slept a vision
+of the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great
+that it equalled the heavens and the earth. And by the crown he wore
+upon his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. And by his side
+was the divine eagle, the emblem of Shirpurla, and his feet rested upon
+the whirlwind, and a lion was crouching upon his right hand and upon his
+left. And the figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the
+meaning of the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the sun rose from
+the earth and he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she
+carried also a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed
+to take counsel with herself. And while Gudea was gazing he seemed to
+see a second man who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis
+lazuli and on it he drew out the plan of a temple. And before the patesi
+himself it seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion
+was set a mould, and within the mould was a brick, the brick of destiny.
+And on the right hand the patesi beheld an ass which lay upon the
+ground.
+
+Such was the dream which Gudea beheld in a vision of the night, and he
+was troubled because he could not interpret it. So he decided to go
+to the goddess Ninâ, who could divine all mysteries of the gods, and
+beseech her to tell him the meaning of the vision. But before applying
+to the goddess for her help, he thought it best to secure the mediation
+of the god Ningirsu and the goddess Gatumdug, in order that they should
+use their influence with Ninâ to induce her to reveal the interpretation
+of the dream. So the patesi set out to the temple of Ningirsu, and,
+having offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water, he prayed to the
+god that his sister, Ninâ, the child of Eridu, might be prevailed upon
+to give him help. And the god hearkened to his prayer. Then Gudea made
+offerings, and before the sleeping-chamber of the goddess Gatumdug he
+offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water. And he prayed to the
+goddess, calling her his queen and the child of the pure heaven, who
+gave life to the countries and befriended and preserved the people or
+the man on whom she looked with favour.
+
+“I have no mother,” cried Gudea, “but thou art my mother! I have no
+father, but thou art a father to me!” And the goddess Gatumdug gave
+ear to the patesi’s prayer. Thus encouraged by her favour and that of
+Ningirsu, Gudea set out for the temple of the goddess Ninâ.
+
+On his arrival at the temple, the patesi offered a sacrifice and poured
+out fresh water, as he had already done when approaching the presence of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug. And he prayed to Ninâ, as the goddess who divines
+the secrets of the gods, beseeching her to interpret the vision that had
+been sent to him; and he then recounted to her the details of his dream.
+When the patesi had finished his story, the goddess addressed him and
+told him that she would explain the meaning of his dream to him. And
+this was the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so
+great that it equalled the heavens and the earth, whose head was that
+of a god, at whose side was the divine eagle, whose feet rested on the
+whirlwind, while a lion couched on his right hand and on his left, was
+her brother, the god Ningirsu. And the words which he uttered were an
+order to the patesi that he should build the temple E-ninnû. And the sun
+which rose from the earth before the patesi was the god Ningishzida,
+for like the sun he goes forth from the earth. And the maiden who held
+a pure reed in her hand, and carried the tablet with the star, was her
+sister, the goddess Nidaba: the star was the pure star of the temple’s
+construction, which she proclaimed. And the second man, who was like a
+warrior and carried the slab of lapis lazuli, was the god Nindub, and the
+plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of E-ninnû. And the brick
+which rested in its mould upon the cushion was the sacred brick of
+E-ninnû. And as for the ass which lay upon the ground, that, the goddess
+said, was the patesi himself.
+
+Having interpreted the meaning of the dream, the goddess Ninâ proceeded
+to give Gudea instruction as to how he should go to work to build the
+temple. She told him first of all to go to his treasure-house and bring
+forth his treasures from their sealed cases, and out of these to make
+certain offerings which he was to place near the god Ningirsu, in the
+temple in which he was dwelling at that time. The offerings were to
+consist of a chariot, adorned with pure metal and precious stones;
+bright arrows in a quiver; the weapon of the god, his sacred emblem, on
+which Gudea was to inscribe his own name; and finally a lyre, the music
+of which was wont to soothe the god when he took counsel with himself.
+Ninâ added that if the patesi carried out her instructions and made the
+offerings she had specified, Ningirsu would reveal to him the plan on
+which the temple was to be built, and would also bless him. Gudea bowed
+himself down in token of his submission to the commands of the goddess,
+and proceeded to execute them forthwith. He brought out his treasures,
+and from the precious woods and metals which he possessed his craftsmen
+fashioned the objects he was to present, and he set them in Ningirsu’s
+temple near to the god. He worked day and night, and, having prepared a
+suitable spot in the precincts of the temple at the place of judgment,
+he spread out upon it as offerings a fat sheep and a kid and the skin of
+a young female kid. Then he built a fire of cypress and cedar and other
+aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour, and, entering the inner chamber
+of the temple, he offered a prayer to Ningirsu. He said that he wished
+to build the temple, but he had received no sign that this was the will
+of the god, and he prayed for a sign.
+
+While he prayed the patesi was stretched out upon the ground, and the
+god, standing near his head, then answered him. He said that he who
+should build his temple was none other than Gudea, and that he would
+give him the sign for which he asked. But first he described the plan
+on which the temple was to be built, naming its various shrines and
+chambers and describing the manner in which they were to be fashioned
+and adorned. And the god promised that when Gudea should build the
+temple, the land would once more enjoy abundance, for Ningirsu would
+send a wind which should proclaim to the heavens the return of the
+waters. And on that day the waters would fall from the heavens, the
+water in the ditches and canals would rise, and water would gush out
+from the dry clefts in the ground. And the great fields would once
+more produce their crops, and oil would be poured out plenteously in
+Sumer[sp.] and wool would again be weighed in great abundance. In that
+day the god would go to the mountain where dwelt the whirlwind, and he
+would himself direct the wind which should give the land the breath of
+life. Gudea must therefore work day and night at the task of building
+the temple. One company of men was to relieve another at its toil, and
+during the night the men were to kindle lights so that the plain should
+be as bright as day. Thus the builders would build continuously. Men
+were also to be sent to the mountains to cut down cedars and pines and
+other trees and bring their trunks to the city, while masons were to go
+to the mountains and were to cut and transport huge blocks of stone to
+be used in the construction of the temple. Finally the god gave Gudea
+the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side
+touched as by a flame, and thereby he should know that he was the man
+chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands.
+
+Gudea bowed his head in submission, and his first act was to consult the
+omens, and the omens were favourable. He then proceeded to purify the
+city by special rites, so that the mother when angered did not chide her
+son, and the master did not strike his servant’s head, and the mistress,
+though provoked by her handmaid, did not smite her face. And Gudea drove
+all the evil wizards and sorcerers from the city, and he purified and
+sanctified the city completely. Then he kindled a great fire of cedar
+and other aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour for the gods, and
+prayers were offered day and night; and the patesi addressed a prayer
+to the Anun-naki, or Spirits of the Earth, who dwelt in Shirpurla,
+and assigned a place to them in the temple. Then, having completed
+his purification of the city itself, he consecrated its immediate
+surroundings. Thus he consecrated the district of Gu-edin, whence the
+revenues of Ningirsu were derived, and the lands of the goddess Ninâ
+with their populous villages. And he consecrated the wild and savage
+bulls which no man could turn aside, and the cedars which were sacred
+to Ningirsu, and the cattle of the plains. And he consecrated the armed
+men, and the famous warriors, and the warriors of the Sun-god. And the
+emblems of the god Ningirsu, and of the two great goddesses, Ninâ and
+Ninni, he installed before them in their shrines.
+
+Then Gudea sent far and wide to fetch materials for the construction of
+the temple. And the Elamite came from Elani, and men of Susa came from
+Susa, and men brought wood from the mountains of Sinai and Melukh-kha.
+And into the mountain of cedars, where no man before had penetrated,
+the patesi cut a road, and he brought cedars and beams of other precious
+woods in great quantities to the city. And he also made a road into the
+mountain where stone was quarried, into places where no man before had
+penetrated. And he carried great blocks of stone down from the mountain
+and loaded them into barges and brought them to the city. And the barges
+brought bitumen and plaster, and they were loaded as though they were
+carrying grain, and all manner of great things were brought to the
+city. Copper ore was brought from the mountain of copper in the land of
+Kimash, and gold was brought in powder from the mountains, and silver
+was brought from the mountains and porphyry from the land of Melukhkha,
+and marble from the mountain of marble. And the patesi installed
+goldsmiths and silversmiths, who wrought in these precious metals, for
+the adornment of the temple; and he brought smiths who worked in copper
+and lead, who were priests of Nin-tu-kalama. In his search for fitting
+materials for the building of the temple, Gudea journeyed from the lower
+country to the upper country, and from the upper country to the lower
+country he returned.
+
+The only other materials now wanting for the construction of the temple
+were the sun-dried bricks of clay, of which the temple platform and
+the structure of the temple itself were in the main composed. Their
+manufacture was now inaugurated by a symbolical ceremony carried out by
+the patesi in person. At dawn he performed an ablution with the fitting
+rites that accompanied it, and when the day was more advanced he slew
+a bull and a kid as sacrifices, and he then entered the temple of
+Ningirsu, where he prostrated himself. And he took the sacred mould
+and the fair cushion on which it rested in the temple, and he poured a
+libation into the mould. Afterwards, having made offerings of honey and
+butter, and having burnt incense, he placed the cushion and the mould
+upon his head and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed
+clay in the mould, shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its
+mould within the temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood
+around.
+
+The next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
+And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And
+Gudea took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he
+carried the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
+manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick
+which he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks
+to be used in its construction. He then marked out the plan of the
+temple, and the text states that he devoted himself to the building of
+the temple like a young man who has begun building a house and allows
+no pleasure to interfere with his task. And he chose out skilled workmen
+and employed them on the building, and he was filled with joy. The gods,
+too, are stated to have helped with the building, for Enki fixed the
+temennu of the temple, and the goddess Ninâ looked after its oracles,
+and Gatumdug, the mother of Shir-purla, fashioned bricks for it morning
+and evening, while the goddess Bau sprinkled aromatic oil of cedar-wood.
+Gudea himself laid its foundations, and as he did so he blessed the
+temple seven times, comparing it to the sacred brick, to the holy
+libation-vase, to the divine eagle of Shirpurla, to a terrible couching
+panther, to the beautiful heavens, to the day of offerings, and to the
+morning light which brightens the land. He caused the temple to rise
+towards heaven like a mountain, or like a cedar growing in the desert.
+He built it of bricks of Sumer, and the timbers which he set in place
+were as strong as the dragon of the deep.
+
+While he was engaged on the building Gudea took counsel of the god Enki,
+and he built a fountain for the gods, where they might drink. With the
+great stones which he had brought and fashioned he built a reservoir
+and a basin for the temple. And seven of the great stones he set up as
+stelæ, and he gave them favourable names. The text then recounts
+the various parts and shrines of the temple, and it describes their
+splendours in similes drawn from the heavens and the earth and the
+abyss, or deep, beneath the earth. The temple itself is described as,
+being like the crescent of the new moon, or like the sun in the midst
+of the stars, or like a mountain of lapis lazuli, or like a mountain of
+shining marble. Parts of it are said to have been terrible and strong as
+a savage bull, or a lion, or the antelope of the abyss, or the monster
+Lakhamu who dwells in the abyss, or the sacred leopard that inspires
+terror. One of the doors of the temple was guarded by a figure of the
+hero who slew the monster with six heads, and at another door was a good
+dragon, and at another a lion; opposite the city were set figures of
+the seven heroes, and facing the rising sun was fixed the emblem of the
+Sun-god. Figures of other heroes and favourable monsters were set up as
+guardians of other portions of the temple. The fastenings of the main
+entrance were decorated with dragons shooting out their tongues, and the
+bolt of the great door was fashioned like a raging hound.
+
+After this description of the construction and adornment of the
+temple the text goes on to narrate how Gudea arranged for its material
+endowment. He stalled oxen and sheep, for sacrifice and feasting, in the
+outhouses and pens within the temple precincts, and he heaped up grain
+in its granaries. Its storehouses he filled with spices so that
+they were like the Tigris when its waters are in flood, and in its
+treasure-chambers he piled up precious stones, and silver, and lead in
+abundance. Within the temple precincts he planted a sacred garden which
+was like a mountain covered with vines; and on the terrace he built
+a great reservoir, or tank, lined with lead, in addition to the great
+stone reservoir within the temple itself. He constructed a special
+dwelling-place for the sacred doves, and among the flowers of the temple
+garden and under the shade of the great trees the birds of heaven flew
+about unmolested.
+
+The first of the two great cylinders of Gudea ends at this point in the
+description of the temple, and it is evident that its text was composed
+while the work of building was still in progress. Moreover, the writing
+of the cylinder was finished before the actual work of building the
+temple was completed, for the last column of the text concludes with a
+prayer to Ningirsu to make it glorious during the progress of the work,
+the prayer ending with the words, “O Ningirsu, glorify it! Glorify the
+temple of Ningirsu during its construction!” The text of the second of
+the two great cylinders is shorter than that of the first, consisting
+of twenty-four instead of thirty columns of writing, and it was composed
+and written after the temple was completed. Like the first of the
+cylinders, it concludes with a prayer to Ningirsu on behalf of the
+temple, ending with the similar refrain, “O Ningirsu, glorify it!
+Glorify the temple of Ningirsu after its construction!” The first
+cylinder, as we have seen, records how it came about that Gudea decided
+to rebuild the temple E-ninnû in honour of Ningirsu. It describes how,
+when the land was suffering from drought and famine, Gudea had a dream,
+how Ninâ interpreted the dream to mean that he must rebuild the temple,
+and how Ningirsu himself promised that this act of piety would restore
+abundance and prosperity to the land. Its text ends with the long
+description of the sumptuous manner in which the patesi carried out the
+work, the most striking points of which we have just summarized. The
+narrative of the second cylinder begins at the moment when the building
+of the temple was finished, and when all was ready for the great god
+Nin-girsu to be installed therein, and its text is taken up with a
+description of the ceremonies and rites with which this solemn function
+was carried out. It presents us with a picture, drawn from life, of the
+worship and cult of the ancient Sumerians in actual operation. In view
+of its importance from the point of view of the study and comparison of
+the Sumerian and Babylonian religious systems, its contents also may be
+summarized. We will afterwards discuss briefly the information furnished
+by both the cylinders on the Sumerian origin of many of the religious
+beliefs and practices which were current among the later Semitic
+inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria.
+
+When Gudea had finished building the new temple of E-ninnû, and had
+completed the decoration and adornment of its shrines, and had planted
+its gardens and stocked its treasure-chambers and storehouses, he
+applied himself to the preliminary ceremonies and religious preparations
+which necessarily preceded the actual function of transferring the
+statue of the god Ningirsu from his old temple to his new one. Gudea’s
+first act was to install the Anunnaki, or Spirits of the Earth, in the
+new temple, and when he had done this, and had supplied additional
+sheep for their sacrifices and food in abundance for their offerings, he
+prayed to them to give him their assistance and to pronounce a prayer at
+his side when he should lead Ningirsu into his new dwelling-place.
+The text then describes how Gudea went to the old temple of Ningirsu,
+accompanied by his protecting spirits who walked before him and behind
+him. Into the old temple he carried sumptuous offerings, and when he
+had set them before the god, he addressed him in prayer and said: “O
+my King, Ningirsu! O Lord, who curbest the raging waters! O Lord, whose
+word surpasseth all others! O Son of Enlil, O warrior, what commands
+shall I faithfully carry out? O Ningirsu, I have built thy temple, and
+with joy would I lead thee therein, and my goddess Bau would install at
+thy side.” We are told that the god accepted Gudea’s prayer, and thereby
+he gave his consent to be removed from the old temple of E-ninnû to his
+new one which bore the same name.
+
+But the ceremony of the god’s removal was not carried out at once, for
+the due time had not arrived. The year ended, and the new year came,
+and then “the month of the temple” began. The third day of the month
+was that appointed for the installation of Ningirsu. Gudea meanwhile had
+sprinkled the ground with oil, and set out offerings of honey and butter
+and wine, and grain mixed with milk, and dates, and food untouched
+by fire, to serve as food for the gods; and the gods themselves had
+assisted in the preparations for the reception of Ningirsu. The god
+Asaru made ready the temple itself, and Ninmada performed the ceremony
+of purification. The god Enki issued oracles, and the god Nindub, the
+supreme priest of Eridu, brought incense. Ninâ performed chants within
+the temple, and brought black sheep and holy cows to its folds and
+stalls. This record of the help given by the other gods we may interpret
+as meaning that the priests attached to the other great Sumerian
+temples took part in the preparation of the new temple, and added their
+offerings to the temple stores. To many of the gods, also, special
+shrines within the temple were assigned.
+
+When the purification of E-ninnû was completed and the way between
+the old temple and the new made ready, all the inhabitants of the city
+prostrated themselves on the ground. “The city,” says Gudea, “was like
+the mother of a sick man who prepareth a potion for him, or like the
+cattle of the plain which lie down together, or like the fierce lion,
+the master of the plain, when he coucheth.” During the day and the night
+before the ceremony of removal, prayers and supplications were uttered,
+and at the first light of dawn on the appointed day the god Ningirsu
+went into his new temple “like a whirlwind,” the goddess Bau entering
+at his side “like the sun rising over Shirpurla.” She entered beside his
+couch, like a faithful wife, whose cares are for her own household, and
+she dwelt beside his ear and bestowed abundance upon Shirpurla.
+
+As the day began to brighten and the sun rose, Gudea set out as
+offerings in the temple a fat ox and a fat sheep, and he brought a vase
+of lead and filled it with wine, which he poured out as a libation, and
+he performed incantations. Then, having duly established Ningirsu and
+Bau in the chief shrine, he turned his attention to the lesser gods and
+installed them in their appointed places in the temple, where they would
+be always ready to assist Ningirsu in the temple ceremonies and in the
+issue of his decrees for the welfare of the city and its inhabitants.
+Thus he established the god Galalim, the son of Ningirsu, in a chosen
+spot in the great court in front of the temple, where, under the orders
+of his father, he should direct the just and curb the evil-doer; he
+would also by his presence strengthen and preserve the temple, while
+his special duty was to guard the throne of destiny and, on behalf of
+Ningirsu, to place the sceptre in the hands of the reigning patesi.
+Near to Ningirsu and under his orders Gudea also established the god
+Dunshaga, whose function it was to sanctify the temple and to look after
+its libations and offerings, and to see to the due performance of the
+ceremonies of ablution. This god would offer water to Ningirsu with a
+pure hand, he would pour out libations of wine and strong drink, and
+would tend the oxen, sheep, kids, and other offerings which were brought
+to the temple night and day. To the god Lugalkurdub, who was also
+installed in the temple, was assigned the privilege of holding in his
+hand the mace with the seven heads, and it was his duty to open the door
+of the Gate of Combat. He guarded the sacred weapons of Ningirsu and
+destroyed the countries of his enemies. He was Ningirsu’s chief leader
+in battle, and another god with lesser powers was associated with him as
+his second leader.
+
+Ningirsu’s counsellor was the god Lugalsisa, and he also had his
+appointed place in E-ninnû. It was his duty to receive the prayers
+of Shirpurla and render them propitious; he superintended and blessed
+Ningirsu’s journey when he visited Eridu or returned from that city,
+and he made special intercessions for the life of Gudea. The minister of
+Ningirsu’s harîm was the god Shakanshabar, and he was installed near to
+Nin-girsu that he might issue his commands, both great and small. The
+keeper of the harîm was the god Urizu, and it was his duty to purify the
+water and sanctify the grain, and he tended Ningirsu’s sleeping-chamber
+and saw that all was arranged therein as was fitting. The driver of
+Ningirsu’s chariot was the god Ensignun; it was his duty to keep the
+sacred chariot as bright as the stars of heaven, and morning and evening
+to tend and feed Ningirsu’s sacred ass, called Ug-kash, and the ass
+of Eridu. The shepherd of Ningirsu’s kids was the god Enlulim, and he
+tended the sacred she-goat who suckled the kids, and he guarded her so
+that the serpent should not steal her milk. This god also looked
+after the oil and the strong drink of E-ninnû, and saw that its store
+increased.
+
+Ningirsu’s beloved musician was the god Ushum-gabkalama, and he was
+installed in E-ninnû that he might take his flute and fill the temple
+court with joy. It was his privilege to play to Ningirsu as he listened
+in his harîm, and to render the life of the god pleasant in E-ninnû.
+Ningirsu’s singer was the god Lugaligi-khusham, and he had his appointed
+place in E-ninnû, for he could appease the heart and soften anger; he
+could stop the tears which flowed from weeping eyes, and could lessen
+sorrow in the sighing heart. Gudea also installed in E-ninnû the seven
+twin-daughters of the goddess Bau, all virgins, whom Ningirsu had
+begotten. Their names were Zarzaru, Impaë, Urenuntaëa, Khegir-nuna,
+Kheshaga, Gurmu, and Zarmu. Gudea installed them near their father that
+they might offer favourable prayers.
+
+The cultivator of the district of Gu-edin was the god Gishbare, and he
+was installed in the temple that he might cause the great fields to be
+fertile, and might make the wheat glisten in Gu-edin, the plain assigned
+to Ningirsu for his revenues. It was this god’s duty also to tend the
+machines for irrigation, and to raise the water into the canals and
+ditches of Shirpurla, and thus to keep the city’s granaries well filled.
+The god Kal was the guardian of the fishing in Gu-edin, and his chief
+duty was to place fish in the sacred pools. The steward of Gu-edin was
+the god Dimgalabzu, whose duty it was to keep the plain in good order,
+so that the birds might abound there and the beasts might raise their
+young in peace; he also guarded the special privilege, which the plain
+enjoyed, of freedom from any tax levied upon the increase of the
+cattle pastured there. Last of all Gudea installed in E-ninnû the god
+Lugalenurua-zagakam, who looked after the construction of houses in the
+city and the building of fortresses upon the city wall; in the temple it
+was his privilege to raise on high a battle-axe made of cedar.
+
+All these lesser deities, having close relations to the god Ningirsu,
+were installed by Gudea in his temple in close proximity to him, that
+they might be always ready to perform their special functions. But the
+greater deities also had their share in the inauguration of the temple,
+and of these Gudea specially mentions Ana, Enlil, Ninkharsag, Enki, and
+Enzu, who all assisted in rendering the temple’s lot propitious. For at
+least three of the greater gods (Ana, Enlil, and the goddess Nin-makh)
+Gudea erected shrines near one another and probably within the temple’s
+precincts, and, as the passage which records this fact is broken, it is
+possible that the missing portion of the text recorded the building of
+shrines to other deities. In any case, it is clear that the composer
+of the text represents all the great gods as beholding the erection and
+inauguration of Ningirsu’s new temple with favour.
+
+After the account of the installation of Ningirsu, and his spouse Bau,
+and his attendant deities, the text records the sumptuous offerings
+which Gudea placed within Ningirsu’s shrine. These included another
+chariot drawn by an ass, a seven-headed battle-axe, a sword with nine
+emblems, a bow with terrible arrows and a quiver decorated with wild
+beasts and dragons shooting out their tongues, and a bed which was
+set within the god’s sleeping-chamber. On the couch in the shrine the
+goddess Bau reclined beside her lord Ningirsu, and ate of the great
+victims which were sacrificed in their honour.
+
+When the ceremony of installation had been successfully performed, Gudea
+rested, and for seven days he feasted with his people. During this time
+the maid was the equal of her mistress, and master and servant consorted
+together as friends. The powerful and the humble man lay down side by
+side, and in place of evil speech only propitious words were heard. The
+rich man did not wrong the orphan and the strong man did not oppress the
+widow. The laws of Ninâ and Ningirsu were observed, justice was bright
+in the sunlight, and the Sun-god trampled iniquity under foot. The
+building of the temple also restored material prosperity to the land,
+for the canals became full of water and fish swarmed in the pools, the
+granaries were filled with grain and the flocks and herds brought forth
+their increase. The city of Shirpurla was satiated with abundance.
+
+Such is a summary of the account which Gudea has left us of his
+rebuilding of the temple E-ninnû, of the reasons which led him to
+undertake the work, and of the results which followed its completion. It
+has often been said that the inscriptions of the ancient Sumerians are
+without much intrinsic value, that they mainly consist of dull votive
+formulæ, and that for general interest the best of them cannot be
+compared with the later inscriptions of the Semitic inhabitants
+of Mesopotamia. This reproach, for which until recently there was
+considerable justification, has been finally removed by the working
+out of the texts upon Gudea’s cylinders. For picturesque narrative, for
+wealth of detail, and for striking similes, it would be hard to find
+their superior in Babylonian and Assyrian literature. They are, in fact,
+very remarkable compositions, and in themselves justify the claim that
+the Sumerians were possessed of a literature in the proper sense of the
+term.
+
+But that is not their only value, for they give a vivid picture of
+ancient Sumerian life and of the ideals and aims which actuated the
+people and their rulers. The Sumerians were essentially an unmilitary
+race. That they could maintain a stubborn fight for their territory is
+proved by the prolonged struggle maintained by Shirpurla against her
+rival Gishkhu, but neither ruler nor people was inflamed by love of
+conquest for its own sake. They were settled in a rich and fertile
+country, which supplied their own wants in abundance, and they were
+content to lead a peaceful life therein, engaged in agricultural and
+industrial pursuits, and devoted wholly to the worship of their gods.
+Gudea’s inscriptions enable us to realize with what fervour they carried
+out the rebuilding of a temple, and how the whole resources of the
+nation were devoted to the successful completion of the work. It is true
+that the rebuilding of E-ninnû was undertaken in a critical period when
+the land was threatened with famine, and the peculiar magnificence with
+which the work was carried out may be partly explained as due to the
+belief that such devotion would ensure a return of material prosperity.
+But the existence of such a belief is in itself an index to the people’s
+character, and we may take it that the record faithfully represents the
+relations of the Sumerians to their gods, and the important place which
+worship and ritual occupied in the national life.
+
+Moreover, the inscriptions of Gudea furnish much valuable information
+with regard to the details of Sumerian worship and the elaborate
+organization of the temples. From them we can reconstruct a picture of
+one of these immense buildings, with its numerous shrines and courts,
+surrounded by sacred gardens and raising its ziggurat, or temple tower,
+high above the surrounding city. Within its dark chambers were the
+mysterious figures of the gods, and what little light could enter would
+have been reflected in the tanks of sacred water sunk to the level of
+the pavement. The air within the shrines must have been heavy with the
+smell of incense and of aromatic woods, while the deep silence would
+have been broken only by the chanting of the priests and the feet of
+those that bore offerings. Outside in the sunlight cedars and other rare
+trees cast a pleasant shade, and birds flew about among the flowers and
+bushes in the outer courts and on the garden terraces. The area covered
+by the temple buildings must have been enormous, for they included the
+dwellings of the priests, stables and pens for the cattle, sheep, and
+kids employed for sacrifice, and treasure-chambers and storehouses and
+granaries for the produce from the temple lands.
+
+We also get much information with regard to the nature of the offerings
+and the character of the ceremonies which were performed. We may mention
+as of peculiar interest Gudea’s symbolical rite which preceded the
+making of the sun-dried bricks, and the ceremony of the installation of
+Ningirsu in the presence of the prostrate city. The texts also throw
+an interesting light on the truly Oriental manner in which, when
+approaching one deity for help, the cooperation and assistance of other
+deities were first secured. Thus Gudea solicited the intercession of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug before applying to the goddess Ninâ to interpret
+his dream. The extremely human character of the gods themselves is also
+well illustrated. Thus we gather from the texts that Ningirsu’s temple
+was arranged like the palace of a Sumerian ruler and that he was
+surrounded by gods who took the place of the attendants and ministers
+of his human counterpart. His son was installed in a place of honour and
+shared with him the responsibility of government. Another god was his
+personal attendant and cupbearer, who offered him fair water and looked
+after the ablutions. Two more were his generals, who secured his country
+against the attacks of foes. Another was his counsellor, who received
+and presented petitions from his subjects and superintended his
+journeys. Another was the head of his harîm, a position of great
+trust and responsibility, while a keeper of the harîm looked after the
+practical details. Another god was the driver of his chariot, and it
+is interesting to note that the chariot was drawn by an ass, for horses
+were not introduced into Western Asia until a much later period. Other
+gods performed the functions of head shepherd, chief musician, chief
+singer, head cultivator and inspector of irrigation, inspector of the
+fishing, land steward, and architect. His household also included his
+wife and his seven virgin daughters. In addition to the account of the
+various functions performed by these lesser deities, the texts also
+furnish valuable facts with regard to the characters and attributes
+of the greater gods and goddesses, such as the attributes of Ningirsu
+himself, and the character of Ninâ as the goddess who divined and
+interpreted the secrets of the gods.
+
+But perhaps the most interesting conclusions to be drawn from the texts
+relate to the influence exerted by the ancient Sumerians upon Semitic
+beliefs and practices. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
+later Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria drew most of their
+culture from the Sumerians, whom they displaced and absorbed. Their
+system of writing, the general structure of their temples, the ritual of
+their worship, the majority of their religious compositions, and many of
+their gods themselves are to be traced to a Sumerian origin, and much of
+the information obtained from the cylinders of Gudea merely confirms
+or illustrates the conclusions already deduced from other sources. As
+instances we may mention the belief in spirits, which is illustrated by
+the importance attached to the placating of the Anunnaki, or Spirits of
+the Earth, to whom a special place and special offerings were assigned
+in E-ninnû. The Sumerian origin of ceremonies of purification is
+confirmed by Gudea’s purification of the city before beginning the
+building of the temple, and again before the transference of the god
+from his old temple to the new one. The consultation of omens, which was
+so marked a feature of Babylonian and Assyrian life, is seen in actual
+operation under the Sumerians; for, even after Gudea had received direct
+instructions from Ningirsu to begin building his temple, he did not
+proceed to carry them out until he had consulted the omens and found
+that they were favourable. Moreover, the references to mythological
+beings, such as the seven heroes, the dragon of the deep, and the god
+who slew the dragon, confirm the opinion that the creation legends and
+other mythological compositions of the Babylonians were derived by them
+from Sumerian sources. But there are two incidents in the narrative
+which are on a rather different plane and are more startling in their
+novelty. One is the story of Gudea’s dream, and the other the sign
+which he sought from his god. The former is distinctly apocalyptic in
+character, and both may be parallelled in what is regarded as purely
+Semitic literature. That such conceptions existed among the Sumerians is
+a most interesting fact, and although the theory of independent origin
+is possible, their existence may well have influenced later Semitic
+beliefs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--ELAM AND BABYLON, THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE KASSITES
+
+
+Up to five years ago our knowledge of Elam and of the part she played in
+the ancient world was derived, in the main, from a few allusions to the
+country to be found in the records of Babylonian and Assyrian kings. It
+is true that a few inscriptions of the native rulers had been found in
+Persia, but they belonged to the late periods of her history, and the
+majority consisted of short dedicatory formulae and did not supply us
+with much historical information. But the excavations carried on since
+then by M. de Morgan at Susa have revealed an entirely new chapter of
+ancient Oriental history, and have thrown a flood of light upon the
+position occupied by Elam among the early races of the East.
+
+Lying to the north of the Persian Gulf and to the east of the Tigris,
+and rising from the broad plains nearer the coast to the mountainous
+districts within its borders on the east and north, Elam was one of the
+nearest neighbours of Chaldæa. A few facts concerning her relations with
+Babylonia during certain periods of her history have long been known,
+and her struggles with the later kings of Assyria are known in some
+detail; but for her history during the earliest periods we have had to
+trust mainly to conjecture. That in the earlier as in the later periods
+she should have been in constant antagonism with Babylonia might
+legitimately be suspected, and it is not surprising that we should find
+an echo of her early struggles with Chaldæa in the legends which were
+current in the later periods of Babylonian history. In the fourth and
+fifth tablets, or sections, of the great Babylonian epic which describes
+the exploits of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, a story is told of an
+expedition undertaken by Gilgamesh and his friend Ba-bani against an
+Elamite despot named Khum-baba. It is related in the poem that Khumbaba
+was feared by all who dwelt near him, for his roaring was like the
+storm, and any man perished who was rash enough to enter the cedar-wood
+in which he dwelt. But Gilgamesh, encouraged by a dream sent him by
+Sha-mash, the Sun-god, pressed on with his friend, and, having entered
+the wood, succeeded in slaying Khumbaba and in cutting off his head.
+This legend is doubtless based on episodes in early Babylonian and
+Elamite history. Khumbaba may not have been an actual historical ruler,
+but at least he represents or personifies the power of Elam, and the
+success of Gilgamesh no doubt reflects the aspirations with which many a
+Babylonian expedition set out for the Elamite frontier.
+
+Incidentally it may be noted that the legend possibly had a still closer
+historical parallel, for the name of Khumbaba occurs as a component in
+a proper name upon one of the Elamite contracts found recently by M. de
+Morgan at Mai-Amir. The name in question is written _Khumbaba-arad-ili_,
+“Khumbaba, the servant of God,” and it proves that at the date at which
+the contract was written (about 1300-1000 B.C.) the name of Khumbaba was
+still held in remembrance, possibly as that of an early historical ruler
+of the country.
+
+In her struggles with Chaldæa, Elam was not successful during the
+earliest historical period of which we have obtained information; and,
+so far as we can tell at present, her princes long continued to own
+allegiance to the Semitic rulers whose influence was predominant from
+time to time in the plains of Lower Mesopotamia. Tradition relates that
+two of the earliest Semitic rulers whose names are known to us, Sargon
+and Narâm-Sin, kings of Agade, held sway in Elam, for in the “Omens”
+ which were current in a later period concerning them, the former is
+credited with the conquest of the whole country, while of the latter it
+is related that he conquered Apirak, an Elamite district, and captured
+its king. Some doubts were formerly cast upon these traditions inasmuch
+as they were found in a text containing omens or forecasts, but these
+doubts were removed by the discovery of contemporary documents by which
+the later traditions were confirmed. Sargon’s conquest of Elam, for
+instance, was proved to be historical by a reference to the event in a
+date-formula upon tablets belonging to his reign. Moreover, the event
+has received further confirmation from an unpublished tablet in the
+British Museum, containing a copy of the original chronicle from which
+the historical extracts in the “Omens” were derived. The portion of
+the composition inscribed upon this tablet does not contain the lines
+referring to Sargon’s conquest of Elam, for these occurred in an earlier
+section of the composition; but the recovery of the tablet puts beyond
+a doubt the historical character of the traditions preserved upon the
+omen-tablet as a whole, and the conquest of Elam is thus confirmed
+by inference. The new text does recount the expedition undertaken by
+Narâm-Sin, the son of Sargon, against Apirak, and so furnishes a direct
+confirmation of this event.
+
+Another early conqueror of Elam, who was probably of Semitic origin,
+was Alu-usharshid, king of the city of Kish, for, from a number of his
+inscriptions found near those of Sargon at Nippur in Babylonia, we learn
+that he subdued Elam and Para’se, the district in which the city of Susa
+was probably situated. From a small mace-head preserved in the British
+Museum we know of another conquest of Elam by a Semitic ruler of this
+early period. The mace-head was made and engraved by the orders of
+Mutabil, an early governor of the city of Dûr-ilu, to commemorate his
+own valour as the man “who smote the head of the hosts” of Elam. Mutabil
+was not himself an independent ruler, and his conquest of Elam must have
+been undertaken on behalf of the suzerain to whom he owed allegiance,
+and thus his victory cannot be classed in the same category as those of
+his predecessors. A similar remark applies to the success against
+the city of Anshan in Elam, achieved by Grudea, the Sumerian ruler
+of Shirpurla, inasmuch as he was a patesi, or viceroy, and not an
+independent king. Of greater duration was the influence exercised over
+Elam by the kings of Ur, for bricks and contract-tablets have been found
+at Susa proving that Dungi, one of the most powerful kings of Ur, and
+Bur-Sin, Ine-Sin, and Oamil-Sin, kings of the second dynasty in that
+city, all in turn included Elam within the limits of their empire.
+
+Such are the main facts which until recently had been ascertained
+with regard to the influence of early Babylonian rulers in Elam. The
+information is obtained mainly from Babylonian sources, and until
+recently we have been unable to fill in any details of the picture
+from the Elamite side. But this inability has now been removed by M.
+de Morgan’s discoveries. From the inscribed bricks, cones, stelæ, and
+statues that have been brought to light in the course of his excavations
+at Susa, we have recovered the name of a succession of native Elamite
+rulers. All those who are to be assigned to this early period, during
+which Elam owed allegiance to the kings of Babylonia, ascribe to
+themselves the title of _patesi_, or viceroy, of Susa, in acknowledgment
+of their dependence. Their records consist principally of building
+inscriptions and foundation memorials, and they commemorate the
+construction or repair of temples, the cutting of canals, and the like.
+They do not, therefore, throw much light upon the problems connected
+with the external history of Elam during this early period, but we
+obtain from them a glimpse of the internal administration of the
+country. We see a nation without ambition to extend its boundaries, and
+content, at any rate for the time, to owe allegiance to foreign rulers,
+while the energies of its native princes are devoted exclusively to the
+cultivation of the worship of the gods and to the amelioration of the
+conditions of the life of the people in their charge.
+
+A difficult but interesting problem presents itself for solution at the
+outset of our inquiry into the history of this people as revealed by
+their lately recovered inscriptions,--the problem of their race and
+origin. Found at Susa in Elam, and inscribed by princes bearing purely
+Elamite names, we should expect these votive and memorial texts to be
+written entirely in the Elamite language. But such is not the case,
+for many of them are written in good Semitic Babylonian. While some
+are entirely composed in the tongue which we term Elamite or Anzanite,
+others, so far as their language and style is concerned, might have been
+written by any early Semitic king ruling in Babylonia. Why did early
+princes of Susa make this use of the Babylonian tongue?
+
+At first sight it might seem possible to trace a parallel in the use of
+the Babylonian language by kings and officials in Egypt and Syria
+during the fifteenth century B.C., as revealed in the letters from
+Tell el-Amarna. But a moment’s thought will show that the cases are not
+similar. The Egyptian or Syrian scribe employed Babylonian as a medium
+for his official foreign correspondence because Babylonian at that
+period was the _lingua franca_ of the East. But the object of the
+early Elamite rulers was totally different. Their inscribed bricks and
+memorial stelæ were not intended for the eyes of foreigners, but for
+those of their own descendants. Built into the structure of a temple,
+or buried beneath the edifice, one of their principal objects was to
+preserve the name and deeds of the writer from oblivion. Like similar
+documents found on the sites of Assyrian and Babylonian cities, they
+sometimes include curses upon any impious man, who, on finding the
+inscription after the temple shall have fallen into ruins, should in
+any way injure the inscription or deface the writer’s name. It will be
+obvious that the writers of these inscriptions intended that they should
+be intelligible to those who might come across them in the future. If,
+therefore, they employed the Babylonian as well as the Elamite language,
+it is clear that they expected that their future readers might be either
+Babylonian or Elamite; and this belief can only be explained on the
+supposition that their own subjects were of mixed race.
+
+It is therefore certain that at this early period of Elamite history
+Semitic Babylonians and Elamites dwelt side by side in Susa and retained
+their separate languages. The problem therefore resolves itself into the
+inquiry: which of these two peoples occupied the country first? Were the
+Semites at first in sole possession, which was afterwards disputed by
+the incursion of Elamite tribes from the north and east? Or were the
+Elamites the original inhabitants of the land, into which the Semites
+subsequently pressed from Babylonia?
+
+A similar mixture of races is met with in Babylonia itself in the
+early period of the history of that country. There the early Sumerian
+inhabitants were gradually dispossessed by the invading Semite, who
+adopted the civilization of the conquered race, and took over the system
+of cuneiform writing, which he modified to suit his own language. In
+Babylonia the Semites eventually predominated and the Sumerians as a
+race disappeared, but during the process of absorption the two languages
+were employed indiscriminately. The kings of the First Babylonian
+Dynasty wrote their votive inscriptions sometimes in Sumerian, sometimes
+in Semitic Babylonian; at other times they employed both languages
+for the same text, writing the record first in Sumerian and afterwards
+appending a Semitic translation by the side; and in the legal and
+commercial documents of the period the old Sumerian legal forms and
+phrases were retained intact. In Elam we may suppose that the use of the
+Sumerian and Semitic languages was the same.
+
+It may be surmised, however, that the first Semitic incursions into Elam
+took place at a much later period than those into Babylonia, and under
+very different conditions. When overrunning the plains and cities of the
+Sumerians, the Semites were comparatively uncivilized, and, so far as we
+know, without a system of writing of their own. The incursions into
+Elam must have taken place under the great Semitic conquerors, such as
+Sar-gon and Narâm-Sin and Alu-usharshid. At this period they had fully
+adopted and modified the Sumerian characters to express their own
+Semitic tongue, and on their invasion of Elam they brought their system
+of writing with them. The native princes of Elam, whom they conquered,
+adopted it in turn for many of their votive texts and inscribed
+monuments when they wished to write them in the Babylonian language.
+
+Such is the most probable explanation of the occurrence in Elam of
+inscriptions in the Old Babylonian language, written by native princes
+concerning purely domestic matters. But a further question now suggests
+itself. Assuming that this was the order in which events took place,
+are we to suppose that the first Semitic invaders of Elam found there a
+native population in a totally undeveloped stage of civilization? Or did
+they find a population enjoying a comparatively high state of culture,
+different from their own, which they proceeded to modify and transform!
+Luckily, we have not to fall back on conjecture for an answer to these
+questions, for a recent discovery at Susa has furnished material from
+which it is possible to reconstruct in outline the state of culture of
+these early Elamites.
+
+This interesting discovery consists of a number of clay tablets
+inscribed in the proto-Elamite system of writing, a system which was
+probably the only one in use in the country during the period before the
+Semitic invasion. The documents in question are small, roughly formed
+tablets of clay very similar to those employed in the early periods of
+Babylonian history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them
+offer the greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian
+characters with which we are familiar. Although they cannot be fully
+deciphered at present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts,
+the signs upon them consisting of lists of figures and what are
+probably ideographs for things. Some of the ideographs, such as that for
+“tablet,” with which many of the texts begin, are very similar to the
+Sumerian or Babylonian signs for the same objects; but the majority are
+entirely different and have been formed and developed upon a system of
+their own.
+
+[Illustration: 230.jpg CLAY TABLET, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN
+INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]
+
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s _Délégation en
+     Perse, Mém._, t. vi, pi. 23.
+
+On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in
+an early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial
+character of the ideographs was still prominent.
+
+[Illustration: 231.jpg CLAY TABLET, RECENTLY FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN
+INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]
+
+     The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan’s _Délégation
+     en Perse, Mém._, t. vi, pi. 22.
+
+Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet
+been identified, Père Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded
+in making out the system of numeration. He has identified the signs for
+unity, 10, 100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for
+these figures are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.
+
+[Illustration: 231a.jpg Fractions]
+
+The system, too, is different, for it is a decimal, and not a
+sexagesimal, system of numeration.
+
+That in its origin this form of writing had some connection with that
+employed and, so far as we know, invented by the ancient Sumerians
+is possible.[1] But it shows small trace of Sumerian influence, and the
+disparity in the two systems of numeration is a clear indication that,
+at any rate, it broke off and was isolated from the latter at a very
+early period. Having once been adopted by the early Elamites, it
+continued to be used by them for long periods with but small change or
+modification. Employed far from the centre of Sumerian civilization, its
+development was slow, and it seems to have remained in its ideographic
+state, while the system employed by the Sumerians, and adopted by the
+Semitic Babylonians, was developed along syllabic lines.
+
+     [1] It is, of course, also possible that the system of writing
+     had no connection in its origin with that of the Sumerians,
+     and was invented independently of the system employed in
+     Babylonia. In that case, the signs which resemble certain of
+     the Sumerian characters must have been adopted in a later
+     stage of its development. Though it would be rash to
+     dogmatize on the subject, the view that connects its origin
+     with the Sumerians appears on the whole to fit in best with
+     the evidence at present available.
+
+It was without doubt this proto-Elamite system of writing which the
+Semites from Babylonia found employed in Elam on their first incursions
+into that country. They brought with them their own more convenient form
+of writing, and, when the country had once been finally subdued, the
+subject Elamite princes adopted the foreign system of writing and
+language from their conquerors for memorial and monumental inscriptions.
+But the ancient native writing was not entirely ousted, and continued
+to be employed by the common people of Elam for the ordinary purposes
+of daily life. That this was the case at least until the reign of
+Karibu-sha-Shu-shinak, one of the early subject native rulers, is clear
+from one of his inscriptions engraved upon a block of limestone to
+commemorate the dedication of what were probably some temple furnishings
+in honour of the god Shu-shinak.
+
+[Illustration: 233.jpg BLOCK OF LIMESTONE, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING
+INSCRIPTIONS OF KARIBU-SHA-SHUSHINAK.]
+
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s _Délégation en
+     Perse_, Mém., t. vi, pi. 2.
+
+The main part of the inscription is written in Semitic Babylonian,
+and below there is an addition to the text written in proto-Elamite
+characters, probably enumerating the offerings which the
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak decreed should be made for the future in honour
+of the god.[2] In course of time this proto-Elamite system of writing by
+means of ideographs seems to have died out, and a modified form of the
+Babylonian system was adopted by the Elamites for writing their own
+language phonetically. It is in this phonetic character that the
+so-called “Anzanite” texts of the later Elamite princes were composed.
+
+     [2] We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of
+     Karibu-sha-Shushinak. But it is also possible that the
+     second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later
+     period. From its position on the stone it is clear that it
+     was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak’s
+     inscription in Semitic Babylonian. See the photographic
+     reproduction.
+
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription
+has been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject
+princes of Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C.
+3000. He styles himself “patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,”
+ but we do not know at present to what contemporary king in Babylonia
+he owed allegiance. The longest of his inscriptions that have been
+recovered is engraved upon a stele of limestone and records the building
+of the Gate of Shushinak at Susa and the cutting of a canal; it also
+recounts the offerings which Karibu-sha-Shushinak dedicated on the
+completion of the work. It may here be quoted as an example of the
+class of votive inscriptions from which the names of these early Elamite
+rulers have been recovered. The inscription runs as follows: “For
+the god Shushinak, his lord, Karibu-sha-Shushinak, the son of
+Shimbi-ish-khuk, patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,--when
+he set the (door) of his Gate in place,... in the Gate of the god
+Shushinak, his lord, and when he had opened the canal of Sidur, he set
+up in face thereof his canopy, and he set planks of cedar-wood for its
+gate. A sheep in the interior thereof, and sheep without, he appointed
+(for sacrifice) to him each day. On days of festival he caused the
+people to sing songs in the Gate of the god Shushinak. And twenty
+measures of fine oil he dedicated to make his gate beautiful. Four
+_magi_ of silver he dedicated; a censer of silver and gold he dedicated
+for a sweet odour; a,sword he dedicated; an axe with four blades
+he dedicated, and he dedicated silver in addition for the mounting
+thereof.... A righteous judgment he judged in the city! As for the man
+who shall transgress his judgment or shall remove his gift, may the
+gods Shushinak and Shamash, Bel and Ea, Ninni and Sin, Mnkharsag and
+Nati--may all the gods uproot his foundation, and his seed may they
+destroy!”
+
+It will be seen that Karibu-sha-Shushinak takes a delight in enumerating
+the details of the offerings he has ordained in honour of his city-god
+Shushinak, and this religious temper is peculiarly characteristic of the
+princes of Elam throughout the whole course of their history. Another
+interesting point to notice in the inscription is that, although the
+writer invokes Shushinak, his own god, and puts his name at the head
+of the list of deities whose vengeance he implores upon the impious, he
+also calls upon the gods of the Babylonians. As he wrote the inscription
+itself in Babylonian, in the belief that it might be recovered by
+some future Semitic inhabitant of his country, so he included in his
+imprecations those deities whose names he conceived would be most
+reverenced by such a reader. In addition to Karibu-sha-Shushinak the
+names of a number of other patesis, or viceroys, have recently
+been recovered, such as Khutran-tepti, and Idadu I and his son
+Kal-Rukhu-ratir, and his grandson Idadu II. All these probably ruled
+after Karibu-sha-Shushinak, and may be set in the early period of
+Babylonian supremacy in Elam.
+
+It has been stated above that the allegiance which these early Elamite
+princes owed to their overlords in Babylonia was probably reflected in
+the titles which they bear upon their inscriptions recently found at
+Susa. These titles are “_patesi_ of Susa, _shakkannak_ of Elam,” which
+may be rendered as “viceroy of Susa, governor of Elam.” But inscriptions
+have been found on the same site belonging to another series of rulers,
+to whom a different title is applied. Instead of referring to themselves
+as viceroys of Susa and governors of Elam, they bear the title of
+_sukkal_ of Elam, of Siparki, and of Susa. Siparki, or Sipar, was
+probably the name of an important section of Elamite territory, and
+the title _sukkalu_, “ruler,” probably carries with it an idea of
+independence of foreign control which is absent from the title of
+_patesi_. It is therefore legitimate to trace this change of title to
+a corresponding change in the political condition of Elam; and there is
+much to be said for the view that the rulers of Elam who bore the title
+of _sukkalu_ reigned at a period when Elam herself was independent, and
+may possibly have exercised a suzerainty over the neighbouring districts
+of Babylonia.
+
+The worker of this change in the political condition of Elam and
+the author of her independence was a king named Kutir-Nakhkhunte or
+Kutir-Na’khunde, whose name and deeds have been preserved in
+later Assyrian records, where he is termed Kudur-Nankhundi and
+Kudur-Nakhundu.[3] This ruler, according to the Assyrian king
+Ashur-bani-pal, was not content with throwing off the yoke under which
+his land had laboured for so long, but carried war into the country of
+his suzerain and marched through Babylonia devastating and despoiling
+the principal cities. This successful Elamite campaign took place,
+according to the computation of the later Assyrian scribes, about the
+year 2280 B. c, and it is probable that for many years afterwards the
+authority of the King of Elam extended over the plains of Babylonia.
+It has been suggested that Kutir-Nakh-khunte, after including Babylonia
+within his empire, did not remain permanently in Elam, but may have
+resided for a part of each year, at least, in Lower Mesopotamia.
+His object, no doubt, would have been to superintend in person the
+administration of his empire and to check any growing spirit of
+independence among his local governors. He may thus have appointed in
+Susa itself a local governor who would carry on the business of the
+country during his absence, and, under the king himself, would wield
+supreme authority. Such governors may have been the sukkali, who, unlike
+the patesi, were independent of foreign control, but yet did not enjoy
+the full title of “king.”
+
+     [3] For references to the passages where the name occurs, see
+     King, _Letters of Hammurabi_, vol. i, p. Ivy.
+
+It is possible that the sukkalu who ruled in Elam during the reign of
+Kutir-Nakhkhunte was named Temti-agun, for a short inscription of
+this ruler has been recovered, in which he records that he built and
+dedicated a certain temple with the object of ensuring the preservation
+of the life of Kutir-Na’khundi. If we may identify the Kutir-Va’khundi
+of this text with the great Elamite conqueror, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, it
+follows that Temti-agun, the sukkal of Susa, was his subordinate. The
+inscription mentions other names which are possibly those of rulers of
+this period, and reads as follows: “Temti-agun, sukkal of Susa, the son
+of the sister of Sirukdu’, hath built a temple of bricks at Ishme-karab
+for the preservation of the life of Kutir-Na’khundi, and for the
+preservation of the life of Lila-irtash, and for the preservation of his
+own life, and for the preservation of the life of Temti-khisha-khanesh
+and of Pil-kishamma-khashduk.” As Lila-irtash is mentioned immediately
+after Kutir-Na’khundi, he was possibly his son, and he may have
+succeeded him as ruler of the empire of Elam and Babylonia, though no
+confirmation of this view has yet been discovered. Temti-khisha-khanesh
+is mentioned immediately after the reference to the preservation of the
+life of Temti-agun himself, and it may be conjectured that the name was
+that of Temti-agun’s son, or possibly that of his wife, in which event
+the last two personages mentioned in the text may have been the sons of
+Temti-agun.
+
+This short text affords a good example of one class of votive
+inscriptions from which it is possible to recover the names of Elamite
+rulers of this period, and it illustrates the uncertainty which at
+present attaches to the identification of the names themselves and the
+order in which they are to be arranged. Such uncertainty necessarily
+exists when only a few texts have been recovered, and it will disappear
+with the discovery of additional monuments by which the results already
+arrived at may be checked. We need not here enumerate all the names of
+the later Elamite rulers which have been found in the numerous votive
+inscriptions recovered during the recent excavations at Susa. The order
+in which they should be arranged is still a matter of considerable
+uncertainty, and the facts recorded by them in such inscriptions as we
+possess mainly concern the building and restoration of Elamite temples
+and the decoration of shrines, and they are thus of no great historical
+interest. These votive texts are well illustrated by a remarkable find
+of foundation deposits made last year by M. de Morgan in the temple of
+Shushinak at Susa, consisting of figures and jewelry of gold and silver,
+and objects of lead, bronze, iron, stone, and ivory, cylinder-seals,
+mace-heads, vases, etc. This is the richest foundation deposit that has
+been recovered on any ancient site, and its archaeological interest in
+connection with the development of Elamite art is great. But in no other
+way does the find affect our conception of the history of the country,
+and we may therefore pass on to a consideration of such recent
+discoveries as throw new light upon the course of history in Western
+Asia.
+
+With the advent of the First Dynasty in Babylon Elam found herself
+face to face with a power prepared to dispute her claims to exercise a
+suzerainty over the plains of Mesopotamia. It is held by many writers
+that the First Dynasty of Babylon was of Arab origin, and there is much
+to be said for this view. M. Pognon was the first to start the theory
+that its kings were not purely Babylonian, but were of either Arab or
+Aramaean extraction, and he based his theory on a study of the forms of
+the names which some of them bore. The name of Samsu-imna, for instance,
+means “the sun is our god,” but the form of the words of which the name
+is composed betray foreign influence. Thus in Babylonian the name for
+“sun” or the Sun-god would be _Shamash_ or _Shamshu_, not _Samsu_; in
+the second half of the name, while _ilu_ (“god”) is good Babylonian, the
+ending _na_, which is the pronominal suffix of the first person plural,
+is not Babylonian, but Arabic. We need not here enter into a long
+philological discussion, and the instance already cited may suffice to
+show in what way many of the names met in the Babylonian inscriptions
+of this period betray a foreign, and possibly an Arabic, origin. But
+whether we assign the forms of these names to Arabic influence or not,
+it may be regarded as certain that, the First Dynasty of Babylon had
+its origin in the incursion into Babylonia of a new wave of Semitic
+immigration.
+
+[Illustration: 240.jpg BRICK STAMPED WITH AN INSCRIPTION OF KUDUR-MABUG]
+
+The invading Semites brought with them fresh blood and unexhausted
+energy, and, finding many of their own race in scattered cities and
+settlements throughout the country, they succeeded in establishing a
+purely Semitic dynasty, with its capital at Babylon, and set about the
+task of freeing the country from any vestiges of foreign control. Many
+centuries earlier Semitic kings had ruled in Babylonian cities, and
+Semitic empires had been formed there. Sargon and Narâm-Sin,
+having their capital at Agade, had established their control over a
+considerable area of Western Asia and had held Elam as a province. But
+so far as Elam was concerned Kutir-Nakhkhunte had reversed the balance
+and had raised Elam to the position of the predominant power.
+
+Of the struggles and campaigns of the earlier kings of the First Dynasty
+of Babylon we know little, for, although we possess a considerable
+number of legal and commercial documents of the period, we have
+recovered no strictly historical inscriptions. Our main source of
+information is the dates upon these documents, which are not dated by
+the years of the reigning king, but on a system adopted by the early
+Babylonian kings from their Sumerian predecessors. In the later periods
+of Babylonian history tablets were dated in the year of the king who was
+reigning at the time the document was drawn up, but this simple system
+had not been adopted at this early period. In place of this we find that
+each year was cited by the event of greatest importance which occurred
+in that year. This event might be the cutting of a canal, when the year
+in which this took place might be referred to as “the year in which
+the canal named Ai-khegallu was cut;” or it might be the building of a
+temple, as in the date-formula, “the year in which the great temple of
+the Moon-god was built;” or it might be “the conquest of a city, such
+as the year in which the city of Kish was destroyed.” Now it will be
+obvious that this system of dating had many disadvantages. An event
+might be of great importance for one city, while it might never have
+been heard of in another district; thus it sometimes happened that the
+same event was not adopted throughout the whole country for designating
+a particular year, and the result was that different systems of
+dating were employed in different parts of Babylonia. Moreover, when a
+particular system had been in use for a considerable time, it required
+a very good memory to retain the order and period of the various events
+referred to in the date-formulae, so as to fix in a moment the date of a
+document by its mention of one of them. In order to assist themselves
+in their task of fixing dates in this manner, the scribes of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon drew up lists of the titles of the years, arranged
+in chronological order under the reigns of the kings to which they
+referred. Some of these lists have been recovered, and they are of the
+greatest assistance in fixing the chronology, while at the same time
+they furnish us with considerable information concerning the history of
+the period of which we should otherwise have been in ignorance.
+
+From these lists of date-formulæ, and from the dates themselves which
+are found upon the legal and commercial tablets of the period, we learn
+that Kish, Ka-sallu, and Isin all gave trouble to the earlier kings of
+the First Dynasty, and had in turn to be subdued. Elam did not watch the
+diminution of her influence in Babylonia without a struggle to retain
+it. Under Kudur-mabug, who was prince or governor of the districts lying
+along the frontier of Elam, the Elamites struggled hard to maintain
+their position in Babylonia, making the city of Ur the centre from which
+they sought to check the growing power of Babylon. From bricks that have
+been recovered from Mukayyer, the site of the city of Ur, we learn that
+Kudur-mabug rebuilt the temple in that city dedicated to the Moon-god,
+which is an indication of the firm hold he had obtained upon the city.
+It was obvious to the new Semitic dynasty in Babylon that, until Ur and
+the neighbouring city of Larsam had been captured, they could entertain
+no hope of removing the Elamite yoke from Southern Babylonia. It is
+probable that the earlier kings of the dynasty made many attempts to
+capture them, with varying success. An echo of one of their struggles in
+which they claimed the victory may be seen in the date-formula for the
+fourteenth year of the reign of Sin-muballit, Hammurabi’s father and
+predecessor on the throne of Babylon. This year was referred to in the
+documents of the period as “the year in which the people of Ur were
+slain with the sword.” It will be noted that the capture of the city
+is not commemorated, so that we may infer that the slaughter of the
+Elamites which is recorded did not materially reduce their influence,
+as they were left in possession of their principal stronghold. In fact,
+Elam was not signally defeated in the reign of Kudur-mabug, but in that
+of his son Rim-Sin. From the date-formulæ of Hammurabi’s reign we learn
+that the struggle between Elam and Babylon was brought to a climax in
+the thirtieth year of his reign, when it is recorded in the formulas
+that he defeated the Elamite army and overthrew Rim-Sin, while in the
+following year we gather that he added the land of E’mutbal, that is,
+the western district of Elam, to his dominions.
+
+An unpublished chronicle in the British Museum gives us further details
+of Hammurabi’s victory over the Elamites, and at the same time makes it
+clear that the defeat and overthrow of Rim-Sin was not so crushing
+as has hitherto been supposed. This chronicle relates that Hammurabi
+attacked Rim-Sin, and, after capturing the cities of Ur and Larsam,
+carried their spoil to Babylon. Up to the present it has been supposed
+that Hammurabi’s victory marked the end of Elamite influence in
+Babylonia, and that thenceforward the supremacy of Babylon was
+established throughout the whole of the country. But from the
+new chronicle we gather that Hammurabi did not succeed in finally
+suppressing the attempts of Elam to regain her former position. It is
+true that the cities of Ur and Larsam were finally incorporated in the
+Babylonian empire, and the letters of Hammurabi to Sin-idinnam, the
+governor whom he placed in authority over Larsam, afford abundant
+evidence of the stringency of the administrative control which he
+established over Southern Babylonia. But Rîm-Sin was only crippled for
+the time, and, on being driven from Ur and Larsam, he retired beyond
+the Elamite frontier and devoted his energies to the recuperation of his
+forces against the time when he should feel himself strong enough again
+to make a bid for victory in his struggle against the growing power of
+Babylon. It is probable that he made no further attempt to renew the
+contest during the life of Hammurabi, but after Samsu-iluna, the son
+of Hammurabi, had succeeded to the Babylonian throne, he appeared in
+Babylonia at the head of the forces he had collected, and attempted to
+regain the cities and territory he had lost.
+
+[Illustration: 245.jpg SEMITIC BABYLONIAN CONTRACT-TABLET]
+
+     Inscribed in the reign of Hammurabi with a deed recording
+     the division of property. The actual tablet is on the right;
+     that which appears to be another and larger tablet on the
+     left is the hollow clay case in which the tablet on the
+     right was originally enclosed. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     & Co.
+
+The portion of the text of the chronicle relating to the war between
+Rîm-Sin and Samsu-iluna is broken so that it is not possible to follow
+the campaign in detail, but it appears that Samsu-iluna defeated
+Rim-Sin, and possibly captured him or burnt him alive in a palace in
+which he had taken refuge.
+
+With the final defeat of Rîm-Sin by Samsu-iluna it is probable that Elam
+ceased to be a thorn in the side of the kings of Babylon and that
+she made no further attempts to extend her authority beyond her own
+frontiers. But no sooner had Samsu-iluna freed his country from all
+danger from this quarter than he found himself faced by a new foe,
+before whom the dynasty eventually succumbed. This fact we learn from
+the unpublished chronicle to which reference has already been made, and
+the name of this new foe, as supplied by the chronicle, will render
+it necessary to revise all current schemes of Babylonian chronology.
+Samsu-iluna’s new foe was no other than Iluma-ilu, the first king of the
+Second Dynasty, and, so far from having been regarded as Samsu-iluna’s
+contemporary, hitherto it has been imagined that he ascended the throne
+of Babylon one hundred and eighteen years after Samsu-iluna’s death.
+The new information supplied by the chronicle thus proves two important
+facts: first, that the Second Dynasty, instead of immediately succeeding
+the First Dynasty, was partly contemporary with it; second, that during
+the period in which the two dynasties were contemporary they were at
+war with one another, the Second Dynasty gradually encroaching on
+the territory of the First Dynasty, until it eventually succeeded in
+capturing Babylon and in getting the whole of the country under its
+control. We also learn from the new chronicle that this Second Dynasty
+at first established itself in “the Country of the Sea,” that is to say,
+the districts in the extreme south of Babylonia bordering on the Persian
+Gulf, and afterwards extended its borders northward until it gradually
+absorbed the whole of Babylonia. Before discussing the other facts
+supplied by the new chronicle, with regard to the rise and growth of the
+Country of the Sea, whose kings formed the so-called “Second Dynasty,”
+ it will be well to refer briefly to the sources from which the
+information on the period to be found in the current histories is
+derived.
+
+All the schemes of Babylonian chronology that have been suggested during
+the last twenty years have been based mainly on the great list of kings
+which is preserved in the British Museum. This document was drawn up in
+the Neo-Babylonian or Persian period, and when complete it gave a list
+of the names of all the Babylonian kings from the First Dynasty of
+Babylon down to the time in which it was written. The names of the kings
+are arranged in dynasties, and details are given as to the length of
+their reigns and the total number of years each dynasty lasted. The
+beginning of the list which gave the names of the First Dynasty is
+wanting, but the missing portion has been restored from a smaller
+document which gives a list of the kings of the First and Second
+Dynasties only. In the great list of kings the dynasties are arranged
+one after the other, and it was obvious that its compiler imagined that
+they succeeded one another in the order in which he arranged them.
+But when the total number of years the dynasties lasted is learned, we
+obtain dates for the first dynasties in the list which are too early to
+agree with other chronological information supplied by the historical
+inscriptions. The majority of writers have accepted the figures of the
+list of kings and have been content to ignore the discrepancies; others
+have sought to reconcile the available data by ingenious emendations of
+the figures given by the list and the historical inscriptions, or have
+omitted the Second Dynasty entirely from their calculations. The new
+chronicle, by showing that the First and Second Dynasties were partly
+contemporaneous, explains the discrepancies that have hitherto proved so
+puzzling.
+
+It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed discussion of
+Babylonian chronology, and therefore we will confine ourselves to a
+brief description of the sequence of events as revealed by the new
+chronicle. According to the list of kings, Iluma-ilu’s reign was a long
+one, lasting for sixty years, and the new chronicle gives no indication
+as to the period of his reign at which active hostilities with Babylon
+broke out. If the war occurred in the latter portion of his reign, it
+would follow that he had been for many years organizing the forces of
+the new state he had founded in the south of Babylonia before making
+serious encroachments in the north; and in that case the incessant
+campaigns carried on by Babylon against Blam in the reigns of Hammurabi
+and Samsu-iluna would have afforded him the opportunity of establishing
+a firm foothold in the Country of the Sea without the risk of Babylonian
+interference. If, on the other hand, it was in the earlier part of his
+reign that hostilities with Babylon broke out, we may suppose that,
+while Samsu-iluna was devoting all his energies to crush Bim-Sin, the
+Country of the Sea declared her independence of Babylonian control. In
+this case we may imagine Samsu-iluna hurrying south, on the conclusion
+of his Elamite campaign, to crush the newly formed state before it had
+had time to organize its forces for prolonged resistance.
+
+Whichever of these alternatives eventually may prove to be correct, it
+is certain that Samsu-iluna took the initiative in Babylon’s struggle
+with the Country of the Sea, and that his action was due either to her
+declaration of independence or to some daring act of aggression on the
+part of this small state which had hitherto appeared too insignificant
+to cause Babylon any serious trouble. The new chronicle tells us that
+Samsu-iluna undertook two expeditions against the Country of the Sea,
+both of which proved unsuccessful. In the first of these he penetrated
+to the very shores of the Persian Gulf, where a battle took place in
+which Samsu-iluna was defeated, and the bodies of many of the Babylonian
+soldiers were washed away by the sea. In the second campaign Iluma-ilu
+did not await Samsu-iluna’s attack, but advanced to meet him, and again
+defeated the Babylonian army. In the reign of Abêshu’, Samsu-iluna’s
+son and successor, Iluma-ilu appears to have undertaken fresh acts of
+aggression against Babylon; and it was probably during one of his raids
+in Babylonian territory that Abêshu’ attempted to crush the growing power
+of the Country of the Sea by the capture of its daring leader, Iluma-ilu
+himself. The new chronicle informs us that, with this object in
+view, Abêshu’ dammed the river Tigris, hoping by this means to cut off
+Iluma-ilu and his army, but his stratagem did not succeed, and Iluma-ilu
+got back to his own territory in safety.
+
+The new chronicle does not supply us with further details of the
+struggle between Babylon and the Country of the Sea, but we may conclude
+that all similar attempts on the part of the later kings of the First
+Dynasty to crush or restrain the power of the new state were useless. It
+is probable that from this time forward the kings of the First Dynasty
+accepted the independence of the Country of the Sea upon their southern
+border as an evil which they were powerless to prevent. They must have
+looked back with regret to the good times the country had enjoyed under
+the powerful sway of Hammurabi, whose victorious arms even their ancient
+foes, the Blamites, had been unable to withstand. But, although the
+chronicle does not recount the further successes achieved by the Country
+of the Sea, it records a fact which undoubtedly contributed to hasten
+the fall of Babylon and bring the First Dynasty to an end. It tells us
+that in the reign of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty,
+the men of the land of Khattu (the Hittites from Northern Syria) marched
+against him in order to conquer the land of Akkad; in other words, they
+marched down the Euphrates and invaded Northern Babylonia. The chronicle
+does not state how far the invasion was successful, but the appearance
+of a new enemy from the northwest must have divided the Babylonian
+forces and thus have reduced their power of resisting pressure from the
+Country of the Sea. Samsu-ditana may have succeeded in defeating the
+Hittites and in driving them from his country; but the fact that he
+was the last king of the First Dynasty proves that in his reign Babylon
+itself fell into the hands of the king of the Country of the Sea.
+
+The question now arises, To what race did the people of the Country
+of the Sea belong? Did they represent an advance-guard of the Kassite
+tribes, who eventually succeeded in establishing themselves as the Third
+Dynasty in Babylon? Or were they the Elamites who, when driven from Ur
+and Larsam, retreated southwards and maintained their independence on
+the shores of the Persian Gulf? Or did they represent some fresh wave of
+Semitic immigration’? That they were not Kassites is proved by the new
+chronicle which relates how the Country of the Sea was conquered by the
+Kassites, and how the dynasty founded by Iluma-ilu thus came to an end.
+There is nothing to show that they were Elamites, and if the Country of
+the Sea had been colonized by fresh Semitic tribes, so far from opposing
+their kindred in Babylon, most probably they would have proved to them
+a source of additional strength and support. In fact, there are
+indications that the people of the Country of the Sea are to be referred
+to an older stock than the Elamites, the Semites, or the Kassites. In
+the dynasty of the Country of the Sea there is no doubt that we may
+trace the last successful struggle of the ancient Sumerians to retain
+possession of the land which they had held for so many centuries before
+the invading Semites had disputed its possession with them.
+
+Evidence of the Sumerian origin of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea may be traced in the names which several of them bear. Ishkibal,
+Grulkishar, Peshgal-daramash, A-dara-kalama, Akur-ul-ana, and
+Melam-kur-kura, the names of some of them, are all good Sumerian names,
+and Shushshi, the brother of Ishkibal, may also be taken as a Sumerian
+name. It is true that the first three kings of the dynasty, Iluma-ilu,
+Itti-ili-nibi, and Damki-ilishu, and the last king of the dynasty,
+Ea-gamil, bear Semitic Babylonian names, but there is evidence that
+at least one of these is merely a Semitic rendering of a Sumerian
+equivalent. Iluma-ilu, the founder of the dynasty, has left inscriptions
+in which his name is written in its correct Sumerian form as
+Dingir-a-an, and the fact that he and some of his successors either bore
+Semitic names or appear in the late list of kings with their Sumerian
+names translated into Babylonian form may be easily explained by
+supposing that the population of the Country of the Sea was mixed and
+that the Sumerian and Semitic tongues were to a great extent employed
+indiscriminately. This supposition is not inconsistent with the
+suggestion that the dynasty of the Country of the Sea was Sumerian, and
+that under it the Sumerians once more became the predominant race in
+Babylonia.
+
+The new chronicle also relates how the dynasty of the Country of the
+Sea succumbed in its turn before the incursions of the Kassites. We know
+that already under the First Dynasty the Kassite tribes had begun to
+make incursions into Babylonia, for the ninth year of Samsu-iluna was
+named in the date-formulae after a Kassite invasion, which, as it
+was commemorated in this manner by the Babylonians, was probably
+successfully repulsed. Such invasions must have taken place from time to
+time during the period of supremacy attained by the Country of the Sea,
+and it was undoubtedly with a view to stopping such incursions--for the
+future that Ea-gamil--the last king of the Second Dynasty, decided to
+invade Elam and conquer the mountainous districts in which the Kassite
+tribes had built their strongholds. This Elamite campaign of Ea-gamil
+is recorded by the new chronicle, which relates how he was defeated and
+driven from the country by Ulam-Buriash, the brother of Bitiliash the
+Kassite. Ulam-Buriash did not rest content with repelling Ea-gamil’s
+invasion of his land, but pursued him across the border and succeeded
+in conquering the Country of the Sea and in establishing there his own
+administration. The gradual conquest of the whole of Babylonia by the
+Kassites no doubt followed the conquest of the Country of the Sea,
+for the chronicle relates how the process of subjugation, begun by
+Ulam-Buriash, was continued by his nephew Agum, and we know from the
+lists of kings that Ea-gamil was the last king of the dynasty founded by
+Iluma-ilu. In this fashion the Second Dynasty was brought to an end, and
+the Sumerian element in the mixed population of Babylonia did not again
+succeed in gaining control of the government of the country.
+
+It will be noticed that the account of the earliest Kassite rulers of
+Babylonia which is given by the new chronicle does not exactly tally
+with the names of the kings of the Third Dynasty as found upon the
+list of kings. On this document the first king of the dynasty is named
+Gandash, with whom we may probably identify Ulam-Buriash, the Kassite
+conqueror of the Country of the Sea; the second king is Agum, and the
+third is Bitiliashi. According to the new chronicle Agum was the son
+of Bitiliashi, and it would be improbable that he should have ruled in
+Babylonia before his father. But this difficulty is removed by supposing
+that the two names were transposed by some copyist. The different
+names assigned to the founder of the Kassite dynasty may be due to
+the existence of variant traditions, or Ulam-Buriash may have assumed
+another name on his conquest of Babylonia, a practice which was usual
+with the later kings of Assyria when they occupied the Babylonian
+throne.
+
+The information supplied by the new chronicle with regard to the
+relations of the first three dynasties to one another is of the greatest
+possible interest to the student of early Babylonian history. We see
+that the Semitic empire founded at Babylon by Sumu-abu, and consolidated
+by Hammurabi, was not established on so firm a basis as has hitherto
+been believed. The later kings of the dynasty, after Elam had been
+conquered, had to defend their empire from encroachments on the south,
+and they eventually succumbed before the onslaught of the Sumerian
+element, which still remained in the population of Babylonia and had
+rallied in the Country of the Sea. This dynasty in its turn succumbed
+before the invasion of the Kassites from the mountains in the western
+districts of Elam, and, although the city of Babylon retained her
+position as the capital of the country throughout these changes of
+government, she was the capital of rulers of different races, who
+successively fought for and obtained the control of the fertile plains
+of Mesopotamia.
+
+It is probable that the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty exercised
+authority not only over Babylonia but also over the greater part of
+Elam, for a number of inscriptions of Kassite kings of Babylonia have
+been found by M. de Morgan at Susa. These inscriptions consist of
+grants of land written on roughly shaped stone stelæ, a class which the
+Babylonians themselves called _kudurru_, while they have been frequently
+referred to by modern writers as “boundary-stones.” This latter term
+is not very happily chosen, for it suggests that the actual monuments
+themselves were set up on the limits of a field or estate to mark its
+boundary. It is true that the inscription on a kudurru enumerates the
+exact position and size of the estate with which it is concerned,
+but the kudurru was never actually used to mark the boundary. It was
+preserved as a title-deed, in the house of the owner of the estate or
+possibly in the temple of his god, and formed his charter or title-deed
+to which he could appeal in case of any dispute arising as to his right
+of ownership. One of the kudurrus found by M. de Morgan records the
+grant of a number of estates near Babylon by Nazimaruttash, a king of
+the Third or Kassite Dynasty, to the god Marduk, that is to say they
+were assigned by the king to the service of E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk at Babylon.
+
+[Illustration: 256.jpg A KUDURRU OR “BOUNDARY-STONE.”]
+
+     Inscribed with a text of Nazimaruttash, a king of the Third
+     or Kassite Dynasty, conferring certain estates near Babylon
+     on the temple of Marduk and on a certain man named Kashakti-
+     Shugab. The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan’s
+     Delegation en Perse, Mêm., t. ii, pi, 18.
+
+All the crops and produce from the land were granted for the supply of
+the temple, which was to enjoy the property without the payment of any
+tax or tribute. The text also records the gift of considerable tracts of
+land in the same district to a private individual named Kashakti-Shugab,
+who was to enjoy a similar freedom from taxation so far as the lands
+bestowed upon him were concerned.
+
+This freedom from taxation is specially enacted by the document in
+the words: “Whensoever in the days that are to come the ruler of the
+country, or one of the governors, or directors, or wardens of these
+districts, shall make any claim with regard to these estates, or shall
+attempt to impose the payment of a tithe or tax upon them, may all the
+great gods whose names are commemorated, or whose arms are portrayed, or
+whose dwelling-places are represented, on this stone, curse him with an
+evil curse and blot out his name!”
+
+Incidentally, this curse illustrates one of the most striking
+characteristics of the kudurrus, or “boundary-stones,” viz. the carved
+figures of gods and representations of their emblems, which all of them
+bare in addition to the texts inscribed upon them. At one time it was
+thought that these symbols were to be connected with the signs of the
+zodiac and various constellations and stars, and it was suggested that
+they might have been intended to represent the relative positions of the
+heavenly bodies at the time the document was drawn up. But this text
+of Nazimaruttash and other similar documents that have recently been
+discovered prove that the presence of the figures and emblems of the
+gods upon the stones is to be explained on another and far more simple
+theory. They were placed there as guardians of the property to which the
+kudurru referred, and it was believed that the carving of their figures
+or emblems upon the stone would ensure their intervention in case of
+any attempted infringement of the rights and privileges which it was
+the object of the document to commemorate and preserve. A photographic
+reproduction of one side of the kudurru of Nazi-maruttash is shown in
+the accompanying illustration. There will be seen a representation of
+Gula or Bau, the mother of the gods, who is portrayed as seated on
+her throne and wearing the four-horned head-dress and a long robe
+that reaches to her feet. In the field are emblems of the Sun-god, the
+Moon-god, Ishtar, and other deities, and the representation of divine
+emblems and dwelling-places is continued on another face of the stone
+round the corner towards which Grula is looking. The other two faces of
+the document are taken up with the inscription.
+
+An interesting note is appended to the text inscribed upon the stone,
+beginning under the throne and feet of Marduk and continuing under the
+emblems of the gods upon the other side. This note relates the history
+of the document in the following words: “In those days Kashakti-Shugab,
+the son of Nusku-na’id, inscribed (this document) upon a memorial
+of clay, and he set it before his god. But in the reign of
+Marduk-aplu-iddina, king of hosts, the son of Melishikhu, King
+of Babylon, the wall fell upon this memorial and crushed it.
+Shu-khuli-Shugab, the son of Nibishiku, wrote a copy of the ancient
+text upon a new stone stele, and he set it (before the god).” It will be
+seen, therefore, that this actual stone that has been recovered was not
+the document drawn up in the reign of Nazimaruttash, but a copy made
+under Marduk-aplu-iddina, a later king of the Third Dynasty. The
+original deed was drawn up to preserve the rights of Kashakti-Shugab,
+who shared the grant of land with the temple of Marduk. His share was
+less than half that of the temple, but, as both were situated in the
+same district, he was careful to enumerate and describe the temple’s
+share, to prevent any encroachment on his rights by the Babylonian
+priests.
+
+It is probable that such grants of land were made to private individuals
+in return for special services which they had rendered to the king. Thus
+a broken kudurru among M. de Morgan’s finds records the confirmation of
+a man’s claims to certain property by Biti-liash II, the claims being
+based on a grant made to the man’s ancestor by Kurigalzu for services
+rendered to the king during his war with Assyria. One of the finest
+specimens of this class of charters or title-deeds has been found at
+Susa, dating from the reign of Melishikhu, a king of the Third Dynasty.
+The document in question records a grant of certain property in the
+district of Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, near the cities Agade and Dûr-Kurigalzu,
+made by Melishikhu to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son, who succeeded him
+upon the throne of Babylon. The text first gives details with regard to
+the size and situation of the estates included in the grant of land, and
+it states the names of the high officials who were entrusted with the
+duty of measuring them. The remainder of the text defines and secures
+the privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina together with the land,
+and, as it throws considerable light upon the system of land tenure at
+the period, an extract from it may here be translated:
+
+“To prevent the encroachment on his land,” the inscription runs, “thus
+hath he (i.e. the king) established his (Marduk-aplu-iddina’s) charter.
+On his land taxes and tithes shall they not impose; ditches, limits, and
+boundaries shall they not displace; there shall be no plots, stratagems,
+or claims (with regard to his possession); for forced labour or public
+work for the prevention of floods, for the maintenance and repair of
+the royal canal under the protection of the towns of Bit-Sikkamidu
+and Damik-Adad, among the gangs levied in the towns of the district of
+Ninâ-Agade, they shall not call out the people of his estate; they are
+not liable to forced labour on the sluices of the royal canal, nor
+are they liable for building dams, nor for closing the canal, nor for
+digging out the bed thereof.”
+
+[Illustration: 260.jpg KUOTTRRU, OR “BOUNDARY-STONE.”]
+
+     Inscribed with a text of Melishikhu, one of the kings of the
+     Third or Kassite Dynasty of Babylon, recording a grant of
+     certain property to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son The
+     photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan’s Delegation en
+     Perse, Mem., t. ii, pi. 24.
+
+“A cultivator of his lands, whether hired or belonging to the estate,
+and the men who receive his instructions (i.e. his overseers) shall no
+governor of Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû cause to leave his lands, whether by the
+order of the king, or by the order of the governor, or by the order of
+whosoever may be at Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû. On wood, grass, straw, corn,
+and every other sort of crop, on his carts and yoke, on his ass and
+man-servant, shall they make no levy. During the scarcity of water in
+the canal running between the Bati-Anzanim canal and the canal of the
+royal district, on the waters of his ditch for irrigation shall they
+make no levy; from the ditch of his reservoir shall they not draw water,
+neither shall they divert (his water for) irrigation, and other land
+shall they not irrigate nor water therewith. The grass of his lands
+shall they not mow; the beasts belonging to the king or to a governor,
+which may be assigned to the district of Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, shall they
+not drive within his boundary, nor shall they pasture them on his grass.
+He shall not be forced to build a road or a bridge, whether for the
+king, or for the governor who may be appointed in the district of
+Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, neither shall he be liable for any new form of
+forced labour, which in the days that are to come a king, or a governor
+appointed in the district of Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, shall institute and
+exact, nor for forced labour long fallen into disuse which may be
+revived anew. To prevent encroachment on his land the king hath fixed
+the privileges of his domain, and that which appertaineth unto it, and
+all that he hath granted unto him; and in the presence of Shamash, and
+Marduk, and Anunitu, and the great gods of heaven and earth, he hath
+inscribed them upon a stone, and he hath left it as an everlasting
+memorial with regard to his estate.”
+
+The whole of the text is too long to quote, and it will suffice to note
+here that Melishikhu proceeds to appeal to future kings to respect the
+land and privileges which he has granted to his son, Marduk-aplu-iddina,
+even as he himself has respected similar grants made by his predecessors
+on the throne; and the text ends with some very vivid curses against
+any one, whatever his station, who should make any encroachments on the
+privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina, or should alter or do any harm
+to the memorial-stone itself. The emblems of the gods whom Melishikhu
+invokes to avenge any infringement of his grant are sculptured upon one
+side of the stone, for, as has already been remarked, it was believed
+that by carving them upon the memorial-stone their help in guarding the
+stone itself and its enactments was assured.
+
+From the portion of the text inscribed upon the stone which has just
+been translated it is seen that the owner of land in Babylonia in the
+period of the Kassite kings, unless he was granted special exemption,
+was liable to furnish forced labour for public works to the state or to
+his district, to furnish grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of
+the king or governor, and to pay various taxes and tithes on his land,
+his water for irrigation, and his crops. From the numerous documents
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon that have been recovered and published
+within the last few years we know that similar customs were prevalent at
+that period, so that it is clear that the successive conquests to which
+the country was subjected, and the establishment of different dynasties
+of foreign kings at Babylon, did not to any appreciable extent affect
+the life and customs of the inhabitants of the country or even the
+general character of its government and administration. Some documents
+of a commercial and legal nature, inscribed upon clay tablets during the
+reigns of the Kassite kings of Babylon, have been found at Nippur,
+but they have not yet been published, and the information we possess
+concerning the life of the people in this period is obtained indirectly
+from kudurrus or boundary-stones, such as those of Nazimaruttash and
+Melishikhu which have been already described. Of documents relating to
+the life of the people under the rule of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea we have none, and, with the exception of the unpublished chronicle
+which has been described earlier in this chapter, our information for
+this period is confined to one or two short votive inscriptions. But the
+case is very different with regard to the reigns of the Semitic kings of
+the First Dynasty of Babylon. Thousands of tablets relating to legal and
+commercial transactions during this period have been recovered, and more
+recently a most valuable series of royal letters, written by Hammurabi
+and other kings of his dynasty, has been brought to light.
+
+[Illustration: 264.jpg Upper Part of the Stele of Hammurabi, King of
+Babylon.]
+
+     The stele is inscribed with his great code of laws. The Sun-
+     god is represented as seated on a throne in the form of a
+     temple façade, and his feet are resting upon the mountains.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+Moreover, the recently discovered code of laws drawn up by Hammurabi
+contains information of the greatest interest with regard to the
+conditions of life that were prevalent in Babylonia at that period.
+From these three sources it is possible to draw up a comparatively full
+account of early Babylonian life and customs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+
+
+In tracing the ancient history of Mesopotamia and the surrounding
+countries it is possible to construct a narrative which has the
+appearance of being comparatively full and complete. With regard to
+Babylonia it may be shown how dynasty succeeded dynasty, and for long
+periods together the names of the kings have been recovered and the
+order of their succession fixed with certainty. But the number and
+importance of the original documents on which this connected narration
+is based vary enormously for different periods. Gaps occur in our
+knowledge of the sequence of events, which with some ingenuity may be
+bridged over by means of the native lists of kings and the genealogies
+furnished by the historical inscriptions. On the other hand, as if to
+make up for such parsimony, the excavations have yielded a wealth of
+material for illustrating the conditions of early Babylonian life which
+prevailed in such periods. The most fortunate of these periods, so far
+as the recovery of its records is concerned, is undoubtedly the period
+of the Semitic kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and in particular
+the reign of its greatest ruler, Hammurabi. When M. Maspero wrote his
+history, thousands of clay tablets, inscribed with legal and commercial
+documents and dated in the reigns of these early kings, had already been
+recovered, and the information they furnished was duly summarized by
+him.[1] But since that time two other sources of information have been
+made available which have largely increased our knowledge of
+the constitution of the early Babylonian state, its system of
+administration, and the conditions of life of the various classes of the
+population.
+
+     [1] Most of these tablets are preserved in the British Museum.
+     The principal?works in which they have been published are
+     Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum (1896, etc.),
+     Strassmaier’s Altbabylonischen Vertràge aus Warka, and
+     Meissner’s Beitràge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht. A
+     number of similar tablets of this period, preserved in the
+     Pennsylvania Museum, will shortly be published by Dr. Ranke.
+
+One of these new sources of information consists of a remarkable series
+of royal letters, written by kings of the First Dynasty, which has been
+recovered and is now preserved in the British Museum. The letters were
+addressed to the governors and high officials of various great cities in
+Babylonia, and they contain the king’s orders with regard to details of
+the administration of the country which had been brought to his notice.
+The range of subjects with which they deal is enormous, and there is
+scarcely one of them which does not add to our knowledge of the period.[2]
+The other new source of information is the great code of laws, drawn up
+by Hammurabi for the guidance of his people and defining the duties and
+privileges of all classes of his subjects, the discovery of which at
+Susa has been described in a previous chapter. The laws are engraved on
+a great stele of diorite in no less than forty-nine columns of writing,
+of which forty-four are preserved,[3] and at the head of the stele is
+sculptured a representation of the king receiving them from Shamash, the
+Sun-god.
+
+     [2] See King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, 3 vols.
+     (1898-1900).
+
+     [3] See Scheil, Délégationen perse, Mémoires, tome iv (1902).
+
+This code shows to what an extent the administration of law and justice
+had been developed in Babylonia in the time of the First Dynasty. From
+the contracts and letters of the period we already knew that regular
+judges and duly appointed courts of law were in existence, and the code
+itself was evidently intended by the king to give the royal sanction to
+a great body of legal decisions and enactments which already possessed
+the authority conferred by custom and tradition. The means by which such
+a code could have come into existence are illustrated by the system of
+procedure adopted in the courts at this period. After a case had been
+heard and judgment had been given, a summary of the case and of the
+evidence, together with the judgment, was drawn up and written out on
+tablets in due legal form and phraseology. A list of the witnesses was
+appended, and, after the tablet had been dated and sealed, it was stored
+away among the legal archives of the court, where it was ready for
+production in the event of any future appeal or case in which the
+recorded decision was involved. This procedure represents an advanced
+stage in the system of judicial administration, but the care which
+was taken for the preservation of the judgments given was evidently
+traditional, and would naturally give rise in course of time to the
+existence of a recognized code of laws.
+
+Moreover, when once a judgment had been given and had been duly recorded
+it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision
+he was severely punished. For not only was he expelled from his
+judgment-seat, and debarred from exercising judicial functions in the
+future, but, if his judgment had involved the infliction of a penalty,
+he was obliged to pay twelve times the amount to the man he had
+condemned. Such an enactment must have occasionally given rise to
+hardship or injustice, but at least it must have had the effect
+of imbuing the judges with a sense of their responsibility and of
+instilling a respect for their decisions in the minds of the people. A
+further check upon injustice was provided by the custom of the elders of
+the city, who sat with the judge and assisted him in the carrying out
+of his duties; and it was always open to a man, if he believed that he
+could not get justice enforced, to make an appeal to the king. It is not
+our present purpose to give a technical discussion of the legal contents
+of the code, but rather to examine it with the object of ascertaining
+what light it throws upon ancient Babylonian life and customs, and the
+conditions under which the people lived.
+
+The code gives a good deal of information with regard to the family life
+of the Babylonians, and, above all, proves the sanctity with which the
+marriage-tie was invested. The claims that were involved by marriage
+were not lightly undertaken. Any marriage, to be legally binding, had to
+be accompanied by a duly executed and attested marriage-contract. If a
+man had taken a woman to wife without having carried out this necessary
+preliminary, the woman was not regarded as his wife in the legal sense.
+On the other hand, when once such a marriage-contract had been drawn up,
+its inviolability was stringently secured. A case of proved adultery
+on the part of a man’s wife was punished by the drowning of the guilty
+parties, though the husband of the woman, if he wished to save his wife,
+could do so by an appeal to the king. Similarly, death was the penalty
+for a man who ravished another man’s betrothed wife while she was still
+living in her father’s house, but in this case the girl’s innocence
+and inexperience were taken into account, and no penalty was enforced
+against her and she was allowed to go free. Where the adultery of a wife
+was not proved, and only depended on the accusation of the husband, the
+woman could clear herself by swearing her own innocence; if, however,
+the accusation was not brought by the husband himself, but by others,
+the woman could clear herself by submitting to the ordeal by water; that
+is to say, she would plunge into the Euphrates; if the river carried her
+away and she were drowned, it was regarded as proof that the accusation
+was well founded; if, on the contrary, she survived and got safely
+to the bank, she was considered innocent and was forthwith allowed to
+return to her household completely vindicated.
+
+It will have been seen that the duty of chastity on the part of a
+married woman was strictly enforced, but the husband’s responsibility to
+properly maintain his wife was also recognized, and in the event of
+his desertion she could under certain circumstances become the wife of
+another man. Thus, if he left his city and fled from it of his own free
+will and deserted his wife, he could not reclaim her on his return,
+since he had not been forced to leave the city, but had done so because
+he hated it. This rule did not apply to the case of a man who was taken
+captive in battle. In such circumstances the wife’s action was to be
+guided by the condition of her husband’s affairs. If the captive husband
+possessed sufficient property on which his wife could be maintained
+during his captivity in a strange land, she had no reason nor excuse
+for seeking another marriage. If under these circumstances she became
+another man’s wife, she was to be prosecuted at law, and, her action
+being the equivalent of adultery, she was to be drowned. But the case
+was regarded as altered if the captive husband had not sufficient means
+for the maintenance of his wife during his absence. The woman would then
+be thrown on her own resources, and if she became the wife of another
+man she incurred no blame. On the return of the captive he could reclaim
+his wife, but the children of the second marriage would remain with
+their own father. These regulations for the conduct of a woman, whose
+husband was captured in battle, give an intimate picture of the manner
+in which the constant wars of this early period affected the lives of
+those who took part in them.
+
+Under the Babylonians at the period of the First Dynasty divorce was
+strictly regulated, though it was far easier for the man to obtain one
+than for the woman. If we may regard the copies of Sumerian laws, which
+have come down to us from the late Assyrian period, as parts of the code
+in use under the early Sumerians, we must conclude that at this earlier
+period the law was still more in favour of the husband, who could
+divorce his wife whenever he so desired, merely paying her half a mana
+as compensation. Under the Sumerians the wife could not obtain a
+divorce at all, and the penalty for denying her husband was death. These
+regulations were modified in favour of the woman in Hammurabi’s code;
+for under its provisions, if a man divorced his wife or his concubine,
+he was obliged to make proper provision for her maintenance. Whether
+she were barren or had borne him children, he was obliged to return
+her marriage portion; and in the latter case she had the custody of the
+children, for whose maintenance and education he was obliged to furnish
+the necessary supplies. Moreover, at the man’s death she and her
+children would inherit a share of his property. When there had been no
+marriage portion, a sum was fixed which the husband was obliged to pay
+to his divorced wife, according to his status. In cases where the wife
+was proved to have wasted her household and to have entirely failed in
+her duty, her husband could divorce her without paying any compensation,
+or could make her a slave in his house, and the extreme penalty for
+this offence was death. On the other hand, a woman could not be divorced
+because she had contracted a permanent disease; and, if she desired to
+divorce her husband and could prove that her past life had been seemly,
+she could do so, returning to her father’s house and taking her marriage
+portion with her.
+
+It is not necessary here to go very minutely into the regulations given
+by the code with regard to marriage portions, the rights of widows,
+the laws of inheritance, and the laws regulating the adoption and
+maintenance of children. The customs that already have been described
+with regard to marriage and divorce may serve to indicate the spirit
+in which the code is drawn up and the recognized status occupied by the
+wife in the Babylonian household. The extremely independent position
+enjoyed by women in the early Babylonian days is illustrated by the
+existence of a special class of women, to which constant reference is
+made in the contracts and letters of the period. When the existence of
+this class of women was first recognized from the references to them in
+the contract-tablets inscribed at the time of the First Dynasty, they
+were regarded as priestesses, but the regulations concerning them which
+occur in the code of Hammurabi prove that their duties were not strictly
+sacerdotal, but that they occupied the position of votaries. The
+majority of those referred to in the inscriptions of this period
+were vowed to the service of E-bab-bara, the temple of the Sun-god at
+Sippara, and of E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk at Babylon, but
+it is probable that all the great temples in the country had classes of
+female votaries attached to them. From the evidence at present
+available it may be concluded that the functions of these women bore no
+resemblance to that of the sacred prostitutes devoted to the service of
+the goddess Ishtar in the city of Erech. They seem to have occupied a
+position of great influence and independence in the community, and
+their duties and privileges were defined and safeguarded by special
+legislation.
+
+Generally they lived together in a special building, or convent,
+attached to the temple, but they had considerable freedom and could
+leave the convent and also contract marriage. Their vows, however,
+while securing them special privileges, entailed corresponding
+responsibilities. Even when married a votary was still obliged to remain
+a virgin, and, should her husband desire to have children, she could not
+bear them herself, but must provide him with a maid or concubine. Also
+she had to maintain a high standard of moral conduct, for any breach
+of which severe penalties were enforced. Thus, if a votary who was not
+living in the convent opened a beer-shop, or should enter one for drink,
+she ran the risk of being put to death. But the privileges she enjoyed
+were also considerable, for even when unmarried she enjoyed the status
+of a married woman, and if any man slandered her he incurred the penalty
+of branding on the forehead. Moreover, a married votary, though she
+could not bear her husband children, was secured in her position as the
+permanent head of his household. The concubine she might give to her
+husband was always the wife’s inferior, even after bearing him children,
+and should the former attempt to put herself on a level of equality with
+the votary, the latter might brand her as a slave and put her with the
+female slaves. If the concubine proved barren she could be sold. The
+votary could also possess property, and on taking her vows was provided
+with a portion by her father exactly as though she were being given
+in marriage. Her portion was vested in herself and did not become the
+property of the order of votaries, nor of the temple to which she
+was attached. The proceeds of her property were devoted to her own
+maintenance, and on her father’s death her brothers looked after
+her interests, or she might farm the property out. Under certain
+circumstances she could inherit property and was not obliged to pay
+taxes on it, and such property she could bequeath at her own death; but
+upon her death her portion returned to her own family unless her father
+had assigned her the privilege of bequeathing it. That the social
+position enjoyed by a votary was considerable is proved by the fact that
+many women of good family, and even members of the royal house, took
+vows. The existence of the order and its high repute indicate a
+very advanced conception of the position of women among the early
+Babylonians.
+
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gather considerable information with
+regard to the various classes of which the community was composed and
+to their relative social positions. For the purposes of legislation
+the community was divided into three main classes or sections, which
+corresponded to well-defined strata in the social system. The lowest
+of these classes consisted of the slaves, who must have formed a
+considerable portion of the population. The class next above them
+comprised the large body of free men, who were possessed of a certain
+amount of property but were poor and humble, as their name, _muslikênu_,
+implied. These we may refer to as the middle class. The highest, or
+upper class, in the Babylonian community embraced all the officers and
+ministers attached to the court, the higher officials and servants
+of the state, and the owners of considerable lands and estates. The
+differences which divided and marked off from one another the two great
+classes of free men in the population of Babylonia is well illustrated
+by the scale of payments as compensation for injury which they were
+obliged to make or were entitled to receive. Thus, if a member of the
+upper class were guilty of stealing an ox, or a sheep, or an ass, or
+a pig, or a boat, from a temple or a private house, he had to pay the
+owner thirty times its value as compensation, whereas if the thief were
+a member of the middle class he only had to pay ten times its price, but
+if he had no property and so could not pay compensation he was put to
+death. The penalty for manslaughter was less if the assailant was a man
+of the middle class, and such a man could also divorce his wife more
+cheaply, and was privileged to pay his doctor or surgeon a smaller fee
+for a successful operation.
+
+But the privileges enjoyed by a man of the middle class were
+counterbalanced by a corresponding diminution of the value at which
+his life and limbs were assessed. Thus, if a doctor by carrying out an
+operation unskilfully caused the death of a member of the upper class,
+or inflicted a serious injury upon him, such as the loss of an eye, the
+punishment was the amputation of both hands, but no such penalty seems
+to have been exacted if the patient were a member of the middle class.
+If, however, the patient were a slave of a member of the middle class,
+in the event of death under the operation, the doctor had to give the
+owner another slave, and in the event of the slave losing his eye, he
+had to pay the owner half the slave’s value. Penalties for assault were
+also regulated in accordance with the social position and standing
+of the parties to the quarrel. Thus, if one member of the upper class
+knocked out the eye or the tooth of one of his equals, his own eye or
+his own tooth was knocked out as a punishment, and if he broke the limb
+of one of the members of his own class, he had his corresponding limb
+broken; but if he knocked out the eye of a member of the middle class,
+or broke his limb, he suffered no punishment in his own person, but was
+fined one mana of silver, and for knocking out the tooth of such a man
+he was fined one-third of a mana. If two members of the same class were
+engaged in a quarrel, and one of them made a peculiarly improper assault
+upon the other, the assailant was only fined, the fine being larger
+if the quarrel was between members of the upper class. But if such an
+assault was made by one man upon another who was of higher rank than
+himself, the assailant was punished by being publicly beaten in the
+presence of the assembly, when he received sixty stripes from a scourge
+of ox-hide. These regulations show the privileges and responsibilities
+which pertained to the two classes of free men in the Babylonian
+community, and they indicate the relative social positions which they
+enjoyed.
+
+Both classes of free men could own slaves, though it is obvious that
+they were more numerous in the households and on the estates of members
+of the upper class. The slave was the absolute property of his master
+and could be bought and sold and employed as a deposit for a debt,
+but, though slaves as a class had few rights of their own, in certain
+circumstances they could acquire them. Thus, if the owner of a female
+slave had begotten children by her he could not use her as the payment
+for a debt, and in the event of his having done so he was obliged to
+ransom her by paying the original amount of the debt in money. It was
+also possible for a male slave, whether owned by a member of the upper
+or of the middle class, to marry a free woman, and if he did so, his
+children were free and did not become the property of his master. Also,
+if the free woman whom the slave married brought with her a marriage
+portion from her father’s house, this remained her own property on the
+slave’s death, and supposing the couple had acquired other property
+during the time they lived together as man and wife, the owner of the
+slave could only claim half of such property, the other half being
+retained by the free woman for her own use and for that of her children.
+
+Generally speaking, the lot of the slave was not a particularly hard
+one, for he was a recognized member of his owner’s household, and, as a
+valuable piece of property, it was obviously to his owner’s interest to
+keep him healthy and in good condition. In fact, the value of the slave
+is attested by the severity of the penalty imposed for abducting a male
+or female slave from the owner’s house and removing him or her from
+the city; for a man guilty of this offence was put to death. The same
+penalty was imposed for harbouring and taking possession of a runaway
+slave, whereas a fixed reward was paid by the owner to any one by whom
+a runaway slave was captured and brought back. Special legislation was
+also devised with the object of rendering the theft of slaves difficult
+and their detection easy. Thus, if a brander put a mark upon a slave
+without the owner’s consent, he was liable to have his hands cut off,
+and if he could prove that he did so through being deceived by another
+man, that man was put to death. For bad offences slaves were liable to
+severe punishments, such as cutting off the ear, which was the penalty
+for denying his master, and also for making an aggravated assault on a
+member of the upper class of free men. But it is clear that on the whole
+the slave was well looked after. He was also not condemned to remain
+perpetually a slave, for while still in his master’s service it was
+possible for him, under certain conditions, to acquire property of his
+own, and if he did so he was able with his master’s consent to purchase
+his freedom. If a slave were captured by the enemy and taken to a
+foreign land and sold, and were then brought back by his new owner to
+his own country, he could claim his liberty without having to pay any
+purchase-money to either of his masters.
+
+The code of Hammurabi also contains detailed regulations concerning the
+duties of debtors and creditors, and it throws an interesting light
+on the commercial life of the Babylonians at this early period. For
+instance, it reveals the method by which a wealthy man, or a merchant,
+extended his business and obtained large profits by trading with other
+towns. This he did by employing agents who were under certain fixed
+obligations to him, but acted independently so far as their trading was
+concerned. From the merchant these agents would receive money or grain
+or wool or oil or any sort of goods wherewith to trade, and in return
+they paid a fixed share of their profits, retaining the remainder as
+the recompense for their own services. They were thus the earliest of
+commercial travellers. In order to prevent fraud between the merchant
+and the agent special regulations were framed for the dealings they had
+with one another. Thus, when the agent received from the merchant the
+money or goods to trade with, it was enacted that he should at the time
+of the transaction give a properly executed receipt for the amount he
+had received. Similarly, if the agent gave the merchant money in return
+for the goods he had received and in token of his good faith, the
+merchant had to give a receipt to the agent, and in reckoning their
+accounts after the agent’s return from his journey, only such amounts as
+were specified in the receipts were to be regarded as legal obligations.
+If the agent forgot to obtain his proper receipt he did so at his own
+risk.
+
+[Illustration: 280.jpg CLAY CONTRACT TABLET AND ITS OUTER CASE]
+
+     Dating from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon.
+
+Travelling at this period was attended with some risk, as it is in the
+East at the present day, and the caravan with which an agent travelled
+was liable to attack from brigands, or it might be captured by enemies
+of the country from which it set out. It was right that loss from this
+cause should not be borne by the agent, who by trading with the goods
+was risking his own life, but should fall upon the merchant who had
+merely advanced the goods and was safe in his own city. It is plain,
+however, that disputes frequently arose in consequence of the loss of
+goods through a caravan being attacked and robbed, for the code states
+clearly the responsibility of the merchant in the matter. If in the
+course of his journey an enemy had forced the agent to give up some of
+the goods he was carrying, on his return the agent had to specify the
+amount on oath, and he was then acquitted of all responsibility in the
+matter. If he attempted to cheat his employer by misappropriating the
+money or goods advanced to him, on being convicted of the offence before
+the elders of the city, he was obliged to repay the merchant three times
+the amount he had taken. On the other hand, if the merchant attempted
+to defraud his agent by denying that the due amount had been returned to
+him, he was obliged on conviction to pay the agent six times the amount
+as compensation. It will thus be seen that the law sought to protect the
+agent from the risk of being robbed by his more powerful employer.
+
+The merchant sometimes furnished the agent with goods which he was to
+dispose of in the best markets he could find in the cities and towns
+along his route, and sometimes he would give the agent money with which
+to purchase goods in foreign cities for sale on his return. If the
+venture proved successful the merchant and his agent shared the profits
+between them, but if the agent made bad bargains he had to refund to the
+merchant the value of the goods he had received; if the merchant had not
+agreed to risk losing any profit, the amount to be refunded to him was
+fixed at double the value of the goods advanced.
+
+[Illustration: 282.jpg A TRACK IN THE DESERT.]
+
+This last enactment gives an indication of the immense profits which
+were obtained by both the merchant and the agent from this system of
+foreign trade, for it is clear that what was regarded fair profit for
+the merchant was double the value of the goods disposed of. The profits
+of a successful journey would also include a fair return to the agent
+for the trouble and time involved in his undertaking. Many of the
+contract tablets of this early period relate to such commercial
+journeys, which show that various bargains were made between the
+different parties interested, and sometimes such contracts, or
+partnerships, were entered into, not for a single journey only, but for
+long periods. We may therefore conclude that at the time of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon, and probably for long centuries before that period,
+the great trade-routes of the East were crowded with traffic. With the
+exception that donkeys and asses were employed for beasts of burden and
+were not supplemented by horses and camels until a much later period, a
+camping-ground in the desert on one of the great trade-routes must have
+presented a scene similar to that of a caravan camping in the desert at
+the present day.
+
+[Illustration: 283.jpg A CAMPING-GROUND IN THE DESERT, BETWEEN BIREJIK
+AND URFA.]
+
+The rough tracks beaten by the feet of men and beasts are the same
+to-day as they were in that remote period. We can imagine a body of
+these early travellers approaching a walled city at dusk and hastening
+their pace to get there before the gates were shut. Such a picture as
+that of the approach to the city of Samarra, with its mediaeval walls,
+may be taken as having had its counterpart in many a city of the early
+Babylonians. The caravan route leads through the desert to the city
+gate, and if we substitute two massive temple towers for the domes of
+the mosques that rise above the wall, little else in the picture need be
+changed.
+
+[Illustration: 284.jpg APPROACH TO THE CITY OF SAMARRA, SITUATED ON THE
+LEFT BANK OF THE TIGRIS.]
+
+     A small caravan is here seen approaching the city at sunset
+     before the gates are shut. Samarra was only founded in A. D.
+     834, by the Khalif el-Motasim, the son of Harûn er-Rashîd,
+     but customs in the East do not change, and the photograph
+     may be used to illustrate the approach of an early
+     Babylonian caravan to a walled city of the period.
+
+The houses, too, at this period must have resembled the structures of
+unburnt brick of the present day, with their flat mud tops, on which
+the inmates sleep at night during the hot season, supported on poles
+and brushwood. The code furnishes evidence that at that time, also, the
+houses were not particularly well built and were liable to fall, and,
+in the event of their doing so, it very justly fixes the responsibility
+upon the builder. It is clear from the penalties for bad workmanship
+enforced upon the builder that considerable abuses had existed in the
+trade before the time of Hammurabi, and it is not improbable that the
+enforcement of the penalties succeeded in stamping them out. Thus, if
+a builder built a house for a man, and his work was not sound and the
+house fell and crushed the owner so that he died, it was enacted that
+the builder himself should be put to death. If the fall of the house
+killed the owner’s son, the builder’s own son was to be put to death.
+
+[Illustration: 285.jpg A SMALL CARAVAN IN THE MOUNTAINS OF KURDISTAN.]
+
+If one or more of the owner’s slaves were killed, the builder had to
+restore him slave for slave. Any damage which the owner’s goods might
+have suffered from the fall of the house was to be made good by the
+builder. In addition to these penalties the builder was obliged to
+rebuild the house, or any portion of it that had fallen through
+not being properly secured, at his own cost. On the other hand, due
+provisions were made for the payment of the builder for sound work; and
+as the houses of the period rarely, if ever, consisted of more than one
+story, the scale of payment was fixed by the area of ground covered by
+the building.
+
+[Illustration: 286.jpg THE CITY OF MOSUL.]
+
+     Situated on the right bank of the Tigris opposite the mounds
+     which mark the site of the ancient city of Nineveh. The
+     flat-roof ednouses which may be distinguished in the
+     photograph are very similar in form and construction to
+     those employed by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
+
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gain considerable information with
+regard to agricultural pursuits in ancient Babylonia, for elaborate
+regulations are given concerning the landowner’s duties and
+responsibilities, and his relations to his tenants. The usual practice
+in hiring land for cultivation was for the tenant to pay his rent in
+kind, by assigning a certain proportion of the crop, generally a third
+or a half, to the owner. If a tenant hired certain land for cultivation
+he was bound to till it and raise a crop, and should he neglect to do
+so he had to pay the owner what was reckoned as the average rent of the
+land, and he had also to break up the land and plough it before handing
+it back. As the rent of a field was usually reckoned at harvest, and its
+amount depended on the size of the crop, it was only fair that damage to
+the crop from flood or storm should not be made up by the tenant; thus
+it was enacted by the code that any loss from such a cause should be
+shared equally by the owner of the field and the farmer, though if the
+latter had already paid his rent at the time the damage occurred he
+could not make a claim for repayment.
+
+[Illustration: 287.jpg THE VILLAGE OF NEBI YUNUS.]
+
+     Built on one of the mounds marking the site of the Assyrian
+     city of Nineveh. The mosque in the photograph is built over
+     the traditional site of the prophet Jonah’s tomb. The flat-
+     roofed houses of the modern dwellers on the mound can be
+     well seen in the picture.
+
+It is clear from the enactments of the code that disputes were frequent,
+not only between farmers and landowners, but also between farmers and
+shepherds. It is certain that the latter, in the attempt to find pasture
+for the flocks, often allowed their sheep to feed off the farmers’ fields
+in the spring. This practice the code set itself to prevent by fixing a
+scale of compensation to be paid by any shepherd who caused his sheep to
+graze on cultivated land without the owner’s consent. If the offence was
+committed in the early spring, when the crop was still small, the farmer
+was to harvest the crop and receive a considerable price in kind as
+compensation for the shepherd. But if it occurred later on in the
+spring, when the sheep had been brought in from the meadows and turned
+into the great common field at the city gate, the offence would less
+probably be due to accident and the damage to the crop would be greater.
+In these circumstances the shepherd had to take over the crop and pay
+the farmer very heavily for his loss.
+
+[Illustration: 288.jpg Portrait-sculpture of Hammurabi, King of Babylon]
+
+     From a stone slab in the British Museum.
+
+The planting of gardens and orchards was encouraged, and a man was
+allowed to use a field for this purpose without paying a yearly rent. He
+might plant it and tend it for four years, and in the fifth year of
+his tenancy the original owner of the field took half of the garden
+in payment, while the other half the planter of the garden kept for
+himself. If a bare patch had been left in the garden it was to be
+reckoned in the planter’s half. Regulations were framed to ensure the
+proper carrying out of the planting, for if the tenant neglected to do
+this during the first four years, he was still liable to plant the plot
+he had taken without receiving his half, and he had to pay the owner
+compensation in addition, which varied in amount according to the
+original condition of the land. If a man hired a garden, the rent he
+paid to the owner was fixed at two-thirds of its produce. Detailed
+regulations are also given in the code concerning the hire of cattle
+and asses, and the compensation to be paid to the owner for the loss or
+ill-treatment of his beasts. These are framed on the just principle that
+the hirer was responsible only for damage or loss which he could have
+reasonably prevented. Thus, if a lion killed a hired ox or ass in the
+open country, or if an ox was killed by lightning, the loss fell upon
+the owner and not on the man who hired the beast. But if the hirer
+killed the ox through carelessness or by beating it unmercifully, or if
+the beast broke its leg while in his charge, he had to restore another
+ox to the owner in place of the one he had hired. For lesser damages to
+the beast the hirer had to pay compensation on a fixed scale. Thus, if
+the ox had its eye knocked out during the period of its hire, the man
+who hired it had to pay to the owner half its value; while for a broken
+horn, the loss of the tail, or a torn muzzle, he paid a quarter of the
+value of the beast.
+
+Fines were also levied for carelessness in looking after cattle, though
+in cases of damage or injury, where carelessness could not be proved,
+the owner of a beast was not held responsible. A bull might go wild at
+any time and gore a man, however careful and conscientious the owner
+might be, and in these circumstances the injured man could not bring an
+action against the owner. But if a bull had already gored a man, and,
+although it was known to be vicious, the owner had not blunted its horns
+or shut it up, in the event of its goring and killing a free man, he had
+to pay half a mana of silver. One-third of a mana was the price paid for
+a slave who was killed. A landed proprietor who might hire farmers to
+cultivate his fields inflicted severe fines for acts of dishonesty with
+regard to the cattle, provender, or seed-corn committed to their charge.
+If a man stole the provender for the cattle he had to make it good, and
+he was also liable to the punishment of having his hands cut off. In
+the event of his being convicted of letting out the oxen for hire, or
+stealing the seed-corn so that he did not produce a crop, he had to pay
+very heavy compensation, and, if he could not pay, he was liable to be
+torn to pieces by the oxen in the field he should have cultivated.
+
+In a dry land like Babylonia, where little rain falls and that in only
+one season of the year, the irrigation of his fields forms one of the
+most important duties of the agriculturist. The farmer leads the water
+to his fields along small irrigation-canals or channels above the level
+of the soil, their sides being formed of banks of earth. It is clear
+that similar methods were employed by the early Babylonians. One such
+channel might supply the fields of several farmers, and it was the duty
+of each man through whose land the channel flowed to keep its banks on
+his land in repair. If he omitted to strengthen his bank or dyke, and
+the water forced a breach and flooded his neighbour’s field, he had to
+pay compensation in kind for any crop that was ruined; while if he could
+not pay, he and his goods were sold, and his neighbours, whose fields
+had been damaged through his carelessness, shared the money.
+
+The land of Babylonian farmers was prepared for irrigation before it was
+sown by being divided into a number of small square or oblong tracts,
+each separated from the others by a low bank of earth, the seed being
+afterwards sown within the small squares or patches. Some of the banks
+running lengthwise through the field were made into small channels, the
+ends of which were carried up to the bank of the nearest main irrigation
+canal. No system of gates or sluices was employed, and when the farmer
+wished to water one of his fields he simply broke away the bank opposite
+one of his small channels and let the water flow into it. He would let
+the water run along this small channel until it reached the part of
+his land he wished to water. He then blocked the channel with a little
+earth, at the same time breaking down its bank so that the water flowed
+over one of the small squares and thoroughly soaked it. When this square
+was finished he filled up the bank and repeated the process for the
+next square, and so on until he had watered the necessary portion of
+the field. When this was finished he returned to the main channel and
+stopped the flow of the water by blocking up the hole he had made in the
+dyke. The whole process was, and to-day still is, extremely simple,
+but it needs care and vigilance, especially in the case of extensive
+irrigation when water is being carried into several parts of an estate
+at once. It will be obvious that any carelessness on the part of the
+irrigator in not shutting off the water in time may lead to extensive
+damage, not only to his own fields, but to those of his neighbours. In
+the early Babylonian period, if a farmer left the water running in his
+channel, and it flooded his neighbour’s field and hurt his crop, he had
+to pay compensation according to the amount of damage done.
+
+It was stated above that the irrigation-canals and little channels were
+made above the level of the soil so that the water could at any point
+be tapped and allowed to flow over the surrounding land; and in a flat
+country like Babylonia it will be obvious that some means had to be
+employed for raising the water from its natural level to the higher
+level of the land. As we should expect, reference is made in the
+Babylonian inscriptions to irrigation-machines, and, although their
+exact form and construction are not described, they must have been very
+similar to those employed at the present day. The modern inhabitants of
+Mesopotamia employ four sorts of contrivances for raising the water into
+their irrigation-channels; three of these are quite primitive, and are
+those most commonly employed. The method which gives the least trouble
+and which is used wherever the conditions allow is a primitive form of
+water-wheel. This can be used only in a river with a good current.
+The wheel is formed of rough boughs and branches nailed together, with
+spokes joining the outer rims to a roughly hewn axle. A row of rough
+earthenware cups or bottles are tied round the outer rim for picking
+up the water, and a few rough paddles are fixed so that they stick out
+beyond the rim. The wheel is then fixed in place near the bank of the
+river, its axle resting in pillars of rough masonry.
+
+[Illustration: 293.jpg A MODERN MACHINE FOR IRRIGATION ON THE
+EUPHRATES.]
+
+As the current turns the wheel, the bottles on the rim dip below the
+surface and are raised up full. At the top of the wheel is fixed a
+trough made by hollowing half the trunk of a date-palm, and into this
+the bottles pour their water, which is conducted from the trough by
+means of a small aqueduct into the irrigation-channel on the bank.
+
+The convenience of the water-wheel will be obvious, for the water is
+raised without the labour of man or beast, and a constant supply is
+secured day and night so long as the current is strong enough to turn
+the wheel. The water can be cut off by blocking the wheel or tying it
+up. These wheels are most common on the Euphrates, and are usually set
+up where there is a slight drop in the river bed and the water runs
+swiftly over shallows. As the banks are very high, the wheels are
+necessarily huge contrivances in order to reach the level of the fields,
+and their very rough construction causes them to creak and groan as they
+turn with the current. In a convenient place in the river several of
+these are sometimes set up side by side, and the noise of their combined
+creakings can be heard from a great distance. Some idea of what one of
+these machines looks like can be obtained from the illustration. At Hit
+on the Euphrates a line of gigantic water-wheels is built across the
+river, and the noise they make is extraordinary.
+
+Where there is no current to turn one of these wheels, or where the bank
+is too high, the water must be raised by the labour of man or beast. The
+commonest method, which is the one employed generally on the Tigris, is
+to raise it in skins, which are drawn up by horses, donkeys, or cattle.
+A recess with perpendicular sides is cut into the bank, and a wooden
+spindle on wooden struts is supported horizontally over the recess. A
+rope running over the spindle is fastened to the skin, while the funnel
+end of the skin is held up by a second rope, running over a lower
+spindle, until its mouth is opposite the trough into which the water
+is to be poured. The beasts which are employed for raising the skin
+are fastened to the ends of the ropes, and they get a good purchase for
+their pull by being driven down a short cutting or inclined plane in the
+bank. To get a constant flow of water, two skins are usually employed,
+and as one is drawn up full the other is let down empty.
+
+The third primitive method of raising water, which is commoner in Egypt
+than in Mesopotamia at the present day, is the _shadduf_, and is worked
+by hand. It consists of a beam supported in the centre, at one end of
+which is tied a rope with a bucket or vessel for raising the water, and
+at the other end is fixed a counterweight.[4] On an Assyrian bas-relief
+found at Kuyunjik are representations of the shadduf in operation,
+two of them being used, the one above the other, to raise the water to
+successive levels. These were probably the contrivances usually employed
+by the early Babylonians for raising the water to the level of their
+fields, and the fact that they were light and easily removed must have
+made them tempting objects to the dishonest farmer. Hammurabi therefore
+fixed a scale of compensation to be paid to the owner by a detected
+thief, which varied according to the class and value of the machine
+he stole. The rivers and larger canals of Babylonia were used by the
+ancient inhabitants not only for the irrigation of their fields, but
+also as waterways for the transport of heavy materials. The recently
+published letters of Hammurabi and Abêshu’ contain directions for the
+transportation of corn, dates, sesame seed, and wood, which were ordered
+to be brought in ships to Babylon, and the code of Hammurabi refers to
+the transportation by water of wool and oil. It is therefore clear that
+at this period considerable use was made of vessels of different size
+for conveying supplies in bulk by water. The method by which the size of
+such ships and barges was reckoned was based on the amount of grain
+they were capable of carrying, and this was measured by the _gur_, the
+largest measure of capacity. Thus mention is made in the inscriptions of
+vessels of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and
+seventy-five gur capacity. A boat-builder’s fee for building a vessel of
+sixty gur was fixed at two shekels of silver, and it was proportionately
+less for boats of smaller capacity. To ensure that the boat-builder
+should not scamp his work, regulations were drawn up to fix on him the
+responsibility for unsound work. Thus if a boat-builder were employed to
+build a vessel, and he put faulty work into its construction so that it
+developed defects within a year of its being launched, he was obliged to
+strengthen and rebuild it at his own expense.
+
+     [4] The fourth class of machine for raising water employed in
+     Mesopotamia at the present day consists of an endless chain
+     of iron buckets running over a wheel. This is geared by
+     means of rough wooden cogs to a horizontal wheel, the
+     spindle of which has long poles fixed to it, to which horses
+     or cattle are harnessed. The beasts go round in a circle and
+     so turn the machine. The contrivance is not so primitive as
+     the three described above, and the iron buckets are of
+     European importation.
+
+The hire of a boatman was fixed at six gur of corn to be paid him
+yearly, but it is clear that some of the larger vessels carried crews
+commanded by a chief boatman, or captain, whose pay was probably on
+a larger scale. If a man let his boat to a boatman, the latter was
+responsible for losing or sinking it, and he had to replace it. A
+boatman was also responsible for the safety of his vessel and of any
+goods, such as corn, wool, oil, or dates, which he had been hired to
+transport, and if they were sunk through his carelessness he had to make
+good the loss. If he succeeded in refloating the boat after it had been
+sunk, he was only under obligation to pay the owner half its value in
+compensation for the damage it had sustained. In the case of a collision
+between two vessels, if one was at anchor at the time, the owner of the
+other vessel had to pay compensation for the boat that was sunk and its
+cargo, the owner of the latter estimating on oath the value of what
+had been sunk. Boats were also employed as ferries, and they must have
+resembled the primitive form of ferry-boat in use at the present day,
+which is heavily built of huge timbers, and employed for transporting
+beasts as well as men across a river.
+
+[Illustration: 297.jpg KAIKS, OR NATIVE BOATS ON THE EUPHRATES AT
+BIREJIK.]
+
+     Employed for ferrying caravans across the river.
+
+There is evidence that under the Assyrians rafts floated on inflated
+skins were employed for the transport of heavy goods, and these have
+survived in the keleks of the present day. They are specially adapted
+for the transportation of heavy materials, for they are carried down by
+the current, and are kept in the course by means of huge sweeps or oars.
+Being formed only of logs of wood and skins, they are not costly, for
+wood is plentiful in the upper reaches of the rivers. At the end of
+their journey, after the goods are landed, they are broken up. The wood
+is sold at a profit, and the skins, after being deflated, are packed on
+to donkeys to return by caravan.
+
+[Illustration: 298.jpg THE MODERN BRIDGE OF BOATS ACROSS THE TIGRIS
+OPPOSITE MOSUL.]
+
+It is not improbable that such rafts were employed on the Tigris and the
+Euphrates from the earliest periods of Chaldæan history, though boats
+would have been used on the canals and more sluggish waterways.
+
+In the preceding pages we have given a sketch of the more striking
+aspects of early Babylonian life, on which light has been thrown by
+recently discovered documents belonging to the period of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon. We have seen that, in the code of laws drawn up
+by Hammurabi, regulations were framed for settling disputes and fixing
+responsibilities under almost every condition and circumstance which
+might arise among the inhabitants of the country at that time; and the
+question naturally arises as to how far the code of laws was in actual
+operation.
+
+[Illustration: 299.jpg A SMALL KELEK, OK RAFT, UPON THE TIGRIS AT
+BAGHDAD.]
+
+It is conceivable that the king may have held admirable convictions, but
+have been possessed of little power to carry them out and to see
+that his regulations were enforced. Luckily, we have not to depend on
+conjecture for settling the question, for Hammurabi’s own letters which
+are now preserved in the British Museum afford abundant evidence of the
+active control which the king exercised over every department of his
+administration and in every province of his empire. In the earlier
+periods of history, when each city lived independently of its neighbours
+and had its own system of government, the need for close and frequent
+communication between them was not pressing, but this became apparent
+as soon as they were welded together and formed parts of an extended
+empire. Thus in the time of Sargon of Agade, about 3800 B.C., an
+extensive system of royal convoys was established between the principal
+cities. At Telloh the late M. de Sarzec came across numbers of lumps of
+clay bearing the seal impressions of Sargon and of his son Narâm-Sin,
+which had been used as seals and labels upon packages sent from Agade
+to Shirpurla. In the time of Dungi, King of Ur, there was a constant
+interchange of officials between the various cities of Babylonia and
+Elam, and during the more recent diggings at Telloh there have been
+found vouchers for the supply of food for their sustenance when stopping
+at Shirpurla in the course of their journeys. In the case of Hammurabi
+we have recovered some of the actual letters sent by the king himself to
+Sin-idinnam, his local governor in the city of Larsam, and from them we
+gain considerable insight into the principles which guided him in the
+administration of his empire.
+
+The letters themselves, in their general characteristics, resembled the
+contract tablets of the period which have been already described. They
+were written on small clay tablets oblong in shape, and as they were
+only three or four inches long they could easily be carried about the
+person of the messenger into whose charge they were delivered. After the
+tablet was written it was enclosed in a thin envelope of clay, having
+been first powdered with dry clay to prevent its sticking to the
+envelope. The name of the person for whom the letter was intended was
+written on the outside of the envelope, and both it and the tablet were
+baked hard to ensure that they should not be broken on their travels.
+The recipient of the letter, on its being delivered to him, broke the
+outer envelope by tapping it sharply, and it then fell away in pieces,
+leaving the letter and its message exposed. The envelopes were very
+similar to those in which the contract tablets of the period were
+enclosed, of which illustrations have already been given, their only
+difference being that the text of the tablet was not repeated on the
+envelope, as was the case with the former class of documents.
+
+The royal letters that have been recovered throw little light on
+military affairs and the prosecution of campaigns, for, being addressed
+to governors of cities and civil officials, most of them deal with
+matters affecting the internal administration of the empire. One letter
+indeed contains directions concerning the movements of two hundred
+and forty soldiers of “the King’s Company” who had been stationed in
+Assyria, and another letter mentions certain troops who were quartered
+in the city of Ur. A third deals with the supply of clothing and oil
+for a section of the Babylonian army, and troops are also mentioned
+as having formed the escort for certain goddesses captured from the
+Elamites; while directions are sent to others engaged in a campaign upon
+the Elamite frontier. The letter which contains directions for the
+safe escort of the captured Elamite goddesses, and the one ordering the
+return of these same goddesses to their own shrines, show that
+foreign deities, even when captured from an enemy, were treated by the
+Babylonians with the same respect and reverence that was shown by them
+to their own gods and goddesses. Hammurabi gave directions in the first
+letter for the conveyance of the goddesses to Babylon with all due pomp
+and ceremony, sheep being supplied for sacrifice upon the journey,
+and their usual rites being performed by their own temple-women and
+priestesses. The king’s voluntary restoration of the goddesses to their
+own country may have been due to the fact that, after their transference
+to Babylon, the army of the Babylonians suffered defeat in Elam. This
+misfortune would naturally have been ascribed by the king and the
+priests to the anger of the Elamite goddesses at being detained in a
+foreign land, and Hammurabi probably arrived at his decision that they
+should be escorted back in the hope of once more securing victory for
+the Babylonian arms.
+
+The care which the king exercised for the due worship of his own gods
+and the proper supply of their temples is well illustrated from the
+letters that have been recovered, for he superintended the collection
+of the temple revenues, and the herdsmen and shepherds attached to the
+service of the gods sent their reports directly to him. He also took
+care that the observances of religious rites and ceremonies were duly
+carried out, and on one occasion he postponed the hearing of a lawsuit
+concerning the title to certain property which was in dispute, as it
+would have interfered with the proper observance of a festival in
+the city of Ur. The plaintiff in the suit was the chief of the temple
+bakers, and it was his duty to superintend the preparation of certain
+offerings for the occasion. In order that he should not have to leave
+his duties, the king put off the hearing of the case until after the
+festival had been duly celebrated. The king also exercised a strict
+control over the priests themselves, and received reports from the chief
+priests concerning their own subordinates, and it is probable that the
+royal sanction was obtained for all the principal appointments. The
+guild of soothsayers was an important religious class at this time,
+and they also were under the king’s direct control. A letter written by
+Ammiditana, one of the later kings of the First Dynasty, to three high
+officials of the city of Sippar, contains directions with regard to
+certain duties to be carried out by the soothsayers attached to the
+service of the city, and indicates the nature of their functions.
+Ammiditana wrote to the officials in question, stating that there was a
+scarcity of corn in the city of Shagga, and he therefore ordered them
+to send a supply thither. But before the corn was brought into the city
+they were told to consult the soothsayers, who were to divine the future
+and ascertain whether the omens were favourable. If they proved to be
+so, the corn was to be brought in. We may conjecture that the king took
+this precaution, as he feared the scarcity of corn in Shagga was due
+to the anger of some local deity or spirit, and that, if this were the
+case, the bringing in of the corn would only lead to fresh troubles.
+This danger it was the duty of the soothsayers to prevent.
+
+Another class of the priesthood, which we may infer was under the king’s
+direct control, was the astrologers, whose duty it probably was to make
+reports to the king of the conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, with a
+view to ascertaining whether they portended good or evil to the
+state. No astrological reports written in this early period have
+been recovered, but at a later period under the Assyrian empire the
+astrologers reported regularly to the king on such matters, and it is
+probable that the practice was one long established. One of Hammurabi’s
+letters proves that the king regulated the calendar, and it is
+legitimate to suppose that he sought the advice of his astrologers as
+to the times when intercalary months were to be inserted. The letter
+dealing with the calendar was written to inform Sin-idinnam, the
+governor of Larsam, that an intercalary month was to be inserted. “Since
+the year (i.e. the calendar) hath a deficiency,” he writes, “let the
+month which is now beginning be registered as a second Elul,” and the
+king adds that this insertion of an extra month will not justify any
+postponement in the payment of the regular tribute due from the city of
+Larsam, which had to be paid a month earlier than usual to make up for
+the month that was inserted. The intercalation of additional months
+was due to the fact that the Babylonian months were lunar, so that the
+calendar had to be corrected at intervals to make it correspond to the
+solar year.
+
+From the description already given of the code of laws drawn up by
+Hammurabi it will have been seen that the king attempted to incorporate
+and arrange a set of regulations which should settle any dispute likely
+to arise with regard to the duties and privileges of all classes of
+his subjects. That this code was not a dead letter, but was actively
+administered, is abundantly proved by many of the letters of Hammurabi
+which have been recovered. From these we learn that the king took a very
+active part in the administration of justice in the country, and that he
+exercised a strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the
+capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities
+and towns of Babylonia. Any private citizen was entitled to make a
+direct appeal to the king for justice, if he thought he could not obtain
+it in his local court, and it is clear from Hammurabi’s letters that he
+always listened to such an appeal and gave it adequate consideration.
+The king was anxious to stamp out all corruption on the part of those
+who were invested with authority, and he had no mercy on any of his
+officers who were convicted of taking bribes. On one occasion when he
+had been informed of a case of bribery in the city of Dûr-gurgurri, he
+at once ordered the governor of the district in which Dûr-gurgurri lay
+to investigate the charge and send to Babylon those who were proved to
+be guilty, that they might be punished. He also ordered that the bribe
+should be confiscated and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise
+provision which must have tended to discourage those who were inclined
+to tamper with the course of justice, while at the same time it enriched
+the state. It is probable that the king tried all cases of appeal in
+person when it was possible to do so. But if the litigants lived at
+a considerable distance from Babylon, he gave directions to his local
+officials on the spot to try the case. When he was convinced of
+the justice of any claim, he would decide the case himself and send
+instructions to the local authorities to see that his decision was duly
+carried out. It is certain that many disputes arose at this period in
+consequence of the extortions of money-lenders. These men frequently
+laid claim in a fraudulent manner to fields and estates which they had
+received in pledge as security for seed-corn advanced by them. In
+cases where fraud was proved Hammurabi had no mercy, and summoned the
+money-lender to Babylon to receive punishment, however wealthy and
+powerful he might be.
+
+A subject frequently referred to in Hammurabi’s letters is the
+collection of revenues, and it is clear that an elaborate system was in
+force throughout the country for the levying and payment of tribute
+to the state by the principal cities of Babylonia, as well as for the
+collection of rent and revenue from the royal estates and from the lands
+which were set apart for the supply of the great temples. Collectors of
+both secular and religious tribute sent reports directly to the king,
+and if there was any deficit in the supply which was expected from a
+collector he had to make it up himself; but the king was always ready
+to listen to and investigate a complaint and to enforce the payment of
+tribute or taxes so that the loss should not fall upon the collector.
+Thus, in one of his letters Hammurabi informs the governor of
+Larsam that a collector named Sheb-Sin had reported to him, saying
+“Enubi-Marduk hath laid hands upon the money for the temple of
+Bît-il-kittim (i.e. the great temple of the Sun-god at Larsam) which is
+due from the city of Dûr-gurgurri and from the (region round about the)
+Tigris, and he hath not rendered the full sum; and Gimil-Marduk hath
+laid hands upon the money for the temple of Bît-il-kittim which is due
+from the city.of Rakhabu and from the region round about that city, and
+he hath not (paid) the full amount. But the palace hath exacted the full
+sum from me.” It is probable that both Enubi-Marduk and Gimil-Marduk
+were money-lenders, for we know from another letter that the former had
+laid claim to certain property on which he had held a mortgage, although
+the mortgage had been redeemed. In the present case they had probably
+lent money or seed-corn to certain cultivators of land near Dûr-gurgurri
+and Rakhabu and along the Tigris, and in settlement of their claims they
+had seized the crops and had, moreover, refused to pay to the king’s
+officer the proportion of the crops that was due to the state as
+taxes upon the land. The governor of Larsam, the principal city in the
+district, had rightly, as the representative of the palace (i.e.
+the king), caused the tax-collector to make up the deficiency, but
+Hammurabi, on receiving the subordinate officer’s complaint, referred
+the matter back to the governor. The end of the letter is wanting, but
+we may infer that Hammurabi condemned the defaulting money-lenders to
+pay the taxes due, and fined them in addition, or ordered them to be
+sent to the capital for punishment.
+
+On another occasion Sheb-Sin himself and a second tax-collector named
+Sin-mushtal appear to have been in fault and to have evaded coming to
+Babylon when summoned thither by the king. It had been their duty to
+collect large quantities of sesame seed as well as taxes paid in money.
+When first summoned, they had made the excuse that it was the time of
+harvest and they would come after the harvest was over. But as they
+did not then make their appearance, Hammurabi wrote an urgent letter
+insisting that they should be despatched with the full amount of the
+taxes due, in the company of a trustworthy officer who would see that
+they duly arrived at the capital.
+
+Tribute on flocks and herds was also levied by the king, and collectors
+or assessors of the revenue were stationed in each district, whose duty
+it was to report any deficit in the revenue accounts. The owners of
+flocks and herds were bound to bring the young cattle and lambs that
+were due as tribute to the central city of the district in which they
+dwelt, and they were then collected into large bodies and added to the
+royal flocks and herds; but, if the owners attempted to hold back any
+that were due as tribute, they were afterwards forced to incur the extra
+expense and trouble of driving the beasts to Babylon. The flocks and
+herds owned by the king and the great temples were probably enormous,
+and yielded a considerable revenue in themselves apart from the tribute
+and taxes due from private owners. Shepherds and herdsmen were placed in
+charge of them, and they were divided into groups under chief shepherds,
+who arranged the districts in which the herds and flocks were to be
+grazed, distributing them when possible along the banks and in the
+neighbourhood of rivers and canals which would afford good pasturage and
+a plentiful supply of water. The king received reports from the chief
+shepherds and herdsmen, and it was the duty of the governors of the
+chief cities and districts of Babylonia to make tours of inspection
+and see that due care was taken of the royal flocks and sheep. The
+sheep-shearing for all the flocks that were pastured near the capital
+took place in Babylon, and the king used to send out summonses to his
+chief shepherds to inform them of the day when the shearing would take
+place; and it is probable that the governors of the other great cities
+sent out similar orders to the shepherds of flocks under their charge.
+Royal and priestly flocks were often under the same chief officer, a
+fact which shows the very strict control the king exercised over the
+temple revenues.
+
+The interests of the agricultural population were strictly looked
+after by the king, who secured a proper supply of water for purposes of
+irrigation by seeing that the canals and waterways were kept in a proper
+state of repair and cleaned out at regular intervals. There is also
+evidence that nearly every king of the First Dynasty of Babylon cut new
+canals, and extended the system of irrigation and transportation which
+had been handed down to him from his fathers. The draining of the
+marshes and the proper repair of the canals could only be carried out
+by careful and continuous supervision, and it was the duty of the local
+governors to see that the inhabitants of villages and owners of land
+situated on the banks of a canal should keep it in proper order. When
+this duty had been neglected complaints were often sent to the king,
+who gave orders to the local governor to remedy the defect. Thus on one
+occasion it had been ordered that a canal at Erech which had silted
+up should be deepened, but the dredging had not been carried out
+thoroughly, so that the bed of the canal soon silted up again and boats
+were prevented from entering the city. In these circumstances Hammurabi
+gave pressing orders that the obstruction was to be removed and the
+canal made navigable within three days.
+
+Damage was often done to the banks of canals by floods which followed
+the winter rains, and a letter of Abêshu’ gives an interesting account of
+a sudden rise of the water in the Irnina canal so that it overflowed its
+banks. The king was building a palace at the city of Kâr-Irnina, which
+was supplied by the Irnina canal, and every year it was possible to put
+so much work into the building. But one year, when little more than a
+third of the year’s work was done, the building operations were stopped
+by flood, the canal having overflowed its banks so that the water rose
+right up to the wall of the town. In return for the duty of keeping
+the canals in order, the villagers along the banks had the privilege of
+fishing in its waters in the portion which was in their charge, and
+any poaching by other villagers in this part of the stream was strictly
+forbidden. On one occasion, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Hammurabi’s son
+and successor, the fishermen of the district of Rabim went down in their
+boats to the district of Shakanim and caught fish there contrary to the
+law. So the inhabitants of Shakanim complained of this poaching to the
+king, who sent a palace official to the authorities of Sippar, near
+which city the districts in question lay, with orders to inquire into
+the matter and take steps to prevent all such poaching for the future.
+
+The regulation of transportation on the canals was also under the royal
+jurisdiction. The method of reckoning the size of ships has already
+been described, and there is evidence that the king possessed numerous
+vessels of all sizes for the carrying of grain, wool, and dates, as well
+as for the wood and stone employed in his building operations. Each ship
+seems to have had its own crew, under the command of a captain, and it
+is probable that officials who regulated the transportation from the
+centres where they were stationed were placed in charge of separate
+sections of the rivers and of the canals.
+
+It is obvious, from the account that has been given of the numerous
+operations directly controlled and superintended by the king, that
+he had need of a very large body of officials, by whose means he was
+enabled to carry out successfully the administration of the country.
+In the course of the account we have made mention of the judges and
+judicial officers, the assessors and collectors of revenue, and the
+officials of the palace who were under the king’s direct orders. It is
+also obvious that different classes of officers were in charge of all
+the departments of the administration. Two classes of officials,
+who were placed in charge of the public works and looked after and
+controlled the public slaves, and probably also had a good deal to do
+with the collection of the revenue, had special privileges assigned
+to them, and special legislation was drawn up to protect them in the
+enjoyment of the same. As payment for their duties they were each
+granted land with a house and garden, they were assigned the use of
+certain sheep and cattle with which to stock their land, and in addition
+they received a regular salary. They were in a sense personal retainers
+of the king and were liable to be sent at any moment on a special
+mission to carry out the king’s commands. Disobedience was severely
+punished; for, if such an officer, when detailed for a special mission,
+did not go but hired a substitute, he was liable to be put to death and
+the substitute he had hired could take his office. Sometimes an officer
+was sent for long periods some distance from his home to take charge
+of a garrison, and when this was done his home duties were performed by
+another man, who temporarily occupied his house and land, but gave it
+back to the officer on his return. If such an officer had a son old
+enough to perform his duty in his father’s absence, he was allowed to
+do so and to till his father’s lands; but if the son was too young,
+the substitute who took the officer’s place had to pay one-third of
+the produce of the land to the child’s mother for his education. Before
+departing on his journey to the garrison it was the officer’s duty to
+arrange for the proper cultivation of his land and the discharge of his
+local duties during his absence. If he omitted to do so and left
+his land and duties neglected for more than a year, and another had
+meanwhile taken his place, on his return he could not reclaim his land
+and office. It will be obvious, therefore, that his position was a
+specially favoured one and much sought after, and these regulations
+ensured that the duties attaching to the office were not neglected.
+
+In the course of his garrison duty or when on special service, these
+officers ran some risk of being captured by the enemy, and in that event
+regulations were drawn up for their ransom. If the captured officer was
+wealthy and could pay for his own ransom, he was bound to do so, but
+if he had not the necessary means his ransom was to be paid out of the
+local temple treasury, and, when the funds in the temple treasury
+did not suffice, he was to be ransomed by the state. It was specially
+enacted that his land and garden and house were in no case to be sold
+in order to pay for his ransom. These were inalienably attached to the
+office which he held, and he was not allowed to sell them or the sheep
+and cattle with which they were stocked. Moreover, he was not allowed
+to bequeath any of this property to his wife or daughter, so that his
+office would appear to have been hereditary and the property attached to
+it to have been entailed on his son if he succeeded him. Such succession
+would not, of course, have taken place if the officer by his own neglect
+or disobedience had forfeited his office and its privileges during his
+lifetime.
+
+It has been suggested with considerable probability that these officials
+were originally personal retainers and follows of Sumu-abu, the founder
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon. They were probably assigned lands
+throughout the country in return for their services to the king, and
+their special duties were to preserve order and uphold the authority of
+their master. In the course of time their duties were no doubt modified,
+but they retained their privileges and they must have continued to be a
+very valuable body of officers, on whose personal loyalty the king could
+always rely. In the preceding chapter we have already seen how grants of
+considerable estates were made by the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty
+to followers who had rendered conspicuous services, and at the same time
+they received the privilege of holding such lands free of all liability
+to forced labour and the payment of tithes and taxes. We may conclude
+that the class of royal officers under the kings of the First Dynasty
+had a similar origin.
+
+In the present chapter, from information recently made available, we
+have given some account of the system of administration adopted by the
+early kings of Babylon, and we have described in some detail the
+various classes of the Babylonian population, their occupations, and the
+conditions under which they lived. In the two preceding chapters we have
+dealt with the political history of Western Asia from the very earliest
+period of the Sumerian city-states down to the time of the Kassite
+kings. In the course of this account we have seen how Mesopotamia in the
+dawn of history was in the sole possession of the Sumerian race and how
+afterwards it fell in turn under the dominion of the Semites and the
+kings of Elam. The immigration of fresh Semitic tribes at the end of the
+third millennium before Christ resulted in the establishment in Babylon
+of the Semitic kings who are known as First Dynasty kings; and under the
+sway of Hammurabi, the greatest of this group of kings, the empire thus
+established in Western Asia had every appearance of permanence. Although
+Elam no longer troubled Babylon, a great danger arose from a new and
+unexpected quarter. In the Country of the Sea--which comprised the
+districts in the extreme south of Babylonia on the shores of the Persian
+Gulf--the Sumerians had rallied their forces, and they now declared
+themselves independent of Babylonian control. A period of conflict
+followed between the kings of the First Dynasty and the kings of the
+Country of the Sea, in which the latter more than held their own; and,
+when the Hittite tribes of Syria invaded Northern Babylonia in the reign
+of Samsu-ditana, Babylon’s power of resistance was so far weakened that
+she fell an easy prey to the rulers of the Country of the Sea. But the
+reappearance of the Sumerians in the rôle of leading race in Western
+Asia was destined not to last long, and was little more than the last
+flicker of vitality exhibited by this ancient and exhausted race. Thus
+the Second Dynasty fell in its turn before the onslaught of the Kassite
+tribes who descended from the mountainous districts in the west of Elam,
+and, having overrun the whole of Mesopotamia, established a new dynasty
+at Babylon, and adopted Babylonian civilization.
+
+With the advent of the Kassite kings a new chapter opens in the history
+of Western Asia. Up to that time Egypt and Babylon, the two chief
+centres of ancient civilization, had no doubt indirectly influenced one
+another, but they had not come into actual contact. During the period of
+the Kassite kings both Babylon and Assyria established direct relations
+with Egypt, and from that time forward the influence they exerted upon
+one another was continuous and unbroken. We have already traced the
+history of Babylon up to this point in the light of recent discoveries,
+and a similar task awaits us with regard to Assyria. Before we enter
+into a discussion of Assyria’s origin and early history in the light of
+recent excavation and research, it is necessary that we should return
+once more to Egypt, and describe the course of her history from the
+period when Thebes succeeded in displacing Memphis as the capital city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+
+We have seen that it was in the Theban period that Egypt emerged from
+her isolation, and for the first time came into contact with Western
+Asia. This grand turning-point in Egyptian history seemed to be the
+appropriate place at which to pause in the description of our latest
+knowledge of Egyptian history, in order to make known the results of
+archaeological discovery in Mesopotamia and Western Asia generally. The
+description has been carried down past the point of convergence of the
+two originally isolated paths of Egyptian and Babylonian civilization,
+and what new information the latest discoveries have communicated to us
+on this subject has been told in the preceding chapters. We now have to
+retrace our steps to the point where we left Egyptian history and resume
+the thread of our Egyptian narrative.
+
+The Hyksos conquest and the rise of Thebes are practically
+contemporaneous. The conquest took place perhaps three or four hundred
+years after the first advancement of Thebes to the position of capital
+of Egypt, but it must be remembered that this position was not retained
+during the time of the XIIth Dynasty. The kings of that dynasty, though
+they were Thebans, did not reign at Thebes. Their royal city was in the
+North, in the neighbourhood of Lisht and Mêdûm, where their pyramids
+were erected, and their chief care was for the lake province of the
+Fayyûm, which was largely the creation of Amenemhat III, the Moeris
+of the Greeks. It was not till Thebes became the focus of the
+national resistance to the Hyksos that its period of greatness began.
+Henceforward it was the undisputed capital of Egypt, enlarged and
+embellished by the care and munificence of a hundred kings, enriched by
+the tribute of a hundred conquered nations.
+
+But were we to confine ourselves to the consideration only of the latest
+discoveries of Theban greatness after the expulsion of the Hyksos, we
+should be omitting much that is of interest and importance. For the
+Egyptians the first grand climacteric in their history (after the
+foundation of the monarchy) was the transference of the royal power from
+Memphis and Herakleopolis to a Theban house. The second, which followed
+soon after, was the Hyksos invasion. The two are closely connected in
+Theban history; it is Thebes that defeated Herakleopolis and conquered
+Memphis; it is Theban power that was overthrown by the Hyksos; it is
+Thebes that expelled them and initiated the second great period of
+Egyptian history. We therefore resume our narrative at a point before
+the great increase of Theban power at the time of the expulsion of the
+Hyksos, and will trace this power from its rise, which followed
+the defeat of Herakleopolis and Memphis. It is upon this epoch--the
+beginning of Theban power--that the latest discoveries at Thebes have
+thrown some new light.
+
+More than anywhere else in Egypt excavations have been carried on at
+Thebes, on the site of the ancient capital of the country. And here, if
+anywhere, it might have been supposed that there was nothing more to be
+found, no new thing to be exhumed from the soil, no new fact to be added
+to our knowledge of Egyptian history. Yet here, no less than at Abydos,
+has the archaeological exploration of the last few years been especially
+successful, and we have seen that the ancient city of Thebes has a great
+deal more to tell us than we had expected.
+
+The most ancient remains at Thebes were discovered by Mr. Newberry in
+the shape of two tombs of the VIth Dynasty, cut upon the face of the
+well-known hill of Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna, on the west bank of the Nile
+opposite Luxor. Every winter traveller to Egypt knows, well the ride
+from the sandy shore opposite the Luxor temple, along the narrow pathway
+between the gardens and the canal, across the bridges and over the
+cultivated land to the Ramesseum, behind which rises Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna,
+with its countless tombs, ranged in serried rows along the scarred and
+scarped face of the hill. This hill, which is geologically a fragment of
+the plateau behind which some gigantic landslip was sent sliding in the
+direction of the river, leaving the picturesque gorge and cliffs of Dêr
+el-Bahari to mark the place from which it was riven, was evidently the
+seat of the oldest Theban necropolis. Here were the tombs of the Theban
+chiefs in the period of the Old Kingdom, two of which have been found
+by Mr. Newberry. In later times, it would seem, these tombs were largely
+occupied and remodelled by the great nobles of the XVIIIth Dynasty, so
+that now nearly all the tombs extant on Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna belong to
+that dynasty.
+
+Of the Thebes of the IXth and Xth Dynasties, when the Herakleopolites
+ruled, we have in the British Museum two very remarkable statues--one of
+which is here illustrated--of the steward of the palace, Mera. The tomb
+from which they came is not known. Both are very beautiful examples
+of the Egyptian sculptor’s art, and are executed in a style eminently
+characteristic of the transition period between the work of the Old and
+Middle Kingdoms. As specimens of the art of the Hierakonpolite period,
+of which we have hardly any examples, they are of the greatest interest.
+Mera is represented wearing a different head-dress in each figure; in
+one he has a short wig, in the other a skullcap.
+
+[Illustration: 320.jpg STATUE OF MERA]
+
+When the Herakleopolite dominion was finally overthrown, in spite of the
+valiant resistance of the princes of Asyût, and the Thebans assumed the
+Pharaonic dignity, thus founding the XIth Dynasty, the Theban necropolis
+was situated in the great bay in the cliffs, immediately north of Shêkh
+Abd el-Kûrna, which is known as Dêr el-Bahari. In this picturesque part
+of Western Thebes, in many respects perhaps the most picturesque
+place in Egypt, the greatest king of the XIth Dynasty, Neb-hapet-Râ
+Mentuhetep, excavated his tomb and built for the worship of his ghost
+a funerary temple, which he called _Akh-aset_, “Glorious-is-its-
+Situation,” a name fully justified by its surroundings. This temple is
+an entirely new discovery, made by Prof. Naville and Mr. Hall in 1903.
+The results obtained up to date have been of very great importance,
+especially with regard to the history of Egyptian art and architecture,
+for our sources of information were few and we were previously not very
+well informed as to the condition of art in the time of the XIth
+Dynasty.
+
+The new temple lies immediately to the south of the great XVIIIth
+Dynasty temple at Dêr el-Bahari, which has always been known, and which
+was excavated first by Mariette and later by Prof. Naville, for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund. To the results of the later excavations we shall
+return. When they were finally completed, in the year 1898, the great
+XVIIIth Dynasty temple, which was built by Queen Hatshepsu, had been
+entirely cleared of débris, and the colonnades had been partially
+restored (under the care of Mr. Somers Clarke) in order to make a roof
+under which to protect the sculptures on the walls. The whole mass of
+débris, consisting largely of fallen _talus_ from the cliffs above,
+which had almost hidden the temple, was removed; but a large tract lying
+to the south of the temple, which was also covered with similar mounds
+of débris, was not touched, but remained to await further investigation.
+It was here, beneath these heaps of débris, that the new temple was
+found when work was resumed by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1903. The
+actual tomb of the king has not yet been revealed, although that of
+Neb-hetep Mentuhetep, who may have been his immediate predecessor,
+was discovered by Mr. Carter in 1899. It was known, however, and still
+uninjured in the reign of Ramses IX of the XXth Dynasty. Then, as we
+learn from the report of the inspectors sent to examine the royal tombs,
+which is preserved in the Abbott Papyrus, they found the _pyramid-tomb_
+of King Xeb-hapet-Râ which is in Tjesret (the ancient Egyptian name for
+Dêr el-Bahari); it was intact. We know, therefore, that it was intact
+about 1000 B.C. The description of it as a pyramid-tomb is interesting,
+for in the inscription of Tetu, the priest of Akh-aset, who was buried
+at Abydos, Akh-aset is said to have been a pyramid. That the newly
+discovered temple was called Akh-aset we know from several inscriptions
+found in it. And the most remarkable thing about this temple is that in
+its centre there was a pyramid. This must be the pyramid-tomb which was
+found intact by the inspectors, so that the tomb itself must be close
+by. But it does not seem to have been beneath the pyramid, below which
+is only solid rock. It is perhaps a gallery cut in the cliffs at the
+back of the temple.
+
+The pyramid was then a dummy, made of rubble within a revetment of heavy
+flint nodules, which was faced with fine limestone. It was erected on a
+pyloni-form base with heavy cornice of the usual Egyptian pattern. This
+central pyramid was surrounded by a roofed hall or ambulatory of small
+octagonal pillars, the outside wall of which was decorated with coloured
+reliefs, depicting various scenes connected with the _sed-heb_ or
+jubilee-festival of the king, processions of the warriors and magnates
+of the realm, scenes of husbandry, boat-building, and so forth, all of
+which were considered appropriate to the chapel of a royal tomb at that
+period. Outside this wall was an open colonnade of square pillars.
+The whole of this was built upon an artificially squared rectangular
+platform of natural rock, about fifteen feet high. To north and south of
+this were open courts. The southern is bounded by the hill; the northern
+is now bounded by the Great Temple of Hat-shepsu, but, before this was
+built, there was evidently a very large open court here. The face of the
+rock platform is masked by a wall of large rectangular blocks of fine
+white limestone, some of which measure six feet by three feet six
+inches. They are beautifully squared and laid in bonded courses of
+alternate sizes, and the walls generally may be said to be among the
+finest yet found in Egypt. We have already remarked that the architects
+of the Middle Kingdom appear to have been specially fond of fine masonry
+in white stone. The contrast between these splendid XIth Dynasty walls,
+with their great base-stones of sandstone, and the bad rough masonry of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty temple close by, is striking. The XVIIIth Dynasty
+architects and masons had degenerated considerably from the standard of
+the Middle Kingdom.
+
+This rock platform was approached from the east in the centre by an
+inclined plane or ramp, of which part of the original pavement of wooden
+beams remains _in situ_.
+
+[Illustration: 324.jpg XIth DYNASTY WALL: DÊR EL-BAHARI.]
+
+     Excavated by Mr. Hall, 1904, for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
+
+To right and left of this ramp are colonnades, each of twenty-two square
+pillars, all inscribed with the name and titles of Mentuhetep. The walls
+masking the platform in these colonnades were sculptured with various
+scenes, chiefly representing boat processions and campaigns against the
+Aamu or nomads of the Sinaitic peninsula. The design of the colonnades
+is the same as that of the Great Temple, and the whole plan of this
+part, with its platform approached by a ramp flanked by colonnades,
+is so like that of the Great Temple that we cannot but assume that the
+peculiar design of the latter, with its tiers of platforms approached by
+ramps flanked by colonnades, is not an original idea, but was directly
+copied by the XVIIIth Dynasty architects from the older XIth Dynasty
+temple which they found at Dêr el-Bahari when they began their work.
+
+[Illustration: 325.jpg XVIIIth DYNASTY WALL, DÊR EL-BAHARI.]
+
+     Excavated by M. Naville, 1896; repaired by Mr. Howard
+     Carter, 1904.
+
+The supposed originality of Hatshepsu’s temple is then non-existent;
+it was a copy of the older design, in fact, a magnificent piece of
+archaism. But Hatshepsu’s architects copied this feature only; the
+actual arrangements _on_ the platforms in the two temples are as
+different as they can possibly be. In the older we have a central
+pyramid with a colonnade round it, in the newer may be found an open
+court in front of rock-cave shrines.
+
+[Illustration: 326.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE NORTH LOWER COLONNADE OF THE
+XIth DYNASTY TEMPLE, DÊR EL-BAHARI, 1904.]
+
+Before the XIth Dynasty temple was set up a series of statues of King
+Mentuhetep and of a later king, Amenhetep I, in the form of Osiris, like
+those of Usertsen (Senusret) I at Lisht already mentioned. One of these
+statues is in the British Museum. In the south court were discovered
+six statues of King Usertsen (Senusret) III, depicting him at different
+periods of his life. Pour of the heads are preserved, and, as the
+expression of each differs from that of the other, it is quite evident
+that some show him as a young, others as an old, man.
+
+[Illustration: 327.jpg GRANITE THRESHOLD AND OCTAGONAL SANDSTONE
+PILLARS]
+
+     Of The XIth Dynasty Temple At Dêr El-Bahari. About 2500 B.C.
+
+The face is of the well-known hard and lined type which is seen also in
+the portraits of Amenemhat III, and was formerly considered to be that
+of the Hyksos. Messrs. Newberry and Garstang, as we have seen, consider
+it to be so, indirectly, as they regard the type as having been
+introduced into the XIIth Dynasty by Queen Nefret, the mother of
+Usertsen (Sen-usret) III. This queen, they think, _was_ a Hittite
+princess, and the Hittites were practically the same thing as the
+Hyksos. We have seen, however, that there is very little foundation for
+this view, and it is more than probable that this peculiar physiognomy
+is of a type purely Egyptian in character.
+
+[Illustration: 328.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE TOMB OF A PRIESTESS,]
+
+     On The Platform Of The XIth Dynasty Temple, Dêr El-Bahari,
+     1904.
+
+On the platform, around the central pyramid, were buried in small
+chamber-tombs a number of priestesses of the goddess Hathor, the
+mistress of the desert and special deity of Dêr el-Bahari. They were
+all members of the king’s harîm, and they bore the title of “King’s
+Favourite.” As told in a previous chapter, all were buried at one
+time, before the final completion of the temple, and it is by no means
+impossible that they were strangled at the king’s death and buried round
+him in order that their ghosts might accompany him in the next world,
+just as the slaves were buried around the graves (or secondary graves)
+of the 1st Dynasty kings at Aby-dos. They themselves, as also already
+related, took with them to the next world little waxen figures which
+when called upon could by magic be turned into ghostly slaves. These
+images were _ushabtiu,_ “answerers,” the predecessors of the little
+figures of wood, stone, and pottery which are found buried with the
+dead in later times. The priestesses themselves were, so to speak, human
+_ushabtiu,_ for royal use only, and accompanied the kings to their final
+resting-place.
+
+With the priestesses was buried the usual funerary furniture
+characteristic of the period. This consisted of little models of
+granaries with the peasants bringing in the corn, models of bakers and
+brewers at work, boats with their crews, etc., just as we find them
+in the XIth and XIIth Dynasty tombs at el-Bersha and Beni Hasan. These
+models, too, were supposed to be transformed by magic into actual
+workmen who would work for the deceased, heap up grain for her, brew
+beer for her, ferry her over the ghostly Nile into the tomb-world, or
+perform any other services required.
+
+Some of the stone sarcophagi of the priestesses are very elaborately
+decorated with carved and painted reliefs depicting each deceased
+receiving offerings from priests, one of whom milks the holy cows of
+Hathor to give her milk. The sarcophagi were let down into the tomb in
+pieces and there joined together, and they have been removed in the same
+way. The finest is a unique example of XIth Dynasty art, and it is now
+preserved in the Museum of Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: 330.jpg CASES OF ANTIQUITIES LEAVING DÊR EL-BAHARI FOR
+TRANSPORT TO CAIRO.]
+
+In memory of the priestesses there were erected on the platform behind
+the pyramid a number of small shrines, which were decorated with the
+most delicately coloured carvings in high relief, representing chiefly
+the same subjects as those on the sarcophagi. The peculiar style of
+these reliefs was previously unknown. In connection with them a most
+interesting possibility presents itself.
+
+[Illustration: 331.jpg SHIPPING CASES OF ANTIQUITIES ON BOARD THE NILE
+STEAMER AT LUXOR, FOR THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND.]
+
+We know the name of the chief artist of Mentuhetep’s reign. He was
+called Mertisen, and he thus describes himself on his tombstone from
+Abydos, now in the Louvre: “I was an artist skilled in my art. I knew
+my art, how to represent the forms of going forth and returning, so that
+each limb may be in its proper place. I knew how the figure of a man
+should walk and the carriage of a woman, the poising of the arm to
+bring the hippopotamus low, the going of the runner. I knew how to make
+amulets, which enable us to go without fire burning us and without the
+flood washing us away. No man could do this but I, and the eldest son
+of my body. Him has the god decreed to excel in art, and I have seen
+the perfections of the work of his hands in every kind of rare stone,
+in gold and silver, in ivory and ebony.” Now since Mertisen and his son
+were the chief artists of their day, it is more than probable that they
+were employed to decorate their king’s funerary chapel. So that in all
+probability the XIth Dynasty reliefs from Dêr el-Bahari are the work
+of Mertisen and his son, and in them we see the actual “forms of going
+forth and returning, the poising of the arm to bring the hippopotamus
+low, the going of the runner,” to which he refers on his tombstone. This
+adds a note of personal interest to the reliefs, an interest which is
+often sadly wanting in Egypt, where we rarely know the names of the
+great artists whose works we admire so much. We have recovered the names
+of the sculptor and painter of Seti I’s temple at Abydos and that of the
+sculptor of some of the tombs at Tell el-Amarna, but otherwise very few
+names of the artists are directly associated with the temples and tombs
+which they decorated, and of the architects we know little more. The
+great temple of Dêr el-Bahari was, however, we know, designed by Senmut,
+the chief architect to Queen Hatshepsu.
+
+It is noticeable that Mertisen’s art, if it is Mertisen’s, is of a
+peculiar character. It is not quite so fully developed as that of the
+succeeding XIIth Dynasty. The drawing of the figures is often peculiar,
+strange lanky forms taking the place of the perfect proportions of the
+IVth-VIth and the XIIth Dynasty styles. Great elaboration is bestowed
+upon decoration, which is again of a type rather archaic in character
+when compared with that of the XIIth Dynasty. We are often reminded of
+the rude sculptures which used to be regarded as typical of the art of
+the XIth Dynasty, while at the same time we find work which could not
+be surpassed by the best XIIth Dynasty masters. In fact, the art of
+Neb-hapet-Râ’s reign was the art of a transitional period. Under the
+decadent Memphites of the VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties, Egyptian art
+rapidly fell from the high estate which it had attained under the Vth
+Dynasty, and, though good work was done under the Hierakonpolites, the
+chief characteristic of Egyptian art at the time of the Xth and early
+XIth Dynasties is its curious roughness and almost barbaric appearance.
+When, however, the kings of the XIth Dynasty reunited the whole land
+under one sceptre, and the long reign of Neb-hapet-Râ Mentuhetep enabled
+the reconsolidation of the realm to be carried out by one hand, art
+began to revive, and, just as to Neb-hapet-Râ must be attributed the
+renascence of the Egyptian state under the hegemony of Thebes, so must
+the revival of art in his reign be attributed to his great artists,
+Mertisen and his son. They carried out in the realm of art what their
+king had carried out in the political realm, and to them must be
+attributed the origin of the art of the Middle Kingdom which under the
+XIIth Dynasty attained so high a pitch of excellence. The sculptures
+of the king’s temple at Dêr el-Bahari, then, are monuments of the
+renascence of Egyptian art, after the state of decadence into which it
+had fallen during the long civil wars between South and North; it is
+a reviving art, struggling out of barbarism to regain perfection, and
+therefore has much about it that seems archaic, stiff, and curious when
+compared with later work. To the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptian it would no
+doubt have seemed hopelessly old-fashioned and even semi-barbarous, and
+he had no qualms about sweeping it aside whenever it appeared in the
+way of the work of his own time; but to us this very strangeness
+gives additional charm and interest, and we can only be thankful that
+Mertisen’s work has lasted (in fragments only, it is true) to our own
+day, to tell us the story of a little known chapter in the history of
+ancient Egyptian art.
+
+From this description it will have been seen that the temple is an
+important monument of the Egyptian art and architecture of the Middle
+Kingdom. It is the only temple of that period of which considerable
+traces have been found, and on that account the study of it will be of
+the greatest interest. It is the best preserved of the older temples of
+Egypt, and at Thebes it is by far the most ancient building recovered.
+Historically it has given us a new king of the XIth Dynasty,
+Sekhâhe-tep-Râ Mentuhetep, and the name of the queen of Neb-hapet-Râ
+Mentuhetep, Aasheit, who seems to have been an Ethiopian, to judge from
+her portrait, which has been discovered. It is interesting to note that
+one of the priestesses was a negress.
+
+The name Neb-hapet-Râ may be unfamiliar to those readers who are
+acquainted with the lists of the Egyptian kings. It is a correction
+of the former reading, “Neb-kheru-Râ,” which is now known from these
+excavations to be erroneous. Neb-hapet-Râ (or, as he used to be called,
+Neb-kheru-Râ) is Mentuhetep III of Prof. Petrie’s arrangement. Before
+him there seem to have come the kings Mentuhetep Neb-hetep (who is also
+commemorated in this temple) and Neb-taui-Râ; after him, Sekhâhetep-Râ
+Mentuhetep IV and Seânkhkarâ Mentuhetep V, who were followed by an
+Antef, bearing the banner or hawk-name Uah-ânkh. This king was followed
+by Amenemhat I, the first king of the XIIth Dynasty. Antef Uah-ânkh may
+be numbered Antef I, as the prince Antefa, who founded the XIth Dynasty,
+did not assume the title of king.
+
+Other kings of the name of Antef also ruled over Egypt, and they used to
+be regarded as belonging to the XIth Dynasty; but Prof. Steindorff
+has now proved that they really reigned after the XIIIth Dynasty, and
+immediately before the Sekenenrâs, who were the fighters of the Hyksos
+and predecessors of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The second names of Antef III
+(Seshes-Râ-up-maat) and Antef IV (Seshes-Râ-her-her-maat) are exactly
+similar to those of the XIIIth Dynasty kings and quite unlike those of
+the Mentuheteps; also at Koptos a decree of Antef II (Nub-kheper-Râ) has
+been found inscribed on a doorway of Usertsen (Senusret) I; so that
+he cannot have preceded him. Prof. Petrie does not yet accept these
+conclusions, and classes all the Antefs together with the Mentuheteps in
+the XIth Dynasty. He considers that he has evidence from Herakleopolis
+that Antef Xub-kheper-Râ (whom he numbers Antef V) preceded the XIIth
+Dynasty, and he supposes that the decree of Nub-kheper-Râ at Koptos is
+a later copy of the original and was inscribed during the XIIth Dynasty.
+But this is a difficult saying. The probabilities are that Prof.
+Steindorff is right. Antef Uah-ânkh must, however, have preceded the
+XIIth Dynasty, since an official of that period refers to his father’s
+father as having lived in Uah-ânkh ‘s time.
+
+The necropolis of Dêr el-Bahari was no doubt used all through the period
+of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties, and many tombs of that period have been
+found there. A large number of these were obliterated by the building
+of the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, in the northern part of the
+cliff-bay. We know of one queen’s tomb of that period which runs right
+underneath this temple from the north, and there is another that is
+entered at the south side which also runs down underneath it. Several
+tombs were likewise found in the court between it and the XIth Dynasty
+temple. We know that the XVIIIth Dynasty temple was largely built over
+this court, and we can see now the XIth Dynasty mask-wall on the west of
+the court running northwards underneath the mass of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple. In all probability, then, when the temple of Hatshepsu
+was built, the larger portion of the Middle Kingdom necropolis (of
+chamber-tombs reached by pits), which had filled up the bay to the north
+of the Mentuhetep temple, was covered up and obliterated, just as
+the older VIth Dynasty gallery tombs of Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna had been
+appropriated and altered at the same period.
+
+The kings of the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties were not buried at Thebes,
+as we have seen, but in the North, at Dashûr, Lisht, and near the
+Fayymn, with which their royal city at Itht-taui had brought them into
+contact. But at the end of the XIIIth Dynasty the great invasion of the
+Hyksos probably occurred, and all Northern Egypt fell under the Arab
+sway. The native kings were driven south from the Fayymn to Abydos,
+Koptos, and Thebes, and at Thebes they were buried, in a new necropolis
+to the north of Dêr el-Bahari (probably then full), on the flank of a
+long spur of hill which is now called Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga, “Abu-’l-Negga’s
+Arm.” Here the Theban kings of the period between the XIIIth and XVIIth
+Dynasties, Upuantemsaf, Antef Nub-kheper-Râ, and his descendants, Antefs
+III and IV, were buried. In their time the pressure of foreign invasion
+seems to have been felt, for, to judge from their coffins, which show
+progressive degeneration of style and workmanship, poverty now afflicted
+Upper Egypt and art had fallen sadly from the high standard which it had
+reached in the days of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties. Probably the later
+Antefs and Sebekemsafs were vassals of the Hyksos. Their descendants
+of the XVIIth Dynasty were buried in the same necropolis of Dra’
+Abu-’l-Negga, and so were the first two kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
+Aahmes and Amenhetep I. The tombs of the last two have not yet been
+found, but we know from the Abbott Papyrus that Amenhetep’s was
+here, for, like that of Menttihetep III, it was found intact by the
+inspectors. It was a gallery-tomb of very great length, and will be a
+most interesting find when it is discovered, as it no doubt eventually
+will be. Aahmes had a tomb at Abydos, which was discovered by Mr.
+Currelly, working for the Egypt Exploration Fund. This, however, like
+the Abydene tomb of Usert-sen (Senusret) III, was in all likelihood a
+sham or secondary tomb, the king having most probably been buried at
+Thebes, in the Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga. The Abydos tomb is of interesting
+construction. The entrance is by a simple pit, from which a gallery
+runs round in a curving direction to a great hall supported by eighteen
+square pillars, beyond which is a further gallery which was never
+finished. Nothing was found in the tomb. On the slope of the mountain,
+due west of and in a line with the tomb, Mr. Currelly found a
+terrace-temple analogous to those of Dêr el-Bahari, approached not
+by means of a ramp but by stairways at the side. It was evidently the
+funerary temple of the tomb.
+
+[Illustration: Statue of Queen Teta-shera]
+
+     Grandmother of Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos and
+     founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty. About 1700 B. C. British
+     Museum. From the photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The secondary tomb of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Abydos, which has
+already been mentioned, was discovered in the preceding year by Mr. A.
+E. P. Weigall, and excavated by Mr. Currelly in 1903. It lies north of
+the Aahmes temple, between it and the main cemetery of Abydos. It is a
+great _bâb_ or gallery-tomb, like those of the later kings at Thebes,
+with the usual apparatus of granite plugs, barriers, pits, etc., to
+defy plunderers. The tomb had been plundered, nevertheless, though it is
+probable that the robbers were vastly disappointed with what they
+found in it. Mr. Currelly ascribes the absence of all remains to the
+plunderers, but the fact is that there probably never was anything in
+it but an empty sarcophagus. Near the tomb Mr. Weigall discovered
+some dummy mastabas, a find of great interest. Just as the king had a
+secondary tomb, so secondary mastabas, mere dummies of rubble like the
+XIth Dynasty pyramid at Dêr el-Bahari, were erected beside it to look
+like the tombs of his courtiers. Some curious sinuous brick walls which
+appear to act as dividing lines form a remarkable feature of this sham
+cemetery. In a line with the tomb, on the edge of the cultivation,
+is the funerary temple belonging to it, which was found by Mr.
+Randall-Maclver in 1900. Nothing remains but the bases of the fluted
+limestone columns and some brick walls. A headless statue of Usertsen
+was found.
+
+We have an interesting example of the custom of building a secondary
+tomb for royalties in these two nécropoles of Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga and
+Abydos. Queen Teta-shera, the grandmother of Aahmes, a beautiful
+statuette of whom may be seen in the British Museum, had a small pyramid
+at Abydos, eastward of and in a line with the temple and secondary tomb
+of Aahmes. In 1901 Mr. Mace attempted to find the chamber, but could
+not. In the next year Mr. Currelly found between it and the Aahmes
+tomb a small chapel, containing a splendid stele, on which Aahmes
+commemorates his grandmother, who, he says, was buried at Thebes and had
+a _mer-âhât_ at Abydos, and he records his determination to build her
+also a pyramid at Abydos, out of his love and veneration for her memory.
+It thus appeared that the pyramid to the east was simply a dummy,
+like Usertsen’s mastabas, or the Mentuhetep pyramid at Dêr el-Bahari.
+Teta-shera was actually buried at Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga. Her secondary
+pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was in the “holy ground” at
+Abydos, though it was not an imitation _bâb_, but a dummy pyramid of
+rubble. This well illustrates the whole custom of the royal primary and
+secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had obtained in the case of
+royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty, when Aha had two
+tombs, one at Nakâda and the other at Abydos. It is probable that all
+the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings being really
+buried elsewhere. After their time we know for certain that Tjeser and
+Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly Usertsen
+(Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III and
+Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs. Ramses III
+also had two tombs, both at Thebes. The reasons for this custom were
+two: first, the desire to elude plunderers, and second, the wish to give
+the ghost a _pied-à-terre_ on the sacred soil of Abydos or Sakkâra.
+
+As the inscription of Aahmes which records the building of the dummy
+pyramid of Teta-shera is of considerable interest, it may here be
+translated. The text reads: “It came to pass that when his Majesty the
+king, even the king of South and North, Neb-pehti-Râ, Son of the Sun,
+Aahmes, Giver of Life, was taking his pleasure in the _tjadu_-hall,
+the hereditary princess greatly favoured and greatly prized, the king’s
+daughter, the king’s sister, the god’s wife and great wife of the king,
+Nefret-ari-Aahmes, the living, was in the presence of his Majesty. And
+the one spake unto the other, seeking to do honour to These There,[1]
+which consisteth in the pouring of water, the offering upon the altar,
+the painting of the stele at the beginning of each season, at the
+Festival of the New Moon, at the feast of the month, the feast of the
+going-forth of the _Sem_-priest, the Ceremonies of the Night, the Feasts
+of the Fifth Day of the Month and of the Sixth, the _Hak_-festival, the
+_Uag_-festival, the feast of Thoth, the beginning of every season of
+heaven and earth. And his sister spake, answering him: ‘Why hath one
+remembered these matters, and wherefore hath this word been said?
+Prithee, what hath come into thy heart?’ The king spake, saying: ‘As for
+me, I have remembered the mother of my mother, the mother of my father,
+the king’s great wife and king’s mother Teta-shera, deceased, whose
+tomb-chamber and _mer-ahât_ are at this moment upon the soil of Thebes
+and Abydos. I have spoken thus unto thee because my Majesty desireth to
+cause a pyramid and chapel to be made for her in the Sacred Land, as a
+gift of a monument from my Majesty, and that its lake should be dug, its
+trees planted, and its offerings prescribed; that it should be provided
+with slaves, furnished with lands, and endowed with cattle, with
+_hen-ka_ priests and _kher-heb_ priests performing their duties, each
+man knowing what he hath to do.’ Behold! when his Majesty had thus
+spoken, these things were immediately carried out. His Majesty did these
+things on account of the greatness of the love which he bore her, which
+was greater than anything. Never had ancestral kings done the like for
+their mothers. Behold! his Majesty extended his arm and bent his hand,
+and made for her the king’s offering to Geb, to the Ennead of Gods, to
+the lesser Ennead of Gods... [to Anubis] in the God’s Shrine, thousands
+of offerings of bread, beer, oxen, geese, cattle... to [the Queen
+Teta-shera].” This is one of the most interesting inscriptions
+discovered in Egypt in recent years, for the picturesqueness of its
+diction is unusual.
+
+     [1] A polite periphrasis for the dead.
+
+As has already been said, the king Amenhetep I was also buried in the
+Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga, but the tomb has not yet been found. Amenhetep I and
+his mother, Queen Nefret-ari-Aahmes, who is mentioned in the inscription
+translated above, were both venerated as tutelary demons of the Western
+Necropolis of Thebes after their deaths, as also was Mentuhetep III. At
+Dêr el-Bahari both kings seem to have been worshipped with Hathor, the
+Mistress of the Waste. The worship of Amen-Râ in the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple of Dêr el-Bahari was a novelty introduced by the priests of Amen
+at that time. But the worship of Hathor went on side by side with that
+of Amen in a chapel with a rock-cut shrine at the side of the Great
+Temple. Very possibly this was the original cave-shrine of Hathor, long
+before Mentuhetep’s time, and was incorporated with the Great Temple and
+beautified with the addition of a pillared hall before it, built
+over part of the XIth Dynasty north court and wall, by Hatshepsu’s
+architects.
+
+The Great Temple, the excavation of which for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+was successfully brought to an end by Prof. Naville in 1898, was erected
+by Queen Hatshepsu in honour of Amen-Râ, her father Thothmes I, and her
+brother-husband Thothmes II, and received a few additions from Thothmes
+III, her successor. He, however, did not complete it, and it fell into
+disrepair, besides suffering from the iconoclastic zeal of the heretic
+Akhunaten, who hammered out some of the beautifully painted scenes upon
+its walls. These were badly restored by Ramses II, whose painting is
+easily distinguished from the original work by the dulness and badness
+of its colour.
+
+The peculiar plan and other remarkable characteristics of this temple
+are well known. Its great terraces, with the ramps leading up to them,
+flanked by colonnades, which, as we have seen, were imitated from the
+design of the old XIth Dynasty temple at its side, are familiar from a
+hundred illustrations, and the marvellously preserved colouring of its
+delicate reliefs is known to every winter visitor to Egypt, and can be
+realized by those who have never been there through the medium of Mr.
+Howard Carter’s wonderful coloured reproductions, published in Prof.
+Naville’s edition of the temple by the Egypt Exploration Fund. The Great
+Temple stands to-day clear of all the débris which used to cover it, a
+lasting monument to the work of the greatest of the societies which busy
+themselves with the unearthing of the relics of the ancient world.
+
+[Illustration: 334.jpg THE TWO TEMPLES OF DÊR EL-BAHARI.] Excavated by
+Prof. Nayille, 1893-8 and 1903-6, for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+
+The two temples of Dêr el-Bahari will soon stand side by side, as they
+originally stood, and will always be associated with the name of the
+society which rescued them from oblivion, and gave us the treasures
+of the royal tombs at Abydos. The names of the two men whom the Egypt
+Exploration Fund commissioned to excavate Dêr el-Bahari and Abydos, and
+for whose work it exclusively supplied the funds, Profs. Naville and
+Petrie, will live chiefly in connection with their work at Dêr el-Bahari
+and Abydos.
+
+The Egyptians called the two temples _Tjeserti_, “the two holy places,”
+ the new building receiving the name of _Tjeser-tjesru_, “Holy of
+Holies,” and the whole tract of Dêr el-Bahari the appellation _Tjesret_,
+“the Holy.” The extraordinary beauty of the situation in which they are
+placed, with its huge cliffs and rugged hillsides, may be appreciated
+from the photograph which is taken from a steep path half-way up the
+cliff above the Great Temple. In it we see the Great Temple in the
+foreground with the modern roofs of two of its colonnades, devised in
+order to protect the sculptures beneath them, the great trilithon gate
+leading to the upper court, and the entrance to the cave-shrine of
+Amen-Râ, with the niches of the kings on either side, immediately at the
+foot of the cliff. In the middle distance is the duller form of the XIth
+Dynasty temple, with its rectangular platform, the ramp leading up
+to it, and the pyramid in the centre of it, surrounded by pillars,
+half-emerging from the great heaps of sand and débris all around. The
+background of cliffs and hills, as seen in the photograph, will serve to
+give some idea of the beauty of the surroundings,--an arid beauty, it is
+true, for all is desert. There is not a blade of vegetation near; all
+is salmon-red in colour beneath a sky of ineffable blue, and against the
+red cliffs the white temple stands out in vivid contrast.
+
+The second illustration gives a nearer view of the great trilithon
+gate in the upper court, at the head of the ramp. The long hill of Dra’
+Abu-’l-Negga is seen bending away northward behind the gate.
+
+[Illustration: 346.jpg THE UPPER COURT AND TRILITHON GATE]
+
+     Of The Xviiith Dynasty Temple At Dêr El-Bahari. About 1500
+     B.C.
+
+This is the famous gate on which the jealous Thothmes III chiselled out
+Hatshepsu’s name in the royal cartouches and inserted his own in
+its place; but he forgot to alter the gender of the pronouns in the
+accompanying inscription, which therefore reads “King Thothmes III, she
+made this monument to her father Amen.”
+
+Among Prof. Naville’s discoveries here one of the most important is that
+of the altar in a small court to the north, which, as the inscription
+says, was made in honour of the god Râ-Harmachis “of beautiful white
+stone of Anu.” It is of the finest white limestone known. Here also were
+found the carved ebony doors of a shrine, now in the Cairo Museum. One
+of the most beautiful parts of the temple is the Shrine of Anubis, with
+its splendidly preserved paintings and perfect columns and roof of
+white limestone. The effect of the pure white stone and simplicity of
+architecture is almost Hellenic.
+
+The Shrine of Hathor has been known since the time of Mariette, but in
+connection with it some interesting discoveries have been made during
+the excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple. In the court between the two
+temples were found a large number of small votive offerings, consisting
+of scarabs, beads, little figures of cows and women, etc., of blue
+glazed _faïence_ and rough pottery, bronze and wood, and blue glazed
+ware ears, eyes, and plaques with figures of the sacred cow, and other
+small objects of the same nature. These are evidently the ex-votos of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty fellahîn to the goddess Hathor in the rock-shrine
+above the court. When the shrine was full or the little ex-votos broken,
+the sacristans threw them over the wall into the court below, which thus
+became a kind of dust-heap. Over this heap the sand and débris gradually
+collected, and thus they were preserved. The objects found are of
+considerable interest to anthropological science.
+
+The Great Temple was built, as we have said, in honour of Thothmes I
+and II, and the deities Amen-Râ and Hathor. More especially it was the
+funerary chapel of Thothmes I. His tomb was excavated, not in the Dra’
+Abu-l-Negga, which was doubtless now too near the capital city and not
+in a sufficiently dignified position of aloofness from the common herd,
+but at the end of the long valley of the Wadiyên, behind the cliff-hill
+above Dêr el-Bahari. Hence the new temple was oriented in the direction
+of his tomb. Immediately behind the temple, on the other side of the
+hill, is the tomb which was discovered by Lepsius and cleared in 1904
+for Mr. Theodore N. Davis by Mr. Howard Carter, then chief inspector of
+antiquities at Thebes. Its gallery is of very small dimensions, and it
+winds about in the hill in corkscrew fashion like the tomb of Aahmes at
+Aby-dos. Owing to its extraordinary length, the heat and foul air in the
+depths of the tomb were almost insupportable and caused great difficulty
+to the excavators. When the sarcophagus-chamber was at length reached,
+it was found to contain the empty sarcophagi of Thothmes I and of
+Hatshepsu. The bodies had been removed for safe-keeping in the time of
+the XXIst Dynasty, that of Thothmes I having been found with those
+of Set! I and Ramses II in the famous pit at Dêr el-Bahari, which was
+discovered by M. Maspero in 1881. Thothmes I seems to have had another
+and more elaborate tomb (No. 38) in the Valley of the Tombs of the
+Kings, which was discovered by M. Loret in 1898. Its frescoes had been
+destroyed by the infiltration of water.
+
+The fashion of royal burial in the great valley behind Dêr el-Bahari
+was followed during the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth Dynasties. Here in the
+eastern branch of the Wadiyên, now called the _Bibân el-Mulûk_, “the
+Tombs of the Kings,” the greater number of the mightiest Theban Pharaohs
+were buried. In the western valley rested two of the kings of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, who desired even more remote burial-places, Amenhetep
+III and Ai. The former chose for his last home a most kingly site.
+Ancient kings had raised great pyramids of artificial stone over their
+graves. Amenhetep, perhaps the greatest and most powerful Pharaoh of
+them all, chose to have a natural pyramid for his grave, a mountain for
+his tumulus. The illustration shows us the tomb of this monarch, opening
+out of the side of one of the most imposing hills in the Western Valley.
+No other king but Amenhetep rested beneath this hill, which thus marks
+his grave and his only.
+
+It is in the Eastern Valley, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings
+properly speaking, that the tombs of Thothmes I and Hatshepsu lie, and
+here the most recent discoveries have been made. It is a desolate spot.
+As we come over the hill from Dêr el-Bahari we see below us in the
+glaring sunshine a rocky canon, with sides sometimes sheer cliff,
+sometimes sloped by great falls of rock in past ages. At the bottom
+of these slopes the square openings of the many royal tombs can be
+descried. [See illustration.] Far below we see the forms of tourists
+and the tomb-guards accompanying them, moving in and out of the openings
+like ants going in and out of an ants’ nest. Nothing is heard but the
+occasional cry of a kite and the ceaseless rhythmical throbbing of the
+exhaust-pipe of the electric light engine in the unfinished tomb of
+Ramses XI. Above and around are the red desert hills. The Egyptians
+called it “The Place of Eternity.”
+
+[Illustration: 350.jpg THE TOMB-MOUNTAIN OF AMENHETEP III, IN THE
+WESTERN VALLEY, THEBES.]
+
+In this valley some remarkable discoveries have been made during the
+last few years. In 1898 M. Grébaut discovered the tomb of Amenhetep
+II, in which was found the mummy of the king, intact, lying in its
+sarcophagus in the depths of the tomb. The royal body now lies there
+for all to see. The tomb is lighted with electricity, as are all the
+principal tombs of the kings. At the head of the sarcophagus is a single
+lamp, and, when the party of visitors is collected in silence around the
+place of death, all the lights are turned out, and then the single
+light is switched on, showing the royal head illuminated against the
+surrounding blackness. The effect is indescribably weird and impressive.
+The body has only twice been removed from the tomb since its burial, the
+second time when it was for a brief space taken up into the sunlight to
+be photographed by Mr.. Carter, in January, 1902. The temporary removal
+was carefully carried out, the body of his Majesty being borne up
+through the passages of the tomb on the shoulders of the Italian
+electric light workmen, preceded and followed by impassive Arab
+candle-bearers. The workmen were most reverent in their handling of the
+body of “_ il gran ré_,” as they called him.
+
+In the tomb were found some very interesting objects, including a model
+boat (afterwards stolen), across which lay the body of a woman. This
+body now lies, with others found close by, in a side chamber of the
+tomb. One may be that of Hatshepsu. The walls of the tomb-chamber are
+painted to resemble papyrus, and on them are written chapters of the
+“Book of What Is in the Underworld,” for the guidance of the royal
+ghost.
+
+In 1902-3 Mr. Theodore Davis excavated the tomb of Thothmes IV. It
+yielded a rich harvest of antiquities belonging to the funeral state of
+the king, including a chariot with sides of embossed and gilded leather,
+decorated with representations of the king’s warlike deeds, and much
+fine blue pottery, all of which are now in the Cairo Museum. The
+tomb-gallery returns upon itself, describing a curve. An interesting
+point with regard to it is that it had evidently been violated even in
+the short time between the reigns of its owner and Horem-heb, probably
+in the period of anarchy which prevailed at Thebes during the reign
+of the heretic Akhunaten; for in one of the chambers is a hieratic
+inscription recording the repair of the tomb in the eighth year of
+Horemheb by Maya, superintendent of works in the Tombs of the Kings. It
+reads as follows: “In the eighth year, the third month of summer, under
+the Majesty of King Tjeser-khepru-Râ Sotp-n-Râ, Son of the Sun, Horemheb
+Meriamen, his Majesty (Life, health, and wealth unto him!) commanded
+that orders should be sent unto the Fanbearer on the King’s Left Hand,
+the King’s Scribe and Overseer of the Treasury, the Overseer of the
+Works in the Place of Eternity, the Leader of the Festivals of Amen
+in Karnak, Maya, son of the judge Aui, born of the Lady Ueret, that he
+should renew the burial of King Men-khepru-Râ, deceased, in the August
+Habitation in Western Thebes.” Men-khepru-Râ was the prenomen or
+throne-name of Thothmes IV. Tied round a pillar in the tomb is still a
+length of the actual rope used by the thieves for crossing the chasm,
+which, as in many of the tombs here, was left open in the gallery to bar
+the way to plunderers. The mummy of the king was found in the tomb of
+Amenhetep II, and is now at Cairo.
+
+The discovery of the tomb of Thothmes I and Hat-shepsu has already been
+described. In 1905 Mr. Davis made his latest find, the tomb of Iuaa
+and Tuaa, the father and mother of Queen Tii, the famous consort of
+Amenhetep III and mother of Akhunaten the heretic. Readers of Prof.
+Maspero’s history will remember that Iuaa and Tuaa are mentioned on one
+of the large memorial scarabs of Amenhetep III, which commemorates his
+marriage. The tomb has yielded an almost incredible treasure of funerary
+furniture, besides the actual mummies of Tii’s parents, including a
+chariot overlaid with gold. Gold overlay of great thickness is found on
+everything, boxes, chairs, etc. It was no wonder that Egypt seemed the
+land of gold to the Asiatics, and that even the King of Babylon begs
+this very Pharaoh Amenhetep to send him gold, in one of the letters
+found at Tell el-Amarna, “for gold is as water in thy land.” It is
+probable that Egypt really attained the height of her material wealth
+and prosperity in the reign of Amenhetep III. Certainly her dominion
+reached its farthest limits in his time, and his influence was felt from
+the Tigris to the Sudan. He hunted lions for his pleasure in Northern
+Mesopotamia, and he built temples at Jebel Barkal beyond Dongola. We see
+the evidence of lavish wealth in the furniture of the tomb of Iuaa and
+Tuaa. Yet, fine as are many of these gold-overlaid and overladen objects
+of the XVIIIth Dynasty, they have neither the good taste nor the charm
+of the beautiful jewels from the XIIth Dynasty tombs at Dashûr. It is
+mere vulgar wealth. There is too much gold thrown about. “For gold is as
+water in thy land.” In three hundred years’ time Egypt was to know what
+poverty meant, when the poor priest-kings of the XXIst Dynasty could
+hardly keep body and soul together and make a comparatively decent show
+as Pharaohs of Egypt. Then no doubt the latter-day Thebans sighed for
+the good old times of the XVIIIth Dynasty, when their city ruled a
+considerable part of Africa and Western Asia and garnered their riches
+into her coffers. But the days of the XIIth Dynasty had really been
+better still. Then there was not so much wealth, but what there was (and
+there was as much gold then, too) was used sparingly, tastefully, and
+simply. The XIIth Dynasty, not the XVIIIth, was the real Golden Age of
+Egypt.
+
+From the funeral panoply of a tomb like that of Iuaa and Tuaa we can
+obtain some idea of the pomp and state of Amenhetep III. But the remains
+of his Theban palace, which have been discovered and excavated by Mr. C.
+Tytus and Mr. P. E. Newberry, do not bear out this idea of magnificence.
+It is quite possible that the palace was merely a pleasure house,
+erected very hastily and destined to fall to pieces when its owner tired
+of it or died, like the many palaces of the late Khedive Ismail. It
+stood on the border of an artificial lake, whereon the Pharaoh and his
+consort Tii sailed to take their pleasure in golden barks. This is now
+the cultivated rectangular space of land known as the Birket Habû, which
+is still surrounded by the remains of the embankment built to retain its
+waters, and becomes a lake during the inundation. On the western shore
+of this lake Amenhetep erected the “stately pleasure dome,” the
+remains of which still cover the sandy tract known as el-Malkata, “the
+Salt-pans,” south of the great temple of Medînet Habû. These remains
+consist merely of the foundations and lowest wall-courses of a
+complicated and rambling building of many chambers, constructed of
+common unburnt brick and plastered with white stucco on walls and
+floors, on which were painted beautiful frescoes of fighting bulls,
+birds of the air, water-fowl, fish-ponds, etc., in much the same style
+as the frescoes of Tell el-Amarna executed in the next reign. There
+were small pillared halls, the columns of which were of wood, mounted
+on bases of white limestone. The majority still remain in position. In
+several chambers there are small daïses, and in one the remains of a
+throne, built of brick and mud covered with plaster and stucco, upon
+which the Pharaoh Amenhetep sat. This is the palace of him whom the
+Greeks called Memnon, who ruled Egypt when Israel was in bondage and
+when the dynasty of Minos reigned in Crete. Here by the side of his
+pleasure-lake the most powerful of Egyptian Pharaohs whiled away his
+time during the summer heats. Evidently the building was intended to be
+of the lightest construction, and never meant to last; but to our ideas
+it seems odd that an Egyptian Pharaoh should live in a mud palace. Such
+a building is, however, quite suited to the climate of Egypt, as are the
+modern crude brick dwellings of the fellahîn. In the ruins of the
+palace were found several small objects of interest, and close by was
+an ancient glass manufactory of Amenhetep III’s time, where much of the
+characteristic beautifully coloured and variegated opaque glass of the
+period was made.
+
+[Illustration: 356.jpg THE TOMB-HILL OF SHÊKH ’ABD EL-KÛRNA, THEBES.]
+
+The tombs of the magnates of Amenhetep III’s reign and of the reigns
+of his immediate predecessors were excavated, as has been said, on the
+eastern slope of the hill of Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna, where was the earliest
+Theban necropolis. No doubt many of the early tombs of the time of the
+VIth Dynasty were appropriated and remodelled by the XVIIIth Dynasty
+magnates. We have an instance of time’s revenge in this matter, in the
+case of the tomb of Imadua, a great priestly official of the time of
+the XXth Dynasty. This tomb previously belonged to an XVIIIth Dynasty
+worthy, but Imadua appropriated it three hundred years later and covered
+up all its frescoes with the much begilt decoration fashionable in his
+period. Perhaps the XVIIIth Dynasty owner had stolen it from an original
+owner of the time of the VIth Dynasty. The tomb has lately been cleared
+out by Mr. Newberry.
+
+Much work of the same kind has been done here of late years by Messrs.
+Newberry and R. L. Mond, in succession. To both we are indebted for the
+excavation of many known tombs, as well as for the discovery of many
+others previously unknown. Among the former was that of Sebekhetep,
+cleared by Mr. Newberry. Se-bekhetep was an official of the time of
+Thothmes III. From his tomb, and from others in the same hill, came many
+years ago the fine frescoes shown in the illustration, which are among
+the most valued treasures of the Egyptian department of the British
+Museum. They are typical specimens of the wall-decoration of an XVIIIth
+Dynasty tomb. On one may be seen a bald-headed peasant, with staff in
+hand, pulling an ear of corn from the standing crop in order to see if
+it is ripe. He is the “Chief Reaper,” and above him is a prayer that the
+“great god in heaven” may increase the crop. To the right of him is a
+charioteer standing beside a car and reining back a pair of horses, one
+black, the other bay. Below is another charioteer with two white
+horses. He sits on the floor of the car with his back to them, eating
+or resting, while they nibble the branches of a tree close by. Another
+scene is that of a scribe keeping tally of offerings brought to the
+tomb, while fellahm are bringing flocks of geese and other fowl, some in
+crates. The inscription above is apparently addressed by the goose-herd
+to the man with the crates. It reads: “Hasten thy feet because of the
+geese! Hearken! thou knowest not the next minute what has been said
+to thee!” Above, a reïs with a stick bids other peasants squat on the
+ground before addressing the scribe, and he is saying to them: “Sit ye
+down to talk.” The third scene is in another style; on it may be seen
+Semites bringing offerings of vases of gold, silver, and copper to the
+royal presence, bowing themselves to the ground and kissing the dust
+before the throne. The fidelity and accuracy with which the racial type
+of the tribute-bearers is given is most extraordinary; every face
+seems a portrait, and each one might be seen any day now in the Jewish
+quarters of Whitechapel.
+
+[Illustration: 358.jpg Wall-Painting from a Tomb]
+
+The first two paintings are representative of a very common style of
+fresco-pictures in these tombs. The care with which the animals
+are depicted is remarkable. Possibly one of the finest Egyptian
+representations of an animal is the fresco of a goat in the tomb of
+Gen-Amen, discovered by Mr. Mond. There is even an attempt here at
+chiaroscuro, which is unknown to Egyptian art generally, except at Tell
+el-Amarna. Evidently the Egyptian painters reached the apogee of
+their art towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The third, the
+representation of tribute-bearers, is of a type also well known at
+this period. In all the chief tombs we have processions of Egyptians,
+Westerners, Northerners, Easterners, and Southerners, bringing tribute
+to the Pharaoh. The North is represented by the Semites, the East by the
+Punites (when they occur), the South by negroes, the West by the Keftiu
+or people of Crete and Cyprus. The representations of the last-named
+people have become of the very highest interest during the last few
+years, on account of the discoveries in Crete, which have revealed to
+us the state and civilization of these very Keftiu. Messrs. Evans
+and Halbherr have discovered at Knossos and Phaistos the cities and
+palace-temples of the king who sent forth their ambassadors to far-away
+Egypt with gifts for the mighty Pharaoh; these ambassadors were painted
+in the tombs of their hosts as representative of the quarter of the
+world from which they came.
+
+The two chief Egyptian representations of these people, who since they
+lived in Greece may be called Greeks, though their more proper title
+would be “Pe-lasgians,” are to be found in the tombs of Rekhmarâ and
+Senmut, the former a vizier under Thothmes III, the latter the
+architect of Hatshepsu’s temple at Dêr el-Bahari. Senmut’s tomb is a
+new rediscovery. It was known, as Rekhmarâ’s was, in the early days of
+Egyptological science, and Prisse d’Avennes copied its paintings. It was
+afterwards lost sight of until rediscovered by Mr. Newberry and Prof.
+Steindorff.
+
+[Illustration: 360.jpg FRESCO IN THE TOMB OF SENMUT AT THEBES.] About
+1500 B.C.
+
+The tomb of Rekhmarâ (No. 35) is well known to every visitor to Thebes,
+but it is difficult to get at that of Senmut (No. 110); it lies at the
+top of the hill round to the left and overlooking Dêr el-Bahari,
+an appropriate place for it, by the way. In some ways Senmut’s
+representations are more interesting than Rekhmarâ’s. They are more
+easily seen, since they are now in the open air, the fore hall of the
+tomb having been ruined; and they are better preserved, since they have
+not been subjected to a century of inspection with naked candles and
+pawing with greasy hands, as have Rekhmarâ’s frescoes. Further, there
+is no possibility of mistaking what they represent. From right to
+left, walking in procession, we see the Minoan gift-bearers from Crete,
+carrying in their hands and on their shoulders great cups of gold and
+silver, in shape like the famous gold cups found at Vaphio in Lakonia,
+but much larger, also a ewer of gold and silver exactly like one of
+bronze discovered by Mr. Evans two years ago at Knossos, and a huge
+copper jug with four ring-handles round the sides. All these vases are
+specifically and definitely Mycenaean, or rather, following the new
+terminology, Minoan. They are of Greek manufacture and are carried on
+the shoulders of Pelasgian Greeks. The bearers wear the usual Mycenaean
+costume, high boots and a gaily ornamented kilt, and little else, just
+as we see it depicted in the fresco of the Cupbearer at Knossos and
+in other Greek representations. The coiffure, possibly the most
+characteristic thing about the Mycenaean Greeks, is faithfully
+represented by the Egyptians both here and in Rekhmarâ’s tomb. The
+Mycenaean men allowed their hair to grow to its full natural length,
+like women, and wore it partly hanging down the back, partly tied up
+in a knot or plait (the _kepas_ of the dandy Paris in the Iliad) on the
+crown of the head. This was the universal fashion, and the Keftiu are
+consistently depicted by the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptians as following it.
+The faces in the Senmut fresco are not so well portrayed as those in the
+Rekhmarâ fresco. There it is evident that the first three ambassadors
+are faithfully depicted, as the portraits are marked. The procession
+advances from left to right. The first man, “the Great Chief of the
+Kefti and the Isles of the Green Sea,” is young, and has a remarkably
+small mouth with an amiable expression. His complexion is fair rather
+than dark, but his hair is dark brown. His lieutenant, the next in
+order, is of a different type,--elderly, with a most forbidding visage,
+Roman nose, and nutcracker jaws. Most of the others are very much
+alike,--young, dark in complexion, and with long black hair hanging
+below their waists and twisted up into fantastic knots and curls on the
+tops of their heads. One, carrying on his shoulder a great silver vase
+with curving handles and in one hand a dagger of early European Bronze
+Age type, is looking back to hear some remark of his next companion.
+Any one of these gift-bearers might have sat for the portrait of
+the Knossian Cupbearer, the fresco discovered by Mr. Evans in the
+palace-temple of Minos; he has the same ruddy brown complexion, the same
+long black hair dressed in the same fashion, the same parti-coloured
+kilt, and he bears his vase in much the same way. We have only to allow
+for the difference of Egyptian and Mycenaean ways of drawing. There is
+no doubt whatever that these Keftiu of the Egyptians were Cretans of the
+Minoan Age. They used to be considered Phoenicians, but this view was
+long ago exploded. They are not Semites, and that is quite enough.
+Neither are they Asiatics of any kind. They are purely and simply
+Mycenaean, or rather Minoan, Greeks of the pre-Hellenic period--Pelasgi,
+that is to say.
+
+Probably no discovery of more far-reaching importance to our knowledge
+of the history of the world generally and of our own culture especially
+has ever been made than the finding of Mycenæ by Schliemann, and
+the further finds that have resulted therefrom, culminating in the
+discoveries of Mr. Arthur Evans at Knossos. Naturally, these discoveries
+are of extraordinary interest to us, for they have revealed the
+beginnings and first bloom of the European civilization of to-day. For
+our culture-ancestors are neither the Egyptians, nor the Assyrians, nor
+the Hebrews, but the Hellenes, and they, the Aryan-Greeks, derived most
+of their civilization from the pre-Hellenic people whom they found in
+the land before them, the Pelasgi or “Mycenæan” Greeks, “Minoans,” as we
+now call them, the Keftiu of the Egyptians. These are the ancient Greeks
+of the Heroic Age, to which the legends of the Hellenes refer; in their
+day were fought the wars of Troy and of the Seven against Thebes, in
+their day the tragedy of the Atridse was played out to its end, in their
+day the wise Minos ruled Knossos and the _Ægean_. And of all the events
+which are at the back of these legends we know nothing. The hiéroglyphed
+tablets of the pre-Hellenic Greeks lie before us, but we cannot read
+them; we can only see that the Minoan writing in many ways resembled
+the Egyptian, thus again confirming our impression of the original early
+connection of the two cultures.
+
+In view of this connection, and the known close relations between Crete
+and Egypt, from the end of the XIIth Dynasty to the end of the XVIIIth,
+we might have hoped to recover at Knossos a bilingual inscription in
+Cretan and Egyptian hieroglyphs which would give us the key to the
+Minoan script and tell us what we so dearly wish to know. But this hope
+has not yet been realized. Two Egyptian inscriptions have been found at
+Knossos, but no bilingual one. A list of Keftian names is preserved in
+the British Museum upon an Egyptian writing-board from Thebes with what
+is perhaps a copy of a single Cretan hieroglyph, a vase; but again,
+nothing bilingual. A list of “Keftian words” occurs at the head of a
+papyrus, also in the British Museum, but they appear to be nonsense,
+a mere imitation of the sounds of a strange tongue. Still we need
+not despair of finding the much desired Cretan-Egyptian bilingual
+inscription yet. Perhaps the double text of a treaty between Crete and
+Egypt, like that of Ramses II with the Hittites, may come to light.
+Meanwhile we can only do our best with the means at our hand to trace
+out the history of the relations of the oldest European culture with
+the ancient civilization of Egypt. The tomb-paintings at Thebes are very
+important material. Eor it is due to them that the voice of the doubter
+has finally ceased to be heard, and that now no archaeologist questions
+that the Egyptians were in direct communication with the Cretan
+Mycenæans in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, some fifteen hundred years
+before Christ, for no one doubts that the pictures of the Keftiu are
+pictures of Mycenaeans.
+
+As we have seen, we know that this connection was far older than the
+time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, but it is during that time and the Hyksos
+period that we have the clearest documentary proof of its existence,
+from the statuette of Abnub and the alabastron lid of King Khian,
+found at Knossos, down to the Mycenaean pottery fragments found at Tell
+el-Amarna, a site which has been utterly abandoned since the time of
+the heretic Akhunaten (B.C. 1430), so that there is no possibility of
+anything found there being later than his time. That the connection
+existed as late as the time of the XXth Dynasty we know from the
+representations of golden _Bügelkannen_ or false-necked vases of
+Mycenaean form in the tomb of Ramses III in the Bibân el-Mulûk, and of
+golden cups of Vaphio type in the tomb of Imadua, already mentioned.
+This brings the connection down to about 1050 B.C.
+
+After that date we cannot hope to find any certain evidence of
+connection, for by that time the Mycenaean civilization had probably
+come to an end. In the days of the XIIth and XVIIIth Dynasties a great
+and splendid power evidently existed in Crete, and sent its peaceful
+ambassadors, the Keftiu who are represented in the Theban tombs, to
+Egypt. But with the XIXth Dynasty the name of the Keftiu disappears from
+Egyptian records, and their place is taken by a congeries of warring
+seafaring tribes, whose names as given by the Egyptians seem to be forms
+of tribal and place names well known to us in the Greece of later days.
+We find the Akaivasha (_Axaifol_, Achaians), Shakalsha (Sagalassians of
+Pisidia), Tursha (Tylissians of Crete?), and Shardana (Sardians) allied
+with the Libyans and Mashauash (Maxyes) in a land attack upon Egypt in
+the days of Meneptah, the successor of Ramses II--just as in the later
+days of the XXVIth Dynasty the Northern pirates visited the African
+shore of the Mediterranean, and in alliance with the predatory Libyans
+attacked Egypt.
+
+Prof. Petrie has lately [History of Egypt, iii, pp. Ill, I12.] proffered
+an alternative view, which would make all these tribes Tunisians and
+Algerians, thus disposing of the identification of the Akaivasha with
+the Achaians, and making them the ancient representatives of the town
+of el-Aghwat (Roman Agbia) in Tunis. But several difficulties might be
+pointed out which are in the way of an acceptance of this view, and it
+is probable that the older identifications with Greek tribes must still
+be retained, so that Meneptah’s Akaivasha are evidently the ancient
+representatives of the Achai(v)ans, the Achivi of the Roman poets. The
+terminations _sha_ and _na_, which appear in these names, are merely
+ethnic and locative affixes belonging to the Asianic language system
+spoken by these tribes at that time, to which the language of the Minoan
+Cretans (which is written in the Knossian hieroglyphs) belonged. They
+existed in ancient Lycian in the forms _azzi_ and _nna_, and we find
+them enshrined in the Asia Minor place-names terminating in _assos_
+and _nda_, as Halikarnassos, Sagalassos (Shakalasha in Meneptah’s
+inscription), Oroanda, and Labraunda (which, as we have seen, is the
+same as the [Greek word], a word of pre-Hellenic origin, both meaning
+“Place of the Double Axe”) The identification of these _sha_ and _nal_
+terminations in the Egyptian transliterations of the foreign names, with
+the Lycian affixes referred to, was made some five years ago,[2] and is
+now generally accepted. We have, then, to find the equivalents of
+these names, to strike off the final termination, as in the case of
+Akaiva-sha, where Akaiva only is the real name, and this seems to be
+the Egyptian equivalent of _Axaifol_, Achivi. It is strange to meet with
+this great name on an Egyptian monument of the thirteenth century B.C.
+But yet not so strange, when we recollect that it is precisely to that
+period that Greek legend refers the war of Troy, which was an attack
+by Greek tribes from all parts of the Ægean upon the Asianic city
+at Hissarlik in the Troad, exactly parallel to the attacks of the
+Northerners on Egypt. And Homer preserves many a reminiscence of early
+Greek visits, peaceful and the reverse, to the coast of Egypt at this
+period. The reader will have noticed that one no longer treats the siege
+of Troy as a myth. To do so would be to exhibit a most uncritical mind;
+even the legends of King Arthur have a historic foundation, and those of
+the Nibelungen are still more probable.
+
+     [2] See Hall, _Oldest Civilization of Greece_, p. 178 _f_.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg Page Image to display Greek words]
+
+[Illustration: 369.jpg Page Image to display Greek words]
+
+In the eighth year of Ramses III the second Northern attack was made,
+by the Pulesta (_Pelishtim_, Philistines), Tjakaray, Shakalasha
+(Sagalassians), Vashasha, and Danauna or Daanau, in alliance with North
+Syrian tribes. The Danauna are evidently the ancient representatives of
+the _Aavaoî_, the Danaans who formed the bulk of the Greek army against
+Troy under the leadership of the long-haired Achaians, [Greek words]
+(like the Keftiu). The Vashasha have been identified by the writer with
+the Axians, the [Greek word] of Crete. Prof. Petrie compares the name
+of the Tjakaray with that of the (modern) place Zakro in Crete.
+Identifications with modern place-names are of doubtful value;
+for instance, we cannot but hold that Prof. Petrie errs greatly in
+identifying the name of the Pidasa (another tribe mentioned in Ramses
+II’s time) with that of the river Pidias in Cyprus. “Pidias” is a purely
+modern corruption of the ancient Pediseus, which means the “plain-river”
+ (because it flows through the central plain of the island), from the
+Greek [Greek word]. If, then, we make the Pidasa Cypriotes we assume
+that pure Greek was spoken in Cyprus as early as 1100 b. c, which is
+highly improbable. The Pidasa were probably Le-leges (Pedasians); the
+name of Pisidia may be the same, by metathesis. Pedasos is a name always
+connected with the much wandering tribe of the Leleges, where-ever they
+are found in Lakonia or in Asia Minor. We believe them to have been
+known to the Egyptians as Pidasa. The identification of the Tjakaray
+with Zakro is very tempting. The name was formerly identified with
+that of the Teukrians, but the v in the word Tewpot lias always been a
+stumbling-block in the way. Perhaps Zakro is neither more nor less than
+the Tetkpoc-name, since the legendary Teucer, the archer, was connected
+with the eastern or Eteokretan end of Crete, where Zakro lies. In
+Mycenæan times Zakro was an important place, so that the Tjakaray may
+be the Teukroi, after all, and Zakro may preserve the name. At any rate,
+this identification is most alluring and, taken in conjunction with
+the other cumulative identifications, is very probable; but the
+identification of the Pidæa with the river Pediæus in Cyprus is
+neither alluring nor probable.
+
+In the time of Ramses II some of these Asia Minor tribes had marched
+against Egypt as allies of the Hittites. We find among them the Luka or
+Lycians, the Dardenui (Dardanians, who may possibly have been at that
+time in the Troad, or elsewhere, for all these tribes were certainly
+migratory), and the Masa (perhaps the Mysians). With the Cretans of
+Ramses Ill’s time must be reckoned the Pulesta, who are certainly the
+Philistines, then most probably in course of their traditional migration
+from Crete to Palestine. In Philistia recent excavations by Mr. Welch
+have disclosed the unmistakable presence of a late Mycenæan culture,
+and we can only ascribe this to the Philistines, who were of Cretan
+origin.
+
+Thus we see that all these Northern tribal names hold together with
+remarkable persistence, and in fact refuse to be identified with any
+tribes but those of Asia Minor and the Ægean. In them we see the broken
+remnants of the old Minoan (Keftian) power, driven hither and thither
+across the seas by intestinal feuds, and “winding the skein of grievous
+wars till every man of them perished,” as Homer says of the heroes after
+the siege of Troy. These were in fact the wanderings of the heroes, the
+period of _Sturm und Drang_ which succeeded the great civilized epoch of
+Minos and his thalassocracy, of Knossos, Phaistos, and the Keftius.
+On the walls of the temple of Medînet Habû, Ramses III depicted the
+portraits of the conquered heroes who had fallen before the Egyptian
+onslaught, and he called them heroes, _tuher_ in Egyptian, fully
+recognizing their Berserker gallantry. Above all in interest are the
+portraits of the Philistines, those Greeks who at this very time seized
+part of Palestine (which takes its name from them), and continued to
+exist there as a separate people (like the Normans in France) for at
+least two centuries. Goliath the giant was, then, a Greek; certainly he
+was of Cretan descent, and so a Pelasgian.
+
+Such are the conclusions to which modern discovery in Crete has impelled
+us with regard to the pictures of the Keftiu at Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna. It
+is indeed a new chapter in the history of the relations of ancient Egypt
+with the outside world that Dr. Arthur Evans has opened for us. And in
+this connection some American work must not be overlooked. An expedition
+sent out by the University of Pennsylvania, under Miss Harriet Boyd,
+has discovered much of importance to Mycenæan study in the ruins of an
+ancient town at Gournia in Crete, east of Knossos. Here, however, little
+has been found that will bear directly on the question of relations
+between Mycenaean Greece and Egypt.
+
+The Theban nécropoles of the New Empire are by no means exhausted by a
+description of the Tombs of the Kings and Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna; but few
+new discoveries have been made anywhere except in the picturesque valley
+of the Tombs of the Queens, south of Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna. Here the
+Italian Egyptologist, Prof. Schiaparelli, has lately discovered and
+excavated some very fine tombs of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties. The best
+is that of Queen Nefertari, one of the wives of Ramses II. The colouring
+of the reliefs upon these walls is extraordinarily bright, and the
+portraits of the queen, who has a very beautiful face, with aquiline
+nose, are wonderfully preserved. She was of the dark type, while another
+queen, Titi by name, who was buried close by, was fair, and had a
+retroussé nose. Prof. Schiaparelli also discovered here the tombs of
+some princes of the XXth Dynasty, who died young. All the tombs are
+much alike, with a single short gallery, on the walls of which are
+mythological scenes, figures of the prince and of his father, the king,
+etc., painted in a crude style, which shows a great degeneration from
+that of the XVIIIth Dynasty tombs.
+
+We now leave the great necropolis and turn to the later temples of the
+Western Bank at Thebes. These were of a funerary character, like those
+of Dêr el-Bahari, already described. The most imposing of all in some
+respects is the Ramesseum, where lies the huge granite colossus of
+Ramses II, prostrate and broken, which Diodorus knew as the statue of
+Osymandyas. This name is a late corruption of Ramses II’s throne-name,
+User-maat-Rà, pronounced Ûsimare. The temple has been cleared by
+Mr. Howard Carter for the Egyptian government, and the small town of
+priests’ houses, magazines, and cellars, to the west of it, has been
+excavated by him. This is quite a little Pompeii, with its small
+streets, its houses with the stucco still clinging to the walls, its
+public altar, its market colonnade, and its gallery of statues. The
+statues are only of brick like the walls, and roughly shaped and
+plastered, but they were portraits, undoubtedly, of celebrities of
+the time, though we do not know of whom. On either side are the long
+magazines in which were kept the possessions of the priests of the
+Ramesseum, the grain from the lands with which they were endowed, and
+everything meet to be offered to the ghost of the king whom they served.
+The plan of the place had evidently been altered after the time of
+Ramses II, as remains of overbuilding were found here and there. The
+magazines were first investigated in 1896 by Prof. Petrie, who also
+found in the neighbourhood the remains of a number of small royal
+funerary temples of the XVIIIth Dynasty, all looking in the direction of
+the hill, beyond which lay the tombs of the kings.
+
+[Illustration: 372.jpg THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE QUEENS AT THEBES.]
+
+     In which Prof. Schiaparelli discovered the tomb of Ramses
+     II’s wife (1904).
+
+We may now turn to Luxor, where immediately above the landing-place of
+the steamers and dahabiyas rise the stately coloured colonnades of the
+Temple of Luxor. Unfortunately, modern excavations have not been
+allowed to pursue their course to completion here, as in the first great
+colonnaded court, which was added by Ramses II to the original building
+of Amenhetep III, Tutankhamen, and Horemheb, there still remains
+the Mohammedan Mosque of Abu-’l-Haggâg, which may not be removed.
+Abu-’l-Haggâg, “the Father of Pilgrims” (so called on account of the
+number of pilgrims to his shrine), was a very holy shêkh, and his memory
+is held in the greatest reverence by the Luksuris. It is unlucky that
+this mosque was built within the court of the Great Temple, and it
+cannot be removed till Moslem religious prejudices become at least
+partially ameliorated, and then the work of completely excavating the
+Temple of Luxor may be carried out.
+
+Between Luxor and Karnak lay the temple of the goddess Mut, consort of
+Amen and protectress of Thebes. It stood in the part of the city known
+as Asheru. This building was cleared in 1895 at the expense and under
+the supervision of two English ladies, Miss Benson and Miss Gourlay.
+
+[Illustration: 374.jpg THE NILE-BANK AT LUXOR]
+
+     With A Dahabîya And A Steamer Of The Anglo-American Nile
+     Company.
+
+The temple had always been remarkable on account of the prodigious
+number of seated figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhemet, or
+Pakhet, which it contains, dedicated by Amenhetep III and Sheshenk I;
+most of those in the British Museum were brought from this temple.
+The excavators found many more of them, and also some very interesting
+portrait-statues of the late period which had been dedicated there.
+The most important of these was the head and shoulders of a statue of
+Mentuemhat, governor of Thebes at the time of the sack of the city by
+Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668 B.C. In Miss Benson’s interesting book,
+_The Temple of Mut in Asher_, it is suggested, on the authority of Prof.
+Petrie, that his facial type is Cypriote, but this speculation is a
+dangerous one, as is also the similar speculation that the wonderful
+portrait-head of an old man found by Miss Benson [* Plate vii of her
+book.] is of Philistine type. We have only to look at the faces of
+elderly Egyptians to-day to see that the types presented by Mentuemhat
+and Miss Benson’s “Philistine” need be nothing but pure Egyptian. The
+whole work of the clearing was most efficiently carried out, and the
+Cairo Museum obtained from it some valuable specimens of Egyptian
+sculpture.
+
+The Great Temple of Karnak is one of the chief cares of the Egyptian
+Department of Antiquities. Its paramount importance, so to speak, as the
+cathedral temple of Egypt, renders its preservation and exploration a
+work of constant necessity, and its great extent makes this work one
+which is always going on and which probably will be going on for many
+years to come. The Temple of Karnak has cost the Egyptian government
+much money, yet not a piastre of this can be grudged. For several years
+past the works have been under the charge of M. Georges Legrain, the
+well-known engineer and draughtsman who was associated with M. de
+Morgan in the work at Dashûr. His task is to clear out the whole temple
+thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have left
+undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has fallen.
+
+[Illustration: 376.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OP KARNAK.]
+
+     The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was
+     erected by Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by
+     Thothmes III.
+
+
+No general work of restoration is contemplated, nor would this be in
+the slightest degree desirable. Up to the present M. Legrain has
+certainly carried out all three branches of his task with great
+success. An unforeseen event has, however, considerably complicated and
+retarded the work. In October, 1899, one of the columns of the side
+aisles of the great Hypostyle Hall fell, bringing down with it several
+others. The whole place was a chaotic ruin, and for a moment it seemed
+as though the whole of the Great Hall, one of the wonders of the world,
+would collapse. The disaster was due to the gradual infiltration of
+water from the Nile beneath the structure, whose foundations, as is
+usual in Egypt, were of the flimsiest description. Even the most
+imposing Egyptian temples have jerry-built foundations; usually they
+are built on the top of the wall-stumps of earlier buildings of
+different plan, filled in with a confused mass of earlier slabs and
+weak rubbish of all kinds. Had the Egyptian buildings been built on
+sure foundations, they would have been preserved to a much greater
+extent even than they are. In such a climate as that of Egypt a stone
+building well built should last for ever.
+
+M. Legrain has for the last five years been busy repairing the damage.
+All the fallen columns are now restored to the perpendicular, and the
+capitals and architraves are in process of being hoisted into their
+original positions. The process by which M. Legrain carries out this
+work has been already described. He works in the old Egyptian fashion,
+building great inclines or ramps of earth up which the pillar-drums,
+the capitals, and the architrave-blocks are hauled by manual labour, and
+then swung into position. This is the way in which the Egyptians built
+Karnak, and in this way, too, M. Le-grain is rebuilding it. It is a slow
+process, but a sure one, and now it will not be long before we shall
+see the hall, except its roof, in much the same condition as it was when
+Seti built it. Lovers of the picturesque will, however, miss the famous
+leaning column, hanging poised across the hall, which has been a main
+feature in so many pictures and photographs of Karnak. This fell in the
+catastrophe of 1899, and naturally it has not been possible to restore
+it to its picturesque, but dangerous, position.
+
+The work at Karnak has been distinguished during the last two years by
+two remarkable discoveries. Outside the main temple, to the north of
+the Hypostyle Hall, M. Legrain found a series of private sanctuaries or
+shrines, built of brick by personages of the XVIIIth Dynasty and later,
+in order to testify their devotion to Amen. In these small cells were
+found some remarkable statues, one of which is illustrated. It is one of
+the most perfect of its kind. A great dignitary of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+is seen seated with his wife, their daughter standing between them.
+Round his neck are four chains of golden rings, with which he had been
+decorated by the Pharaoh for his services. It is a remarkable group,
+interesting for its style and workmanship as well as for its subject. As
+an example of the formal hieratic type of portraiture it is very fine.
+
+The other and more important discovery of the two was made by M. Legrain
+on the south side of the Hypo-style Hall.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OP KARNAK.]
+
+The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was erected by
+Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by Thothmes III.
+
+M. de Morgan in the work at Dashûr. His task is to clear out the whole
+temple thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have
+left undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has
+fallen. Tentative excavations, begun in an unoccupied tract under the
+wall of the hall, resulted in the discovery of parts of statues; the
+place was then regularly excavated, and the result has been amazing.
+The ground was full of statues, large and small, at some unknown period
+buried pell-mell, one on the top of another. Some are broken, but the
+majority are perfect, which is in itself unusual, and is due very much
+to the soft, muddy soil in which they have lain. Statues found on dry
+desert land are often terribly cracked, especially when they are of
+black granite, the crystals of which seem to have a greater tendency to
+disintegration than have those of the red syenite. The Karnak statues
+are figures of pious persons, who had dedicated portraits of themselves
+in the temple of Amen, together with those of great men whom the king
+had honoured by ordering their statues placed in the temple during their
+lives.
+
+Of this number was the great sage Amenhetep, son of Hapi, the founder of
+the little desert temple of Dêr el-Medîna, near Dêr el-Bahari, who was
+a sort of prime minister under Amenhetep III, and was venerated in later
+days as a demigod. His statue was found with the others by M. Legrain.
+Among them is a figure made entirely of green felspar, an unusual
+material for so large a statuette. A fine portrait of Thothmes III was
+also found. The illustration shows this wonderfully fruitful excavation
+in progress, with the diggers at work in the black mud soil, in the
+foreground the basket-boys carrying away the rubbish on their shoulders,
+and the massive granite walls of the Great Hypostyle Hall of Seti in the
+background. The huge size of the roof-blocks is noticeable. These are
+not the actual uppermost roof-blocks, but only the architraves from
+pillar to pillar; the original roof consisted of similar blocks laid
+across in the transverse direction from architrave to architrave. An
+Egyptian granite temple was in fact built upon the plan of a child’s box
+of bricks; it was but a modified and beautified Stonehenge.
+
+[Illustration: 381.jpg PORTRAIT-GROUP OF A GREAT NOBLE AND HIS WIFE]
+
+     Of The Time Of The Xviiith Dynasty. Discovered by M. Legrain
+     at Karnak.
+
+Other important discoveries have been made by M. Legrain in the course
+of his work.
+
+[Illustration: 382.jpg A TOMB PITTED UP AS AN EXPLORER’S RESIDENCE.]
+
+     The Tomb of Pentu (No. 5) at Tell el-Amarna, inhabited by
+     Mr. de G. Davies during his work for the Archaeological
+     Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund). About 1400 B.C.
+
+Among them are statues of the late Middle Kingdom, including one of King
+Usertsen (Senusret) IV of the XIIIth Dynasty. There are also reliefs of
+the reign of Amenhetep I, which are remarkable for the delicacy of their
+workmanship and the sureness of their technique.
+
+We know that the temple was built as early as the time of TJsertsen,
+for in it have been found one or two of his blocks; and no doubt the
+original shrine, which was rebuilt in the time of Philip Arrhidseus, was
+of the same period, but hitherto no remains of the centuries between his
+time and that of Hatshepsu had been found. With M. Legrain’s work in the
+greatest temple of Thebes we finish our account of the new discoveries
+in the chief city of ancient Egypt, as we began it with the work of M.
+Naville in the oldest temple there.
+
+One of the most interesting questions connected with the archaeology
+of Thebes is that which asks whether the heretical disk-worshipper
+Akhunaten (Amenhetep IV) erected buildings there, and whether any
+trace of them has ever been discovered. To those who are interested in
+Egyptian history and religion the transitory episode of the disk-worship
+heresy is already familiar. The precise character of the heretical
+dogma, which Amenhetep IV proclaimed and desired his subjects to.
+accept, has lately been well explained by Mr. de Garis Davies in his
+volumes, published by the “Archaeological Survey of Egypt” branch of
+the Egypt Exploration Fund, on the tombs of el-Amarna. He shows that the
+heretical doctrine was a monotheism of a very high order. Amenhetep IV
+(or as he preferred to call himself, Akhunaten, “Glory of the Disk”) did
+not, as has usually been supposed, merely worship the Sun-disk itself
+as the giver of life, and nothing more. He venerated the glowing disk
+merely as the visible emanation of the deity behind it, who dispensed
+heat and life to all living things through its medium. The disk was, so
+to speak, the window in heaven through which the unknown God, the “Lord
+of the Disk,” shed a portion of his radiance on the world. Now, given
+an ignorance of the true astronomical character of the sun, we see how
+eminently rational a religion this was. In effect, the sun is the source
+of all life upon this earth, and so Akhunaten caused its rays to be
+depicted each with a hand holding out the sign of life to the earth. The
+monotheistic worship of the sun alone is certainly the highest form of
+pagan religion, but Akhunaten saw further than this. His doctrine was
+that there was a deity behind the sun, whose glory shone through it and
+gave us life. This deity was unnamed and unnamable; he was “the Lord
+of the Disk.” We see in his heresy, therefore, the highest attitude
+to which religious ideas had attained before the days of the Hebrew
+prophets.
+
+This religion seems to have been developed out of the philosophical
+speculations of the priests of the Sun at Heliopolis. Akhunaten with
+unwise iconoclastic zeal endeavoured to root out the worship of the
+ancient gods of Egypt, and especially that of Amen-Bà, the ruler of the
+Egyptian pantheon, whose primacy in the hearts of the people made him
+the most redoubtable rival of the new doctrine. But the name of the
+old Sun-god Bà-Harmaehis was spared, and it is evident that Akhunaten
+regarded him as more or less identical with his god.
+
+It has been supposed by Prof. Petrie that Queen Tii, the mother of
+Akhunaten, was of Mitannian (Armenian) origin, and that she brought the
+Aten religion to Egypt from her native land, and taught it to her son.
+Certainly it seems as though the new doctrine had made some headway
+before the death of Amenhetep III, but we have no reason to attribute it
+to Tii, or to suppose that she brought it with her from abroad. There is
+no proof whatever that she was not a native Egyptian, and the mummies of
+her parents, Iuaa and Tuaa, are purely Egyptian in facial type. It
+seems undoubted that the Aten cult was a development of pure Egyptian
+religious thought.
+
+At first Akhunaten tried to establish his religion at Thebes alongside
+that of Amen and his attendant pantheon. He seems to have built a temple
+to the Aten there, and we see that his courtiers began to make tombs for
+themselves in the new realistic style of sculptural art, which the king,
+heretical in art as in religion, had introduced. The tomb of Barnes at
+Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna has on one side of the door a representation of
+the king in the old regular style, and on the other side one in the new
+realistic style, which depicts him in all the native ugliness in which
+this strange truth-loving man seems to have positively gloried. We
+find, too, that he caused a temple to the Aten to be erected in far-away
+Napata, the capital of Nubia, by Jebel Barkal in the Sudan. The facts
+as to the Theban and Napata temples have been pointed out by Prof.
+Breasted, of Chicago.
+
+But the opposition of the Theban priesthood was too strong. Akhunaten
+shook the dust of the capital off his feet and retired to the isolated
+city of Akhet-aten, “the Glory of the Disk,” at the modern Tell
+el-Amarna, where he could philosophize in peace, while his kingdom was
+left to take care of itself. He and his wife Nefret-iti, who seems to
+have been a faithful sharer of his views, reigned over a select court
+of Aten-worship-ping nobles, priests, and artists. The artists had under
+Akhunaten an unrivalled opportunity for development, of which they had
+already begun to take considerable advantage before the end of his reign
+and the restoration of the old order of ideas. Their style takes on
+itself an almost bizarre freedom, which reminds us strongly of the
+similar characteristic in Mycenaean art. There is a strange little
+relief in the Berlin Museum of the king standing cross-legged, leaning
+on a staff, and languidly smelling a flower, while the queen stands
+by with her garments blown about by the wind. The artistic monarch’s
+graceful attitude is probably a faithful transcript of a characteristic
+pose.
+
+We see from this what an Egyptian artist could do when his shackles were
+removed, but unluckily Egypt never produced another king who was at the
+same time an original genius, an artist, and a thinker. When Akhunaten
+died, the Egyptian artists’ shackles were riveted tighter than ever.
+The reaction was strong. The kingdom had fallen into anarchy, and the
+foreign empire which his predecessors had built up had practically
+been thrown to the winds by Akhunaten. The whole is an example of the
+confusion and disorganization which ensue when a philosopher rules. Not
+long after the heretic’s death the old religion was fully restored, the
+cult of the disk was blotted out, and the Egyptians returned joyfully
+to the worship of their myriad deities. Akhunaten’s ideals were too high
+for them. The débris of the foreign empire was, as usual in such
+cases, put together again, and customary law and order restored by
+the conservative reactionaries who succeeded him. Henceforth Egyptian
+civilization runs an uninspired and undeveloping course till the days
+of the Saïtes and the Ptolemies. This point in the history of Egypt,
+therefore, forms a convenient stopping-place at which to pause, while
+we turn once more to Western Asia, and ascertain to what extent recent
+excavations and research have thrown new light upon the problems
+connected with the rise and history of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian
+Empires.
+
+[Illustration: 387.jpg]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF
+RECENT RESEARCH
+
+
+The early history of Assyria has long been a subject on which historians
+were obliged to trust largely to conjecture, in their attempts to
+reconstruct the stages by which its early rulers obtained their
+independence and laid the foundations of the mighty empire over which
+their successors ruled. That the land was colonized from Babylonia and
+was at first ruled as a dependency of the southern kingdom have long
+been regarded as established facts, but until recently little was known
+of its early rulers and governors, and still less of the condition of
+the country and its capital during the early periods of their existence.
+Since the excavations carried out by the British Museum at Kala
+Sherghat, on the western bank of the Tigris, it has been known that
+the mounds at that spot mark the site of the city of Ashur, the first
+capital of the Assyrians, and the monuments and records recovered
+during those excavations have hitherto formed our principal source of
+information for the early history of the country.[1] Some of the oldest
+records found in the course of these excavations were short votive texts
+inscribed by rulers who bore the title of _ishshakku_, corresponding to
+the Sumerian and early Babylonian title of patesi, and with some such
+meaning as “viceroy.” It was rightly conjectured from the title which
+they bore that these early rulers owed allegiance to the kings of
+Babylon and were their nominees, or at any rate their tributaries. The
+names of a few of these early viceroys were recovered from their votive
+inscriptions and from notices in later historical texts, but it was
+obvious that our knowledge of early Assyrian history would remain very
+fragmentary until systematic excavations in Assyria were resumed. Three
+years ago (1902) the British Museum resumed excavations at Kuyunjik, the
+site of Nineveh. The work was begun and carried out under the direction
+of Mr. L. W. King, but since last summer has been continued by Mr. R. C.
+Thompson. Last year, too, excavations were reopened at Sherghat by
+the Deutsch-Orient Ge-sellschaft, at first under the direction of Dr.
+Koldewey, and afterwards under that of Dr. Andrae, by whom they are
+at present being carried on. This renewed activity on the sites of the
+ancient cities of Assyria is already producing results of considerable
+interest, and the veil which has so long concealed the earlier periods
+in the history of that country is being lifted.
+
+     [1] For the texts and translations of these documents, see
+     Budge and King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, pp. iff.
+
+Shortly before these excavations in Assyria were set on foot an
+indication was obtained from an early Babylonian text that the history
+of Assyria as a dependent state or province of Babylon must be pushed
+back to a far more remote period than had hitherto been supposed. In one
+of Hammurabi’s letters to Sin-idinnam, governor of the city of Larsam,
+to which reference has already been made, directions are given for
+the despatch to the king of “two hundred and forty men of ‘the King’s
+Company’ under the command of Nannar-iddina... who have left the country
+of Ashur and the district of Shitullum.” From this most interesting
+reference it followed that the country to the north of Babylonia was
+known as Assyria at the time of the kings of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon, and the fact that Babylonian troops were stationed there
+by Hammurabi proved that the country formed an integral part of the
+Babylonian empire.
+
+These conclusions were soon after strikingly confirmed by two passages
+in the introductory sections of Hammurabi’s code of laws which was
+discovered at Susa. Here Hammurabi records that he “restored his (i.e.
+the god Ashur’s) protecting image unto the city of Ashur,” and a few
+lines farther on he describes himself as the king “who hath made
+the names of Ishtar glorious in the city of Nineveh in the temple of
+E-mish-mish.” That Ashur should be referred to at this period is what we
+might expect, inasmuch as it was known to have been the earliest capital
+of Assyria; more striking is the reference to Nineveh, proving as it
+does that it was a flourishing city in Hammurabi’s time and that the
+temple of Ishtar there had already been long established. It is true
+that Gudea, the Sumerian patesi of Shirpurla, records that he rebuilt
+the temple of the goddess Ninni (Ishtar) at a place called Nina. Now
+Nina may very probably be identified with Nineveh, but many writers have
+taken it to be a place in Southern Babylonia and possibly a district of
+Shirpurla itself. No such uncertainty attaches to Hammurabi’s reference
+to Nineveh, which is undoubtedly the Assyrian city of that name.
+Although no account has yet been published of the recent excavations
+carried out at Nineveh by the British Museum, they fully corroborate the
+inference drawn with regard to the great age of the city. The series of
+trenches which were cut deep into the lower strata of Kuyunjik revealed
+numerous traces of very early habitations on the mound.
+
+Neither in Hammurabi’s letters, nor upon the stele inscribed with his
+code of laws, is any reference made to the contemporary governor or
+ruler of Assyria, but on a contract tablet preserved in the Pennsylvania
+Museum a name has been recovered which will probably be identified
+with that of the ruler of Assyria in Hammurabi’s reign. In legal and
+commercial documents of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon the
+contracting parties frequently swore by the names of two gods (usually
+Shamash and Marduk) and also that of the reigning king. Now it has been
+found by Dr. Banke that on this document in the Pennsylvania Museum the
+contracting parties swear by the name of Hammurabi and also by that of
+Shamshi-Adad. As only gods and kings are mentioned in the oath formulas
+of this period, it follows that Shamshi-Adad was a king, or at any rate
+a patesi or ishshakku. Now from its form the name Shamshi-Adad must
+be that of an Assyrian, not that of a Babylonian, and, since he is
+associated in the oath formula with Hammurabi, it is legitimate to
+conclude that he governed Assyria in the time of Hammurabi as a
+dependency of Babylon. An early Assyrian ishshakku of this name, who was
+the son of Ishme-Dagan, is mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser I, but he cannot
+be identified with the ruler of the time of Hammurabi, since,
+according to Tiglath-Pileser, he ruled too late, about 1800 B.C.
+A brick-inscription of another Shamshi-Adad, however, the son of
+Igur-kapkapu, is preserved in the British Museum, and it is probable
+that we may identify him with Hammurabi’s Assyrian viceroy. Erishum and
+his son Ikunum, whose inscriptions are also preserved in the British
+Museum, should certainly be assigned to an early period of Assyrian
+history.
+
+The recent excavations at Sherghat are already yielding the names
+of other early Assyrian viceroys, and, although the texts of the
+inscriptions in which their names occur have not yet been published, we
+may briefly enumerate the more important of the discoveries that have
+been made. Last year a small cone or cylinder was found which, though
+it bears only a few lines of inscription, restores the names of no less
+than seven early Assyrian viceroys whose existence was not previously
+known. The cone was inscribed by Ashir-rîm-nishêshu, who gives his own
+genealogy and records the restoration of the wall of the city of Ashur,
+which he states had been rebuilt by certain of his predecessors on
+the throne. The principal portion of the inscription reads as
+follows: “Ashir-rîm-nishêshu, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of
+Ashir-nirari, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of Ashir-rabi, the
+viceroy. The city wall which Kikia, Ikunum, Shar-kenkate-Ashir, and
+Ashir-nirari, the son of Ishme-Dagan, my forefathers, had built, was
+fallen, and for the preservation of my life... I rebuilt it.” Perhaps no
+inscription has yet been recovered in either Assyria or Babylonia which
+contained so much new information packed into so small a space. Of the
+names of the early viceroys mentioned in it only one was previously
+known, i.e. the name of Ikunum, the son of Erishum, is found in a late
+copy of a votive text preserved in the British Museum. Thus from these
+few lines the names of three rulers in direct succession have been
+recovered, viz., Ashir-rabi, Ashir-nirari, and Ashur-rîm-nishêshu, and
+also those of four earlier rulers, viz., Kikia, Shar-kenkate-Ashir,
+Ishme-Dagan, and his son Ashir-nirari. Another interesting point about
+the inscription is the spelling of the name of the national god of the
+Assyrians. In the later periods it is always written _Ashur_, but at
+this early time we see that the second vowel is changed and that at
+first the name was written _Ashir_, a form that was already known
+from the Cappadocian cuneiform inscriptions. The form Ashir is a good
+participial construction and signifies “the Beneficent,” “the Merciful
+One.”
+
+Another interesting find, which was also made last year, consists of
+four stone tablets, each engraved with the same building-inscription
+of Shalmaneser I, a king who reigned over Assyria about 1300 B.C. In
+recording his rebuilding of E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of the god
+Ashur in the city of Ashur, he gives a brief summary of the temple’s
+history with details as to the length of time which elapsed between
+the different periods during which it had been previously restored. The
+temple was burned in Shalmaneser’s time, and, when recording this fact
+and the putting out of the fire, he summarizes the temple’s history in a
+long parenthesis, as will be seen from the following translation of the
+extract: “When E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of Ashur, my lord, which
+Ushpia (variant _Aushpia_), the priest of Ashur, my forefather, had
+built aforetime,--and it fell into decay and Erishu, my forefather,
+the priest of Ashur, rebuilt it; 159 years passed by after the reign of
+Erishu, and that temple fell into decay, and Shamshi-Adad, the priest
+of Ashur, rebuilt it; (during) 580 years that temple which Shamshi-Adad,
+the priest of Ashur, had built, grew hoary and old--(when) fire broke
+out in the midst thereof..., at that time I drenched that temple (with
+water) in (all) its circuit.”
+
+From this extract it will be seen that Shalmaneser gives us, in Ushpia
+or Aushpia, the name of a very early Assyrian viceroy, who in his belief
+was the founder of the great temple of the god Ashur. He also tells us
+that 159 years separated Erishu from a viceroy named Shamshi-Adad, and
+that 580 years separated Shamshi-Adad from his own time. When these
+inscriptions were first found they were hailed with considerable
+satisfaction by historians, as they gave what seemed to be valuable
+information for settling the chronology of the early patesis. But
+confidence in the accuracy of Shalmaneser’s reckoning was somewhat
+shaken a few months afterwards by the discovery of a prism of
+Esarhaddon, who gave in it a history of the same temple, but ascribed
+totally different figures for the periods separating the reigns
+of Erishu and Shamshi-Adad, and the temple’s destruction by fire.
+Esarhaddon agrees with Shalmaneser in ascribing the founding of the
+temple to Ushpia, but he states that only 126 years (instead of 159
+years) separated Erishu (whom he spells Irishu), the son of Ilu-shumma,
+from Shamshi-Adad, the son of Bêl-kabi; and he adds that 434 years
+(instead of 580 years) elapsed between Shamshi-Adad’s restoration of the
+temple and the time when it was burned down. As Shalmaneser I lived over
+six hundred years earlier than Esarhaddon, he was obviously in a better
+position to ascertain the periods at which the events recorded took
+place, but the discrepancy between the figures he gives and those of
+Esarhaddon is disconcerting. It shows that Assyrian scribes could make
+bad mistakes in their reckoning, and it serves to cast discredit on the
+absolute accuracy of the chronological notices contained in other
+late Assyrian inscriptions. So far from helping to settle the unsolved
+problems of Assyrian chronology, these two recent finds at Sherghat
+have introduced fresh confusion, and Assyrian chronology for the earlier
+periods is once more cast into the melting pot.
+
+In addition to the recovery of the names of hitherto unknown early
+rulers of Assyria, the recent excavations at Sherghat have enabled us to
+ascertain the true reading of the name of Shalmaneser I’s grandfather,
+who reigned a considerable time after Assyria had gained her
+independence. The name of this king has hitherto been read as Pudi-ilu,
+but it is now shown that the signs composing the first part of the name
+are not to be taken phonetically, but as ideographs, the true reading of
+the name being Arik-dên-ilu, the signification of which is “Long
+(i.e. far-reaching) is the judgment of God.” Arik-dên-ilu was a great
+conqueror, as were his immediate descendants, all of whom extended the
+territory of Assyria. By strengthening the country and increasing her
+resources they enabled Arik-dên-ilu ‘s great-grandson, Tukulti-Ninib I,
+to achieve the conquest of Babylon itself. Concerning Tukulti-Ninib’s
+reign and achievements an interesting inscription has recently been
+discovered. This is now preserved in the British Museum, and before
+describing it we may briefly refer to another phase of the excavations
+at Sherghat.
+
+[Illustration: 396.jpg Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription of
+Arik-dên-ilu.]
+
+     An early independent King of Assyria, who reigned about B.C.
+     1350. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The mounds of Sherghat rise a considerable height above the level of
+the plain, and are to a great extent of natural and not of artificial
+formation. In fact, the existence of a group of high natural mounds at
+this point on the bank of the Tigris must have led to its selection
+by the early Assyrians as the site on which to build their first
+stronghold. The mounds were already so high, from their natural
+formation, that there was no need for the later Assyrian kings
+to increase their height artificially (as they raised the chief
+palace-mound at Nineveh), and the remains of the Assyrian buildings of
+the early period are thus only covered by a few feet of débris and not
+by masses of unburnt brick and artificially piled up soil. This fact
+has considerably facilitated the systematic uncovering of the principal
+mound that is now being carried out by Dr. Andrae.
+
+[Illustration: 397.jpg ENTRANCE INTO ONE OF THE GALLERIES OR TUNNELS CUT
+INTO THE PRINCIPAL MOUND AT SHERGHAT.]
+
+Work has hitherto been confined to the northwest corner of the mound
+around the ziggurat, or temple tower, and already considerable traces of
+Assyrian buildings have been laid bare in this portion of the site. The
+city wall on the northern side has been uncovered, as well as quays with
+steps leading down to the water along the river front. Part of the
+great temple of the god Ashur has been excavated, though a considerable
+portion of it must be still covered by the modern Turkish fort at the
+extreme northern point of the mounds; also part of a palace erected
+by Ashur-nasir-pal has been identified. In fact, the work at Sherghat
+promises to add considerably to our knowledge of ancient Assyrian
+architecture.
+
+The inscription of Tukulti-Ninib I, which was referred to above as
+having been recently acquired by the trustees of the British Museum,
+affords valuable information for the reconstruction of the history of
+Assyria during the first half of the thirteenth century B.C.[2] It is seen
+from the facts summarized that for our knowledge of the earlier
+history of the country we have to depend to a large extent on short
+brick-inscriptions and votive texts supplemented by historical
+references in inscriptions of the later period. The only historical
+inscription of any length belonging to the early Assyrian period,
+which had been published up to a year ago, was the famous memorial slab
+containing an inscription of Adad-nirari I, which was acquired by the
+late Mr. George Smith some thirty years ago. Although purchased in
+Mosul, the slab had been found by the natives in the mounds at Sherghat,
+for the text engraved upon it in archaic Assyrian characters records the
+restoration of a part of the temple of the god Ashur in the ancient city
+of Ashur, the first capital of the Assyrians, now marked by the
+mounds of Sherghat, which have already been described. The object of
+Adad-nirari in causing the memorial slab to be inscribed was to record
+the restoration of the portion of the temple which he had rebuilt,
+but the most important part of the inscription was contained in the
+introductory phrases with which the text opens. They recorded
+the conquests achieved not only by Adad-nirari but by his father
+Arik-dên-ilu, his grandfather Bél-nirari, and his great-grandfather
+Ashur-uballit. They thus enabled the historian to trace the gradual
+extension and consolidation of the Assyrian empire during a critical
+period in its early history.
+
+     [2] For the text and translation of the inscription, see King,
+     Studies it Eastern History, i (1904).
+
+The recently recovered memorial slab of Tukulti-Ninib I is similar to
+that of his grandfather Adad-nirari I, and ranks in importance with it
+for the light it throws on the early struggles of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninib
+‘s slab, like that of Adad-nirari, was a foundation memorial intended to
+record certain building operations carried out by order of the king.
+The building so commemorated was not the restoration of a portion of
+a temple, but the founding of a new city, in which the king erected
+no less than eight temples dedicated to various deities, while he also
+records that he built a palace therein for his own habitation, that he
+protected the city by a strongly fortified wall, and that he cut a canal
+from the Tigris by which he ensured a continuous supply of fresh water.
+These were the facts which the memorial was primarily intended to
+record, but, like the text of Adad-nirari I, the most interesting events
+for the historian are those referred to in the introductory portions of
+the inscription. Before giving details concerning the founding of the
+new city, named Kar-Tukulti-Mnib, “the Fortress of Tukulti-Mnib,”
+ the king supplies an account of the military expeditions which he
+had conducted during the course of his reign up to the time when the
+foundation memorial was inscribed. These introductory paragraphs record
+how the king gradually conquered the peoples to the north and northeast
+of Assyria, and how he finally undertook a successful campaign against
+Babylon, during which he captured the city and completely subjugated
+both Northern and Southern Babylonia. Tukulti-Mnib’s reign thus marks an
+epoch in the history of his country.
+
+We have already seen how, during the early ages of her history, Assyria
+had been merely a subject province of the Babylonian empire. Her rulers
+had been viceroys owing allegiance to their overlords in Babylon,
+under whose orders they administered the country, while garrisons of
+Babylonian soldiers, and troops commanded by Babylonian officers, served
+to keep the country in a state of subjection. Gradually, however, the
+country began to feel her feet and long for independence. The conquest
+of Babylon by the kings of the Country of the Sea afforded her the
+opportunity of throwing off the Babylonian yoke. In the fifteenth
+century the Assyrian kings were powerful enough to have independent
+relations with the kings of Egypt, and, during the two centuries which
+preceded Tukulti-Mnib’s reign.
+
+Assyria’s relations with Babylon were the cause of constant friction due
+to the northern kingdom’s growth in power and influence. The frontier
+between the two countries was constantly in dispute, and, though
+sometimes rectified by treaty, the claims of Assyria often led to war
+between the two countries. The general result of these conflicts was
+that Assyria gradually extended her authority farther southwards, and
+encroached upon territory which had previously been Babylonian. The
+successes gained by Ashur-uballit, Bêl-nirari, and Adad-nirari I against
+the contemporary Babylonian kings had all resulted in the cession of
+fresh territory to Assyria and in an increase of her international
+importance. Up to the time of Tukulti-Mnib no Assyrian king had actually
+seated himself upon the Babylonian throne. This feat was achieved by
+Tukulti-Mnib, and his reign thus marks an important step in the gradual
+advance of Assyria to the position which she later occupied as the
+predominant power in Western Asia.
+
+Before undertaking his campaign against Babylon, Tukulti-Mnib secured
+himself against attack from other quarters, and his newly discovered
+memorial inscription supplies considerable information concerning the
+steps he took to achieve this object. In his inscription the king does
+not number his military expeditions, and, with the exception of the
+first one, he does not state the period of his reign in which they
+were undertaken. The results of his campaigns are summarized in four
+paragraphs of the text, and it is probable that they are not described
+in chronological order, but are arranged rather according to the
+geographical position of the districts which he invaded and subdued.
+Tukulti-Ninib records that his first campaign took place at the
+beginning of his sovereignty, in the first year of his reign, and it was
+directed against the tribes and peoples inhabiting the territory on the
+east of Assyria. Of the tribes which he overran and conquered on this
+occasion the most important was the Kuti, who probably dwelt in the
+districts to the east of the Lower Zâb. They were a turbulent race and
+they had already been conquered by Arik-dên-ilu and Adad-nirari I, but
+on neither occasion had they been completely subdued, and they had soon
+regained their independence. Their subjugation by Tukulti-Ninib was
+a necessary preliminary to any conquest in the south, and we can well
+understand why it was undertaken by the king at the beginning of his
+reign. Other conquests which were also made in the same region were the
+Ukumanî and the lands of Elkhu-nia, Sharnida, and Mekhri, mountainous
+districts which probably lay to the north of the Lower Zâb. The country
+of Mekhri took its name from the mekhru-tree, a kind of pine or fir,
+which grew there in abundance upon the mountainsides, and was highly
+esteemed by the Assyrian kings as affording excellent wood for building
+purposes. At a later period Ashur-nasir-pal invaded the country in the
+course of his campaigns and brought back beams of mekhru-wood, which he
+used in the construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar
+in Nineveh.
+
+The second group of tribes and districts enumerated by Tukulti-Ninib as
+having been subdued in his early years, before his conquest of Babylon,
+all lay probably to the northwest of Assyria. The most powerful among
+these peoples were the Shubari, who, like the Kutî on the eastern
+border of Assyria, had already been conquered by Adad-nirari I, but had
+regained their independence and were once more threatening the border on
+this side. The third group of his conquests consisted of the districts
+ruled over by forty kings of the lands of Na’iri, which was a general
+term for the mountainous districts to the north of Assyria, including
+territory to the west of Lake Van and extending eastwards to the
+districts around Lake Urmi. The forty kings in this region whom
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts of having subdued were little more than chieftains
+of the mountain tribes, each one possessing authority over a few
+villages scattered among the hills and valleys. But the men of Na’iri
+were a warlike and hardy race, and, if left long in undisturbed
+possession of their native fastnesses, they were tempted to make raids
+into the fertile plains of Assyria. It was therefore only politic for
+Tukulti-Ninib to traverse their country with fire and sword, and, by
+exacting heavy tribute, to keep the fear of Assyrian power before their
+eyes. From the king’s records we thus learn that he subdued and crippled
+the semi-independent races living on his borders to the north, to the
+northwest, and to the east. On the west was the desert, from which
+region he need fear no organized attack when he concentrated his army
+elsewhere, for his permanent garrisons were strong enough to repel and
+punish any incursion of nomadic tribes. He was thus in a position to try
+conclusions with his hereditary foe in the south, without any fear of
+leaving his land open to invasion in his absence.
+
+The campaign against Babylon was the most important one undertaken by
+Tukulti-Ninib, and its successful issue was the crowning point of his
+military career. The king relates that the great gods Ashur, Bel, and
+Shamash, and the goddess Ishtar, the queen of heaven and earth, marched
+at the head of his warriors when he set out upon the expedition. After
+crossing the border and penetrating into Babylonian territory he seems
+to have had some difficulty in forcing Bitiliashu, the Kassite king who
+then occupied the throne of Babylon, to a decisive engagement. But by
+a skilful disposition of his forces he succeeded in hemming him in, so
+that the Babylonian army was compelled to engage in a pitched battle.
+The result of the fighting was a complete victory for the Assyrian arms.
+Many of the Babylonian warriors fell fighting, and Bitiliashu himself
+was captured by the Assyrian soldiers in the midst of the battle.
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts that he trampled his lordly neck beneath his feet,
+and on his return to Assyria he carried his captive back in fetters to
+present him with the spoils of the campaign before Ashur, the national
+god of the Assyrians.
+
+Before returning to Assyria, however, Tukulti-Ninib marched with his
+army throughout the length and breadth of Babylonia, and achieved
+the subjugation of the whole of the Sumer and Akkad. He destroyed the
+fortifications of Babylon to ensure that they should not again be used
+against himself, and all the inhabitants who did not at once submit to
+his decrees he put co the sword. He then appointed his own officers
+to rule the country and established his own system of administration,
+adding to his previous title of “King of Assyria,” those of “King of
+Karduniash (i. e. Babylonia)” and “King of Sumer and Akkad.” It was
+probably from this period that he also adopted the title of “King of the
+Poor Quarters of the World.” As a mark of the complete subjugation of
+their ancient foe, Tukulti-Ninib and his army carried back with them
+to Assyria not only the captive Babylonian king, but also the statue of
+Marduk, the national god of Babylon. This they removed from B-sagila,
+his sumptuous temple in Babylon, and they looted the sacred treasures
+from the treasure-chambers, and carried them off together with the spoil
+of the city.
+
+Tukulti-Ninib no doubt left a sufficient proportion of his army in
+Babylon to garrison the city and support the governors and officials
+into whose charge he committed the administration of the land, but he
+himself returned to Assyria with the rich spoil of the campaign, and
+it was probably as a use for this large increase of wealth and material
+that he decided to found another city which should bear his own name and
+perpetuate it for future ages. The king records that he undertook this
+task at the bidding of Bel (i.e. the god Ashur), who commanded that he
+should found a new city and build a dwelling-place for him therein.
+In accordance with the desire of Ashur and the gods, which was thus
+conveyed to him, the king founded the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+he erected therein temples dedicated not only to Ashur, but also to the
+gods Adad, and Sha-mash, and Ninib, and Nusku, and Nergal, and Imina-bi,
+and the goddess Ishtar. The spoils from Babylon and the temple treasures
+from E-sagila were doubtless used for the decoration of these temples
+and the adornment of their shrines, and the king endowed the temples and
+appointed regular offerings, which he ordained should be their property
+for ever. He also built a sumptuous palace for his own abode when he
+stayed in the city, which he constructed on a mound or terrace of earth,
+faced with brick, and piled high above the level of the city. Finally,
+he completed its fortification by the erection of a massive wall around
+it, and the completion of this wall was the occasion on which his
+memorial tablet was inscribed.
+
+The memorial tablet was buried and bricked up within the actual
+structure of the wall, in order that in future ages it might be read by
+those who found it, and so it might preserve his name and fame. After
+finishing the account of his building operations in the new city and
+recording the completion of the city wall from its foundation to its
+coping stone, the king makes an appeal to any future ruler who should
+find it, in the following words: “In the days that are to come, when
+this wall shall have grown old and shall have fallen into ruins, may
+a future prince repair the damaged parts thereof, and may he anoint my
+memorial tablet with oil, and may he offer sacrifices and restore
+it unto its place, and then Ashur will hearken unto his prayers. But
+whosoever shall destroy this wall, or shall remove my memorial tablet or
+my name that is inscribed thereon, or shall leave Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, the
+city of my dominion, desolate, or shall destroy it, may the lord Ashur
+overthrow his kingdom, and may he break his weapons, and may he cause
+his warriors to be defeated, and may he diminish his boundaries, and may
+he ordain that his rule shall be cut off, and on his days may he bring
+sorrow, and his years may he make evil, and may he blot out his name and
+his seed from the land!”
+
+By such blessings and curses Tukulti-Ninib hoped to ensure the
+preservation of his name and the rebuilding of his city, should it at
+any time be neglected and fall into decay. Curiously enough, it was in
+this very city that Tukulti-Ninib met his own fate less than seven years
+after he had founded it. At that time one of his own sons, who bore the
+name of Ashur-nasir-pal, conspired against his father and stirred up the
+nobles to revolt. The insurrection was arranged when Tukulti-Ninib was
+absent from his capital and staying in Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, where he was
+probably protected by only a small bodyguard, the bulk of his veteran
+warriors remaining behind in garrison at Ashur. The insurgent nobles,
+headed by Ashur-nasir-pal, fell upon the king without warning when
+he was passing through the city without any suspicion of risk from a
+treacherous attack. The king defended himself and sought refuge in a
+neighbouring house, but the conspirators surrounded the building and,
+having forced an entrance, slew him with the sword. Thus Tukulti-Ninib
+perished in the city he had built and beautified with the spoils of his
+campaigns, where he had looked forward to passing a peaceful and secure
+old age. Of the fate of the city itself we know little except that its
+site is marked to-day by a few mounds which rise slightly above the
+level of the surrounding desert. The king’s memorial tablet only has
+survived. For some 3,200 years it rested undisturbed in the foundations
+of the wall of unburnt brick, where it was buried by Tukulti-Ninib on
+the completion of the city wall.
+
+[Illustration: 408.jpg Stone Tablet. Bearing an inscription of
+Tukulti-Ninib I]
+
+     King of Assyria, about B. C. 1275.
+
+Thence it was removed by the hands of modern Arabs, and it is now
+preserved in the British Museum, where the characters of the inscription
+may be seen to be as sharp and uninjured as on the day when the Assyrian
+graver inscribed them by order of the king.
+
+In the account of his first campaign, which is preserved upon
+the memorial tablet, it is stated that the peoples conquered by
+Tukulti-Ninib brought their yearly tribute to the city of Ashur. This
+fact is of considerable interest, for it proves that Tukulti-Ninib
+restored the capital of Assyria to the city of Ashur, removing it from
+Calah, whither it had been transferred by his father Shalmaneser I. The
+city of Calah had been founded and built by Shalmaneser I in the same
+way that his son Tukulti-Ninib built the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+the building of both cities is striking evidence of the rapid growth
+of Assyria and her need of expansion around fresh centres prepared for
+administration and defence. The shifting of the Assyrian capital to
+Calah by Shalmaneser I was also due to the extension of Assyrian power
+in the north, in consequence of which there was need of having the
+capital nearer the centre of the country so enlarged. Ashur’s recovery
+of her old position under Tukulti-Ninib I was only a temporary check to
+this movement northwards, and, so long as Babylon remained a conquered
+province of the Assyrian empire, obviously the need for a capital
+farther north than Ashur would not have been pressing.
+
+[Illustration 409.jpg THE ZIGGURAT, OR TEMPLE TOWER, OF THE ASSYRIAN
+CITY OF CALAH.]
+
+But with Tukulti-Ninib’s death Babylon regained her independence and
+freed herself from Assyrian control, and the centre of the northern
+kingdom was once more subject to the influences which eventually
+resulted in the permanent transference of her capital to Nineveh. To the
+comparative neglect into which Ashur and Calah consequently fell, we
+may probably trace the extensive remains of buildings belonging to the
+earlier periods of Assyrian history which have been recovered and still
+remain to be found, in the mounds that mark their sites.
+
+We have given some account of the results already achieved from the
+excavations carried out during the last two years at Sherghat, the site
+of the city of Ashur. That much remains to be done on the site of Calah,
+the other early capital of Assyria, is evident from even a cursory
+examination of the present condition of the mounds that mark the
+location of the city. These mounds are now known by the name of Nimrûd
+and are situated on the left or eastern bank of the Tigris, a short
+distance above the point at which it is joined by the stream of the
+Upper Zâb, and the great mound which still covers the remains of the
+ziggurat, or temple tower, can be seen from a considerable distance
+across the plain. During the excavations formerly carried out here for
+the British Museum, remains of palaces were recovered which had been
+built or restored by Shal-maneser I, Ashur-nasir-pal, Shalmaneser II,
+Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon, Esarhaddon, and Ashur-etil-ilâni. After the
+conclusion of the diggings and the removal of many of the sculptures to
+England, the site was covered again with earth, in order to protect the
+remains of Assyrian buildings which were left in place. Since that time
+the soil has sunk and been washed away by the rains so that many of the
+larger sculptures are now protruding above the soil, an example of which
+is seen in the two winged bulls in the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal. It
+is improbable that the mounds of Nimrûd will yield such rich results
+as Sherghat, but the site would probably well repay prolonged and
+systematic excavation.
+
+We have hitherto summarized and described the principal facts,
+with regard to the early history of Babylonia and Assyria and the
+neighbouring countries, which have been obtained from the excavations
+conducted recently on the sites of ancient cities. From the actual
+remains of the buildings that have been unearthed we have secured
+information with regard to the temples and palaces of ancient rulers and
+the plans on which they were designed. Erom the objects of daily life
+and of religious use which have been recovered, such as weapons of
+bronze and iron, and vessels of metal, stone, and clay, it is possible
+for the archaeologist to draw conclusions with regard to the customs of
+these early peoples; while from a study of their style and workmanship
+and of such examples of their sculpture as have been brought to light,
+he may determine the stage of artistic development at which they had
+arrived. The clay tablets and stone monuments that have been recovered
+reveal the family life of the people, their commercial undertakings,
+their system of legislation and land tenure, their epistolary
+correspondence, and the administration under which they lived, while the
+royal inscriptions and foundation-memorials throw light on the religious
+and historical events of the period in which they were inscribed.
+Information on all these points has been acquired as the result of
+excavation, and is based on the discoveries in the ruins of early cities
+which have remained buried beneath the soil for some thousands of years.
+But for the history of Assyria and of the other nations in the north
+there is still another source of information to which reference must now
+be made.
+
+The kings of Assyria were not content with recording their achievements
+on the walls of their buildings, on stelae set up in their palaces and
+temples, on their tablets of annals preserved in their archive-chambers,
+and on their cylinders and foundation-memorials concealed within the
+actual structure of the buildings themselves. They have also left
+records graven in the living rock, and these have never been buried,
+but have been exposed to wind and weather from the moment they
+were engraved. Records of irrigation works and military operations
+successfully undertaken by Assyrian kings remain to this day on the
+face of the mountains to the north and east of Assyria. The kings of
+one great mountain race that had its capital at Van borrowed from the
+Assyrians this method of recording their achievements, and, adopting the
+Assyrian character, have left numerous rock-inscriptions in their own
+language in the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan. In some instances
+the action of rain and frost has nearly if not quite obliterated the
+record, and a few have been defaced by the hand of man. But as the
+majority are engraved in panels cut on the sheer face of the rock, and
+are inaccessible except by means of ropes and tackle, they have escaped
+mutilation. The photograph reproduced will serve to show the means that
+must be adopted for reaching such rock-inscriptions in order to examine
+or copy them.
+
+[Illustration: 413.jpg WORK IN PROGRESS ON ONE OF THE ROCK-INSCRIPTIONS
+OF SENNACHERIB]
+
+     In The Gorge Of The River Gomel, Near Bavian.
+
+The inscription shown in the photograph is one of those cut by
+Sennacherib in the gorge near Bavian, through which the river Gomel
+flows, and can be reached only by climbing down ropes fixed to the top
+of the cliff. The choice of such positions by the kings who caused the
+inscriptions to be engraved was dictated by the desire to render it
+difficult to destroy them, but it has also had the effect of delaying to
+some extent their copying and decipherment by modern workers.
+
+[Illustration: 414.jpg THE PRINCIPAL ROCK SCULPTURES IN THE GORGE OF THE
+GOMEL]
+
+     Near Bavian In Assyria.
+
+Considerable progress, however, has recently been made in identifying
+and copying these texts, and we may here give a short account of what
+has been done and of the information furnished by the inscriptions that
+have been examined.
+
+Recently considerable additions have been made to our knowledge of the
+ancient empire of Van and of its relation to the later kings of Assyria
+by the labours of Prof Lehmann and Dr. Belck on the inscriptions which
+the kings of that period caused to be engraved upon the rocks among the
+mountains of Armenia.
+
+[Illustration: 415.jpg THE ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAN.]
+
+The flat roofs of the houses of the city of Van may be seen to the left
+of the photograph nestling below the rock.
+
+The centre and capital of this empire was the ancient city which stood
+on the site of the modern town of Van at the southwest corner of the
+lake which bears the same name. The city was built at the foot of a
+natural rock which rises precipitously from the plain, and must have
+formed an impregnable stronghold against the attack of the foe.
+
+In this citadel at the present day remain the ancient galleries and
+staircases and chambers which were cut in the living rock by the kings
+who made it their fortress, and their inscriptions, engraved upon the
+face of the rock on specially prepared and polished surfaces, enable us
+to reconstruct in some degree the history of that ancient empire. From
+time to time there have been found and copied other similar texts, which
+are cut on the mountainsides or on the massive stones which formed part
+of the construction of their buildings and fortifications. A complete
+collection of these texts, together with translations, will shortly be
+published by Prof. Lehmann. Meanwhile, this scholar has discussed and
+summarized the results to be obtained from much of his material, and
+we are thus already enabled to sketch the principal achievements of the
+rulers of this mountain race, who were constantly at war with the later
+kings of Assyria, and for two centuries at least disputed her claim to
+supremacy in this portion of Western Asia.
+
+The country occupied by this ancient people of Van was the great
+table-land which now forms Armenia. The people themselves cannot
+be connected with the Armenians, for their language presents no
+characteristics of those of the Indo-European family, and it is equally
+certain that they are not to be traced to a Semitic origin. It is true
+that they employed the Assyrian method of writing their inscriptions,
+and their art differs only in minor points from that of the Assyrians,
+but in both instances this similarity of culture was directly borrowed
+at a time when the less civilized race, having its centre at Van, came
+into direct contact with the Assyrians.
+
+[Illustration: 417.jpg ANCIENT FLIGHT OF STEPS AND GALLERY ON THE FACE
+OF THE ROCK-CITADEL OF VAN.
+
+The exact date at which this influence began to be exerted is not
+certain, but we have records of immediate relations with Assyria in the
+second half of the ninth century before Christ. The district inhabited
+by the Vannic people was known to the Assyrians by the name of Urartu,
+and although the inscriptions of the earlier Assyrian kings do not
+record expeditions against that country, they frequently make mention of
+campaigns against princes and petty rulers of the land of Na’iri. They
+must therefore for long have exercised an indirect, if not a direct,
+influence on the peoples and tribes which lay more to the north.
+
+The earliest evidence of direct contact between the Assyrians and the
+land of Urartu which we at present possess dates from the reign of
+Ashur-nasir-pal, and in the reign of his son Shalmaneser II three
+expeditions were undertaken against the people of Van. The name of the
+king of Urartu at this time was Arame, and his capital city, Arzasku,
+probably lay to the north of Lake Van. On all three occasions the
+Assyrians were victorious, forcing Arame to abandon his capital
+and capturing his cities as far as the sources of the Euphrates.
+Subsequently, in the year 833 B.C., Shalmaneser II made another attack
+upon the country, which at that time was under the sway of Sarduris I.
+Under this monarch the citadel of Van became the great stronghold of the
+people of Urartu, for he added to the natural strength of the position
+by the construction of walls built between the rock of Van and the
+harbour. The massive blocks of stone of which his fortifications
+were composed are standing at the present day, and they bear eloquent
+testimony to the energy with which this monarch devoted himself to the
+task of rendering his new citadel impregnable. The fortification and
+strengthening of Van and its citadel was carried on during the reigns of
+his direct successors and descendants, Ispui-nis, Menuas, and Argistis
+I, so that when Tiglath-pile-ser III brought fire and sword into the
+country and laid siege to Van in the reign of Sarduris II, he could not
+capture the citadel.
+
+[Illustration: 419.jpg PART OF THE ANCIENT FORTIFICATIONS OF THE CITY OF
+VAN, BETWEEN THE CITADEL AND THE LAKE.]
+
+It was not difficult for the Assyrian king to assault and capture the
+city itself, which lay at the foot of the citadel as it does at the
+present day, but the latter, within the fortifications of which Sarduris
+and his garrison withdrew, proved itself able to withstand the Assyrian
+attack. The expedition of Tiglath-pileser III did not succeed in
+crushing the Vannic empire, for Rusas I, the son and successor of
+Sarduris II, allied himself to the neighbouring mountain races and gave
+considerable trouble to Sargon, the Assyrian king, who was obliged to
+undertake an expedition to check their aggressions.
+
+It was probably Rusas I who erected the buildings on Toprak Kala, the
+hill to the east of Van, traces of which remain to the present day. He
+built a palace and a temple, and around them he constructed a new city
+with a reservoir to supply it with water, possibly because the slopes
+of Toprak Kala rendered it easier of defence than the city in the
+plain (beneath the rock and citadel) which had fallen an easy prey to
+Tiglath-pileser III. The site of the temple on Toprak Kala has been
+excavated by the trustees of the British Museum, and our knowledge of
+Vannic art is derived from the shields and helmets of bronze and small
+bronze figures and fittings which were recovered from this building. One
+of the shields brought to the British Museum from the Toprak Kala, where
+it originally hung with others on the temple walls, bears the name of
+Argistis II, who was the son and successor of Rusas I, and who attempted
+to give trouble to the Assyrians by stirring the inhabitants of the land
+of Kummukh (Kommagene) to revolt against Sargon. His son, Rusas II,
+was the contemporary of Esarhaddon, and from some recently discovered
+rock-inscriptions we learn that he extended the limits of his kingdom on
+the west and secured victories against Mushki (Meshech) to the southeast
+of the Halys and against the Hittites in Northern Syria. Rusas III
+rebuilt the temple on Toprak Kala, as we know from an inscription of his
+on one of the shields from that place in the British Museum. Both he and
+Sarduris III were on friendly terms with the Assyrians, for we know that
+they both sent embassies to Ashur-bani-pal.
+
+By far the larger number of rock-inscriptions that have yet been found
+and copied in the mountainous districts bordering on Assyria were
+engraved by this ancient Vannic people, and Drs. Lehmann and Belck have
+done good service by making careful copies and collations of all those
+which are at present known. Work on other classes of rock-inscriptions
+has also been carried on by other travellers. A new edition of the
+inscriptions of Sennacherib in the gorge of the Gomel, near the village
+of Bavian, has been made by Mr. King, who has also been fortunate enough
+to find a number of hitherto unknown inscriptions in Kurdistan on the
+Judi Dagh and at the sources of the Tigris. The inscriptions at
+the mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb, “the Dog River,” in Syria, have
+been reexamined by Dr. Knudtzon, and the long inscription which
+Nebuchadnezzar II cut on the rocks at Wadi Brissa in the Lebanon,
+formerly published by M. Pognon, has been recopied by Dr. Weissbach.
+Finally, the great trilingual inscription of Darius Hystaspes on the
+rock at Bisutun in Persia, which was formerly copied by the late Sir
+Henry Raw-linson and used by him for the successful decipherment of the
+cuneiform inscriptions, was completely copied last year by Messrs. King
+and Thompson.[3]
+
+     [3] Messrs. King and Thompson are preparing a new edition of
+     this inscription.
+
+The main facts of the history of Assyria under her later kings and of
+Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods were many years
+ago correctly ascertained, and recent excavation and research have done
+little to add to our knowledge of the history of these periods. It was
+hoped that the excavations conducted by Dr. Koldewey at Babylon would
+result in the recovery of a wealth of inscriptions and records referring
+to the later history of the country, but unfortunately comparatively
+few tablets or inscriptions have been found, and those that have been
+recovered consist mainly of building-inscriptions and votive texts. One
+such building-inscription contains an interesting historical reference.
+It occurs on a barrel-cylinder of clay inscribed with a text of
+Nabopolassar, and it was found in the temple of Ninib and records the
+completion and restoration of the temple by the king. In addition to
+recording the building operations he had carried out in the temple,
+Nabopolassar boasts of his opposition to the Assyrians. He says: “As for
+the Assyrians who had ruled all peoples from distant days and had set
+the people of the land under a heavy yoke, I, the weak and humble man
+who worshippeth the Lord of Lords (i.e. the god Marduk), through the
+mighty power of Nabû and Marduk, my lords, held back their feet from the
+land of Akkad and cast off their yoke.”
+
+It is not yet certain whether the Babylonians under Nabopolassar
+actively assisted Cyaxares and the Medes in the siege and in the
+subsequent capture of Nineveh in 606 B.C. but this newly discovered
+reference to the Assyrians by Nabopolassar may possibly be taken
+to imply that the Babylonians were passive and not active allies of
+Cyaxares. If the cylinder were inscribed after the fall of Nineveh we
+should have expected Nabopolassar, had he taken an active part in the
+capture of the city, to have boasted in more definite terms of his
+achievement. On his stele which is preserved at Constantinople,
+Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire, who himself
+suffered defeat at the hands of Cyrus, King of Persia, ascribed the fall
+of Nineveh to the anger of Marduk and the other gods of Babylon because
+of the destruction of their city and the spoliation of their temples by
+Sennacherib in 689 B.C. We see the irony of fate in the fact that Cyrus
+also ascribed the defeat and deposition of Nabonidus and the fall of
+Babylon to Marduk’s intervention, whose anger he alleges was aroused
+by the attempt of Nabonidus to concentrate the worship of the local
+city-gods in Babylon.
+
+Thus it will be seen that recent excavation and research have not
+yet supplied the data for filling in such gaps as still remain in our
+knowledge of the later history of Assyria and Babylon. The closing
+years of the Assyrian empire and the military achievements of the great
+Neo-Babylonian rulers, Nabopolassar, Nerig-lissar, and Nebuchadnezzar
+II, have not yet been found recorded in any published Assyrian or
+Babylonian inscription, but it may be expected that at any moment
+some text will be discovered that will throw light upon the problems
+connected with the history of those periods which still await solution.
+Meanwhile, the excavations at Babylon, although they have not added
+much to our knowledge of the later history of the country, have been
+of immense service in revealing the topography of the city during the
+Neo-Babylonian period, as well as the positions, plans, and characters
+of the principal buildings erected by the later Babylonian kings. The
+discovery of the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on the mound of the Kasr,
+of the small but complete temple E-makh, of the temple of the goddess
+Nin-makh to the northeast of the palaces, and of the sacred road
+dividing them and passing through the Great Gate of Ishtar (adorned with
+representations of lions, bulls, and dragons in raised brick upon its
+walls) has enabled us to form some conception of the splendour and
+magnificence of the city as it appeared when rebuilt by its last native
+rulers. Moreover, the great temple E-sagila, the famous shrine of the
+god Marduk, has been identified and partly excavated beneath the huge
+mound of Tell Amran ibn-Ali, while a smaller and less famous temple of
+Ninib has been discovered in the lower mounds which lie to the eastward.
+Finally, the sacred way from E-sagila to the palace mound has been
+traced and uncovered. We are thus enabled to reconstitute the scene of
+the most solemn rite of the Babylonian festival of the New Year, when
+the statue of the god Marduk was carried in solemn procession along this
+road from the temple to the palace, and the Babylonian king made his
+yearly obeisance to the national god, placing his own hands within those
+of Marduk, in token of his submission to and dependence on the divine
+will.
+
+[Illustration: 425.jpg WITHIN THE SHRINE OP E-MAKH, THE TEMPLE OP THE
+GODDESS NIN-MAKH.]
+
+Though recent excavations have not led to any startling discoveries
+with regard to the history of Western Asia during the last years of
+the Babylonian empire, research among the tablets dating from the
+Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods has lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of Babylonian literature. These periods were marked by great
+literary activity on the part of the priests at Babylon, Sippar, and
+elsewhere, who, under the royal orders, scoured the country for all
+remains of the early literature which was preserved in the ancient
+temples and archives of the country, and made careful copies and
+collections of all they found. Many of these tablets containing
+Neo-Babylonian copies of earlier literary texts are preserved in the
+British Museum, and have been recently published, and we have thus
+recovered some of the principal grammatical, religious, and magical
+compositions of the earlier Babylonian period.
+
+[Illustration: 426.jpg TRENCH IN THE BABYLONIAN PLAIN]
+
+     Between The Mound Of The Kasr And Tell Amran Ibn-Ali,
+     Showing A Section Of The Paved Sacred Way.
+
+Among the most interesting of such recent finds is a series of tablets
+inscribed with the Babylonian legends concerning the creation of the
+world and man, which present many new and striking parallels to the
+beliefs on these subjects embodied in Hebrew literature. We have not
+space to treat this subject at greater length in the present work, but
+we may here note that discovery and research in its relation to the
+later empires that ruled at Babylon have produced results of literary
+rather than of historical importance. But we should exceed the space
+at our disposal if we attempted even to skim this fascinating field of
+study in which so much has recently been achieved. For it is time we
+turned once more to Egypt and directed our inquiry towards ascertaining
+what recent research has to tell us with regard to her inhabitants
+during the later periods of her existence as a nation of the ancient
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+
+
+Before we turned from Egypt to summarize the information, afforded by
+recent discoveries, upon the history of Western Asia under the kings
+of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, we noted that the Asiatic
+empire of Egypt was regained by the reactionary kings of the XIXth
+Dynasty, after its temporary loss owing to the vagaries of Akhunaten.
+Palestine remained Egyptian throughout the period of the judges until
+the foundation of the kingdom of Judah. With the decline of military
+spirit in Egypt and the increasing power of the priesthood, authority
+over Asia became less and less a reality. Tribute was no longer paid,
+and the tribes wrangled without a restraining hand, during the reigns of
+the successors of Ramses III. By the time of the priest-kings of Thebes
+(the XXIst Dynasty) the authority of the Pharaohs had ceased to be
+exercised in Syria. Egypt was itself divided into two kingdoms, the one
+ruled by Northern descendants of the Ramessids at Tanis, the other by
+the priestly monarchs at Thebes, who reigned by right of inheritance as
+a result of the marriage of the daughter of Ramses with the high
+priest Amenhetep, father of Herhor, the first priest-king. The Thebans
+fortified Gebelên in the South and el-Hêbi in the North against attack,
+and evidently their relations with the Tanites were not always friendly.
+
+In Syria nothing of the imperial power remained. The prestige of the god
+Amen of Thebes, however, was still very great. We see this clearly from
+a very interesting papyrus of the reign of Herhor, published in 1899 by
+Mr. Golenischeff, which describes the adventures of Uenuamen, an envoy
+sent (about 1050 B.C.) to Phoenicia to bring wood from the mountains of
+Lebanon for the construction of a great festival bark of the god Amen
+at Thebes. In the course of his mission he was very badly treated
+(We cannot well imagine Thothmes III or Amenhetep III tolerating
+ill-treatment of their envoy!) and eventually shipwrecked on the coast
+of the land of Alashiya or Cyprus. He tells us in the papyrus, which
+seems to be the official report of his mission, that, having been given
+letters of credence to the Prince of Byblos from the King of Tanis,
+“to whom Amen had given charge of his North-land,” he at length reached
+Phoenicia, and after much discussion and argument was able to prevail
+upon the prince to have the wood which he wanted brought down from
+Lebanon to the seashore.
+
+Here, however, a difficulty presented itself,--the harbour was filled
+with the piratical ships of the Cretan Tjakaray, who refused to allow
+Uenuamen to return to Egypt. They said, ‘Seize him; let no ship of his
+go unto the land of Egypt!’ “Then,” says Uenuamen in the papyrus, “I sat
+down and wept. The scribe of the prince came out unto me; he said unto
+me, ‘What ail-eth thee?’ I replied, ‘Seest thou not the birds which fly,
+which fly back unto Egypt? Look at them, they go unto the cool canal,
+and how long do I remain abandoned here? Seest thou not those who would
+prevent my return?’ He went away and spoke unto the prince, who began
+to weep at the words which were told unto him and which were so sad. He
+sent his scribe out unto me, who brought me two measures of wine and a
+deer. He sent me Tentnuet, an Egyptian singing-girl who was with him,
+saying unto her, ‘Sing unto him, that he may not grieve!’ He sent word
+unto me, ‘Eat, drink, and grieve not! To-morrow shalt thou hear all that
+I shall say.’ On the morrow he had the people of his harbour summoned,
+and he stood in the midst of them, and he said unto the Tjakaray, ‘What
+aileth you?’ They answered him, ‘We will pursue the piratical ships
+which thou sendest unto Egypt with our unhappy companions.’ He said unto
+them, ‘I cannot seize the ambassador of Amen in my land. Let me send him
+away and then do ye pursue after him to seize him!’ He sent me on board,
+and he sent me away... to the haven of the sea. The wind drove me upon
+the land of Alashiya. The people of the city came out in order to slay
+me. I was dragged by them to the place where Hatiba, the queen of the
+city, was. I met her as she was going out of one of her houses into
+the other. I greeted her and said unto the people who stood by her, ‘Is
+there not one among you who understandeth the speech of Egypt?’ One
+of them replied, ‘I understand it.’ I said unto him, ‘Say unto thy
+mistress: even as far as the city in which Amen dwelleth (i. e. Thebes)
+have I heard the proverb, “In all cities is injustice done; only in
+Alashiya is justice to be found,” and now is injustice done here every
+day!’ She said, ‘What is it that thou sayest?’ I said unto her, ‘Since
+the sea raged and the wind drove me upon the land in which thou livest,
+therefore thou wilt not allow them to seize my body and to kill me, for
+verily I am an ambassador of Amen. Remember that I am one who will be
+sought for always. And if these men of the Prince of Byblos whom they
+seek to kill (are killed), verily if their chief finds ten men of thine,
+will he not kill them also?’ She summoned the men, and they were brought
+before her. She said unto me, ‘Lie down and sleep...’”
+
+At this point the papyrus breaks off, and we do not know how Uenuamen
+returned to Egypt with his wood. The description of his casting-away and
+landing on Alashiya is quite Homeric, and gives a vivid picture of the
+manners of the time. The natural impulse of the islanders is to kill
+the strange castaway, and only the fear of revenge and of the wrath of a
+distant foreign deity restrains them. Alashiya is probably Cyprus, which
+also bore the name Yantinay from the time of Thothmes III until the
+seventh century, when it is called Yatnan by the Assyrians. A king
+of Alashiya corresponded with Amenhetep III in cuneiform on terms of
+perfect equality, three hundred years before: “Brother,” he writes,
+“should the small amount of the copper which I have sent thee be
+displeasing unto thy heart, it is because in my land the hand of Nergal
+my lord slew all the men of my land (i.e. they died of the plague), and
+there was no working of copper; and this was, my brother, not pleasing
+unto thy heart. Thy messenger with my messenger swiftly will I send, and
+whatsoever amount of copper thou hast asked for, O my brother, I,
+even I, will send it unto thee.” The mention by Herhor’s envoy of
+Nesibinebdad (Smendes), the King of Tanis, a powerful ruler who in
+reality constantly threatened the existence of the priestly monarchy
+at Thebes, as “him to whom Amen has committed the wardship of his
+North-land,” is distinctly amusing. The hard fact of the independence of
+Lower Egypt had to be glozed somehow.
+
+The days of Theban power were coming to an end and only the prestige
+of the god Amen remained strong for two hundred years more. But the
+alliance of Amen and his priests with a band of predatory and destroying
+foreign conquerors, the Ethiopians (whose rulers were the descendants
+of the priest-kings, who retired to Napata on the succession of the
+powerful Bubastite dynasty of Shishak to that of Tanis, abandoning
+Thebes to the Northerners), did much to destroy the prestige of Amen
+and of everything connected with him. An Ethiopian victory meant only
+an Assyrian reconquest, and between them Ethiopians and Assyrians had
+well-nigh ruined Egypt. In the Saïte period Thebes had declined greatly
+in power as well as in influence, and all its traditions were anathema
+to the leading people of the time, although not of course in Akhunaten’s
+sense.
+
+With the Saïte period we seem almost to have retraced our steps and to
+have reentered the age of the Pyramid Builders. All the pomp and glory
+of Thothmes, Amenhetep, and Ramses were gone. The days of imperial Egypt
+were over, and the minds of men, sickened of foreign war, turned for
+peace and quietness to the simpler ideals of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+We have already seen that an archaistic revival of the styles of the
+early dynasties is characteristic of this late period, and that men
+were buried at Sakkâra and at Thebes in tombs which recall in form and
+decoration those of the courtiers of the Pyramid Builders. Everywhere
+we see this fashion of archaism. A Theban noble of this period named
+Aba was buried at Thebes. Long ago, nearly three thousand years before,
+under the VIth Dynasty, there had lived a great noble of the same name,
+who was buried in a rock-tomb at Dêr el-Gebrâwî, in Middle Egypt. This
+tomb was open and known in the days of the second Aba, who caused to be
+copied and reproduced in his tomb in the Asasîf at Thebes most of the
+scenes from the bas-relief with which it had been decorated. The tomb
+of the VIth Dynasty Aba has lately been copied for the Archaeological
+Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund) by Mr. de Garis Davies, who has
+found the reliefs of the XXVIth Dynasty Aba of considerable use to him
+in reconstituting destroyed portions of their ancient originals.
+
+During late years important discoveries of objects of this era have been
+few. One of the most noteworthy is that of a contemporary inscription
+describing the battle of Momemphis, which is mentioned by Herodotus (ii,
+163, 169). We now have the official account of this battle, and know
+that it took place in the third year of the reign of Amasis--not before
+he became king. This was the fight in which the unpatriotic king,
+Apries, who had paid for his partiality for the Greeks of Nau-kratis
+with the loss of his throne, was finally defeated. As we see from this
+inscription, he was probably murdered by the country people during his
+flight.
+
+The following are the most important passages of the inscription: “His
+Majesty (Amasis) was in the Festival-Hall, discussing plans for his
+whole land, when one came to say unto him, ‘Hââ-ab-Râ (Apries) is rowing
+up; he hath gone on board the ships which have crossed over. Haunebu
+(Greeks), one knows not their number, are traversing the North-land,
+which is as if it had no master to rule it; he (Apries) hath summoned
+them, they are coming round him. It is he who hath arranged their
+settlement in the Peh-ân (the An-dropolite name); they infest the whole
+breadth of Egypt, those who are on thy waters fly before them!’... His
+Majesty mounted his chariot, having taken lance and bow in his hand...
+(the enemy) reached Andropolis; the soldiers sang with joy on the
+roads... they did their duty in destroying the enemy. His Majesty fought
+like a lion; he made victims among them, one knows not how many. The
+ships and their warriors were overturned, they saw the depths as do the
+fishes. Like a flame he extended, making a feast of fighting. His heart
+rejoiced.... The third year, the 8th Athyr, one came to tell Majesty:
+‘Let their vile-ness be ended! They throng the roads, there are
+thousands there ravaging the land; they fill every road. Those who are
+in ships bear thy terror in their hearts. But it is not yet finished.’
+Said his Majesty unto his soldiers: ‘...Young men and old men, do this
+in the cities and nomes!’... Going upon every road, let not a day pass
+without fighting their galleys!’... The land was traversed as by the
+blast of a tempest, destroying their ships, which were abandoned by the
+crews. The people accomplished their fate, killing the prince (Apries)
+on his couch, when he had gone to repose in his cabin. When he saw his
+friend overthrown... his Majesty himself buried him (Apries), in order
+to establish him as a king possessing virtue, for his Majesty decreed
+that the hatred of the gods should be removed from him.”
+
+This is the event to which we have already referred in a preceding
+chapter, as proving the great amelioration of Egyptian ideas with regard
+to the treatment of a conquered enemy, as compared with those of other
+ancient nations. Amasis refers to the deposed monarch as his “friend,”
+ and buries him in a manner befitting a king at the charges of Amasis
+himself. This act warded off from the spirit of Apries the just anger
+of the gods at his partiality for the “foreign devils,” and ensured his
+reception by Osiris as a king neb menkh, “possessing virtues.”
+
+The town of Naukratis, where Apries established himself, had been
+granted to the Greek traders by Psametik I a century or more before. Mr.
+D. G. Hogarth’s recent exploration of the site has led to a considerable
+modification of our first ideas of the place, which were obtained
+from Prof. Petrie ‘s excavations. Prof. Petrie was the discoverer of
+Naukratis, and his diggings told us what Naukratis was like in the first
+instance, but Mr. Hogarth has shown that several of his identifications
+were erroneous and that the map of the place must be redrawn. The chief
+error was in the placing of the Hellenion (the great meeting-place of
+the Greeks), which is now known to be in quite a different position from
+that assigned to it by Prof. Petrie. The “Great Temenos” of Prof. Petrie
+has now been shown to be non-existent. Mr. Hogarth has also pointed out
+that an old Egyptian town existed at Nau-kratis long before the Greeks
+came there. This town is mentioned on a very interesting stele of black
+basalt (discovered at Tell Gaif, the site of Naukratis, and now in the
+Cairo Museum), under the name of “Permerti, which is called Nukrate.”
+ The first is the old Egyptian name, the second the Greek name adapted
+to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stele was erected by Tekhtnebf, the last
+native king of Egypt, to commemorate his gifts to the temples of Neïth
+on the occasion of his accession at Sais. It is beautifully cut, and the
+inscription is written in a curious manner, with alphabetic spellings
+instead of ideographs, and ideographs instead of alphabetic spellings,
+which savours fully of the affectation of the learned pedant who drafted
+it; for now, of course, in the fourth century before Christ, nobody but
+a priestly antiquarian could read hieroglyphics. Demotic was the only
+writing for practical purposes.
+
+We see this fact well illustrated in the inscriptions of the Ptolemaïc
+temples. The accession of the Ptolemies marked a great increase in the
+material wealth of Egypt, and foreign conquest again came in fashion.
+Ptolemy Euergetes marched into Asia in the grand style of a Ramses and
+brought back the images of gods which had been carried off by Esarhaddon
+or Nebuchadnezzar II centuries before. He was received on his return
+to Egypt with acclamations as a true successor of the Pharaohs. The
+imperial spirit was again in vogue, and the archaistic simplicity and
+independence of the Saïtes gave place to an archaistic imperialism, the
+first-fruits of which were the repair and building of temples in the
+great Pharaonic style. On these we see the Ptolemies masquerading as
+Pharaohs, and the climax of absurdity is reached when Ptolemy Auletes
+(the Piper) is seen striking down Asiatic enemies in the manner of
+Amen-hetep or Ramses! This scene is directly copied from a Ramesside
+temple, and we find imitations of reliefs of Ramses II so slavish that
+the name of the earlier king is actually copied, as well as the relief,
+and appears above the figure of a Ptolemy. The names of the nations who
+were conquered by Thothmes III are repeated on Ptolemaic sculptures to
+do duty for the conquered of Euergetes, with all sorts of mistakes
+in spelling, naturally, and also with later interpolations. Such an
+inscription is that in the temple of Kom Ombo, which Prof. Say ce has
+held to contain the names of “Caphtor and Casluhim” and to prove the
+knowledge of the latter name in the fourteenth century before Christ.
+The name of Caphtor is the old Egyptian Keftiu (Crete); that of Casluhim
+is unknown in real Old Egyptian inscriptions, and in this Ptolemaic list
+at Kom Ombo it may be quite a late interpolation in the lists, perhaps
+no older than the Persian period, since we find the names of Parsa
+(Persia) and Susa, which were certainly unknown to Thothmes III,
+included in it. We see generally from the Ptolemaic inscriptions that
+nobody could read them but a few priests, who often made mistakes. One
+of the most serious was the identification of Keftiu with Phoenicia in
+the Stele of Canopus. This misled modern archaeologists down to the
+time of Dr. Evans’s discoveries at Knossos, though how these utterly
+un-Semitic looking Keftiu could have been Phoenicians was a puzzle to
+everybody. We now know, of course, that they were Mycenaean or
+Minoan Cretans, and that the Ptolemaic antiquaries made a mistake in
+identifying the land of Keftiu with Phoenicia.
+
+We must not, however, say too much in dispraise of the Ptolemaic
+Egyptians and their works. We have to be grateful to them indeed for the
+building of the temples of Edfu and Dendera, which, owing to their later
+date, are still in good preservation, while the best preserved of the
+old Pharaonic fanes, such as Medinet Habû, have suffered considerably
+from the ravages of time. Eor these temples show us to-day what an
+old Egyptian temple, when perfect, really looked like. They are, so to
+speak, perfect mummies of temples, while of the old buildings we have
+nothing but the disjointed and damaged skeletons.
+
+A good deal of repairing has been done to these buildings, especially
+to that at Edfu, of late years. But the main archaeological interest of
+Ptolemaic and Roman times has been found in the field of epigraphy and
+the study of papyri, with which the names of Messrs. Kenyon, Grenfell,
+and Hunt are chiefly connected. The treasures which have lately been
+obtained by the British Museum in the shape of the manuscripts of
+Aristotle’s “Constitution of Athens,” the lost poems of Bacchylides, and
+the Mimes of Herondas, all of which have been published for the trustees
+of that institution by Mr. Kenyon, are known to those who are interested
+in these subjects. The long series of publications of Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt, issued at the expense of the Egypt Exploration Fund
+(Graeco-Roman branch), with the exception of the volume of discoveries
+at Teb-tunis, which was issued by the University of California, is also
+well known.
+
+The two places with which Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt’s work has been
+chiefly connected are the Fayyûm and Behnesâ, the site of the ancient
+Permje or Oxyr-rhynchus. The lake-province of the Fayyûm, which attained
+such prominence in the days of the XIIth Dynasty, seems to have had
+little or no history during the whole period of the New Empire, but in
+Ptolemaic times it revived and again became one of the richest and
+most important provinces of Egypt. The town of Arsinoë was founded at
+Crocodilopolis, where are now the mounds of Kom el-Fâris (The Mound of
+the Horseman), near Medinet el-Payyum, and became the capital of the
+province. At Illahûn, just outside the entrance to the Fayyûm, was the
+great Nile harbour and entrepôt of the lake-district, called Ptolemaïs
+Hormos.
+
+The explorations of Messrs. Hogarth, Grenfell, and Hunt in the years
+of 1895-6 and 1898-9 resulted in the identification of the sites of the
+ancient cities of Karanis (Kom Ushîm), Bacchias (Omm el-’Atl), Euhemeria
+(Kasr el-Banât), Theadelphia (Harît), and Philoteris (Wadfa). The work
+for the University of California in 18991900 at Umm el-Baragat showed
+that this place was Tebtunis. Dime, on the northern coast of the Birket
+Karûn, the modern representative of the ancient Lake Moeris, is now
+known to be the ancient Sokno-paiou Nesos (the Isle of Soknopaios), a
+local form of Sebek, the crocodile-god of the Fayyûm. At Karanis this
+god was worshipped under the name of Petesuchos (“He whom Sebek
+has given”), in conjunction with Osiris Pnepherôs (P-nefer-ho,
+“the beautiful of face”); at Tebtunis he became Seknebtunis., i.e.
+Sebek-neb-Teb-tunis (Sebek, lord of Tebtunis). This is a typical example
+of the portmanteau pronunciations of the latter-day Egyptians.
+
+Many very interesting discoveries were made during the course of the
+excavations of these places (besides Mr. Hogarth’s find of the temple
+of Petesuchos and Pnepherôs at Karanis), consisting of Roman pottery
+of varied form and Roman agricultural implements, including a perfect
+plough.[1] The main interest of all, however, lies, both here and at
+Behnesâ, in the papyri. They consist of Greek and Latin documents of
+all ages from the early Ptolemaic to the Christian. In fact, Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt have been unearthing and sifting the contents of the
+waste-paper baskets of the ancient Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptians, which
+had been thrown out on to dust-heaps near the towns. Nothing perishes
+in,, the dry climate and soil of Egypt, so the contents of the ancient
+dust-heaps have been preserved intact until our own day, and have been
+found by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt, just as the contents of the houses
+of the ancient Indian rulers of Chinese Turkestan, at Niya and Khotan,
+with their store of Kha-roshthi documents, have been preserved intact in
+the dry Tibetan desert climate and have been found by Dr. Stein.[2] There
+is much analogy between the discoveries of Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in
+Egypt and those of Dr. Stein in Turkestan.
+
+     [1] Illustrated on Plate IX of Fayûm Towns and Their Papyri.
+
+     [2] See Dr. Stein’s Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, London,
+     1903.
+
+The Græco-Egyptian documents are of all kinds, consisting of letters,
+lists, deeds, notices, tax-assessments, receipts, accounts, and business
+records of every sort and kind, besides new fragments of classical
+authors and the important “Sayings of Jesus,” discovered at Behnesâ,
+which have been published in a special popular form by the Egypt
+Exploration Fund.*
+
+     * Aoyla ‘Itjffov, 1897, and _New Sayings of Jesus_, 1904.
+
+These last fragments of the oldest Christian literature, which are
+of such great importance and interest to all Christians, cannot be
+described or discussed here. The other documents are no less
+important to the student of ancient literature, the historian, and the
+sociologist. The classical fragments include many texts of lost authors,
+including Menander. We will give a few specimens of the private
+letters and documents, which will show how extremely modern the ancient
+Egyptians were, and how little difference there actually is between our
+civilization and theirs, except in the-matter of mechanical invention.
+They had no locomotives and telephones; otherwise they were the same. We
+resemble them much more than we resemble our mediaeval ancestors or even
+the Elizabethans.
+
+This is a boy’s letter to his father, who would not take him up to town
+with him to see the sights: “Theon to his father Theon, greeting. It was
+a fine thing of you not to take me with you to the city! If you won’t
+take me with you to Alexandria, I won’t write you a letter, or speak to
+you, or say good-bye to you; and if you go to Alexandria I won’t take
+your hand or ever greet you again. That is what will happen if you
+won’t take me. Mother said to Archelaus, ‘It quite upsets him to be left
+behind.’ It was good of you to send me presents on the 12th, the day
+you sailed. Send me a lyre, I implore you. If you don’t, I won’t eat, I
+won’t drink: there now!’” Is not this more like the letter of a spoiled
+child of to-day than are the solemnly dutiful epistles of even our
+grandfathers and grandmothers when young? The touch about “Mother said
+to Archelaus, ‘It quite upsets him to be left behind’” is delightfully
+like the modern small boy, and the final request and threat are also
+eminently characteristic.
+
+Here is a letter asking somebody to redeem the writer’s property from
+the pawnshop: “Now please redeem my property from Sarapion. It is
+pledged for two minas. I have paid the interest up to the month Epeiph,
+at the rate of a stater per mina. There is a casket of incense-wood,
+and another of onyx, a tunic, a white veil with a real purple border, a
+handkerchief, a tunic with a Laconian stripe, a garment of purple linen,
+two armlets, a necklace, a coverlet, a figure of Aphrodite, a cup, a big
+tin flask, and a wine-jar. From Onetor get the two bracelets. They have
+been pledged since the month Tybi of last year for eight... at the
+rate of a stater per mina. If the cash is insufficient owing to the
+carelessness of Theagenis, if, I say, it is insufficient, sell the
+bracelets and make up the money.” Here is an affectionate letter of
+invitation: “Greeting, my dear Serenia, from Petosiris. Be sure, dear,
+to come up on the 20th for the birthday festival of the god, and let me
+know whether you are coming by boat or by donkey, that we may send for
+you accordingly. Take care not to forget.”
+
+Here is an advertisement of a gymnastic display:
+
+“The assault-at-arms by the youths will take place to-morrow, the 24th.
+Tradition, no less than the distinguished character of the festival,
+requires that they should do their utmost in the gymnastic display. Two
+performances.” Signed by Dioskourides, magistrate of Oxyrrhynchus.
+
+Here is a report from a public physician to a magistrate: “To
+Claudianus, the mayor, from Dionysos, public physician. I was to-day
+instructed by you, through Herakleides your assistant, to inspect the
+body of a man who had been found hanged, named Hierax, and to report to
+you my opinion of it. I therefore inspected the body in the presence
+of the aforesaid Herakleides at the house of Epagathus in the Broadway
+ward, and found it hanged by a noose, which fact I accordingly report.”
+ Dated in the twelfth year of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 173).
+
+The above translations are taken, slightly modified, from those in The
+Oxyrrhynchus Papyri, vol. i. The next specimen, a quaint letter, is
+translated from the text in Mr. Grenfell’s Greek Papyri (Oxford, 1896),
+p. 69: “To Noumen, police captain and mayor, from Pokas son of Onôs,
+unpaid policeman. I have been maltreated by Peadius the priest of the
+temple of Sebek in Crocodilopolis. On the first epagomenal day of the
+eleventh year, after having abused me about... in the aforesaid temple,
+the person complained against sprang upon me and in the presence of
+witnesses struck me many blows with a stick which he had. And as part of
+my body was not covered, he tore my shirt, and this fact I called upon
+the bystanders to bear witness to. Wherefore I request that if it seems
+proper you will write to Klearchos the headman to send him to you, in
+order that, if what I have written is true, I may obtain justice at your
+hands.”
+
+A will of Hadrian’s reign, taken from the Oxyrrhynchus Papyri (i, p.
+173), may also be of interest: “This is the last will and testament,
+made in the street (i.e. at a street notary’s stand), of Pekysis, son of
+Hermes and Didyme, an inhabitant of Oxyrrhynchus, being sane and in his
+right mind. So long as I live, I am to have powers over my property,
+to alter my will as I please. But if I die with this will unchanged, I
+devise my daughter Ammonous whose mother is Ptolema, if she survive me,
+but if not then her children, heir to my shares in the common house,
+court, and rooms situate in the Cretan ward. All the furniture,
+movables, and household stock and other property whatever that I shall
+leave, I bequeath to the mother of my children and my wife Ptolema, the
+freedwoman of Demetrius, son of Hermippus, with the condition that
+she shall have for her lifetime the right of using, dwelling in, and
+building in the said house, court, and rooms. If Ammonous should die
+without children and intestate, the share of the fixtures shall belong
+to her half-brother on the mother’s side, Anatas, if he survive, but if
+not, to... No one shall violate the terms of this my will under pain of
+paying to my daughter and heir Ammonous a fine of 1,000 drachmae and to
+the treasury an equal sum.” Here follow the signatures of testator and
+witnesses, who are described, as in a passport, one of them as follows:
+“I, Dionysios, son of Dionysios of the same city, witness the will of
+Pekysis. I am forty-six years of age, have a curl over my right temple,
+and this is my seal of Dionysoplaton.”
+
+During the Roman period, which we have now reached in our survey, the
+temple building of the Ptolemies was carried on with like energy. One of
+the best-known temples of the Roman period is that at Philse, which
+is known as the “Kiosk,” or “Pharaoh’s Bed.” Owing to the great
+picturesqueness of its situation, this small temple, which was built in
+the reign of Trajan, has been a favourite subject for the painters of
+the last fifty years, and next to the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and Karnak,
+it is probably the most widely known of all Egyptian buildings. Recently
+it has come very much to the front for an additional reason. Like all
+the other temples of Philse, it had been archæologically surveyed and
+cleared by Col. H. Gr. Lyons and Dr. Borchardt, but further work of a
+far-reaching character was rendered necessary by the building of the
+great Aswân dam, below the island of Philse, one of the results of
+which has been the partial submergence of the island and its temples,
+including the picturesque Kiosk. The following account, taken from the
+new edition (1906) of Murray’s _Guide to Egypt and the Sudan_, will
+suffice better than any other description to explain what the dam is,
+how it has affected Philse, and what work has been done to obviate the
+possibility of serious damage to the Kiosk and other buildings.
+
+“In 1898 the Egyptian government signed a contract with Messrs. John
+Aird & Co. for the construction of the great reservoir and dam at
+Shellâl, which serves for the storage of water at the time of the flood
+Nile. The river is ‘held up’ here sixty-five feet above its old normal
+level. A great masonry dyke, 150 feet high in places, has been carried
+across the Bab el-Kebir of the First Cataract, and a canal and four
+locks, two hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, allow for the passage
+of traffic up and down the river.
+
+[Illustration: 447.jpg The Great Dam Of Aswân]
+
+     Showing Water Rushing Through The Sluices
+
+The dam is 2,185 yards long and over ninety feet thick at the base; in
+places it rises one hundred feet above the bed of the river. It is built
+of the local red granite, and at each end the granite dam is built into
+the granite hillside. Seven hundred and eight thousand cubic yards of
+masonry were used. The sluices are 180 in number, and are arranged at
+four different levels. The sight of the great volume of water pouring
+through them is a very fine one. The Nile begins to rise in July, and at
+the end of November it is necessary to begin closing the sluice-gates
+to hold up the water. By the end of February the reservoir is usually
+filled and Philæ partially submerged, so that boats can sail in and out
+of the colonnades and Pharaoh’s Bed. By the beginning of July the water
+has been distributed, and it then falls to its normal level.
+
+“It is of course regrettable that the engineers were unable to find
+another site for the dam, as it seemed inevitable that some damage would
+result to the temples of Philæ from their partial submergence. Korosko
+was proposed as a site, but was rejected for cogent reasons, and
+apparently Shellâl was the only possible place. Further, no serious
+person, who places the greatest good of the greatest number above
+considerations of the picturesque and the ‘interesting,’ will deny
+that if it is necessary to sacrifice Philæ to the good of the people of
+Egypt, Philæ must go. ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’ The concern of the
+rulers of Egypt must be with the living people of Egypt rather than with
+the dead bones of the past; and they would not be doing their duty did
+they for a moment allow artistic and archaeological considerations to
+outweigh in their minds the practical necessities of the country. This
+does not in the least imply that they do not owe a lesser duty to the
+monuments of Egypt, which are among the most precious relics of the past
+history of mankind. They do owe this lesser duty, and with regard to
+Philæ it has been conscientiously fulfilled. The whole temple, in order
+that its stability may be preserved under the stress of submersion, has
+been braced up and underpinned, under the superintendence of Mr. Ball,
+of the Survey Department, who has most efficiently carried out this
+important work, at a cost of £22,000.
+
+[Illustration: 449.jpg THE KIOSK AT PHILÆ IN PROCESS OF UNDERPINNING
+AND RESTORATION, JANUARY, 1902.]
+
+Steel girders have been fixed across the island from quay to quay,
+and these have been surrounded by cement masonry, made water-tight
+by forcing in cement grout. Pharaoh’s Bed and the colonnade have been
+firmly underpinned in cement masonry, and there is little doubt that the
+actual stability of Philæ is now more certain than that of any other
+temple in Egypt. The only possible damage that can accrue to it is
+the partial discolouration of the lower courses of the stonework of
+Pharaoh’s Bed, etc., which already bear a distinct high-water mark. Some
+surface disintegration from the formation of salt crystals is perhaps
+inevitable here, but the effects of this can always be neutralized
+by careful washing, which it should be an important charge of the
+Antiquities Department to regularly carry out.”
+
+[Illustration: 450.jpg THE ANCIENT QUAY OP PHILÆ, NOVEMBER, 1904.]
+
+     This is entirely covered when the reservoir is full, and the
+     palm-trees are farther submerged.
+
+The photographs accompanying the present chapter show the dam, the Kiosk
+in process of conservation and underpinning (1902), and the shores of
+the island as they now appear in the month of November, with the water
+nearly up to the level of the quays. A view is also given of the island
+of Konosso, with its inscriptions, as it is now. The island is simply a
+huge granite boulder of the kind characteristic of the neighbourhood of
+Shellâl (Phila?) and Aswân.
+
+On the island of Elephantine, opposite Aswân, an interesting discovery
+has lately been made by Mr. Howard Carter. This is a remarkable well,
+which was supposed by the ancients to lie immediately on the tropic. It
+formed the basis of Eratosthenes’ calculations of the measurement of the
+earth. Important finds of documents written in Aramaic have also been
+made here; they show that there was on the island in Ptolemaic times a
+regular colony of Syrian merchants.
+
+South of Aswân and Philse begins Nubia. The Nubian language, which is
+quite different from Arabic, is spoken by everybody on the island of
+Elephantine, and its various dialects are used as far south as Dongola,
+where Arabic again is generally spoken till we reach the land of the
+negroes, south of Khartum. In Ptolemaic and Roman days the Nubians were
+a powerful people, and the whole of Nubia and the modern North Sudan
+formed an independent kingdom, ruled by queens who bore the title or
+name of Candace. It was the eunuch of a Candace who was converted to
+Christianity as he was returning from a mission to Jerusalem to salute
+Jehovah. “Go and join thyself unto his chariot” was the command to
+Philip, and when the Ethiopian had heard the gospel from his lips he
+went on his way rejoicing. The capital of this Candace was at Meroë, the
+modern Bagarawiya, near Shendi. Here, and at Naga not far off, are
+the remains of the temples of the Can-daces, great buildings of
+semi-barbaric Egyptian style. For the civilization of the Nubians, such
+as it was, was of Egyptian origin. Ever since Egyptian rule had been
+extended southwards to Jebel Barkal, beyond Dongola, in the time of
+Amenhetep II, Egyptian culture had influenced the Nubians. Amenhetep III
+built a temple to Amen at Napatà, the capital of Nubia, which lay
+under the shadow of Mount Barkal; Akhunaten erected a sanctuary of the
+Sun-Disk there; and Ramses II also built there.
+
+[Illustration: 452.jpg THE ROCK OF KONOSSO IN JANUARY, 1902, BEFORE THE
+BUILDING OF THE DAM AND FORMATION OF THE RESERVOIR.]
+
+The place in fact was a sort of appanage of the priests of Amen at
+Thebes, and when the last priest-king evacuated Thebes, leaving it to
+the Bubastites of the XXIId Dynasty, it was to distant Napata that he
+retired. Here a priestly dynasty continued to reign until, two centuries
+later, the troubles and misfortunes of Egypt seemed to afford an
+opportunity for the reassertion of the exiled Theban power. Piankhi
+Mera-men returned to Egypt in triumph as its rightful sovereign, but his
+successors, Shabak, Shabatak, and Tirha-kah, had to contend constantly
+with the Assyrians. Finally ITrdamaneh, Tirhakah’s successor, returned
+to Nubia, leaving Egypt, in the decadence of the Assyrian might, free to
+lead a quiet existence under Psametik I and the succeeding monarchs of
+the XXVIth Dynasty. When Cambyses conquered Egypt he aspired to conquer
+Nubia also, but his army was routed and destroyed by the Napatan king,
+who tells us in an inscription how he defeated “the man Kambasauden,”
+ who had attacked him. At Napata the Nubian monarchs, one of the greatest
+of whom in Ptolemaic times was Ergam-enes, a contemporary of Ptolemy
+Philopator, continued to reign. But the first Roman governor of Egypt,
+Ælius Gallus, destroyed Napata, and the Nubians removed their capital
+to Meroë, where the Candaces reigned.
+
+The monuments of this Nubian kingdom, the temples of Jebel Barkal, the
+pyramids of Nure close by, the pyramids of Bagarawiya, the temples of
+Wadi Ben Naga, Mesawwarat en-Naga, and Mesawwarat es-Sufra (“Mesawwarat”
+ proper), were originally investigated by Cailliaud and afterwards by
+Lepsius. During the last few years they and the pyramids excavated by
+Dr. E. A. Wallis-Budge, of the British Museum, for the Sudan government,
+have been again explored. As the results of his work are not yet
+fully published, it is possible at present only to quote the following
+description from Cook’s _Handbook for Egypt and the Sudan_ (by Dr.
+Budge), p. 6, of work on the pyramids of Jebel Barkal: “the writer
+excavated the shafts of one of the pyramids here in 1897, and at the
+depth of about twenty-five cubits found a group of three chambers, in
+one of which were a number of bones of the sheep which was sacrificed
+there about two thousand years ago, and also portions of a broken
+amphora which had held Rho-dian wine. A second shaft, which led to the
+mummy-chamber, was partly emptied, but at a further depth of twenty
+cubits water was found. The high-water mark of the reservoir when full
+is ------ and, as there were no visible means for pumping it out, the
+mummy-chamber could not be entered.” With regard to the Bagarawîya
+pyramids, Dr. Budge writes, on p. 700 of the same work, à propos of the
+story of the Italian Ferlini that he found Roman jewelry in one of these
+pyramids: “In 1903 the writer excavated a number of the pyramids of
+Meroë for the Governor-General of the Sudan, Sir F. R. Wingate, and
+he is convinced that the statements made by Ferlini are the result of
+misapprehension on his part. The pyramids are solid throughout, and the
+bodies are buried under them. When the details are complete the proofs
+for this will be published.” Dr. Budge has also written upon the subject
+of the orientation of the Jebel Barkal and Nure pyramids.
+
+[Illustration: 454.jpg THE ISLE OF KONOSSO, WITH ITS INSCRIPTIONS]
+
+It is very curious to find the pyramids reappearing in Egyptian
+tomb-architecture in the very latest period of Egyptian history. We
+find them when Egyptian civilization was just entering upon its vigorous
+manhood, then they gradually disappear, only to revive in its decadent
+and exiled old age. The Ethiopian pyramids are all of much more
+elongated form than the old Egyptian ones. It is possible that they may
+be a survival of the archaistic movement of the XXVIth Dynasty, to which
+we have already referred.
+
+These are not the latest Egyptian monuments in the Sudan, nor are the
+temples of Naga and Mesawwarat the most ancient, though they belong
+to the Roman period and are decidedly barbarian as to their style and,
+especially, as to their decoration. The southernmost as well as latest
+relic of Egypt in the Sudan is the Christian church of Soba, on the Blue
+Mie, a few miles above Khartum. In it was found a stone ram, an emblem
+of Amen-Râ, which had formerly stood in the temple of Naga and had been
+brought to Soba perhaps under the impression that it was the Christian
+Lamb. It was removed to the garden of the governor-general’s palace at
+Khartum, where it now stands.
+
+The church at Soba is a relic of the Christian kingdom of Alua, which
+succeeded the realm of the Candaces. One of its chief seats was at
+Dongola, and all Nubia is covered with the ruins of its churches. It
+was, of course, an offshoot of the Christianity of Egypt, but a late
+one, since Isis was still worshipped at Philse in the sixth century,
+long after the Edict of Theodosius had officially abolished paganism
+throughout the Roman world, and the Nubians were at first zealous
+votaries of the goddess of Philo. So also when Egypt fell beneath the
+sway of the Moslem in the seventh century, Nubia remained an independent
+Christian state, and continued so down to the twelfth century, when the
+soldiers of Islam conquered the country.
+
+Of late pagan and early Christian Egypt very much that is new has been
+discovered during the last few years. The period of the Lower Empire
+has yielded much to the explorers of Oxyrrhynchus, and many papyri of
+interest belonging to this period have been published by Mr. Kenyon in
+his _Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the British Museum_, especially
+the letters of Flavius Abinæus, a military officer of the fourth
+century. The papyri of this period are full of the high-flown titles
+and affected phraseology which was so beloved of Byzantine scribes.
+“Glorious Dukes of the Thebaïd,” “most magnificent counts and
+lieutenants,” “all-praiseworthy secretaries,” and the like strut across
+the pages of the letters and documents which begin “In the name of Our
+Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the God and Saviour of us all, in
+the year x of the reign of the most divine and praised, great, and
+beneficent Lord Flavius Heraclius (or other) the eternal Augustus and
+Auto-krator, month x, year x of the In diction.” It is an extraordinary
+period, this of the sixth and seventh centuries, which we have now
+entered, with its bizarre combination of the official titulary of
+the divine and eternal Cæsars Imperatores Augusti with the initial
+invocation of Christ and the Trinity. It is the transition from the
+ancient to the modern world, and as such has an interest all its own.
+
+In Egypt the struggle between the adherents of Chalcedon, the “Melkites”
+ or Imperialists of the orthodox Greek rite, and the Eutychians or
+Mono-physites, the followers of the patriarch Dioskoros, who rejected
+Chalcedon, was going on with unabated fury, and was hardly stopped even
+by the invasion of the pagan Persians. The last effort of the party of
+Constantinople to stamp out the Monophysite heresy was made when Cyril
+was patriarch and governor of Egypt. According to an ingenious theory
+put forward by Mr. Butler, in his _Arab Conquest of Egypt_, it is Cyril
+the patriarch who was the mysterious Mukaukas, the [Greek word], or
+“Great and Magnificent One,” who played so doubtful a part in the
+epoch-making events of the Arab conquest by Amr in A.D. 639-41. Usually
+this Mukaukas has been regarded as a “noble Copt,” and the Copts have
+generally been credited with having assisted the Islamites against
+the power of Constantinople. This was a very natural and probable
+conclusion, but Mr. Butler will have it that the Copts resisted the
+Arabs valiantly, and that the treacherous Mukaukas was none other than
+the Constantinopolitan patriarch himself.
+
+In the papyri it is interesting to note the gradual increase of Arab
+names after the conquest, more especially in those of the Archduke
+Rainer ‘s collection from the Fayyûm, which was so near the new capital
+city, Fustât. In Upper Egypt the change was not noticeable for a long
+time, and in the great collection of Coptic _ostraka_ (inscriptions on
+slips of limestone and sherds of pottery, used as a substitute for paper
+or parchment), found in the ruins of the Coptic monastery established,
+on the temple site of Dêr el-Bahari, we find no Arab names. These
+documents, part of which have been published by Mr. W. E. Crum for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund, while another part will shortly be issued for
+the trustees of the British Museum by Mr. Hall, date to the seventh and
+eighth centuries. Their contents resemble those of the earlier papyri
+from Oxyrrhynchus, though they are not of so varied a nature and are
+generally written by persons of less intelligence, i.e. the monks and
+peasants of the monasteries and villages of Tjême, or Western Thebes.
+During the late excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple of Dêr el-Bahari,
+more of these _ostraka_ were found, which will be published for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund by Messrs. Naville and Hall. Of actual buildings
+of the Coptic period the most important excavations have been those of
+the French School of Cairo at Bâwît, north of Asyût. This work, which
+was carried on by M. Jean Clédat, has resulted in the discovery of very
+important frescoes and funerary inscriptions, belonging to the monastery
+of a famous martyr, St. Apollo. With these new discoveries of Christian
+Egypt our work reaches its fitting close. The frontier which divides the
+ancient from the modern world has almost been crossed. We look back from
+the monastery of Bâwît down a long vista of new discoveries until, four
+thousand years before, we see again the Great Heads coming to the Tomb
+of Den, Narmer inspecting the bodies of the dead Northerners, and,
+far away in Babylonia, Narâm-Sin crossing the mountains of the East to
+conquer Elam, or leading his allies against the prince of Sinai.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Maspero's History of Egypt, Volume 13a by L. W. King and H. R. Hall</title>
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
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+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: L.W. King and H.R. Hall</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: December 16, 2005 [eBook #17321]<br />
+[Most recently updated: January 31, 2023]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***</div>
+
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/spines.jpg" width="100%" alt="Book Spines " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="cover (168K)" src="images/cover.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+
+    <h1>
+      HISTORY OF EGYPT
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY <b>
+      BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL </b>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Copyright 1906
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" width="100%" alt="Frontispiece1 " />
+    </div>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
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+       alt="Frontispiece1-text " />
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+      <img src="images/titlepage1.jpg" width="100%" alt="Titlepage1 " />
+    </div>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/versa1.jpg" width="100%" alt="Versa1 " />
+    </div>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+    <h2><a name="link2H_4_0001"></a>
+      PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations in
+      Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume have
+      been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in those
+      countries. The greater number of the photographs here published were taken
+      by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest Leroux, of
+      Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number of plates
+      from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent discoveries in
+      Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell &amp; Co., of London, for
+      kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs issued by
+      them.
+    </p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+    <h2><a name="link2H_PREF"></a>
+      PREFACE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
+      which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt and
+      Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the publication
+      of Prof. Maspero’s <i>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique</i>,
+      and includes short descriptions of the excavations from which these
+      results have been obtained. It is in no sense a connected and continuous
+      history of these countries, for that has already been written by Prof.
+      Maspero, but is rather intended as an appendix or addendum to his work,
+      briefly recapitulating and describing the discoveries made since its
+      appearance. On this account we have followed a geographical rather than a
+      chronological system of arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has
+      been made to suggest to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of
+      events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and activity,
+      both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and every
+      season’s work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends our
+      knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were unknown to
+      the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added to Egyptian
+      history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the primitive
+      Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing a hitherto
+      totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization. Further than
+      this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest historical kings of
+      Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from material as yet
+      unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties of Babylon.
+      Important discoveries have also been made with regard to isolated points
+      in the later historical periods. We have therefore attempted to include
+      the most important of these in our survey of recent excavations and their
+      results. We would again remind the reader that Prof. Maspero’s great work
+      must be consulted for the complete history of the period, the present
+      volume being, not a connected history of Egypt and Western Asia, but a
+      description and discussion of the manner in which recent discovery and
+      research have added to and modified our conceptions of ancient Egyptian
+      and Mesopotamian civilization.
+    </p>
+
+<hr />
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> PUBLISHERS’ NOTE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I&mdash;THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC
+      EGYPT </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II&mdash;ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE
+      DYNASTIES </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkB2HCH0001"> CHAPTER III&mdash;MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkB2HCH0002"> CHAPTER IV&mdash;RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN
+      ASIA AND THE DAWN OF CHALDÆAN HISTORY </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkC2HCH0001"> CHAPTER V&mdash;ELAM AND BABYLON, THE COUNTRY OF
+      THE SEA AND THE KASSITES </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkC2HCH0002"> CHAPTER VI&mdash;EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND
+      CUSTOMS </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkD2HCH0001"> CHAPTER VII&mdash;TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkD2HCH0002"> CHAPTER VIII&mdash;THE ASSYRIAN AND
+      NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT RESEARCH</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkD2HCH0003"> CHAPTER IX&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+      </a>
+    </p>
+
+    <hr />
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+    <h2>
+      List of Illustrations
+    </h2>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0006">the Bed of an Ancient Watercourse in The Wadiyên, Thebes. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0007">Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period. From the Desert Plateau and Slopes West of Thebes. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0008">Palaeolithic Implements. From Man, March, 1905. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0009">Upper Desert Plateau, Where Paleolithic Implements Are Found. Thebes: 1,400 Feet Above the Nile. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0010">Flint Knife mounted in a gold handle</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0011">Buff Ware Vase, Predynastic Period</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0012">Camp of the Expedition Of The University Of California at Nag’ Ed-dêr, 1901. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0013">Portion of the “Stele Of Vultures” Found At Telloh </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0016">Obverse of a Slate Relief representing the King of Upper Egypt in the form of a Bull</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0017">Reverse of a Slate Relief</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0018">Obverse of a Slate Relief with representations of the Egyptian nomes</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0019">Reverse of a Slate Relief representing animals</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0021">Professor Petrie’s Camp at Abydos, 1901.</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0022">The Tomb of King Den at Abydos</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0023">Examples of conical vase-stoppers taken from Abydos</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0024">The Tomb of King Tjeser at Bêt Khallâf</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0025">False Door of the Tomb Of Teta, an official of the IVth Dynasty</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkimage-0026">The Shunet ez-Zebib: The Fortress-town of the IId Dynasty at Abydos</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0005">Statue No. 1 of the Cairo Museum</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0006">Exterior of the Southern Brick Pyramid of Dashur: XIIth Dynasty</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0007">The Pyramids of Giza during the inundation</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0010">List of Archaic cuneiform signs</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0011">Fragment of a list Of Archaic Cuneiform signs</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0012">Obelisk of Manishtusu, King of the City of Kish </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0013">Babil, the most northern mound which marks the site of the ancient city of Babylon</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0014">“Stele of Victory,” representing Naram-Sin conquering his enemies</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0016">Roughly hewn sculpture of a lion standing over a fallen man, found at Babylon</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0017">General view of the excavations on the Kasr at Babylon</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0018">View within the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II.</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0019">Excavations in the temple of Ninib at Babylon</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0020">The principal mound of Birs Nimrud, which marks the site of the ancient capital of Borsippa</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0021">The principal mound at Sherghat, which marks the site of Ashuk, the ancient capital of the Assyrians</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0022">The mound of Kuyunjik, one Of the palace mounds of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0023">Winged bull in the palace of Sennacherib on Kuyunjik, the principal mound marking the site of Nineveh</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0024">Clay Memorial-tablet of Eannadu, viceroy of Shirpurla</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0025">Marble gate-socket bearing an inscription of Entemena, a powerful Patesi of Shirpurla</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0026">Stone gate-socket bearing an inscription of Ur-Engur, an early king of the city of Ur</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0027">Statue of Gudea, viceroy of Shirpurla</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkBimage-0028">Tablet inscribed in Sumerian with details of a survey of certain property</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0005">Clay tablet, found at Susa, bearing an inscription in the early proto-Elamite character</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0006">Clay tablet, recently found at Susa, bearing an inscription in the early proto-Elamite character. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0008">Block of limestone, found at Susa, bearing inscriptions of Karibu-sha-Shushinak</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0009">Brick stamped with an inscription of Kudur-mabug</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0010">Semitic Babylonian contract-tablet, inscribed in the reign of Hammurabi with a deed recording the division of property</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0011">A Kudurru, or Boundary-stone, inscribed with a text of Nazimaruttash</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0012">A Kudurru, or Boundary-stone, inscribed with a text of Melishikhu</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0013">Upper Part of the Stele of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0014">Clay contract-tablet and its outer case, First Dynasty</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0015">A track in the desert</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0016">A camping-ground in the desert, between Birejik And Urfa</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0017">Approach to the city of Samarra, situated on the left bank of the Tigris</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0018">A small caravan in the mountains of Kurdistan</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0019">The city of Mosul</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0020">The village of Nebi Yunus</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0021">Portrait-sculpture of Hammurabi, King of Babylon</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0022">A modern machine for irrigation on the Euphrates</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0023">Kaiks, or native boats on the Euphrates at Birejik</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0024">The modern bridge of boats across the Tigris opposite Mosul</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkCimage-0025">A small Kelek, or raft, upon the Tigris at Baghdad</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0005">Statue of Mera, Chief Steward, IXth Dynasty</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0006">Wall of XIth Dynasty: Dêr el-Bahari</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0007">Wall of XVIIIth Dynasty: Dêr el-Bahari.
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0008">Excavation of the north lower colonnade of the XIth dynasty temple, Dêr el-Bahari, 1904</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0009">The granite threshold and sandstone pillars of the XIth dynasty temple at Dêr el-Bahari</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0010">Excavation of the tomb of a priestess, on a platform of the XIth Dynasty temple, Dêr el-Bahari, 1904</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0011">Cases of antiquities leaving Dêr el-Bahari for transport to Cairo</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0012">Shipping cases of antiquities on board the Nile steamer at Luxor, for the Egypt Exploration Fund</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0013">Statue of Queen Teta-shera</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0014">The Two Temples of Dêr el-Bahari</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0015">The upper court and trilithon gate of the XVIIIth Dynasty temple at Dêr el-Bahari</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0016">The tomb-mountain of Amenhetep III, in the western valley, Thebes</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0017">The Tomb-hill of Shêkh ’abd el-Kûrna, Thebes</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0018">Wall-painting from a Tomb of Shêkh ’abd el-Kûrna, Western Thebes</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0019">Fresco in the Tomb of Senmut at Thebes</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0022">The valley of the Tombs of the Queens at Thebes</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0023">The Nile-Bank at Luxor</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0024">The Great Temple at Karnak</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0025">M. Legrain’s excavation of the Karnak statues</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0026">Portrait-group of a great noble and his wife, of the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0027">A tomb fitted up as an Explorer’s Residence</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0029">Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription of Arik-dên-ilu</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0030">Entrance into one of the Galleries or Tunnels of the principal mound at Sherghat</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0031">Stone Tablet of Tukulti-Ninib I, King of Assyria</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0032">The Ziggurat, or Temple Tower, of the Assyrian city of Calah</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0033">Work on one of the Rock-inscriptions of Sennacherib, near Bavian in Assyria</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0034">The Principal Rock Sculptures in the Gorge of the Gomel near Bavian</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0035">The rock and citadel of Van</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0036">Ancient Flight of steps and gallery on the face of the Rock-citadel of Van</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0037">Part of the ancient fortifications of the city of Van</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0038">Within the Shrine of E-makh, Temple of the Goddess Nin-makh</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0039">Trench in the Babylonian Plain, between the mound of the Kasr and Tell Amran ibn-Ali, showing a section of the paved sacred way</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0040">The Great Dam of Aswân, showing water rushing through the sluices</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0041">The Kiosk at Philæ in process of underpinning and restoration, January, 1902</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0042">The Ancient Quay Of Philæ, November, 1904</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0043">The Rock of Konosso in January, 1902, Before The Building of the Dam</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#linkDimage-0044">The Isle of Konosso, with its inscriptions, November 1904</a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      <i>In the Light of Recent Excavation and Research</i>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I&mdash;THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      During the last ten years our conception of the beginnings of Egyptian
+      antiquity has profoundly altered. When Prof. Maspero published the first
+      volume of his great <i>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples des l’Orient
+      Classique</i>, in 1895, Egyptian history, properly so called, still began
+      with the Pyramid-builders, Sne-feru, Khufu, and Khafra (Cheops and
+      Chephren), and the legendary lists of earlier kings preserved at Abydos
+      and Sakkara were still quoted as the only source of knowledge of the time
+      before the IVth Dynasty. Of a prehistoric Egypt nothing was known, beyond
+      a few flint flakes gathered here and there upon the desert plateaus, which
+      might or might not tell of an age when the ancestors of the
+      Pyramid-builders knew only the stone tools and weapons of the primeval
+      savage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, however, the veil which has hidden the beginnings of Egyptian
+      civilization from us has been lifted, and we see things, more or less, as
+      they actually were, unobscured by the traditions of a later day. Until the
+      last few years nothing of the real beginnings of history in either Egypt
+      or Mesopotamia had been found; legend supplied the only material for the
+      reconstruction of the earliest history of the oldest civilized nations of
+      the globe. Nor was it seriously supposed that any relics of prehistoric
+      Egypt or Mesopotamia ever would be found. The antiquity of the known
+      history of these countries already appeared so great that nobody took into
+      consideration the possibility of our discovering a prehistoric Egypt or
+      Mesopotamia; the idea was too remote from practical work. And further,
+      civilization in these countries had lasted so long that it seemed more
+      than probable that all traces of their prehistoric age had long since been
+      swept away. Yet the possibility, which seemed hardly worth a moment’s
+      consideration in 1895, is in 1905 an assured reality, at least as far as
+      Egypt is concerned. Prehistoric Babylonia has yet to be discovered. It is
+      true, for example, that at Mukay-yar, the site of ancient Ur of the
+      Chaldees, burials in earthenware coffins, in which the skeletons lie in
+      the doubled-up position characteristic of Neolithic interments, have been
+      found; but there is no doubt whatever that these are burials of a much
+      later date, belonging, quite possibly, to the Parthian period. Nothing
+      that may rightfully be termed prehistoric has yet been found in the
+      Euphrates valley, whereas in Egypt prehistoric antiquities are now almost
+      as well known and as well represented in our museums as are the
+      prehistoric antiquities of Europe and America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the exception of a few palasoliths from the surface of the Syrian
+      desert, near the Euphrates valley, not a single implement of the Age of
+      Stone has yet been found in Southern Mesopotamia, whereas Egypt has
+      yielded to us the most perfect examples of the flint-knapper’s art known,
+      flint tools and weapons more beautiful than the finest that Europe and
+      America can show. The reason is not far to seek. Southern Mesopotamia is
+      an alluvial country, and the ancient cities, which doubtless mark the
+      sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are situated in the alluvial
+      marshy plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates; so that all traces of
+      the Neolithic culture of the country would seem to have disappeared,
+      buried deep beneath city-mounds, clay and marsh. It is the same in the
+      Egyptian Delta, a similar country; and here no traces of the prehistoric
+      culture of Egypt have been found. The attempt to find them was made last
+      year at Buto, which is known to be one of the most antique centres of
+      civilization, and probably was one of the earliest settlements in Egypt,
+      but without success. The infiltration of water had made excavation
+      impossible and had no doubt destroyed everything belonging to the most
+      ancient settlement. It is not going too far to predict that exactly the
+      same thing will be found by any explorer who tries to discover a Neolithic
+      stratum beneath a city-mound of Babylonia. There is little hope that
+      prehistoric Chaldæa will ever be known to us. But in Egypt the conditions
+      are different. The Delta is like Babylonia, it is true; but in the Upper
+      Nile valley the river flows down with but a thin border of alluvial land
+      on either side, through the rocky and hilly desert, the dry Sahara, where
+      rain falls but once in two or three years. Antiquities buried in this soil
+      in the most remote ages are preserved intact as they were first interred,
+      until the modern investigator comes along to look for them. And it is on
+      the desert margin of the valley that the remains of prehistoric Egypt have
+      been found. That is the reason for their perfect preservation till our own
+      day, and why we know prehistoric Egypt so well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief work of Egyptian civilization was the proper irrigation of the
+      alluvial soil, the turning of marsh into cultivated fields, and the
+      reclamation of land from the desert for the purposes of agriculture. Owing
+      to the rainless character of the country, the only means of obtaining
+      water for the crops is by irrigation, and where the fertilizing Nile water
+      cannot be taken by means of canals, there cultivation ends and the desert
+      begins. Before Egyptian civilization, properly so called, began, the
+      valley was a great marsh through which the Nile found its way north to the
+      sea. The half-savage, stone-using ancestors of the civilized Egyptians
+      hunted wild fowl, crocodiles, and hippopotami in the marshy valley; but
+      except in a few isolated settlements on convenient mounds here and there
+      (the forerunners of the later villages), they did not live there. Their
+      settlements were on the dry desert margin, and it was here, upon low
+      tongues of desert hill jutting out into the plain, that they buried their
+      dead. Their simple shallow graves were safe from the flood, and, but for
+      the depredations of jackals and hyenas, here they have remained intact
+      till our own day, and have yielded up to us the facts from which we have
+      derived our knowledge of prehistoric Egypt. Thus it is that we know so
+      much of the Egyptians of the Stone Age, while of their contemporaries in
+      Mesopotamia we know nothing, nor is anything further likely to be
+      discovered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these desert cemeteries, with their crowds of oval shallow graves,
+      covered by only a few inches of surface soil, in which the Neolithic
+      Egyptians lie crouched up with their flint implements and polished pottery
+      beside them, are but monuments of the later age of prehistoric Egypt. Long
+      before the Neolithic Egyptian hunted his game in the marshes, and here and
+      there essayed the work of reclamation for the purposes of an incipient
+      agriculture, a far older race inhabited the valley of the Nile. The
+      written records of Egyptian civilization go back four thousand years
+      before Christ, or earlier, and the Neolithic Age of Egypt must go back to
+      a period several thousand years before that. But we can now go back much
+      further still, to the Palaeolithic Age of Egypt. At a time when Europe was
+      still covered by the ice and snows of the Glacial Period, and man fought
+      as an equal, hardly yet as a superior, with cave-bear and mammoth, the
+      Palaeolithic Egyptians lived on the banks of the Nile. Their habitat was
+      doubtless the desert slopes, often, too, the plateaus themselves; but that
+      they lived entirely upon the plateaus, high up above the Nile marsh, is
+      improbable. There, it is true, we find their flint implements, the great
+      pear-shaped weapons of the types of Chelles, St. Acheul, and Le Moustier,
+      types well known to all who are acquainted with the flint implements of
+      the “Drift” in Europe. And it is there that the theory, generally accepted
+      hitherto, has placed the habitat of the makers and users of these
+      implements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea was that in Palaeolithic days, contemporary with the Glacial Age
+      of Northern Europe and America, the climate of Egypt was entirely
+      different from that of later times and of to-day. Instead of dry desert,
+      the mountain plateaus bordering the Nile valley were supposed to have been
+      then covered with forest, through which flowed countless streams to feed
+      the river below. It was suggested that remains of these streams were to be
+      seen in the side ravines, or wadis, of the Nile valley, which run up from
+      the low desert on the river level into the hills on either hand. These
+      wadis undoubtedly show extensive traces of strong water action; they curve
+      and twist as the streams found their easiest way to the level through the
+      softer strata, they are heaped up with great water-worn boulders, they are
+      hollowed out where waterfalls once fell. They have the appearance of dry
+      watercourses, exactly what any mountain burns would be were the
+      water-supply suddenly cut off for ever, the climate altered from rainy to
+      eternal sun-glare, and every plant and tree blasted, never to grow again.
+      Acting on the supposition that this idea was a correct one, most observers
+      have concluded that the climate of Egypt in remote periods was very
+      different from the dry, rainless one now obtaining. To provide the water
+      for the wadi streams, heavy rainfall and forests are desiderated. They
+      were easily supplied, on the hypothesis. Forests clothed the mountain
+      plateaus, heavy rains fell, and the water rushed down to the Nile, carving
+      out the great watercourses which remain to this day, bearing testimony to
+      the truth. And the flints, which the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the
+      plateau-forests made and used, still lie on the now treeless and sun-baked
+      desert surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/007.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="007.jpg the Bed of an Ancient Watercourse in The Wadiyên, Thebes. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This is certainly a very weak conclusion. In fact, it seriously damages
+      the whole argument, the water-courses to the contrary notwithstanding. The
+      palæoliths are there. They can be picked up by any visitor. There they
+      lie, great flints of the Drift types, just like those found in the
+      gravel-beds of England and Belgium, on the desert surface where they were
+      made. Undoubtedly where they were made, for the places where they lie are
+      the actual ancient flint workshops, where the flints were chipped.
+      Everywhere around are innumerable flint chips and perfect weapons, burnt
+      black and patinated by ages of sunlight. We are taking one particular spot
+      in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but there are plenty of
+      others, such as the Wadi esh-Shêkh on the right bank of the Nile opposite
+      Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought back specimens of flint
+      tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic periods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Palæolithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited of
+      late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof. Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen Sturge, and
+      Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall. The weapons
+      illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton, and are now
+      preserved in the British Museum. Among these flints shown we notice two
+      fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St. Acheul, with curious
+      adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left and right. Below, to the
+      right, is a very primitive instrument of Chellean type, being merely a
+      sharpened pebble. Above, to left and right, are two specimens of the
+      curious half-moon-shaped instruments which are characteristic of the
+      Theban flint field and are hardly known elsewhere. All have the beautiful
+      brown patina, which only ages of sunburn can give. The “poignard” type to
+      the left, at the bottom of the plate, is broken off short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/008.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period. From the Desert Plateau and Slopes West of Thebes. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/009.jpg"
+       alt="009.jpg (right): Palaeolithic Implements. From Man, March, 1905." />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In the smaller illustration we see some remarkable types: two scrapers or
+      knives with strongly marked “bulb of percussion” (the spot where the
+      flint-knapper struck and from which the flakes flew off), a very regular
+      <i>coup-de-poing</i> which looks almost like a large arrowhead, and on the
+      right a much weathered and patinated scraper which must be of immemorial
+      age. This came from the top plateau, not from the slopes (or subsidiary
+      plateaus at the head of the <i>wadis</i>), as did the great St. Acheulian
+      weapons. The circular object is very remarkable: it is the half of the
+      ring of a “morpholith “(a round flinty accretion often found in the Theban
+      limestone) which has been split, and the split (flat) side carefully
+      bevelled. Several of these interesting objects have been found in
+      conjunction with Palæolithic implements at Thebes. No doubt the flints lie
+      on the actual surface where they were made. No later water action has
+      swept them away and covered them with gravel, no later human habitation
+      has hidden them with successive deposits of soil, no gradual deposit of
+      dust and rubbish has buried them deep. They lie as they were left in the
+      far-away Palæolithic Age, and they have lain there till taken away by the
+      modern explorer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this is not the case with all the Palæolithic flints of Thebes. In the
+      year 1882 Maj.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers discovered Palæolithic flints in the
+      deposit of diluvial detritus which lies between the cultivation and the
+      mountains on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor. Many of these are
+      of the same type as those found on the surface of the mountain plateau
+      which lies at the head of the great <i>wadi</i> of the Tombs of the Kings,
+      while the diluvial deposit is at its mouth. The stuff of which the
+      detritus is composed evidently came originally from the high plateau, and
+      was washed down, with the flints, in ancient times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is quite conceivable, but how is it that the flints left behind on
+      the plateau remain on the original ancient surface? How is it conceivable
+      that if (on the old theory) these plateaus were in Palæolithic days
+      clothed with forest, the Palæolithic flints could even in a single
+      instance remain undisturbed from Palæolithic times to the present day,
+      when the forest in which they were made and the forest soil on which they
+      reposed have entirely disappeared? If there were woods and forests On the
+      heights, it would seem impossible that we should find, as we do,
+      Palæolithic implements lying <i>in situ</i> on the desert surface, around the
+      actual manufactories where they were made. Yet if the constant rainfall
+      and the vegetation of the Libyan desert area in Palæolithic days is all a
+      myth (as it most probably is), how came the embedded palaeoliths, found by
+      Gen. Pitt-Rivers, in the bed of diluvial detritus which is apparently <i>débris</i>
+      from the plateau brought down by the Palæolithic <i>wadi</i> streams?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Water erosion has certainly formed the Theban <i>wadis</i>. But this water
+      erosion was probably not that which would be the result of perennial
+      streams flowing down from wooded heights, but of torrents like those of
+      to-day, which fill the <i>wadis</i> once in three years or so after heavy
+      rain, but repeated at much closer intervals. We may in fact suppose just
+      so much difference in meteorological conditions as would make it possible
+      for sudden rain-storms to occur over the desert at far more frequent
+      intervals than at present. That would account for the detritus bed at the
+      mouth of the <i>wadi</i>, and its embedded flints, and at the same time
+      maintain the general probability of the idea that the desert plateaus were
+      desert in Palæolithic days as now, and that early man only knapped his
+      flints up there because he found the flint there. He himself lived on the
+      slopes and nearer the marsh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This new view seems to be much sounder and more probable than the old one,
+      maintained by Flinders Petrie and Blanckenhorn, according to which the
+      high plateau was the home of man in Palæolithic times, when the rainfall,
+      as shown by the valley erosion and waterfalls, must have caused an
+      abundant vegetation on the plateau, where man could live and hunt his
+      game.<a href="#fn1.1" name="fnref1.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Were this so, it is patent that
+      the Palæolithic flints could not have been found on the desert surface as
+      they are. Mr. H. J. L. Beadnell, of the Geological Survey of Egypt, to
+      whom we are indebted for the promulgation of the more modern and probable
+      view, says: “Is it certain that the high plateau was then clothed with
+      forests? What evidence is there to show that it differed in any important
+      respect from its present aspect? And if, as I suggest, desert conditions
+      obtained then as now, and man merely worked his flints along the edges of
+      the plateaus overlooking the Nile valley, I see no reason why flint
+      implements, dating even from Palæolithic times should not in favourable
+      cases still be found in the spots where they were left, surrounded by the
+      flakes struck off in manufacture. On the flat plateaus the occasional
+      rains which fall&mdash;once in three or four years&mdash;can effect but
+      little transport of material, and merely lower the general level by
+      dissolving the underlying limestone, so that the plateau surface is left
+      with a coating of nodules and blocks of insoluble flint and chert. Flint
+      implements might thus be expected to remain in many localities for
+      indefinite periods, but they would certainly become more or less
+      ‘patinated,’ pitted on the surface, and rounded at the angles after long
+      exposure to heat, cold, and blown sand.” This is exactly the case of the
+      Palæolithic flint tools from the desert plateau.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.1"></a> <a href="#fnref1.1">[1]</a>
+Petrie, <i>Nagada and Ballas</i>, p. 49.
+</p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/012.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="012.jpg Upper Desert Plateau, Where Paleolithic Implements Are Found, Thebes: 1,400 Leet Above the Nile. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We do not know whether Palæolithic man in Egypt was contemporary with the
+      cave-man of Europe. We have no means of gauging the age of the Palæolithic
+      Egyptian weapons, as we have for the Neolithic period. The historical
+      (dynastic) period of Egyptian annals began with the unification of the
+      kingdom under one head somewhere about 4500 B.C. At that time copper as
+      well as stone weapons were used, so that we may say that at the beginning
+      of the historical age the Egyptians were living in the “Chalcolithic”
+       period. We can trace the use of copper back for a considerable period
+      anterior to the beginning of the Ist Dynasty, so that we shall probably
+      not be far wrong if we do not bring down the close of the purely Neolithic
+      Age in Egypt&mdash;the close of the Age of Stone, properly so called&mdash;later
+      than +5000 B.C. How far back in the remote ages the transition period
+      between the Palæolithic and Neolithic Ages should be placed, it is utterly
+      impossible to say. The use of stone for weapons and implements continued
+      in Egypt as late as the time of the XIIth Dynasty, about 2500-2000 B.C.
+      But these XIIth Dynasty stone implements show by their forms how late they
+      are in the history of the Stone Age. The axe heads, for instance, are in
+      form imitations of the copper and bronze axe heads usual at that period;
+      they are stone imitations of metal, instead of the originals on whose
+      model the metal weapons were formed. The flint implements of the XIIth
+      Dynasty were a curious survival from long past ages. After the time of the
+      XIIth Dynasty stone was no longer used for tools or weapons, except for
+      the sacred rite of making the first incision in the dead bodies before
+      beginning the operations of embalming; for this purpose, as Herodotus
+      tells us, an “Ethiopian stone” was used. This was no doubt a knife of
+      flint or chert, like those of the Neolithic ancestors of the Egyptians,
+      and the continued use of a stone knife for this one purpose only is a very
+      interesting instance of a ceremonial survival. We may compare the wigs of
+      British judges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/014.jpg" width="100%" alt="014.jpg Flint Knife " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We have no specimen of a flint knife which can definitely be asserted to
+      have belonged to an embalmer, but of the archaistic flint weapons of the
+      XIIth Dynasty we have several specimens. They were found by Prof. Petrie
+      at the place named by him “Kahun,” the site of a XIIth Dynasty town built
+      near the pyramid of King Usertsen (or Senusret) II at Illahun, at the
+      mouth of the canal leading from the Nile valley into the oasis-province of
+      the Payyum. These Kahun flints, and others of probably the same period
+      found by Mr. Seton-Karr at the very ancient flint works in the Wadi
+      esh-Shêkh, are of very coarse and poor workmanship as compared with the
+      stone-knapping triumphs of the late Neolithic and early Chalcolithic
+      periods. The delicacy of the art had all been lost. But the best flint
+      knives of the early period&mdash;dating to just a little before the time
+      of the Ist Dynasty, when flint-working had attained its apogee, and copper
+      had just begun to be used&mdash;are undoubtedly the most remarkable stone
+      weapons ever made in the world. The grace and utility of the form, the
+      delicacy of the fluted chipping on the side, and the minute care with
+      which the tiny serrations of the cutting edge, serrations so small that
+      often they can hardly be seen with the naked eye, are made, can certainly
+      not be parallelled elsewhere. The art of flint-knapping reached its zenith
+      in Ancient Egypt. The specimen illustrated has a handle covered with gold
+      decorated with incised designs representing animals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prehistoric Egyptians may also fairly be said to have attained greater
+      perfection than other peoples in the Neolithic stage of culture, in other
+      arts besides the making of stone tools and weapons. Their pottery is of
+      remarkable perfection. Now that the sites of the Egyptian prehistoric
+      settlements have been so thoroughly explored by competent archæologists
+      (and, unhappily, as thoroughly pillaged by incompetent natives), this
+      prehistoric Egyptian pottery has become extremely well known. In fact, it
+      is so common that good specimens may be bought anywhere in Egypt for a few
+      piastres. Most museums possess sets of this pottery, of which great
+      quantities have been brought back from Egypt by Prof. Petrie and other
+      explorers. It is of very great interest, artistically as well as
+      historically. The potter’s wheel was not yet invented, and all the vases,
+      even those of the most perfect shape, were built up by hand. The
+      perfection of form attained without the aid of the wheel is truly
+      marvellous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commonest type of this pottery is a red polished ware vase with black
+      top, due to its having been baked mouth downward in a fire, the ashes of
+      which, according to Prof. Petrie, deoxidized the hæmatite burnishing, and
+      so turned the red colour to black. “In good examples the hæmatite has not
+      only been reduced to black magnetic oxide, but the black has the highest
+      polish, as seen on fine Greek vases. This is probably due to the formation
+      of carbonyl gas in the smothered fire. This gas acts as a solvent of
+      magnetic oxide, and hence allows it to assume a new surface, like the
+      glassy surface of some marbles subjected to solution in water.” This black
+      and red ware appears to be the most ancient prehistoric Egyptian pottery
+      known. Later in date are a red ware and a black ware with rude geometrical
+      incised designs, imitating basketwork, and with the incised lines filled
+      in with white. Later again is a buff ware, either plain or decorated with
+      wavy lines, concentric circles, and elaborate drawings of boats sailing on
+      the Nile, ostriches, fish, men and women, and so on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/017.jpg"
+       alt="017.jpg (right) Buff Ware Vase, Predynastic Period, Before 4000 B.C." />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      These designs are in deep red. With this elaborate pottery the Neolithic
+      ceramic art of Egypt reached its highest point; in the succeeding period
+      (the beginning of the historic age) there was a decline in workmanship,
+      exhibiting clumsy forms and bad colour, and it is not until the time of
+      the IVth Dynasty that good pottery (a fine polished red) is once more
+      found. Meanwhile the invention of glazed pottery, which was unknown to the
+      prehistoric Egyptians, had been made (before the beginning of the Ist
+      Dynasty). The unglazed ware of the first three dynasties was bad, but the
+      new invention of light blue glazed faience (not porcelain properly so
+      called) seems to have made great progress, and we possess fine specimens
+      at the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The prehistoric Egyptians were also
+      proficient in other arts. They carved ivory and they worked gold, which is
+      known to have been almost the first metal worked by man; certainly in
+      Egypt it was utilized for ornament even before copper was used for work.
+      We may refer to the illustration of a flint knife with gold handle,
+      already given.<a href="#fn1.2" name="fnref1.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.2"></a> <a href="#fnref1.2">[2]</a>
+See illustration.
+</p>
+
+    <p>
+      The date of the actual introduction of copper for tools and weapons into
+      Egypt is uncertain, but it seems probable that copper was occasionally
+      used at a very early period. Copper weapons have been found in
+      pre-dynastic graves beside the finest buff pottery with elaborate red
+      designs, so that we may say that when the flint-working and pottery of the
+      Neolithic Egyptians had reached its zenith, the use of copper was already
+      known, and copper weapons were occasionally employed. We can thus speak of
+      the “Chalcolithic” period in Egypt as having already begun at that time,
+      no doubt several centuries before the beginning of the historical or
+      dynastic age. Strictly speaking, the Egyptians remained in the
+      “Chalcolithic” period till the end of the XIIth Dynasty, but in practice
+      it is best to speak of this period, when the word is used, as extending
+      from the time of the finest flint weapons and pottery of the prehistoric
+      age (when the “Neolithic” period may be said to close) till about the IId
+      or IIId Dynasty. By that time the “Bronze,” or, rather, “Copper,” Age of
+      Egypt had well begun, and already stone was not in common use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prehistoric pottery is of the greatest value to the archæologist, for
+      with its help some idea may be obtained of the succession of periods
+      within the late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Age. The enormous number of
+      prehistoric graves which have been examined enables us to make an
+      exhaustive comparison of the different kinds of pottery found in them, so
+      that we can arrange them in order according to pottery they contained. By
+      this means we obtain an idea of the development of different types of
+      pottery, and the sequence of the types. Thus it is that we can say with
+      some degree of confidence that the black and red ware is the most ancient
+      form, and that the buff with red designs is one of the latest forms of
+      prehistoric pottery. Other objects found in the graves can be classified
+      as they occur with different pottery types.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the help of the pottery we can thus gain a more or less reliable
+      conspectus of the development of the late “Neolithic” culture of Egypt.
+      This system of “sequence-dating” was introduced by Prof. Petrie, and is
+      certainly very useful. It must not, however, be pressed too far or be
+      regarded as an iron-bound system, with which all subsequent discoveries
+      must be made to fit in by force. It is not to be supposed that all
+      prehistoric pottery developed its series of types in an absolutely orderly
+      manner without deviations or throws-back. The work of man’s hands is
+      variable and eccentric, and does not develop or evolve in an undeviating
+      course as the work of nature does. It is a mistake, very often made by
+      anthropologists and archæologists, who forget this elementary fact, to
+      assume “curves of development,” and so forth, or semi-savage culture, on
+      absolutely even and regular lines. Human culture has not developed either
+      evenly or regularly, as a matter of fact. Therefore we cannot always be
+      sure that, because the Egyptian black and red pottery does not occur in
+      graves with buff and red, it is for this reason absolutely earlier in date
+      than the latter. Some of the development-sequences may in reality be
+      contemporary with others instead of earlier, and allowance must always be
+      made for aberrations and reversions to earlier types.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This caveat having been entered, however, we may provisionally accept
+      Prof. Petrie’s system of sequence-dating as giving the best classification
+      of the prehistoric antiquities according to development. So it may fairly
+      be said that, as far as we know, the black and red pottery (“sequence-date
+      30&mdash;“) is the most ancient Neolithic Egyptian ware known; that the
+      buff and red did not begin to be used till about “sequence-date 45;” that
+      bone and ivory carvings were commonest in the earlier period
+      (“sequence-dates 30-50”); that copper was almost unknown till
+      “sequence-date 50,” and so on. The arbitrary numbers used range from 30 to
+      80, in order to allow for possible earlier and later additions, which may
+      be rendered necessary by the progress of discovery. The numbers are of
+      course as purely arbitrary and relative as those of the different
+      thermometrical systems, but they afford a convenient system of
+      arrangement. The products of the prehistoric Egyptians are, so to speak,
+      distributed on a conventional plan over a scale numbered from 30 to 80, 30
+      representing the beginning and 80 the close of the term, so far as its
+      close has as yet been ascertained. It is probable that “sequence-date 80”
+       more or less accurately marks the beginning of the dynastic or historical
+      period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This hypothetically chronological classification is, as has been said,
+      due to Prof. Petrie, and has been adopted by Mr. Randall-Maclver and
+      other students of prehistoric Egypt in their work.<a href="#fn1.3"
+      name="fnref1.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>  To Prof. Petrie then is due the
+      credit of systematizing the study of Egyptian prehistoric antiquities;
+      but the further credit of having <i>discovered</i> these antiquities
+      themselves and settled their date belongs not to him but to the
+      distinguished French archæologist, M. J. de Morgan, who was for several
+      years director of the museum at Giza, and is now chief of the French
+      archæological delegation in Persia, which has made of late years so many
+      important discoveries. The proof of the prehistoric date of this class of
+      antiquities was given, not by Prof. Petrie after his excavations at
+      Dendera in 1897-8, but by M. de Morgan in his volume, <i>Recherches sur
+      les Origines de l’Égypte: l’Âge de la Pierre et les
+      Métaux</i>, published in 1895-6. In this book the true chronological
+      position of the prehistoric antiquities was pointed out, and the
+      existence of an Egyptian Stone Age finally decided. M. de Morgan’s
+      work was based on careful study of the results of excavations carried on
+      for several years by the Egyptian government in various parts of Egypt,
+      in the course of which a large number of cemeteries of the primitive type
+      had been discovered. It was soon evident to M. de Morgan that these
+      primitive graves, with their unusual pottery and flint implements, could
+      be nothing less than the tombs of the prehistoric Egyptians, the
+      Egyptians of the Stone Age.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.3"></a> <a href="#fnref1.3">[3]</a>
+<i>El Amra and Abydos</i>, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902.
+</p>
+
+    <p>
+      Objects of the prehistoric period had been known to the museums for many
+      years previously, but owing to the uncertainty of their provenance and the
+      absence of knowledge of the existence of the primitive cemeteries, no
+      scientific conclusions had been arrived at with regard to them; and it was
+      not till the publication of M. de Morgan’s book that they were recognized
+      and classified as prehistoric. The necropoles investigated by M. de Morgan
+      and his assistants extended from Kawâmil in the north, about twenty miles
+      north of Abydos, to Edfu in the south. The chief cemeteries between these
+      two points were those of Bât Allam, Saghel el-Baglieh, el-’Amra, Nakâda,
+      Tûkh, and Gebelên. All the burials were of simple type, analogous to those
+      of the Neolithic races in the rest of the world. In a shallow, oval grave,
+      excavated often but a few inches below the surface of the soil, lay the
+      body, cramped up with the knees to the chin, sometimes in a rough box of
+      pottery, more often with only a mat to cover it. Ready to the hand of the
+      dead man were his flint weapons and tools, and the usual red and black, or
+      buff and red, pots lay beside him; originally, no doubt, they had been
+      filled with the funeral meats, to sustain the ghost in the next world.
+      Occasionally a simple copper weapon was found. With the body were also
+      buried slate palettes for grinding the green eye-paint which the Egyptians
+      loved even at this early period. These are often carved to suggest the
+      forms of animals, such as birds, bats, tortoises, goats, etc.; on others
+      are fantastic creatures with two heads. Combs of bone, too, are found,
+      ornamented in a similar way with birds’ or goats’ heads, often double. And
+      most interesting of all are the small bone and ivory figures of men and
+      women which are also found. These usually have little blue beads for eyes,
+      and are of the quaintest and naivest appearance conceivable. Here we have
+      an elderly man with a long pointed beard, there two women with inane
+      smiles upon their countenances, here another woman, of better work this
+      time, with a child slung across her shoulder. This figure, which is in the
+      British Museum, must be very late, as prehistoric Egyptian antiquities go.
+      It is almost as good in style as the early Ist Dynasty objects. Such were
+      the objects which the simple piety of the early Egyptian prompted him to
+      bury with the bodies of his dead, in order that they might find solace and
+      contentment in the other world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the prehistoric cemeteries are of this type, with the graves pressed
+      closely together, so that they often impinge upon one another. The
+      nearness of the graves to the surface is due to the exposed positions, at
+      the entrances to <i>wadis</i>, in which the primitive cemeteries are
+      usually found. The result is that they are always swept by the winds,
+      which prevent the desert sand from accumulating over them, and so have
+      preserved the original level of the ground. From their proximity to the
+      surface they are often found disturbed, more often by the agency of
+      jackals than that of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Contemporaneously with M. de Morgan’s explorations, Prof. Flinders Petrie
+      and Mr. J. Quibell had, in the winter of 1894-5, excavated in the
+      districts of Tukh and Nakada, on the west bank of the Nile opposite
+      Koptos, a series of extensive cemeteries of the primitive type, from which
+      they obtained a large number of antiquities, published in their volume
+      Nagada and Dallas. The plates giving representations of the antiquities
+      found were of the highest interest, but the scientific value of the
+      letter-press is vitiated by the fact that the true historical position of
+      the antiquities was not perceived by their discoverers, who came to the
+      conclusion that these remains were those of a “New Pace” of Libyan
+      invaders. This race, they supposed, had entered Egypt after the close of
+      the flourishing period of the “Old Kingdom” at the end of the VIth
+      Dynasty, and had occupied part of the Nile valley from that time till the
+      period of the Xth Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This conclusion was proved erroneous by M. de Morgan almost as soon as
+      made, and the French archæologist’s identification of the primitive
+      remains as pre-dynastic was at once generally accepted. It was obvious
+      that a hypothesis of the settlement of a stone-using barbaric race in the
+      midst of Egypt at so late a date as the period immediately preceding the
+      XIIth Dynasty, a race which mixed in no way with the native Egyptians
+      themselves, and left no trace of their influence upon the later Egyptians,
+      was one which demanded greater faith than the simple explanation of M. de
+      Morgan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The error of the British explorers was at once admitted by Mr. Quibell,
+      in his volume on the excavations of 1897 at el-Kab, published in 1898.<a
+      href="#fn1.4" name="fnref1.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> Mr. Quibell at once
+      found full and adequate confirmation of M. de Morgan’s discovery in his
+      diggings at el-Kab. Prof. Petrie admitted the correctness of M. de
+      Morgan’s views in the preface to his volume Diospolis Parva, published
+      three years later in 1901.<a href="#fn1.5"
+      name="fnref1.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> The preface to the first volume of M.
+      de Morgan’s book contained a generous recognition of the method and
+      general accuracy of Prof. Petrie’s excavations, which contrasted
+      favourably, according to M. de Morgan, with the excavations of others,
+      generally carried on without scientific control, and with the sole aim of
+      obtaining antiquities or literary texts.<a href="#fn1.6"
+      name="fnref1.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> That M. de Morgan’s own work was
+      carried out as scientifically and as carefully is evident from the fact
+      that his conclusions as to the chronological position of the prehistoric
+      antiquities have been shown to be correct. To describe M. de Morgan’s
+      discovery as a “happy guess,” as has been done, is therefore beside the
+      mark.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.4"></a> <a href="#fnref1.4">[4]</a>
+El-Kab. Egyptian Research Account, 1897, p. 11.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.5"></a> <a href="#fnref1.5">[5]</a>
+Diospolis Parva. Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901, p. 2.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.6"></a> <a href="#fnref1.6">[6]</a>
+Recherches: Age de la Pierre, p. xiii.
+</p>
+
+    <p>
+      Another most important British excavation was that carried on by Messrs.
+      Randall-Maclver and Wilkin at el-’Amra. The imposing lion-headed
+      promontory of el-’Amra stands out into the plain on the west bank of the
+      Nile about five miles south of Abydos. At the foot of this hill M. de
+      Morgan found a very extensive prehistoric necropolis, which he examined,
+      but did not excavate to any great extent, and the work of thoroughly
+      excavating it was performed by Messrs. Randall-MacIver and Wilkin for the
+      Egypt Exploration Fund. The results have thrown very great light upon the
+      prehistoric culture of Egypt, and burials of all prehistoric types, some
+      of them previously unobserved, were found. Among the most interesting are
+      burials in pots, which have also been found by Mr. Garstang in a
+      predynastic necropolis at Ragagna, north of Abydos. One of the more
+      remarkable observations made at el-’Amra was the progressive development
+      of the tombs from the simplest pot-burial to a small brick chamber, the
+      embryo of the brick tombs of the Ist Dynasty. Among the objects recovered
+      from this site may be mentioned a pottery model of oxen, a box in the
+      shape of a model hut, and a slate “palette” with what is perhaps the
+      oldest Egyptian hieroglyph known, a representation of the fetish-sign of
+      the god Min, in relief. All these are preserved in the British Museum. The
+      skulls of the bodies found were carefully preserved for craniometric
+      examination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1901 an extensive prehistoric cemetery was being excavated by Messrs.
+      Reisner and Lythgoe at Nag’ed-Dêr, opposite Girga, and at el-Ahaiwa,
+      further north, another prehistoric necropolis has been excavated by these
+      gentlemen, working for the University of California.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/027.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="027.jpg Camp of the Expedition Of The University Of California at Nag’ Ed-dêr, 1901. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The cemetery of Nag’ed-Dêr is of the usual prehistoric type, with its
+      multitudes of small oval graves, excavated just a little way below the
+      surface. Graves of this kind are the most primitive of all. Those at
+      el-’Amra are usually more developed, often, as has been noted, rising to
+      the height of regular brick tombs. They are evidently later, nearer to the
+      time of the Ist Dynasty. The position of the Nag’ed-Dêr cemetery is also
+      characteristic. It lies on the usual low ridge at the entrance to a desert
+      <i>wadi</i>, which is itself one of the most picturesque in this part of
+      Egypt, with its chaos of great boulders and fallen rocks. An illustration
+      of the camp of Mr. Reisner’s expedition at Nag’ed-Dêr is given above. The
+      excavations of the University of California are carried out with the
+      greatest possible care and are financed with the greatest possible
+      liberality. Mr. Reisner has therefore been able to keep an absolutely
+      complete photographic record of everything, even down to the successive
+      stages in the opening of a tomb, which will be of the greatest use to
+      science when published.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a detailed study of the antiquities of the prehistoric period the
+      publications of Prof. Petrie, Mr. Quibell, and Mr. Randall-Maclver are
+      more useful than that of M. de Morgan, who does not give enough details.
+      Every atom of evidence is given in the publications of the British
+      explorers, whereas it is a characteristic of French work to give brilliant
+      conclusions, beautifully illustrated, without much of the evidence on
+      which the conclusions are based. This kind of work does not appeal to the
+      Anglo-Saxon mind, which takes nothing on trust, even from the most
+      renowned experts, and always wants to know the why and wherefore. The
+      complete publication of evidence which marks the British work will no
+      doubt be met with, if possible in even more complete detail, in the
+      American work of Messrs. Reisner, Lythgoe, and Mace (the last-named is an
+      Englishman) for the University of California, when published. The question
+      of speedy versus delayed publication is a very vexing one. Prof. Petrie
+      prefers to publish as speedily as possible; six months after the season’s
+      work in Egypt is done, the full publication with photographs of everything
+      appears. Mr. Reisner and the French explorers prefer to publish nothing
+      until they have exhaustively studied the whole of the evidence, and can
+      extract nothing more from it. This would be admirable if the French
+      published their discoveries fully, but they do not. Even M. de Morgan has
+      not approached the fulness of detail which characterizes British work and
+      which will characterize Mr. Reisner’s publication when it appears. The
+      only drawback to this method is that general interest in the particular
+      excavations described tends to pass away before the full description
+      appears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prof. Petrie has explored other prehistoric sites at Abadiya, and Mr.
+      Quibell at el-Kab. M. de Morgan and his assistants have examined a large
+      number of sites, ranging from the Delta to el-Kab. Further research has
+      shown that some of the sites identified by M. de Morgan as prehistoric are
+      in reality of much later date, for example, Kahun, where the late flints
+      of XIIth Dynasty date were found. He notes that “large numbers of
+      Neolithic flint weapons are found in the desert on the borders of the
+      Fayyum, and at Helwan, south of Cairo,” and that all the important
+      necropoles and kitchen-middens of the predynastic people are to be found
+      in the districts of Abydos and Thebes, from el-Kawamil in the North to
+      el-Kab in the South. It is of course too soon to assert with confidence
+      that there are no prehistoric remains in any other part of Egypt,
+      especially in the long tract between the Fayyûm and the district of
+      Abydos, but up to the present time none have been found in this region.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This geographical distribution of the prehistoric remains fits in
+      curiously with the ancient legend concerning the origin of the ancestors
+      of the Egyptians in Upper Egypt, and supports the much discussed theory
+      that they came originally to the Nile valley from the shores of the Red
+      Sea by way of the Wadi Hammamat, which debouches on to the Nile in the
+      vicinity of Koptos and Kus, opposite Ballas and Tûkh. The supposition
+      seems a very probable one, and it may well be that the earliest Egyptians
+      entered the valley of the Nile by the route suggested and then spread
+      northwards and southwards in the valley. The fact that their remains are
+      not found north of el-Kawâmil nor south of el-Kab might perhaps be
+      explained by the supposition that, when they had extended thus far north
+      and south from their original place of arrival, they passed from the
+      primitive Neolithic condition to the more highly developed copper-using
+      culture of the period which immediately preceded the establishment of the
+      monarchy. The Neolithic weapons of the Fayyûm and Hel-wân would then be
+      the remains of a different people, which inhabited the Delta and Middle
+      Egypt in very early times. This people may have been of Mediterranean
+      stock, akin to the primitive inhabitants of Palestine, Greece, Italy, and
+      Spain; and they no doubt were identical with the inhabitants of Lower
+      Egypt who were overthrown and conquered by Kha-sekhem and the other
+      Southern founders of the monarchy (who belonged to the race which had come
+      from the Red Sea by the Wadi Hammamat), and so were the ancestors of the
+      later natives of Lower Egypt. Whether the Southerners, whose primitive
+      remains we find from el-Kawâmil to el-Kab, were of the same race as the
+      Northerners whom they conquered, cannot be decided. The skull-form of the
+      Southerners agrees with that of the Mediterranean races. But we have no
+      nécropoles of the Northerners to tell us much of their peculiarities. We
+      have nothing but their flint arrowheads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it should be observed that, in spite of the present absence of all
+      primitive remains (whether mere flints, or actual graves with bodies and
+      relics) of the primeval population between the Fayyûm and el-Kawâmil,
+      there is no proof that the primitive race of Upper Egypt was not
+      coterminous and identical with that of the lower country. It might
+      therefore be urged that the whole Neolithic population was “Mediterranean”
+       by its skull-form and body-structure, and specifically “Nilotic”
+       (indigenous Egyptian) in its culture-type. This is quite possible, but we
+      have again to account for the legends of distant origin on the Red Sea
+      coast, the probability that one element of the Egyptian population was of
+      extraneous origin and came from the east into the Nile valley near Koptos,
+      and finally the historical fact of an advance of the early dynastic
+      Egyptians from the South to the conquest of the North. The latter fact
+      might of course be explained as a civil war analogous to that between
+      Thebes and Asyût in the time of the IXth Dynasty, but against this
+      explanation is to be set the fact that the contemporary monuments of the
+      Southerners exhibit the men of the North as of foreign and non-Egyptian
+      ethnic type, resembling Libyans. It is possible that they were akin to the
+      Libyans; and this would square very well with the first theory, but it may
+      also be made to fit in with a development of the second, which has been
+      generally accepted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to this view, the whole primitive Neolithic population of North
+      and South was Miotic, indigenous in origin, and akin to the
+      “Mediterraneans “of Prof. Sergi and the other ethnologists. It was not
+      this population, the stone-users whose nécropoles have been found by
+      Messrs. de Morgan, Pétrie, and Maclver, that entered the Nile valley by
+      the Wadi Hammamat. This was another race of different ethnic origin, which
+      came from the Red Sea toward the end of the Neolithic period, and, being
+      of higher civilization than the native Nilotes, assumed the lordship over
+      them, gave a great impetus to the development of their culture, and
+      started at once the institution of monarchy, the knowledge of letters, and
+      the use of metals. The chiefs of this superior tribe founded the monarchy,
+      conquered the North, unified the kingdom, and began Egyptian history. From
+      many indications it would seem probable that these conquerors were of
+      Babylonian origin, or that the culture they brought with them (possibly
+      from Arabia) was ultimately of Babylonian origin. They themselves would
+      seem to have been Semites, or rather proto-Semites, who came from Arabia
+      to Africa by way of the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and proceeded up the
+      coast to about the neighbourhood of Kusêr, whence the Wadi Hammamat
+      offered them an open road to the valley of the Nile. By this route they
+      may have entered Egypt, bringing with them a civilization, which, like
+      that of the other Semites, had been profoundly influenced and modified by
+      that of the Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia. This Semitic-Sumerian
+      culture, mingling with that of the Nilotes themselves, produced the
+      civilization of Ancient Egypt as we know it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is a very plausible hypothesis, and has a great deal of evidence in
+      its favour. It seems certain that in the early dynastic period two races
+      lived in Egypt, which differed considerably in type, and also, apparently,
+      in burial customs. The later Egyptians always buried the dead lying on
+      their backs, extended at full length. During the period of the Middle
+      Kingdom (XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) the head was usually turned over on to the
+      left side, in order that the dead man might look through the two great
+      eyes painted on that side of the coffin. Afterward the rigidly extended
+      position was always adopted. The Neolithic Egyptians, however, buried the
+      dead lying wholly on the left side and in a contracted position, with the
+      knees drawn up to the chin. The bodies were not embalmed, and the extended
+      position and mummification were never used. Under the IVth Dynasty we find
+      in the necropolis of Mêdûm (north of the Payyûm) the two positions used
+      simultaneously, and the extended bodies are mummified. The contracted
+      bodies are skeletons, as in the case of most of the predynastic bodies.
+      When these are found with flesh, skin, and hair intact, their preservation
+      is due to the dryness of the soil and the preservative salts it contains,
+      not to intentional embalming, which was evidently introduced by those who
+      employed the extended position in burial. The contracted position is found
+      as late as the Vth Dynasty at Dashasha, south of the Eayyûm, but after
+      that date it is no longer found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conclusion is obvious that the contracted position without
+      mummification, which the Neolithic people used, was supplanted in the
+      early dynastic period by the extended position with mummification, and by
+      the time of the VIth Dynasty it was entirely superseded. This points to
+      the supersession of the burial customs of the indigenous Neolithic race by
+      those of another race which conquered and dominated the indigenes. And,
+      since the extended burials of the IVth Dynasty are evidently those of the
+      higher nobles, while the contracted ones are those of inferior people, it
+      is probable that the customs of extended burial and embalming were
+      introduced by a foreign race which founded the Egyptian monarchical state,
+      with its hierarchy of nobles and officials, and in fact started Egyptian
+      civilization on its way. The conquerors of the North were thus not the
+      descendants of the Neolithic people of the South, but their conquerors; in
+      fact, they dominated the indigenes both of North and South, who will then
+      appear (since we find the custom of contracted burial in the North at
+      Dashasha and Mêdûm) to have originally belonged to the same race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conquering race is that which is supposed to have been of Semitic or
+      proto-Semitic origin, and to have brought elements of Sumerian culture to
+      savage Egypt. The reasons advanced for this supposition are the following:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (1) Just as the Egyptian race was evidently compounded of two elements, of
+      conquered “Mediterraneans” and conquering x, so the Egyptian language is
+      evidently compounded of two elements, the one Nilotic, perhaps related in
+      some degree to the Berber dialects of North Africa, the other not x, but
+      evidently Semitic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (2) Certain elements of the early dynastic civilization, which do not
+      appear in that of the earlier pre-dynastic period, resemble well-known
+      elements of the civilization of Babylonia. We may instance the use of the
+      cylinder-seal, which died out in Egypt in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
+      but was always used in Babylonia from the earliest to the latest times.
+      The early Egyptian mace-head is of exactly the same type as the early
+      Babylonian one. In the British Museum is an Egyptian mace-head of red
+      breccia, which is identical in shape and size with one from Babylonia
+      (also in the museum) bearing the name of Shargani-shar-ali (i.e. Sargon,
+      King of Agade), one of the earliest Chaldæan monarchs, who must have lived
+      about the same time as the Egyptian kings of the IId-IIId Dynasties, to
+      which period the Egyptian mace-head may also be approximately assigned.
+      The Egyptian art of the earliest dynasties bears again a remarkable
+      resemblance to that of early Babylonia. It is not till the time of the IId
+      Dynasty that Egyptian art begins to take upon itself the regular form
+      which we know so well, and not till that of the IVth that this form was
+      finally crystallized. Under the 1st Dynasty we find the figure of man or,
+      to take other instances, that of a lion, or a hawk, or a snake, often
+      treated in a style very different from that in which we are accustomed to
+      see a man, a lion, a hawk, or a snake depicted in works of the later
+      period. And the striking thing is that these early representations, which
+      differ so much from what we find in later Egyptian art, curiously resemble
+      the works of early Babylonian art, of the time of the patesis of Shirpurla
+      or the Kings Shargani-shar-ali and Narâm-Sin. One of the best known relics
+      of the early art of Babylonia is the famous “Stele of Vultures” now in
+      Paris. On this we see the enemies of Eannadu, one of the early rulers of
+      Shirpurla, cast out to be devoured by the vultures. On an Egyptian relief
+      of slate, evidently originally dedicated in a temple record of some
+      historical event, and dating from the beginning of the Ist Dynasty
+      (practically contemporary, according to our latest knowledge, with
+      Eannadu), we have an almost exactly similar scene of captives being cast
+      out into the desert, and devoured by lions and vultures. The two reliefs
+      are curiously alike in their clumsy, naïve style of art. A further point
+      is that the official represented on the stele, who appears to be thrusting
+      one of the bound captives out to die, wears a long fringed garment of
+      Babylonish cut, quite different from the clothes of the later Egyptians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (3) There are evidently two distinct and different main strata in the
+      fabric of Egyptian religion. On the one hand we find a mass of myth and
+      religious belief of very primitive, almost savage, cast, combining a
+      worship of the actual dead in their tombs&mdash;which were supposed to
+      communicate and thus form a veritable “underworld,” or, rather,
+      “under-Egypt”&mdash;with veneration of magic animals, such as jackals,
+      cats, hawks, and crocodiles. On the other hand, we have a sun and sky
+      worship of a more elevated nature, which does not seem to have amalgamated
+      with the earlier fetishism and corpse-worship until a comparatively late
+      period. The main seats of the sun-worship were at Heliopolis in the Delta
+      and at Edfu in Upper Egypt. Heliopolis seems always to have been a centre
+      of light and leading in Egypt, and it is, as is well known, the On of the
+      Bible, at whose university the Jewish lawgiver Moses is related to have
+      been educated “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” The philosophical
+      theories of the priests of the Sun-gods, Râ-Harmachis and Turn, at
+      Heliopolis seem to have been the source from which sprang the monotheistic
+      heresy of the Disk-Worshippers (in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty), who,
+      under the guidance of the reforming King Akhunaten, worshipped only the
+      disk of the sun as the source of all life, the door in heaven, so to
+      speak, through which the hidden One Deity poured forth heat and light, the
+      origin of life upon the earth. Very early in Egyptian history the
+      Heliopolitans gained the upper hand, and the Râ-worship (under the Vth
+      Dynasty, the apogee of the Old Kingdom) came to the front, and for the
+      first time the kings took the afterwards time-honoured royal title of “Son
+      of the Sun.” It appears then as a more or less foreign importation into
+      the Nile valley, and bears most undoubtedly a Semitic impress. Its two
+      chief seats were situated, the one, Heliopolis, in the North on the
+      eastern edge of the Delta,&mdash;just where an early Semitic settlement
+      from over the desert might be expected to be found,&mdash;the other, Edfu,
+      in the Upper Egyptian territory south of the Thebaïd, Koptos, and the Wadi
+      Ham-mamat, and close to the chief settlement of the earliest kings and the
+      most ancient capital of Upper Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (4) The custom of burying at full length was evidently introduced into
+      Egypt by the second, or x race. The Neolithic Egyptians buried in the
+      cramped position. The early Babylonians buried at full length, as far as
+      we know. On the same “Stele of Vultures,” which has already been
+      mentioned, we see the burying at full length of dead warriors.<a
+      href="#fn1.7" name="fnref1.7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> There is no trace of any
+      <i>early</i> burial in Babylonia in the cramped position. The tombs at
+      Warka (Erech) with cramped bodies in pottery coffins are of very late
+      date. A further point arises with regard to embalming. The Neolithic
+      Egyptians did not embalm the dead. Usually their cramped bodies are found
+      as skeletons. When they are mummified, it is merely owing to the
+      preservative action of the salt in the soil, not to any process of
+      embalming. The second, or x race, however, evidently introduced the
+      custom of embalming as well as that of burial at full length and the use
+      of coffins. The Neolithic Egyptian used no box or coffin, the nearest
+      approach to this being a pot, which was inverted over the coiled up body.
+      Usually only a mat was put over the body.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.7"></a> <a href="#fnref1.7">[7]</a>
+See illustration.
+</p>
+
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/038.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="038.jpg Portion of the ‘stele Of Vultures’ Found At Telloh " />
+    </div>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/038-text.jpg" width="100%" alt="038-text.jpg " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Now it is evident that Babylonians and Assyrians, who buried the dead at
+      full length in chests, had some knowledge of embalming. An Assyrian king
+      tells us how he buried his royal father:&mdash;
+    </p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+     “Within the grave, the secret place,<br/>
+     In kingly oil, I gently laid him.<br/>
+     The grave-stone marketh his resting-place.<br/>
+     With mighty bronze I sealed its entrance,<br/>
+     And I protected it with an incantation.”
+ </p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+      The “kingly oil” was evidently used with the idea of preserving the body
+      from decay. Salt also was used to preserve the dead, and Herodotus says
+      that the Babylonians buried in honey, which was also used by the
+      Egyptians. No doubt the Babylonian method was less perfect than the
+      Egyptian, but the comparison is an interesting one, when taken in
+      connection with the other points of resemblance mentioned above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We find, then, that an analysis of the Egyptian language reveals a Semitic
+      element in it; that the early dynastic culture had certain characteristics
+      which were unknown to the Neolithic Egyptians but are closely parallelled
+      in early Babylonia; that there were two elements in the Egyptian religion,
+      one of which seems to have originally belonged to the Neolithic people,
+      while the other has a Semitic appearance; and that there were two sets of
+      burial customs in early Egypt, one, that of the Neolithic people, the
+      other evidently that of a conquering race, which eventually prevailed over
+      the former; these later rites were analogous to those of the Babylonians
+      and Assyrians, though differing from them in points of detail. The
+      conclusion is that the x or conquering race was Semitic and brought to
+      Egypt the Semitic elements in the Egyptian religion and a culture
+      originally derived from that of the Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia, the
+      non-Semitic parent of all Semitic civilizations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question now arises, how did this Semitic people reach Egypt? We have
+      the choice of two points of entry: First, Heliopolis in the North, where
+      the Semitic sun-worship took root, and, second, the Wadi Hamma-mat in the
+      South, north of Edfu, the southern centre of sun-worship, and
+      Hierakonpolis (Nekheb-Nekhen), the capital of the Upper Egyptian kingdom
+      which existed before the foundation of the monarchy. The legends which
+      seem to bring the ancestors of the Egyptians from the Red Sea coast have
+      already been mentioned. They are closely connected with the worship of the
+      Sky and Sun god Horus of Edfu. Hathor, his nurse, the “House of Horus,”
+       the centre of whose worship was at Dendera, immediately opposite the mouth
+      of the Wadi Hammamat, was said to have come from Ta-neter, “The Holy
+      Land,” i.e. Abyssinia or the Red Sea coast, with the company or <i>paut</i>
+      of the gods. Now the Egyptians always seem to have had some idea that they
+      were connected racially with the inhabitants of the Land of Punt or
+      Puenet, the modern Abyssinia and Somaliland. In the time of the XVIIIth
+      Dynasty they depicted the inhabitants of Punt as greatly resembling
+      themselves in form, feature, and dress, and as wearing the little
+      turned-up beard which was worn by the Egyptians of the earliest times, but
+      even as early as the IVth Dynasty was reserved for the gods. Further, the
+      word <i>Punt</i> is always written without the hieroglyph determinative of
+      a foreign country, thus showing that the Egyptians did not regard the
+      Punites as foreigners. This certainly looks as if the Punites were a
+      portion of the great migration from Arabia, left behind on the African
+      shore when the rest of the wandering people pressed on northwards to the
+      Wadi Hammamat and the Nile. It may be that the modern Gallas and
+      Abyssinians are descendants of these Punites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the Sky-god of Edfu is in legend a conquering hero who advances down
+      the Nile valley, with his <i>Mesniu</i>, or “Smiths,” to overthrow the
+      people of the North, whom he defeats in a great battle near Dendera. This
+      may be a reminiscence of the first fights of the invaders with the
+      Neolithic inhabitants. The other form of Horus, “Horus, son of Isis,” has
+      also a body of retainers, the <i>Shemsu-Heru</i>, or “Followers of
+      Horns,” who are spoken of in late texts as the rulers of Egypt before the
+      monarchy. They evidently correspond to the dynasties of <i>Manes</i>,
+      &#925;&#949;&#954;&#8059;&#949;&#962; or “Ghosts,” of Manetho, and are
+      probably intended for the early kings of Hierakonpolis. The mention of
+      the Followers of Horus as “Smiths” is very interesting, for it would
+      appear to show that the Semitic conquerors were notable as metal-users,
+      that, in fact, their conquest was that old story in the dawn of the
+      world’s history, the utter overthrow and subjection of the stone-users by
+      the metal-users, the primeval tragedy of the supersession of flint by
+      copper. This may be, but if the “Smiths” were the Semitic conquerors who
+      founded the kingdom, it would appear that the use of copper was known in
+      Egypt to some extent before their arrival, for we find it in the graves
+      of the late Neolithic Egyptians, very sparsely from “sequence-date 30” to
+      “45,” but afterwards more commonly. It was evidently becoming known. The
+      supposition, however, that the “Smiths” were the Semitic conquerors, and
+      that they won their way by the aid of their superior weapons of metal,
+      may be provisionally accepted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In favour of the view which would bring the conquerors by way of the Wadi
+      Hammamat, an interesting discovery may be quoted. Immediately opposite
+      Den-dera, where, according to the legend, the battle between the <i>Mesniu</i>
+      and the aborigines took place, lies Koptos, at the mouth of the Wadi
+      Hammamat. Here, in 1894, underneath the pavement of the ancient temple,
+      Prof. Petrie found remains which he then diagnosed as belonging to the
+      most ancient epoch of Egyptian history. Among them were some extremely
+      archaic statues of the god Min, on which were curious scratched drawings
+      of bears, <i>crioceras-shells</i>, elephants walking over hills, etc., of
+      the most primitive description. With them were lions’ heads and birds of a
+      style then unknown, but which we now know to belong to the period of the
+      beginning of the Ist Dynasty. But the statues of Min are older. The <i>crioceras-shells</i>
+      belong to the Red Sea. Are we to see in these statues the holy images of
+      the conquerors from the Red Sea who reached the Nile valley by way of the
+      Wadi Hammamat, and set up the first memorials of their presence at Koptos?
+      It may be so, or the Min statues may be older than the conquerors, and
+      belong to the Neolithic race, since Min and his fetish (which we find on
+      the slate palette from el-’Amra, already mentioned) seem to belong to the
+      indigenous Nilotes. In any case we have in these statues, two of which are
+      in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, probably the most ancient cult-images
+      in the world:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This theory, which would make all the Neolithic inhabitants of Egypt one
+      people, who were conquered by a Semitic race, bringing a culture of
+      Sumerian origin to Egypt by way of the Wadi Hammamat, is that generally
+      accepted at the present time. It may, however, eventually prove necessary
+      to modify it. For reasons given above, it may well be that the Neolithic
+      population was itself not indigenous, and that it reached the Nile valley
+      by way of the Wadi Hammamat, spreading north and south from the mouth of
+      the <i>wadi</i>. It may also be considered probable that a Semitic wave
+      invaded Egypt by way of the Isthmus of Suez, where the early sun-cultus of
+      Heliopolis probably marks a primeval Semitic settlement. In that case it
+      would seem that the <i>Mesniu</i> or “Smiths,” who introduced the use of
+      metal, would have to be referred to the originally Neolithic pre-Semitic
+      people, who certainly were acquainted with the use of copper, though not
+      to any great extent. But this is not a necessary supposition. The <i>Mesniu</i>
+      are closely connected with the Sky-god Horus, who was possibly of Semitic
+      origin, and another Semitic wave, quite distinct from that which entered
+      Egypt by way of the Isthmus, may very well also have reached Egypt by the
+      Wadi Hammamat, or, equally possibly, from the far south, coming down to
+      the Nile from the Abyssinian mountains. The legend of the coming of Hathor
+      from Ta-neter may refer to some such wandering, and we know that the
+      Egyptians of the Old Kingdom communicated with the Land of Punt, not by
+      way of the Red Sea coast as Hatshepsut did, but by way of the Upper Nile.
+      This would tally well with the march of the <i>Mesniu</i> northwards from
+      Edfu to their battle with the forces of Set at Dendera.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In any case, at the dawn of connected Egyptian history, we find two main
+      centres of civilization in Egypt, Heliopolis and Buto in the Delta in the
+      North, and Edfu and Hierakonpolis in the South. Here were established at
+      the beginning of the Chalcolithic stage of culture, we may say, two
+      kingdoms, of Lower and Upper Egypt, which were eventually united by the
+      superior arms of the kings of Upper Egypt, who imposed their rule upon the
+      North but at the same time removed their capital thither. The dualism of
+      Buto and Hierakonpolis really lasted throughout Egyptian history. The king
+      was always called “Lord of the Two Lands,” and wore the crowns of Upper
+      and Lower Egypt; the snakes of Buto and Nekhebet (the goddess of Nekheb,
+      opposite Nekhen or Hierakonpolis) always typified the united kingdom. This
+      dualism of course often led to actual division and reversion to the
+      predynastic order of things, as, for instance, in the time of the XXIst
+      Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might well seem that both the impulses to culture development in the
+      North and South came from Semitic inspiration, and that it was to the
+      Semitic invaders in North and South that the founding of the two kingdoms
+      was due. This may be true to some extent, but it is at the same time very
+      probable that the first development of political culture at Hierakonpolis
+      was really of pre-Semitic origin. The kingdom of Buto, since its capital
+      is situated so near to the seacoast, may have owed its origin to oversea
+      Mediterranean connections. There is much in the political constitution of
+      later Egypt which seems to have been of indigenous and pre-Semitic origin.
+      Especially does this seem to be so in the case of the division and
+      organization of the country into nomes. It is obvious that so soon as
+      agriculture began to be practised on a large scale, boundaries would be
+      formed, and in the unique conditions of Egypt, where all boundaries
+      disappear beneath the inundation every year, it is evident that the fixing
+      of division-lines as permanently as possible by means of landmarks was
+      early essayed. We can therefore with confidence assign the formation of
+      the nomes to very early times. Now the names of the nomes and the symbols
+      or emblems by which they were distinguished are of very great interest in
+      this connection. They are nearly all figures of the magic animals of the
+      primitive religion, and fetish-emblems of the older deities. The names
+      are, in fact, those of the territories of the Neolithic Egyptian tribes,
+      and their emblems are those of the protecting tribal demons. The political
+      divisions of the country seem, then, to be of extremely ancient origin,
+      and if the nomes go back to a time before the Semitic invasions, so may
+      also the kingdoms of the South and North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of these predynastic kingdoms we know very little, except from legendary
+      sources. The Northerners who were conquered by Aha, Narmer, and
+      Khâsekhehiui do not look very much like Egyptians, but rather resemble
+      Semites or Libyans. On the “Stele of Palermo,” a chronicle of early kings
+      inscribed in the period of the Vth Dynasty, we have a list of early kings
+      of the North,&mdash;Seka, Desau, Tiu, Tesh, Nihab, Uatjântj, Mekhe. The
+      names are primitive in form. We know nothing more about them. Last year
+      Mr. C. T. Currelly attempted to excavate at Buto, in order to find traces
+      of the predynastic kingdom, but owing to the infiltration of water his
+      efforts were unsuccessful. It is improbable that anything is now left of
+      the most ancient period at that site, as the conditions in the Delta are
+      so very different from those obtaining in Upper Egypt. There, at
+      Hierakonpolis, and at el-Kab on the opposite bank of the Nile, the sites
+      of the ancient cities Nekhen and Nekheb, the excavators have been very
+      successful. The work was carried out by Messrs. Quibell and Green, in the
+      years 1891-9. Prehistoric burials were found on the hills near by, but the
+      larger portion of the antiquities were recovered from the temple-ruins,
+      and date back to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty, exactly the time when
+      the kings of Hierakonpolis first conquered the kingdom of Buto and founded
+      the united Egyptian monarchy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ancient temple, which was probably one of the earliest seats of
+      Egyptian civilization, was situated on a mound, now known as <i>el-Kom
+      el-ahmar</i>, “the Red Hill,” from its colour. The chief feature of the
+      most ancient temple seems to have been a circular mound, revetted by a
+      wall of sandstone blocks, which was apparently erected about the end of
+      the predynastic period. Upon this a shrine was probably erected. This was
+      the ancient shrine of Nekhen, the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy. Close
+      by it were found some of the most valuable relics of the earliest
+      Pharaonic age, the great ceremonial mace-heads and vases of Narmer and
+      “the Scorpion,” the shields or “palettes” of the same Narmer, the vases
+      and stelas of Khâsekhemui, and, of later date, the splendid copper
+      colossal group of King Pepi I and his son, which is now at Cairo. Most of
+      the 1st Dynasty objects are preserved in the Ashmo-lean Museum at Oxford,
+      which is one of the best centres for the study of early Egyptian
+      antiquities. Narmer and Khâsekhemui are, as we shall see, two of the first
+      monarchs of all Egypt. These sculptured and inscribed mace-heads, shields,
+      etc., are monuments dedicated by them in the ancestral shrine at
+      Hierakonpolis as records of their deeds. Both kings seem to have waged war
+      against the Northerners, the <i>Anu</i> of Heliopolis and the Delta, and
+      on these votive monuments from Hierakonpolis we find hieroglyphed records
+      of the defeat of the <i>Anu</i>, who have very definitely Semitic
+      physiognomies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On one shield or palette we see Narmer clubbing a man of Semitic
+      appearance, who is called the “Only One of the Marsh” (Delta), while below
+      two other Semites fly, seeking “fortress-protection.” Above is a figure of
+      a hawk, symbolizing the Upper Egyptian king, holding a rope which is
+      passed through the nose of a Semitic head, while behind is a sign which
+      may be read as “the North,” so that the whole symbolizes the leading away
+      of the North into captivity by the king of the South. It is significant,
+      in view of what has been said above with regard to the probable Semitic
+      origin of the Heliopolitan Northerners, to find the people typical of the
+      North-land represented by the Southerners as Semites. Equally Semitic is
+      the overthrown Northerner on the other side of this well-known monument
+      which we are describing; he is being trampled under the hoofs and gored by
+      the horns of a bull, who, like the hawk, symbolizes the king. The royal
+      bull has broken down the wall of a fortified enclosure, in which is the
+      hut or tent of the Semite, and the bricks lie about promiscuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In connection with the Semitic origin of the Northerners, the form of the
+      fortified enclosures on both sides of this monument (that to whose
+      protection the two Semites on one side fly, and that out of which the
+      kingly bull has dragged the chief on the other) is noticeable. As usual in
+      Egyptian writing, the hieroglyph of these buildings takes the form of a
+      plan. The plan shows a crenelated enclosure, resembling the walls of a
+      great Babylonian palace or temple, such as have been found at Telloh,
+      Warka, or Mukayyar. The same design is found in Egypt at the Shuret
+      ez-Zebib, an Old Kingdom fortress at Abydos, in the tomb of King Aha at
+      Nakâda, and in many walls of mastaba-tombs of the early time. This is
+      another argument in favour of an early connection between Egypt and
+      Babylonia. We illustrate a fragment of another votive shield or palette of
+      the same kind, now in the museum of the Louvre, which probably came
+      originally from Hierakonpolis. It is of exactly similar workmanship to
+      that of Narmer, and is no doubt a fragment of another monument of that
+      king. On it we see the same subject of the overthrowing of a Northerner
+      (of Semitic aspect) by the royal bull. On one side, below, is a fortified
+      enclosure with crenelated walls of the type we have described, and within
+      it a lion and a vase; below this another fort, and a bird within it. These
+      signs may express the names of the two forts, but, owing to the fact that
+      at this early period Egyptian orthography was not yet fixed, we cannot
+      read them. On the other side we see a row of animated nome-standards of
+      Upper Egypt, with the symbols of the god Min of Koptos, the hawk of Horus
+      of Edfu, the ibis of Thot of Eshmunên, and the jackals of Anubis of
+      Abydos, which drag a rope; had we the rest of the monument, we should see,
+      bound at the end of the rope, some prisoner, king, or animal symbolic of
+      the North. On another slate shield, which we also reproduce, we see a
+      symbolical representation of the capture of seven Northern cities, whose
+      names seem to mean the “Two Men,” the “Heron,” the “Owl,” the “Palm,” and
+      the “Ghost” Cities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      “Ghost City” is attacked by a lion, “Owl City” by a hawk, “Palm City” by
+      two hawk nome-standards, and another, whose name we cannot guess at, is
+      being opened up by a scorpion.
+    </p>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+          <!-- IMG --></a>
+          <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+            <img src="images/050.jpg" width="100%"
+             alt="050.jpg (left) Obverse of a Slate Relief. " />
+          </div>
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+          <!-- IMG --></a>
+          <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+            <img src="images/051.jpg" width="100%" alt="051.jpg (right) " />
+          </div>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      The operating animals evidently represent nomes and tribes of the Upper
+      Egyptians. Here again we see the same crenelated walls of the Northern
+      towns, and there is no doubt that this slate fragment also, which is
+      preserved in the Cairo Museum, is a monument of the conquests of Narmer.
+      It is executed in the same archaic style as those from Hierakonpolis. The
+      animals on the other side no doubt represent part of the spoil of the
+      North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning to the great shield or palette found by Mr. Quibell, we see the
+      king coming out, followed by his sandal-bearer, the <i>Hen-neter</i> or
+      “God’s Servant,”<a href="#fn1.8" name="fnref1.8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> to view the dead bodies of the slain Northerners which
+      lie arranged in rows, decapitated, and with their heads between their
+      feet. The king is preceded by a procession of nome-standards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Above the dead men are symbolic representations of a hawk perched on a
+      harpoon over a boat, and a hawk and a door, which doubtless again refer to
+      the fights of the royal hawk of Upper Egypt on the Nile and at the gate of
+      the North. The designs on the mace-heads refer to the same conquest of the
+      North.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn1.8"></a> <a href="#fnref1.8">[8]</a>
+     In his commentary (Hierakonpolis, i. p. 9) on this scene,
+     Prof. Petrie supposes that the seven-pointed star sign means
+     “king,” and compares the eight-pointed star “used for king
+     in Babylonia.” The eight-pointed star of the cuneiform
+     script does not mean “king,” but “god.” The star then ought
+     to mean “god,” and the title “servant of a god,” and this
+     supposition may be correct. <i>Hen-neter</i>, “god’s servant,”
+      was the appellation of a peculiar kind of priest in later
+     days, and was then spelt with the ordinary sign for a god,
+     the picture of an axe. But in the archaic period, with which
+     we are dealing, a star like the Babylonian sign may very
+     well have been used for “god,” and the title of Narmer’s
+     sandal-bearer may read <i>Hen-neter</i>. He was the slave of the
+     living god Narmer. All Egyptian kings were regarded as
+     deities, more or less.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The monuments Khâsekhemui, a king, show us that he conquered the North
+      also and slew 47,209 “Northern Enemies.” The contorted attitudes of the
+      dead Northerners were greatly admired and sketched at the time, and were
+      reproduced on the pedestal of the king’s statue found by Mr. Quibell,
+      which is now at Oxford. It was an age of cheerful savage energy, like most
+      times when kingdoms and peoples are in the making. About 4000 B.C. is the
+      date of these various monuments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/052.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="052.jpg Obverse Op a Slate Relief. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/053.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="053.jpg Reverse of a Slate Relief, Representing Animals. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Khâsekhemui probably lived later than Narmer, and we may suppose that his
+      conquest was in reality a re-conquest. He may have lived as late as the
+      time of the IId Dynasty, whereas Narmer must be placed at the beginning of
+      the Ist, and his conquest was probably that which first united the two
+      kingdoms of the South and North. As we shall see in the next chapter, he
+      is probably one of the originals of the legendary “Mena,” who was regarded
+      from the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty onwards as the founder of the
+      kingdom, and was first made known to Europe by Herodotus, under the name
+      of “Menés.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Narmer is therefore the last of the ancient kings of Hierakonpolis, the
+      last of Manetho’s “Spirits.” We may possibly have recovered the names of
+      one or two of the kings anterior to Narmer in the excavations at Abydos
+      (see Chapter II), but this is uncertain. To all intents and purposes we
+      have only legendary knowledge of the Southern kingdom until its close,
+      when Narmer the mighty went forth to strike down the Anu of the North, an
+      exploit which he recorded in votive monuments at Hierakonpolis, and which
+      was commemorated henceforward throughout Egyptian history in the yearly
+      “Feast of the Smiting of the Anu.” Then was Egypt for the first time
+      united, and the fortress of the “White Wall,” the “Good Abode” of Memphis,
+      was built to dominate the lower country. The Ist Dynasty was founded and
+      Egyptian history began.
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/054.jpg" width="100%" alt="" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II&mdash;ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Until the recent discoveries had been made, which have thrown so much
+      light upon the early history of Egypt, the traditional order and names of
+      the kings of the first three Egyptian dynasties were, in default of more
+      accurate information, retained by all writers on the history of the
+      period. The names were taken from the official lists of kings at Abydos
+      and elsewhere, and were divided into dynasties according to the system of
+      Manetho, whose names agree more or less with those of the lists and were
+      evidently derived from them ultimately. With regard to the fourth and
+      later dynasties it was clear that the king-lists were correct, as their
+      evidence agreed entirely with that of the contemporary monuments. But no
+      means existed of checking the lists of the first three dynasties, as no
+      contemporary monuments other than a IVth Dynasty mention of a IId Dynasty
+      king, Send, had been found. The lists dated from the time of the XVIIIth
+      and XIXth Dynasties, so that it was very possible that with regard to the
+      earliest dynasties they might not be very correct. This conclusion gained
+      additional weight from the fact that no monuments of these earliest kings
+      were ever discovered; it therefore seemed probable that they were purely
+      legendary figures, in whose time (if they ever did exist) Egypt was still
+      a semi-barbarous nation. The jejune stories told about them by Manetho
+      seemed to confirm this idea. Mena, the reputed founder of the monarchy,
+      was generally regarded as a historical figure, owing to the persistence of
+      his name in all ancient literary accounts of the beginnings of Egyptian
+      history; for it was but natural to suppose that the name of the man who
+      unified Egypt and founded Memphis would endure in the mouths of the
+      people. But with regard to his successors no such supposition seemed
+      probable, until the time of Sneferu and the pyramid-builders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the critical view. Another school of historians accepted all the
+      kings of the lists as historical <i>en bloc</i>, simply because the
+      Egyptians had registered their names as kings. To them Teta, Ateth, and
+      Ata were as historical as Mena.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Modern discovery has altered our view, and truth is seen to lie between
+      the opposing schools, as usual. The kings after Mena do not seem to be
+      such entirely unhistorical figures as the extreme critics thought; the
+      names of several of them, e.g. Merpeba, of the Ist Dynasty, are correctly
+      given in the later lists, and those of others were simply misread, e. g.
+      that of Semti of the same dynasty, misread “Hesepti” by the list-makers.
+      On the other hand, Mena himself has become a somewhat doubtful quantity.
+      The real names of most of the early monarchs of Egypt have been recovered
+      for us by the latest excavations, and we can now see when the list-makers
+      of the XIXth Dynasty were right and when they were wrong, and can
+      distinguish what is legendary in their work from what is really
+      historical. It is true that they very often appear to have been wrong,
+      but, on the other hand, they were sometimes unexpectedly near the mark,
+      and the general number and arrangement of their kings seems correct; so
+      that we can still go to them for assistance in the arrangement of the
+      names which are communicated to us by the newly discovered monuments.
+      Manetho’s help, too, need never be despised because he was a copyist of
+      copyists; we can still use him to direct our investigations, and his
+      arrangement of dynasties must still remain the framework of our
+      chronological scheme, though he does not seem to have been always correct
+      as to the places in which the dynasties originated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More than the names of the kings have the new discoveries communicated to
+      us. They have shed a flood of light on the beginnings of Egyptian
+      civilization and art, supplementing the recently ascertained facts
+      concerning the prehistoric age which have been described in the preceding
+      chapter. The impulse to these discoveries was given by the work of M. de
+      Morgan, who excavated sites of the early dynastic as well as of the
+      predynastic age. Among these was a great mastaba-tomb at Nakâda, which
+      proved to be that of a very early king who bore the name of Aha, “the
+      Fighter.” The walls of this tomb are crenelated like those of the early
+      Babylonian palaces and the forts of the Northerners, already referred to.
+      M. de Morgan early perceived the difference between the Neolithic
+      antiquities and those of the later archaic period of Egyptian
+      civilization, to which the tomb at Nakâda belonged. In the second volume
+      of his great work on the primitive antiquities of Egypt <i>(L’Age des
+      Métaux et lé Tombeau Royale de Négadeh)</i>, he described the antiquities
+      of the Ist Dynasty which had been found at the time he wrote. Antiquities
+      of the same primitive period and even of an earlier date had been
+      discovered by Prof. Flinders Petrie, as has already been said, at Koptos,
+      at the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat. But though Prof. Petrie correctly
+      diagnosed the age of the great statues of the god Min which he found, he
+      was led, by his misdating of the “New Race” antiquities from Ballas and
+      Tûkh, also to misdate several of the primitive antiquities,&mdash;the
+      lions and hawks, for instance, found at Koptos, he placed in the period
+      between the VIIth and Xth Dynasties; whereas they can now, in the light of
+      further discoveries at Abydos, be seen to date to the earlier part of the
+      Ist Dynasty, the time of Narmer and Aha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is these discoveries at Abydos, coupled with those (already described)
+      of Mr. Quibell at Hierakonpolis, which have told us most of what we know
+      with regard to the history of the first three dynasties. At Abydos Prof.
+      Petrie was not himself the first in the field, the site having already
+      been partially explored by a French Egyptologist, M. Amélineau. The
+      excavations of M. Amélineau were, however, perhaps not conducted strictly
+      on scientific lines, and his results have been insufficiently published
+      with very few photographs, so that with the best will in the world we are
+      unable to give M. Amélineau the full credit which is, no doubt, due to him
+      for his work. The system of Prof. Petrie’s publications has been often,
+      and with justice, criticized, but he at least tells us every year what he
+      has been doing, and gives us photographs of everything he has found. For
+      this reason the epoch-making discoveries at Abydos have been coupled
+      chiefly with the name of Prof. Petrie, while that of M. Amélineau is
+      rarely heard in connection with them. As a matter of fact, however, M.
+      Amélineau first excavated the necropolis of the early kings at Abydos, and
+      discovered most of the tombs afterwards worked over by Prof. Petrie and
+      Mr. Mace. Yet most of the important scientific results are due to the
+      later explorers, who were the first to attempt a classification of them,
+      though we must add that this classification has not been entirely accepted
+      by the scientific world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The necropolis of the earliest kings of Egypt is situated in the great bay
+      in the hills which lies behind Abydos, to the southwest of the main
+      necropolis. Here, at holy Abydos, where every pious Egyptian wished to
+      rest after death, the bodies of the most ancient kings were buried. It is
+      said by Manetho that the original seat of their dominion was This, a town
+      in the vicinity of Abydos, now represented by the modern Grîrga, which
+      lies a few miles distant from its site (el-Birba). This may be a fact, but
+      we have as yet obtained no confirmation of it. It may well be that the
+      attribution of a Thinite origin to the Ist and IId Dynasties was due
+      simply to the fact that the kings of these dynasties were buried at
+      Abydos, which lay within the Thinite nome. Manetho knew that they were
+      buried at Abydos, and so jumped to the conclusion that they lived there
+      also, and called them “Thinites.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/060.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="060.jpg Prof. Petrie’s Camp at Abydos, 1901. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Their real place of origin must have been Hierakonpolis, where the
+      pre-dynastic kingdom of the South had its seat. The Hid Dynasty was no
+      doubt of Memphite origin, as Manetho says. It is certain that the seat of
+      the government of the IVth Dynasty was at Memphis, where the
+      pyramid-building kings were buried, and we know that the sepulchres of two
+      Hid Dynasty kings, at least, were situated in the necropolis of Memphis
+      (Sakkâra-Mêdûm). So that probably the seat of government was transferred
+      from Hierakonpolis to Memphis by the first king of the Hid Dynasty.
+      Thenceforward the kings were buried in the Memphite necropolis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two great nécropoles of Memphis and Abydos were originally the seats
+      of the worship of the two Egyptian gods of the dead, Seker and
+      Khentamenti, both of whom were afterwards identified with the Busirite god
+      Osiris. Abydos was also the centre of the worship of Anubis, an
+      animal-deity of the dead, the jackal who prowls round the tombs at night.
+      Anubis and Osiris-Khentamenti, “He who is in the West,” were associated in
+      the minds of the Egyptians as the protecting deities of Abydos. The
+      worship of these gods as the chief Southern deities of the dead, and the
+      preeminence of the necropolis of Abydos in the South, no doubt date back
+      before the time of the Ist Dynasty, so that it would not surprise us were
+      burials of kings of the predynastic Hierakonpolite kingdom discovered at
+      Abydos. Prof. Petrie indeed claims to have discovered actual royal relics
+      of that period at Abydos, but this seems to be one of the least certain of
+      his conclusions. We cannot definitely state that the names “Ro,” “Ka,” and
+      “Sma” (if they are names at all, which is doubtful) belong to early kings
+      of Hierakonpolis who were buried at Abydos. It may be so, but further
+      confirmation is desirable before we accept it as a fact; and as yet such
+      confirmation has not been forthcoming. The oldest kings, who were
+      certainly buried at Abydos, seem to have been the first rulers of the
+      united kingdom of the North and South, Aha and his successors. N’armer is
+      not represented. It may be that he was not buried at Abydos, but in the
+      necropolis of Hierakonpolis. This would point to the kings of the South
+      not having been buried at Abydos until after the unification of the
+      kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That Aha possessed a tomb at Abydos as well as another at Nakâda seems
+      peculiar, but it is a phenomenon not unknown in Egypt. Several kings,
+      whose bodies were actually buried elsewhere, had second tombs at Abydos,
+      in order that they might <i>possess</i> last resting-places near the tomb
+      of Osiris, although they might not prefer to <i>use</i> them. Usertsen (or
+      Senusret) III is a case in point. He was really buried in a pyramid at
+      Illahun, up in the North, but he had a great rock tomb cut for him in the
+      cliffs at Abydos, which he never occupied, and probably had never intended
+      to occupy. We find exactly the same thing far back at the beginning of
+      Egyptian history, when Aha possessed not only a great mastaba-tomb at
+      Nakâda, but also a tomb-chamber in the great necropolis of Abydos. It may
+      be that other kings of the earliest period also had second sepulchres
+      elsewhere. It is noteworthy that in none of the early tombs at Abydos were
+      found any bodies which might be considered those of the kings themselves.
+      M. Amélineau discovered bodies of attendants or slaves (who were in all
+      probability purposely strangled and buried around the royal chamber in
+      order that they should attend the king in the next world), but no
+      royalties. Prof. Petrie found the arm of a female mummy, who may have been
+      of royal blood, though there is nothing to show that she was. And the
+      quaint plait and fringe of false hair, which were also found, need not
+      have belonged to a royal mummy. It is therefore quite possible that these
+      tombs at Abydos were not the actual last resting-places of the earliest
+      kings, who may really have been buried at Hierakonpolis or elsewhere, as
+      Aha was. Messrs. Newberry and Gtarstang, in their <i>Short History of
+      Egypt</i>, suppose that Aha was actually buried at Abydos, and that the
+      great tomb with objects bearing his name, found by M. de Morgan at Nakâda,
+      is really not his, but belonged to a royal princess named Neit-hetep,
+      whose name is found in conjunction with his at Abydos and Nakâda. But the
+      argument is equally valid turned round the other way: the Nakâda tomb
+      might just as well be Aha’s and the Abydos one Neit-hetep’s. Neit-hetep,
+      who is supposed by Messrs. Newberry and Garstang to have been Narmer’s
+      daughter and Aha’s wife, was evidently closely connected with Aha, and she
+      may have been buried with him at Nakâda and commemorated with him at
+      Abydos.<a href="#fn2.1" name="fnref2.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> It is probable that the XIXth Dynasty list-makers and Manetho
+      considered the Abydos tombs to have been the real graves of the kings, but
+      it is by no means impossible that they were wrong.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn2.1"></a> <a href="#fnref2.1">[1]</a>
+     A princess named Bener-ab (“Sweet-heart”), who may have
+     been Aha’s daughter, was actually buried beside his tomb at
+     Abydos.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      This view of the royal tombs at Abydos tallies to a great extent with that
+      of M. Naville, who has energetically maintained the view that M. Amélineau
+      and Prof. Petrie have not discovered the real tombs of the early kings,
+      but only their contemporary commemorative “tombs” at Abydos. The only real
+      tomb of the Ist Dynasty, therefore, as yet discovered is that of Aha at
+      Nakâda, found by M. de Morgan. The fact that attendant slaves were buried
+      around the Abydos tombs is no bar to the view that the tombs were only the
+      monuments, not the real graves, of the kings. The royal ghosts would
+      naturally visit their commemorative chambers at Abydos, in order to be in
+      the company of the great Osiris, and ghostly servants would be as
+      necessary to their Majesties at Abydos as elsewhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must not be thought that this revised opinion of the Abydos tombs
+      detracts in the slightest degree from the importance of the discovery of
+      M. Amélineau and its subsequent and more detailed investigation by Prof.
+      Petrie. These monuments are as valuable for historical purposes as the
+      real tombs themselves. The actual bodies of these primeval kings
+      themselves we are never likely to find. The tomb of Aha at Nakâda had been
+      completely rifled in ancient times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commemorative tombs of the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties at
+      Abydos lie southwest of the great necropolis, far within the bay in the
+      hills. Their present aspect is that of a wilderness of sand hillocks,
+      covered with masses of fragments of red pottery, from which the site has
+      obtained the modern Arab name of <i>Umm el-Ga’ab</i>, “Mother of Pots.” It
+      is impossible to move a step in any direction without crushing some of
+      these potsherds under the heel. They are chiefly the remains of the
+      countless little vases of rough red pottery, which were dedicated here as
+      <i>ex-votos</i> by the pious, between the XIXth and XXVIth Dynasties, to
+      the memory of the ancient kings and of the great god Osiris, whose tomb,
+      as we shall see, was supposed to have been situated here also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/065.jpg"
+       alt="065.jpg (right) the Tomb of King Den at Abydos. About 4000 B.C. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Intermingled with these later fragments are pieces of the original Ist
+      Dynasty vases, which were filled with wine and provisions and were placed
+      in the tombs, for the refreshment and delectation of the royal ghosts when
+      they should visit their houses at Abydos. These were thrown out and broken
+      when the tombs were violated. Here and there one sees a dip in the sand,
+      out of which rise four walls of great bricks, forming a rectangular
+      chamber, half-filled with sand. This is one of the royal tomb-chambers of
+      the Ist Dynasty. That of King Den is illustrated above. A straight
+      staircase descends into it from the ground-level above. In several of the
+      tombs the original flooring of wooden beams is still preserved. Den’s is
+      the most magnificent of all, for it has a floor of granite blocks; we know
+      of no other instance of stone being used for building in this early age.
+      Almost every tomb has been burnt at some period unknown. The brick walls
+      are burnt red, and many of the alabaster vases are almost calcined. This
+      was probably the work of some unknown enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wide complicated tombs have around the main chamber a series of
+      smaller rooms, which were used to store what was considered necessary for
+      the use of the royal ghost. Of these necessaries the most interesting to
+      us are the slaves, who were, as there is little reason to doubt, purposely
+      killed and buried round the royal chamber so that their spirits should be
+      on the spot when the dead king came to Abydos; thus they would be always
+      ready to serve him with the food and other things which had been stored in
+      the tomb with them and placed under their charge. There were stacks of
+      great vases of wine, corn, and other food; these were covered up with
+      masses of fat to preserve the contents, and they were corked with a
+      pottery stopper, which was protected by a conical clay sealing, stamped
+      with the impress of the royal cylinder-seal. There were bins of corn,
+      joints of oxen, pottery dishes, copper pans, and other things which might
+      be useful for the ghostly cuisine of the tomb. There were numberless small
+      objects, used, no doubt, by the dead monarch during life, which he would
+      be pleased to see again in the next world,&mdash;carved ivory boxes,
+      little slabs for grinding eye-paint, golden buttons, model tools, model
+      vases with gold tops, ivory and pottery figurines, and other <i>objets
+      d’art</i>; the golden royal seal of judgment of King Den in its ivory
+      casket, and so forth. There were memorials of the royal victories in peace
+      and war, little ivory plaques with inscriptions commemorating the founding
+      of new buildings, the institution of new religious festivals in honour of
+      the gods, the bringing of the captives of the royal bow and spear to the
+      palace, the discomfiture of the peoples of the North-land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/067.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="067.jpg Conical Vase-stoppers. From Abydos. 1st Dynasty: About 4000 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      All these things, which have done so much to reconstitute for us the
+      history of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy, were placed under
+      the care of the dead slaves whose bodies were buried round the empty
+      tomb-chamber of their royal master in Abydos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The killing and entombment of the royal servants is of the highest
+      anthropological interest, for it throws a vivid light upon the manners of
+      the time. It shows the primeval Egyptians as a semi-barbaric people of
+      childishly simple ways of thought. The king was dead. For all his kingship
+      he was a man, and no man was immortal in this world. But yet how could one
+      really die? Shadows, dreams, all kinds of phenomena which the primitive
+      mind could not explain, induced the belief that, though the outer man
+      might rot, there was an inner man which could not die and still lived on.
+      The idea of total death was unthinkable. And where should this inner man
+      still live on but in the tomb to which the outer man was consigned? And
+      here, doubtless it was believed, in the house to which the body was
+      consigned, the ghost lived on. And as each ghost had his house with the
+      body, so no doubt all ghosts could communicate with one another from tomb
+      to tomb; and so there grew up the belief in a tomb-world, a subterranean
+      Egypt of tombs, in which the dead Egyptians still lived and had their
+      being. Later on the boat of the sun, in which the god of light crossed the
+      heavens by day, was thought to pass through this dead world between his
+      setting and his rising, accompanied by the souls of the righteous. But of
+      this belief we find no trace yet in the ideas of the Ist Dynasty. All we
+      can see is that the <i>sahus</i>, or bodies of the dead, were supposed to
+      reside in awful majesty in the tomb, while the ghosts could pass from tomb
+      to tomb through the mazes of the underworld. Over this dread realm of dead
+      men presided a dead god, Osiris of Abydos; and so the necropolis of Abydos
+      was the necropolis of the underworld, to which all ghosts who were not its
+      rightful citizens would come from afar to pay their court to their ruler.
+      Thus the man of substance would have a monumental tablet put up to himself
+      in this necropolis as a sort of <i>pied-à-terre</i>, even if he could not
+      be buried there; for the king, who, for reasons chiefly connected with
+      local patriotism, was buried near the city of his earthly abode, a second
+      tomb would be erected, a stately mansion in the city of Osiris, in which
+      his ghost could reside when it pleased him to come to Abydos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now none could live without food, and men living under the earth needed it
+      as much as men living on the earth. The royal tomb was thus provided with
+      an enormous amount of earthly food for the use of the royal ghost, and
+      with other things as well, as we have seen. The same provision had also to
+      be made for the royal resting-place at Abydos. And in both cases royal
+      slaves were needed to take care of all this provision, and to serve the
+      ghost of the king, whether in his real tomb at Nakâda, or elsewhere, or in
+      his second tomb at Abydos. Ghosts only could serve ghosts, so that of the
+      slaves ghosts had to be made. That was easily done; they died when their
+      master died and followed him to the tomb. No doubt it seemed perfectly
+      natural to all concerned, to the slaves as much as to anybody else. But it
+      shows the child’s idea of the value of life. An animate thing was hardly
+      distinguished at this period from an inanimate thing. The most ancient
+      Egyptians buried slaves with their kings as naturally as they buried jars
+      of wine and bins of corn with them. Both were buried with a definite
+      object. The slaves had to die before they were buried, but then so had the
+      king himself. They all had to die sometime or other. And the actual
+      killing of them was no worse than killing a dog, no worse even than
+      “killing” golden buttons and ivory boxes. For, when the buttons and boxes
+      were buried with the king, they were just as much dead as the slaves. Of
+      the sanctity of <i>human</i> life as distinct from other life, there was
+      probably no idea at all. The royal ghost needed ghostly servants, and they
+      were provided as a matter of course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as civilization progressed, the ideas of the Egyptians changed on
+      these points, and in the later ages of the ancient world they were
+      probably the most humane of the peoples, far more so than the Greeks, in
+      fact. The cultured Hellenes murdered their prisoners of war without
+      hesitation. Who has not been troubled in mind by the execution of Mkias
+      and Demosthenes after the surrender of the Athenian army at Syracuse? When
+      we compare this with Grant’s refusal even to take Lee’s sword at
+      Appomattox, we see how we have progressed in these matters; while Gylippus
+      and the Syracusans were as much children as the Ist Dynasty Egyptians. But
+      the Egyptians of Gylippus’s time had probably advanced much further than
+      the Greeks in the direction of rational manhood. When Amasis had his rival
+      Apries in his power, he did not put him to death, but kept him as his
+      coadjutor on the throne. Apries fled from him, allied himself with Greek
+      pirates, and advanced against his generous rival. After his defeat and
+      murder at Momemphis, Amasis gave him a splendid burial. When we compare
+      this generosity to a beaten foe with the savagery of the Assyrians, for
+      instance, we see how far the later Egyptians had progressed in the paths
+      of humanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ancient custom of killing slaves was first discontinued at the death
+      of the lesser chieftains, but we find a possible survival of it in the
+      case of a king, even as late as the time of the XIth Dynasty; for at
+      Thebes, in the precinct of the funerary temple of King Neb-hapet-Râ
+      Mentuhetep and round the central pyramid which commemorated his memory,
+      were buried a number of the ladies of his <i>harîm</i>. They were all
+      buried at one and the same time, and there can be little doubt that they
+      were all killed and buried round the king, in order to be with him in the
+      next world. Now with each of these ladies, who had been turned into
+      ghosts, was buried a little waxen human figure placed in a little model
+      coffin. This was to replace her own slave. She who went to accompany the
+      king in the next world had to have her own attendant also. But, not being
+      royal, a real slave was not killed for her; she only took with her a waxen
+      figure, which by means of charms and incantations would, when she called
+      upon it, turn into a real slave, and say, “Here am I,” and do whatever
+      work might be required of her. The actual killing and burial of the slaves
+      had in all cases except that of the king been long “commuted,” so to
+      speak, into a burial with the dead person of <i>ushabtis</i>, or
+      “Answerers,” little figures like those described above, made more usually
+      of stone, and inscribed with the name of the deceased. They were called
+      “Answerers” because they answered the call of their dead master or
+      mistress, and by magic power became ghostly servants. Later on they were
+      made of wood and glazed <i>faïence</i>, as well as stone. By this means
+      the greater humanity of a later age sought a relief from the primitive
+      disregard of the death of others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anthropologically interesting as are the results of the excavations at Umm
+      el-Gra’ab, they are no less historically important. There is no need here
+      to weary the reader with the details of scientific controversy; it will
+      suffice to set before him as succinctly and clearly as possible the net
+      results of the work which has been done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Messrs. Amélineau and Petrie have found the secondary tombs and have
+      identified the names of the following primeval kings of Egypt. We arrange
+      them in their apparent historical order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. Aha Men (?).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Narmer (or Betjumer) Sma (?).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. Tjer (or Khent). Besh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. Tja Ati.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Den Semti.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. Atjab Merpeba.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. Semerkha Nekht.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. Qâ Sen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. Khâsekhem (Khâsekhemui)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      10. Hetepsekhemui.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      11. Räneb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      12. Neneter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      13. Sekhemab Perabsen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two or three other names are ascribed by Prof. Petrie to the
+      Hierakonpolite dynasty of Upper Egypt, which, as it occurs before the time
+      of Mena and the Ist Dynasty, he calls “Dynasty 0.” Dynasty 0, however, is
+      no dynasty, and in any case we should prefer to call the “predynastic”
+       dynasty “Dynasty I.” The names of “Dynasty minus One,” however, remain
+      problematical, and for the present it would seem safer to suspend judgment
+      as to the place of the supposed royal names “Ro” and “Ka”(Men-kaf), which
+      Prof. Petrie supposes to have been those of two of the kings of Upper
+      Egypt who reigned before Mena. The king “Sma”(“Uniter”) is possibly
+      identical with Aha or Narmer, more probably the latter. It is not
+      necessary to detail the process by which Egyptologists have sought to
+      identify these thirteen kings with the successors of Mena in the lists of
+      kings and the Ist and IId Dynasties of Manetho. The work has been very
+      successful, though not perhaps quite so completely accomplished as Prof.
+      Petrie himself inclines to believe. The first identification was made by
+      Prof. Sethe, of Gottingen, who pointed out that the names Semti and
+      Merpeba on a vase-fragment found by M. Amélineau were in reality those of
+      the kings Hesepti and Merbap of the lists, the Ousaphaïs and Miebis of
+      Manetho. The perfectly certain identifications are these:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Den Semti = Hesepti, <i>Ousaphaïs</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. Atjab Merpeba = Merbap, <i>Miebis</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. Semerkha Nekht= Shemsu or Semsem (?), <i>Semempres</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. Qâ Sen = Qebh, <i>Bienehhes</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. Khâsekhemui Besh = Betju-mer (?), <i>Boethos</i>, IId Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      10. Neneter = Bineneter, <i>Binothris</i>, IId Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Six of the Abydos kings have thus been identified with names in the lists
+      and in Manetho; that is to say, we now know the real names of six of the
+      earliest Egyptian monarchs, whose appellations are given us under
+      mutilated forms by the later list-makers. Prof. Petrie further identifies
+      (4) Tja Ati with Ateth, (3) Tjer with Teta, and (1) Aha with Mena. Mena,
+      Teta, Ateth, Ata, Hesepti, Merbap, Shemsu (?), and Qebh are the names of
+      the 1st Dynasty as given in the lists. The equivalent of Ata Prof. Petrie
+      finds in the name “Merneit,” which is found at Umm el-Ga’ab. But there is
+      no proof whatever that Merneit was a king; he was much more probably a
+      prince or other great personage of the reign of Den, who was buried with
+      the kings. Prof. Petrie accepts the identification of the personal name of
+      Aha as “Men,” and so makes him the only equivalent of Mena. But this
+      reading of the name is still doubtful. Arguing that Aha must be Mena, and
+      having all the rest of the kings of the Ist Dynasty identified with the
+      names in the lists, Prof. Petrie is compelled to exclude Narmer from the
+      dynasty, and to relegate him to “Dynasty 0,” before the time of Mena. It
+      is quite possible, however, that Narmer was the successor, not the
+      predecessor, of Mena. He was certainly either the one or the other, as the
+      style of art in his time was exactly the same as that in the time of Aha.
+      The “Scorpion,” too, whose name is found at Hierakonpolis, certainly dates
+      to the same time as Narmer and Aha, for the style of his work is the same.
+      And it may well be that he is not to be counted as a separate king,
+      belonging to “Dynasty 0 “(or “Dynasty -I”) at all, but as identical with
+      Narmer, just as “Sma” may also be. We thus find that the two kings who
+      left the most developed remains at Hierakonpolis are the two whose
+      monuments at Abydos are the oldest of all on that site. That is to say,
+      the kings whose monuments record the conquest of the North belong to the
+      period of transition from the old Hierakonpolite dominion of Upper Egypt
+      to the new kingdom of all Egypt. They, in fact, represent the “Mena” or
+      Menés of tradition. It may be that Aha bore the personal name of <i>Men</i>,
+      which would thus be the original of Mena, but this is uncertain. In any
+      case both Aha and Narmer must be assigned to the Ist Dynasty, with the
+      result that we know of more kings belonging to the dynasty than appear in
+      the lists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor is this improbable. Manetho’s list is evidently based upon old
+      Egyptian lists derived from the authorities upon which the king-lists of
+      Abydos and Sakkâra were based. These old lists were made under the XIXth
+      Dynasty, when an interest in the oldest kings seems to have been awakened,
+      and the ruling monarchs erected temples at Abydos in their honour. This
+      phenomenon can only have been due to a discovery of Umm el-Ga’ab and its
+      treasures, the tombs of which were recognized as the burial-places (real
+      or secondary) of the kings before the pyramid-builders. Seti I. and his
+      son Ramses then worshipped the kings of Umm el-Ga’ab, with their names set
+      before them in the order, number, and spelling in which the scribes
+      considered they ought to be inscribed. It is highly probable that the
+      number known at that time was not quite correct. We know that the spelling
+      of the names was very much garbled (to take one example only, the signs
+      for <i>Sen</i> were read as one sign <i>Qebh</i>), so that one or two
+      kings may have been omitted or displaced. This may be the case with
+      Narmer, or, as his name ought possibly to be read, <i>Betjumer</i>. His
+      monuments show by their style that he belongs to the very beginning of the
+      Ist Dynasty. No name in the Ist Dynasty list corresponds to his. But one
+      of the lists gives for the first king of the IId Dynasty (the successor of
+      “Qebh” = Sen) a name which may also be read Betjumer, spelt syllabically
+      this time, not ideographically. On this account Prof. Naville wishes to
+      regard the Hierakonpolite monuments of Narmer as belonging to the IId
+      Dynasty, but, as we have seen, they are among the most archaic known, and
+      certainly must belong to the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. It is therefore
+      probable that Khasekhemui Besh and Narmer (Betjumer?) were confused by
+      this list-maker, and the name Betjumer was given to the first king of the
+      IId Dynasty, who was probably in reality Khasekhemui. The resemblance of
+      <i>Betju</i> to <i>Besh</i> may have contributed to this confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Narmer (or Betjumer) found his way out of his proper place at the
+      beginning of the 1st Dynasty. Whether Aha was also called “Men” or not, it
+      seems evident that he and Narmer were jointly the originals of the
+      legendary Mena. Narmer, who possibly also bore the name of Sma, “the
+      Uniter,” conquered the North. Aha, “the Fighter,” also ruled both South
+      and North at the same period. Khasekhemui, too, conquered the North, but
+      the style of his monuments shows such an advance upon that of the days of
+      Aha and Narmer that it seems best to make him the successor of Sen (or
+      “Qebh “), and, explaining the transference of the name Betjumer to the
+      beginning of the IId Dynasty as due to a confusion with Khasekhemui’s
+      personal name Besh, to make Khasekhemui the founder of the IId Dynasty.
+      The beginning of a new dynasty may well have been marked by a reassertion
+      of the new royal power over Lower Egypt, which may have lapsed somewhat
+      under the rule of the later kings of the Ist Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Semti is certainly the “Hesepti” of the lists, and Tja Ati is probably
+      “Ateth.” “Ata” is thus unidentified. Prof. Petrie makes him = Merneit,
+      but, as has already been said, there is no proof that the tomb of Merneit
+      is that of a king. “Teta” may be Tjer or Khent, but of this there is no
+      proof. It is most probable that the names “Teta,” “Ateth,” and “Ata” are
+      all founded on Ati, the personal name of Tja. The king Tjer is then not
+      represented in the lists, and “Mena” is a compound of the two oldest
+      Abydos kings, Narmer (Betjumer) Sma (?) and Aha Men (?).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are the bare historical results that have been attained with regard
+      to the names, identity, and order of the kings. The smaller memorials that
+      have been found with them, especially the ivory plaques, have told us of
+      events that took place during their reigns; but, with the exception of the
+      constantly recurring references to the conquest of the North, there is
+      little that can be considered of historical interest or importance. We
+      will take one as an example. This is the tablet No. 32,650 of the British
+      Museum, illustrated by Prof. Petrie, <i>Royal Tombs</i> i (Egypt
+      Exploration Fund), pi. xi, 14, xv, 16. This is the record of a single
+      year, the first in the reign of Semti, King of Upper and Lower Egypt. On
+      it we see a picture of a king performing a religious dance before the god
+      Osiris, who is seated in a shrine placed on a dais. This religious dance
+      was performed by all the kings in later times. Below we find hieroglyphic
+      (ideographic) records of a river expedition to fight the Northerners and
+      of the capture of a fortified town called An. The capture of the town is
+      indicated by a broken line of fortification, half-encircling the name, and
+      the hoe with which the emblematic hawks on the slate reliefs already
+      described are armed; this signifies the opening and breaking down of the
+      wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other half of the tablet we find the viceroy of Lower Egypt,
+      Hemaka, mentioned; also “the Hawk (i. e. the king) seizes the seat of the
+      Libyans,” and some unintelligible record of a jeweller of the palace and a
+      king’s carpenter. On a similar tablet (of Sen) we find the words “the
+      king’s carpenter made this record.” All these little tablets are then the
+      records of single years of a king’s life, and others like them, preserved
+      no doubt in royal archives, formed the base of regular annals, which were
+      occasionally carved upon stone. We have an example of one of these in the
+      “Stele of Palermo,” a fragment of black granite, inscribed with the annals
+      of the kings up to the time of the Vth Dynasty, when the monument itself
+      was made. It is a matter for intense regret that the greater portion of
+      this priceless historical monument has disappeared, leaving us but a piece
+      out of the centre, with part of the records of only six kings before
+      Snefru. Of these six the name of only one, Neneter, of the lid Dynasty,
+      whose name is also found at Abydos, is mentioned. The only important
+      historical event of Neneter’s reign seems to have occurred in his
+      thirteenth year, when the towns or palaces of <i>Ha</i> (“North”) and
+      Shem-Râ (“The Sun proceeds”) were founded. Nothing but the institution and
+      celebration of religious festivals is recorded in the sixteen yearly
+      entries preserved to us out of a reign of thirty-five years. The annual
+      height of the Nile is given, and the occasions of numbering the people are
+      recorded (every second year): nothing else. Manetho tells us that in the
+      reign of Binothris, who is Neneter, it was decreed that women could hold
+      royal honours and privileges. This first concession of women’s rights is
+      not mentioned on the strictly official “Palermo Stele.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      More regrettable than aught else is the absence from the “Palermo Stele”
+       of that part of the original monument which gave the annals of the
+      earliest kings. At any rate, in the lines of annals which still exist
+      above that which contains the chronicle of the reign of Neneter no entry
+      can be definitely identified as belonging to the reigns of Aha or Narmer.
+      In a line below there is a mention of the “birth of Khâsekhemui,”
+       apparently a festival in honour of the birth of that king celebrated in
+      the same way as the reputed birthday of a god. This shows the great honour
+      in which Khâsekhemui was held, and perhaps it was he who really finally
+      settled the question of the unification of North and South and
+      consolidated the work of the earlier kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As far as we can tell, then, Aha and Narmer were the first conquerors of
+      the North, the unifiers of the kingdom, and the originals of the legendary
+      Mena. In their time the kingdom’s centre of gravity was still in the
+      South, and Narmer (who is probably identical with “the Scorpion”)
+      dedicated the memorials of his deeds in the temple of Hierakonpolis. It
+      may be that the legend of the founding of Memphis in the time of “Menés”
+       is nearly correct (as we shall see, historically, the foundation may have
+      been due to Merpeba), but we have the authority of Manetho for the fact
+      that the first two dynasties were “Thinite” (that is, Upper Egyptian), and
+      that Memphis did not become the capital till the time of the Hid Dynasty.
+      With this statement the evidence of the monuments fully agrees. The
+      earliest royal tombs in the pyramid-field of Memphis date from the time of
+      the Hid Dynasty, so that it is evident that the kings had then taken up
+      their abode in the Northern capital. We find that soon after the time of
+      Khâsekhemui the king Perabsen was especially connected with Lower Egypt.
+      His personal name is unknown to us (though he may be the “Uatjnes” of the
+      lists), but we do know that he had two banner-names, Sekhem-ab and
+      Perabsen. The first is his hawk or Horus-name, the second his Set-name;
+      that is to say, while he bore the first name as King of Upper Egypt under
+      the special patronage of Horus, the hawk-god of the Upper Country, he bore
+      the second as King of Lower Egypt, under the patronage of Set, the deity
+      of the Delta, whose fetish animal appears above this name instead of the
+      hawk. This shows how definitely Perabsen wished to appear as legitimate
+      King of Lower as well as Upper Egypt. In later times the Theban kings of
+      the XIIth Dynasty, when they devoted themselves to winning the allegiance
+      of the Northerners by living near Memphis rather than at Thebes, seem to
+      have been imitating the successors of Khâsekhemui.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, we now find various evidences of increasing connection with the
+      North. A princess named Ne-maat-hap, who seems to have been the mother of
+      Sa-nekht, the first king of the Hid Dynasty, bears the name of the sacred
+      Apis of Memphis, her name signifying “Possessing the right of Apis.”
+       According to Manetho, the kings of the Hid Dynasty are the first
+      Memphites, and this seems to be quite correct. With Ne-maat-hap the royal
+      right seems to have been transferred to a Memphite house. But the
+      Memphites still had associations with Upper Egypt: two of them, Tjeser
+      Khet-neter and Sa-nekht, were buried near Abydos, in the desert at Bêt
+      Khallâf, where their tombs were discovered and excavated by Mr. Garstang
+      in 1900. The tomb of Tjeser is a great brick-built mastaba, forty feet
+      high and measuring 300 feet by 150 feet. The actual tomb-chambers are
+      excavated in the rock, twenty feet below the ground-level and sixty feet
+      below the top of the mastaba. They had been violated in ancient times, but
+      a number of clay jar-sealings, alabaster vases, and bowls belonging to the
+      tomb furniture were found by the discoverer. Sa-nekht’s tomb is similar.
+      In it was found the preserved skeleton of its owner, who was a giant seven
+      feet high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/082.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="082.jpg the Tomb of King Tjeser at Bêt Khallâf. About 3700 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is remarkable that Manetho chronicles among the kings of the early
+      period a king named Sesokhris, who was five cubits high. This may have
+      been Sa-nekht.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tjeser had two tombs, one, the above-mentioned, near Abydos, the other at
+      Sakkâra, in the Memphite pyramid-field. This is the famous Step-Pyramid.
+      Since Sa-nekht seems really to have been buried at Bêt Khal-laf, probably
+      Tjeser was, too, and the Step-Pyramid may have been his secondary or sham
+      tomb, erected in the necropolis of Memphis as a compliment to Seker, the
+      Northern god of the dead, just as Aha had his secondary tomb at Abydos in
+      compliment to Khentamenti. Sne-feru, also, the last king of the Hid
+      Dynasty, seems to have had two tombs. One of these was the great Pyramid
+      of Mêdûm, which was explored by Prof. Petrie in 1891, the other was at
+      Dashûr. Near by was the interesting necropolis already mentioned, in which
+      was discovered evidence of the continuance of the cramped position of
+      burial and of the absence of mummification among a certain section of the
+      population even as late as the time of the IVth Dynasty. This has been
+      taken to imply that the fusion of the primitive Neolithic and invading
+      sub-Semitic races had not been effected at that time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the IVth Dynasty the connection of the royal house with the South
+      seems to have finally ceased. The governmental centre of gravity was
+      finally transferred to Memphis, and the kings were thenceforth for several
+      centuries buried in the great pyramids which still stand in serried order
+      along the western desert border of Egypt, from the Delta to the province
+      of the Fayyum. With the latest discoveries in this Memphite pyramid-field
+      we shall deal in the next chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The transference of the royal power to Memphis under the Hid Dynasty
+      naturally led to a great increase of Egyptian activity in the Northern
+      lands. We read in Manetho of a great Libyan war in the reign of
+      Neche-rophes, and both Sa-nekht and Tjeser seem to have finally
+      established Egyptian authority in the Sinaitic peninsula, where their
+      rock-inscriptions have been found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1904 Prof. Petrie was despatched to Sinai by the Egypt Exploration
+      Fund, in order finally to record the inscriptions of the early kings in
+      the Wadi Maghara, which had been lately very much damaged by the
+      operations of the turquoise-miners. It seems almost incredible that
+      ignorance and vandalism should still be so rampant in the twentieth
+      century that the most important historical monuments are not safe from
+      desecration in order to obtain a few turquoises, but it is so. Prof.
+      Petrie’s expedition did not start a day too soon, and at the suggestion of
+      Sir William Garstin, the adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, the
+      majority of the inscriptions have been removed to the Cairo Museum for
+      safety and preservation. Among the new inscriptions discovered is one of
+      Sa-nekht, which is now in the British Museum. Tjeser and Sa-nekht were not
+      the first Egyptian kings to visit Sinai. Already, in the days of the 1st
+      Dynasty, Semerkha had entered that land and inscribed his name upon the
+      rocks. But the regular annexation, so to speak, of Sinai to Egypt took
+      place under the Memphites of the Hid Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Hid Dynasty we have reached the age of the pyramid-builders. The
+      most typical pyramids are those of the three great kings of the IVth
+      Dynasty, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, at Giza near Cairo. But, as we have
+      seen, the last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, also had one pyramid, if
+      not two; and the most ancient of these buildings known to us, the
+      Step-Pyramid of Sakkâra, was erected by Tjeser at the beginning of that
+      dynasty. The evolution of the royal tombs from the time of the 1st Dynasty
+      to that of the IVth is very interesting to trace. At the period of
+      transition from the predynastic to the dynastic age we have the great
+      mastaba of Aha at Nakâda, and the simplest chamber-tombs at Abydos. All
+      these were of brick; no stone was used in their construction. Then we find
+      the chamber-tomb of Den Semti at Abydos with a granite floor, the walls
+      being still of brick. Above each of the Abydos tombs was probably a low
+      mound, and in front a small chapel, from which a flight of steps descended
+      into the simple chamber. On one of the little plaques already mentioned,
+      which were found in these tombs, we have an archaic inscription, entirely
+      written in ideographs, which seems to read, “The Big-Heads (i. e. the
+      chiefs) come to the tomb.” The ideograph for “tomb” seems to be a rude
+      picture of the funerary chapel, but from it we can derive little
+      information as to its construction. Towards the end of the Ist Dynasty,
+      and during the lid, the royal tombs became much more complicated, being
+      surrounded with numerous chambers for the dead slaves, etc. Khâsekhemui’s
+      tomb has thirty-three such chambers, and there is one large chamber of
+      stone. We know of no other instance of the use of stone work for building
+      at this period except in the royal tombs. No doubt the mason’s art was
+      still so difficult that it was reserved for royal use only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the Hid Dynasty we find the last brick mastabas built for royalty,
+      at Bêt Khallâf, and the first pyramids, in the Memphite necropolis. In the
+      mastaba of Tjeser at Bêt Khallâf stone was used for the great portcullises
+      which were intended to bar the way to possible plunderers through the
+      passages of the tomb. The Step-Pyramid at Sakkâra is, so to speak, a
+      series of mastabas of stone, imposed one above the other; it never had the
+      continuous casing of stone which is the mark of a true pyramid. The
+      pyramid of Snefru at Mêdûm is more developed. It also originated in a
+      mastaba, enlarged, and with another mastaba-like erection on the top of
+      it; but it was given a continuous sloping casing of fine limestone from
+      bottom to top, and so is a true pyramid. A discussion of recent theories
+      as to the building of the later pyramids of the IVth Dynasty will be found
+      in the next chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the time of the Ist Dynasty the royal tomb was known by the name of
+      “Protection-around-the-Hawk, i.e. the king”(<i>Sa-ha-heru</i>); but under
+      the Hid and IVth Dynasties regular names, such as “the Firm,” “the
+      Glorious,” “the Appearing,” etc., were given to each pyramid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/086.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="086.jpg False Door of the Tomb Of Teta, About 3600 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We must not omit to note an interesting point in connection with the royal
+      tombs at Abydos, In that of King Khent or Tjer (the reading of the
+      ideograph is doubtful) M. Amélineau found a large bed or bier of granite,
+      with a figure of the god Osiris lying in state sculptured in high relief
+      upon it. This led him to jump to the conclusion that he had found the tomb
+      of the god Osiris himself, and that a skull he found close by was the
+      veritable cranium of the primeval folk-hero, who, according to the
+      euhemerist theory, was the deified original of the god. The true
+      explanation is given by Dr. Wallis Budge in his <i>History of Egypt</i>,
+      i, p. 19. It is a fact that the tomb of Tjer was regarded by the Egyptians
+      of the XIXth Dynasty as the veritable tomb of Osiris. They thought they
+      had discovered it, just as M. Amélineau did. When the ancient royal tombs
+      of Umm el-Ga’ab were rediscovered and identified at the beginning of the
+      XIXth Dynasty, and Seti I built the great temple of Abydos to the divine
+      ancestors in honour of the discovery, embellishing it with a relief of
+      himself and his son Ramses making offerings to the names of his
+      predecessors (the “Tablet of Abydos “), the name of King Khent or Tjer
+      (which is perhaps the really correct original form) was read by the royal
+      scribes as “Khent” and hastily identified with the first part of the name
+      of the god <i>Khent-amenti</i> Osiris, the lord of Abydos. The tomb was
+      thus regarded as the tomb of Osiris himself, and it was furnished with a
+      great stone figure of the god lying on his bier, attended by the two hawks
+      of Isis and Nephthys; ever after the site was visited by crowds of
+      pilgrims, who left at Umm el-Ga’ab the thousands of little votive vases
+      whose fragments have given the place its name of the “Mother of Pots.”
+       This is the explanation of the discovery of the “Tomb of Osiris.” We have
+      not found what M. Amélineau seems rather naively to have thought possible,
+      a confirmation of the ancient view that Osiris was originally a man who
+      ruled over Egypt and was deified after his death; but we have found that
+      the Egyptians themselves were more or less euhemerists, and did think so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may seem remarkable that all this new knowledge of ancient Egypt is
+      derived from tombs and has to do with the resting-places of the kings when
+      dead, rather than with their palaces or temples when living. Of temples at
+      this early period we have no trace. The oldest temple in Egypt is perhaps
+      the little chapel in front of the pyramid of Snefru at Mêdûm. We first
+      hear of temples to the gods under the IVth Dynasty, but of the actual
+      buildings of that period we have recovered nothing but one or two
+      inscribed blocks of stone. Prof. Petrie has traced out the plan of the
+      oldest temple of Osiris at Abydos, which may be of the time of Khufu, from
+      scanty evidences which give us but little information. It is certain,
+      however, that this temple, which is clearly one of the oldest in Egypt,
+      goes back at least to his time. Its site is the mound called Kom
+      es-Sultan, “The Mound of the King,” close to the village of el-Kherba, and
+      on the borders of the cultivation northeast of the royal tombs at Umm
+      el-Oa’ab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of royal palaces we have more definite information. North of the Kom
+      es-Sultan are two great fortress-enclosures of brick: the one is known as
+      <i>Sûnet es-Zebîb</i>, “the Storehouse of Dried Orapes;” the other is
+      occupied by the Coptic monastery of Dêr Anba Musâs. Both are certainly
+      fortress-palaces of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy. We know
+      from the small record-plaques of this period that the kings were
+      constantly founding or repairing places of this kind, which were always
+      great rectangular enclosures with crenelated brick walls like those of
+      early Babylonian buildings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have seen that the Northern Egyptian possessed similar fortress-cities
+      which were captured by Narmer. These were the seats of the royal residence
+      in various parts of the country. Behind their walls was the king’s house,
+      and no doubt also a town of nobles and retainers, while the peasants lived
+      on the arable land without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/089.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="089.jpg the Shunet ez-Zebib: The Fortress-town, About 3900 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Shûnet ez-Zebîb and its companion fortress were evidently the royal
+      cities of the 1st and IId Dynasties at Abydos. The former has been
+      excavated by Mr. E. R. Ayrton for the Egypt Exploration Fund, under the
+      supervision of Prof. Petrie. He found jar-sealings of Khâsekhemui and
+      Perabsen. In later times the place was utilized as a burial-place for
+      ibis-mummies (it had already been abandoned as a city before the time of
+      the XIIth Dynasty), and from this fact it received the name of <i>Shenet
+      deb-hib</i>, or “Storehouse of Ibis Burials.” The Arab invaders adapted
+      this name to their own language in the nearest form which would have any
+      meaning, as <i>Shûnet ez-Zebïb</i>, “the Storehouse of Dried Grapes.” The
+      Arab word <i>shûna</i> (“Barn” or “Storehouse”) was, it should be noted,
+      taken over from the Coptic <i>sheune,</i> which is the old-Egyptian <i>shenet</i>.
+      The identity of <i>sheune</i> or <i>shûna</i> with the German “Scheune” is
+      a quaint and curious coincidence. In the illustration of the Shûnet
+      ez-Zebib the curved line of crenelated wall, following the contour of the
+      hill, should be noted, as it is a remarkable example of the building of
+      this early period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will have been seen from the foregoing description of what far-reaching
+      importance the discoveries at Abydos have been. A new chapter of the
+      history of the human race has been opened, which contains information
+      previously undreamt of, information which Egyptologists had never dared to
+      hope would be recovered. The sand of Egypt indeed conceals inexhaustible
+      treasures, and no one knows what the morrow’s work may bring forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Ex Africa semper aliquid novi!</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkB2HCH0001" id="linkB2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III&mdash;MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Memphis, the “beautiful abode,” the “City of the White Wall,” is said to
+      have been founded by the legendary Menés, who in order to build it
+      diverted the stream of the Nile by means of a great dyke constructed near
+      the modern village of Koshêsh, south of the village of Mitrahêna, which
+      marks the central point of the ancient metropolis of Northern Egypt. It
+      may be that the city was founded by Aha or Narmer, the historical
+      originals of Mena or Menés; but we have another theory with regard to its
+      foundation, that it was originally built by King Merpeba Atjab, whose tomb
+      was also discovered at Abydos near those of Aha and Narmer. Merpeba is the
+      oldest king whose name is absolutely identified with one occurring in the
+      XIXth Dynasty king-lists and in Manetho. He is certainly the “Merbap” or
+      “Merbepa” (“Merbapen”) of the lists and the <i>Miebis</i> of Manetho. In
+      both the lists and in Manetho he stands fifth in order from Mena, and he
+      was therefore the sixth king of the Ist Dynasty. The lists, Manetho, and
+      the small monuments in his own tomb agree in making him the immediate
+      successor of Semti Den (Ousaphaïs), and from the style of these latter it
+      is evident that he comes after Tja, Tjer, Narmer, and Aha. That is to say,
+      the contemporary evidence makes him the fifth king from Aha, the first
+      original of “Menés.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now after the piety of Seti I had led him to erect a great temple at
+      Abydos in memory of the ancient kings, whose sepulchres had probably been
+      brought to light shortly before, and to compile and set up in the temple a
+      list of his predecessors, a certain pious snobbery or snobbish piety
+      impelled a worthy named Tunure, who lived at Memphis, to put up in his own
+      tomb at Sakkâra a tablet of kings like the royal one at Abydos. If
+      Osiris-Khentamenti at Abydos had his tablet of kings, so should
+      Osiris-Seker at Sakkâra. But Tunure does not begin his list with Mena; his
+      initial king is Merpeba. For him Merpeba was the first monarch to be
+      commemorated at Sakkâra. Does not this look very much as if the strictly
+      historical Merpeba, not the rather legendary and confused Mena, was
+      regarded as the first Memphite king? It may well be that it was in the
+      reign of Merpeba, not in that of Aha or Narmer, that Memphis was founded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The XIXth Dynasty lists of course say nothing about Mena or Merpeba having
+      founded Memphis; they only give the names of the kings, nothing more. The
+      earliest authority for the ascription of Memphis to “Menés”, is Herodotus,
+      who was followed in this ascription, as in many other matters, by Manetho;
+      but it must be remembered that Manetho was writing for the edification of
+      a Greek king (Ptolemy Philadelphus) and his Greek court at Alexandria, and
+      had therefore to evince a respect for the great Greek classic which he may
+      not always have really felt. Herodotus is not, of course, accused of any
+      wilful misstatement in this or in any other matter in which his accuracy
+      is suspected. He merely wrote down what he was told by the Egyptians
+      themselves, and Merpeba was sufficiently near in time to Aha to be easily
+      confounded with him by the scribes of the Persian period, who no doubt
+      ascribed everything to “Mena” that was done by the kings of the Ist and
+      IId Dynasties. Therefore it may be considered quite probable that the
+      “Menés” who founded Memphis was Merpeba, the fifth or sixth king of the
+      Ist Dynasty, whom Tunure, a thousand years before the time of Herodotus
+      and his informants, placed at the head of the Memphite “List of Sakkâra.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reconquest of the North by Khâsekhemui doubtless led to a further
+      strengthening of Memphis; and it is quite possible that the deeds of this
+      king also contributed to make up the sum total of those ascribed to the
+      Herodotean and Manethonian Menés.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be that a town of the Northerners existed here before the time of
+      the Southern Conquest, for Phtah, the local god of Memphis, has a very
+      marked character of his own, quite different from that of Khen-tamenti,
+      the Osiris of Abydos. He is always represented as a little bow-legged
+      hydrocephalous dwarf very like the Phoenician <i>Kabeiroi</i>. It may be
+      that here is another connection between the Northern Egyptians and the
+      Semites. The name “Phtah,” the “Opener,” is definitely Semitic. We may
+      then regard the dwarf Phtah as originally a non-Egyptian god of the
+      Northerners, probably Semitic in origin, and his town also as antedating
+      the conquest. But it evidently was to the Southerners that Memphis owed
+      its importance and its eventual promotion to the position of capital of
+      the united kingdom. Then the dwarf Phtah saw himself rivalled by another
+      Phtah of Southern Egyptian origin, who had been installed at Memphis by
+      the Southerners. This Phtah was a sort of modified edition of Osiris, in
+      mummy-form and holding crook and whip, but with a refined edition of the
+      Kabeiric head of the indigenous Phtah. The actual god of “the White Wall”
+       was undoubtedly confused vith the dead god of the necropolis, whose name
+      was Seker or Sekri (Sokari), “the Coffined.” The original form of this
+      deity was a mummied hawk upon a coffin, and it is very probable that he
+      was imported from the South, like the second Phtah, at the time of the
+      conquest, when the great Northern necropolis began to grow up as a
+      duplicate of that at Abydos. Later on we find Seker confused with the
+      ancient dwarf-god, and it is the latter who was afterwards chiefly revered
+      as Phtah-Socharis-Osiris, the protector of the necropolis, the mummied
+      Phtah being the generally recognized ruler of the City of the White Wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is from the name of Seker that the modern Sak-kâra takes its title.
+      Sakkâra marks the central point of the great Memphite necropolis, as it is
+      the nearest point of the western desert to Memphis. Northwards the
+      necropolis extended to Griza and Abu Roâsh, southwards, to Daslmr; even
+      the nécropoles of Lisht and Mêdûm may be regarded as appanages of Sakkâra.
+      At Sakkâra itself Tjeser of the IIId Dynasty had a pyramid, which, as we
+      have seen, was probably not his real tomb (which was the great mastaba at
+      Bêt Khallâf), but a secondary or sham tomb corresponding to the “tombs” of
+      the earliest kings at Umm el-Ga’ab in the necropolis of Abydos. Many later
+      kings, however, especially of the Vith Dynasty, were actually buried at
+      Sakkâra. Their tombs have all been thoroughly described by their
+      discoverer, Prof. Maspero, in his history. The last king of the Hid
+      Dynasty, Snefru, was buried away down south at Mêdûm, in splendid
+      isolation, but he may also have had a second pyramid at Sakkâra or Abu
+      Roash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kings of the IVth Dynasty were the greatest of the pyramid builders,
+      and to them belong the huge edifices of Griza. The Vth Dynasty favoured
+      Abusîr, between Cîza and Sakkâra; the Vith, as we have said, preferred
+      Sakkâra itself. With them the end of the Old Kingdom and of Memphite
+      dominion was reached; the sceptre fell from the hands of the Memphite
+      kings and was taken up by the princes of Herakleopolis (Ahnasyet
+      el-Medina, near Béni Suêf, south of the Eayyûm) and Thebes. Where the
+      Herakleopolite kings were buried we do not know; probably somewhere in the
+      local necropolis of the Gebel es-Sedment, between Ahnasya and the Fayyûm.
+      The first Thebans (the XIth Dynasty) were certainly buried at Thebes, but
+      when the Herakleopolites had finally disappeared, and all Egypt was again
+      united under one strong sceptre, the Theban kings seem to have been drawn
+      northwards. They removed to the seat of the dominion of those whom they
+      had supplanted, and they settled in the neighbourhood of Herakleopolis,
+      near the fertile province of the Fayyûm, and between it and Memphis. Here,
+      in the royal fortress-palace of Itht-taui, “Controlling the Two Lands,”
+       the kings of the XIIth Dynasty lived, and they were buried in the
+      nécropoles of Dashûr, Lisht, and Illahun (Hawara), in pyramids like those
+      of the old Memphite kings. These facts, of the situation of Itht-taui, of
+      their burial in the southern an ex of the old necropolis of Memphis, and
+      of the fori of their tombs (the true Upper Egyptian and Thebian form was a
+      rock-cut gallery and chamber driven deep into the hill), show how
+      solicitous were the Amenemhats and Senusrets of the suffrages of Lower
+      Egypt, how anxious they were to conciliate the ancient royal pride of
+      Memphis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where the kings of the XIIIth Dynasty and the Hyksos or “Shepherds” were
+      buried, we do not know. The kings of the restored Theban empire were all
+      interred at Thebes. There are, in fact, no known royal sepulchres between
+      the Fayyûm and Abydos. The great kings were mostly buried in the
+      neighbourhood of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. The sepulchres of the
+      “Middle Empire”&mdash;the XIth to XIIIth Dynasties&mdash;in the
+      neighbourhood of the Fayyûm may fairly be grouped with those of the same
+      period at Dashûr, which belongs to the necropolis of Memphis, since it is
+      only a mile or two south of Sakkâra.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is chiefly with regard to the sepulchres of the kings that the most
+      momentous discoveries of recent years have been made at Thebes, and at
+      Sakkâra, Abusîr, Dashûr, and Lisht, as at Abydos. For this reason we deal
+      in succession with the finds in the nécropoles of Abydos, Memphis, and
+      Thebes respectively. And with the sepulchres of the “Old Kingdom,” in the
+      Memphite necropolis proper, we have naturally grouped those of the “Middle
+      Kingdom” at Dashûr, Lisht, Illahun, and Hawara.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of these modern discoveries have been commented on and illustrated by
+      Prof. Maspero in his great history. But the discoveries that have been
+      made since this publication have been very important,&mdash;those at
+      Abusîr, indeed, of first-rate importance, though not so momentous as those
+      of the tombs of the Ist and IId Dynasties at Abydos, already described. At
+      Abu Roash and at Gîza, at the northern end of the Memphite necropolis,
+      several expeditions have had considerable success, notably those of the
+      American Dr. Reisner, assisted by Mr. Mace, who excavated the royal tombs
+      at Umm el-Ga’ab for Prof. Petrie, those of the German Drs. Steindorff and
+      Borchardt,&mdash;the latter working for the <i>Beutsch-Orient Gesellschaft</i>,&mdash;and
+      those of other American excavators. Until the full publication of the
+      results of these excavations appears, very little can be said about them.
+      Many mastaba-tombs have, it is understood, been found, with interesting
+      remains. Nothing of great historical importance seems to have been
+      discovered, however. It is otherwise when we come to the discoveries of
+      Messrs. Borchardt and Schâfer at Abusîr, south of Gîza and north of
+      Sakkâra. At this place results of first-rate historical importance have
+      been attained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The main group of pyramids at Abusir consists of the tombs of the kings
+      Sahurà, Neferarikarâ, and Ne-user-Râ, of the Vth Dynasty. The pyramids
+      themselves are smaller than those of Gîza, but larger than those of
+      Sakkâra. In general appearance and effect they resemble those of Gîza, but
+      they are not so imposing, as the desert here is low. Those of Gîza,
+      Sakkâra, and Dashûr owe much of their impressiveness to the fact that they
+      are placed at some height above the cultivated land. The excavation and
+      planning of these pyramids were carried out by Messrs. Borchardt and
+      Schâfer at the expense of Baron von Bissing, the well-known Egyptologist
+      of Munich, and of the <i>Deutsch-Orient Gesell-schaft</i> of Berlin. The
+      antiquities found have been divided between the museums of Berlin and
+      Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the most noteworthy discoveries was that of the funerary temple of
+      Ne-user-Râ, which stood at the base of his pyramid. The plan is
+      interesting, and the granite lotus-bud columns found are the most ancient
+      yet discovered in Egypt. Much of the paving and the wainscoting of the
+      walls was of fine black marble, beautifully polished. An interesting find
+      was a basin and drain with lion’s-head mouth, to carry away the blood of
+      the sacrifices. Some sculptures in relief were discovered, including a
+      gigantic representation of the king and the goddess Isis, which shows that
+      in the early days of the Vth Dynasty the king and the gods were already
+      depicted in exactly the same costume as they wore in the days of the
+      Ramses and the Ptolemies. The hieratic art of Egypt had, in fact, now
+      taken on itself the final outward appearance which it retained to the very
+      end. There is no more of the archaism and absence of conventionality,
+      which marks the art of the earliest dynasties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We can trace by successive steps the swift development of Egyptian art
+      from the rude archaism of the Ist Dynasty to its final consummation under
+      the Vth, when the conventions became fixed. In the time of Khäsekhemui, at
+      the beginning of the IId Dynasty, the archaic character of the art has
+      already begun to wear off. Under the same dynasty we still have styles of
+      unconventional naïveté, such as the famous Statue “No. 1” of the Cairo
+      Museum, bearing the names of Kings Hetepahaui, Neb-râ, and Neneter. But
+      with the IVth Dynasty we no longer look for unconventionality. Prof.
+      Petrie discovered at Abydos a small ivory statuette of Khufu or Cheops,
+      the builder of the Great Pyramid of Gîza. The portrait is a good one and
+      carefully executed. It was not till the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
+      indeed, that the Egyptians ceased to portray their kings as they really
+      were, and gave them a purely conventional type of face. This convention,
+      against which the heretical King Amenhetep IV (Akhunaten) rebelled, in
+      order to have himself portrayed in all his real ungainliness and ugliness,
+      did not exist till long after the time of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0005" id="linkBimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:50%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/100.jpg"
+       alt="100.jpg Statue No. 1 of the Cairo Museum, About 3900 B.C." />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The kings of the XIIth Dynasty especially were most careful that their
+      statues should be accurate portraits; indeed, the portraits of Usertsen
+      (Senusret) III vary from a young face to an old one, showing that the king
+      was faithfully depicted at different periods of his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the general conventions of dress and deportment were finally fixed
+      under the Vth Dynasty. After this time we no longer have such absolutely
+      faithful and original presentments as the other little ivory statuette
+      found by Prof. Petrie at Abydos (now in the British Museum), which shows
+      us an aged monarch of the Ist Dynasty. It is obvious that the features are
+      absolutely true to life, and the figure wears an unconventionally
+      party-coloured and bordered robe of a kind which kings of a later day may
+      have worn in actual life, but which they would assuredly never be depicted
+      as wearing by the artists of their day. To the end of Egyptian history,
+      the kings, even the Roman emperors, were represented on the monuments
+      clothed in the official costume of their ancestors of the IVth and Vth
+      Dynasties, in the same manner as we see Khufu wearing his robe in the
+      little figure from Abydos, and Ne-user-Rà on the great relief from Abusîr.
+      There are one or two exceptions, such as the representations of the
+      original genius Akhunaten at Tell el-Amarna and the beautiful statue of
+      Ramses II at Turin, in which we see these kings wearing the real costume
+      of their time, but such exceptions are very rare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The art of Abusîr is therefore of great interest, since it marks the end
+      of the development of the priestly art. Secular art might develop as it
+      liked, though the crystallizing influence of the ecclesiastical canon is
+      always evident here also. But henceforward it was an impiety, which only
+      an Akhunaten could commit, to depict a king or a god on the walls of a
+      temple otherwise (except so far as, the portrait was concerned) than as he
+      had been depicted in the time of the Vth Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other buildings have been excavated by the Germans at Abusîr, notably the
+      usual town of mastaba-tombs belonging to the chief dignitaries of the
+      reign, which is always found at the foot of a royal pyramid of this
+      period. Another building of the highest interest, belonging to the same
+      age, was also excavated, and its true character was determined. This is a
+      building at a place called er-Rîgha or Abû Ghuraib, “Father of Crows,”
+       between Abusîr and Gîza. It was formerly supposed to be a pyramid, but the
+      German excavations have shown that it is really a temple of the Sun-god Râ
+      of Heliopolis, specially venerated by the kings of the Vth Dynasty, who
+      were of Heliopolitan origin. The great pyramid-builders of the IVth
+      Dynasty seem to have been the last true Memphites. At the end of the reign
+      of Shepseskaf, the last monarch of the dynasty, the sceptre passed to a
+      Heliopolitan family. The following VIth Dynasty may again have been
+      Memphite, but this is uncertain. The capital continued to be Memphis, and
+      from the beginning of the Hid Dynasty to the end of the Old Kingdom and
+      the rise of Herakle-opolis and Thebes, Memphis remained the chief city of
+      Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Heliopolitans were naturally the servants of the Sun-god above all
+      other gods, and they were the first to call themselves “Sons of the Sun,”
+       a title retained by the Pharaohs throughout all subsequent history. It was
+      Ne-user-Râ who built the Sun-temple of Abu Ghuraib, on the edge of the
+      desert, north of his pyramid and those of his two immediate predecessors
+      at Abusir. As now laid bare by the excavations of 1900, it is seen to
+      consist of an artificial mound, with a great court in front to the
+      eastward. On the mound was erected a truncated obelisk, the stone emblem
+      of the Sun-god. The worshippers in the court below looked towards the
+      Sun’s stone erected upon its mound in the west, the quarter of the sun’s
+      setting; for the Sun-god of Heliopolis was primarily the setting sun,
+      Tum-Râ, not Râ Harmachis, the rising sun, whose emblem is the Great Sphinx
+      at Gîza, which looks towards the east. The sacred emblem of the
+      Heliopolitan Sun-god reminds us forcibly of the Semitic <i>bethels</i> or
+      <i>baetyli</i>, the sacred stones of Palestine, and may give yet another
+      hint of the Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan cult. In the court of the
+      temple is a huge circular altar of fine alabaster, several feet across, on
+      which slain oxen were offered to the Sun, and behind this, at the eastern
+      end of the court, are six great basins of the same stone, over which the
+      beasts were slain, with drains running out of them by which their blood
+      was carried away. This temple is a most interesting monument of the
+      civilization of the “Old Kingdom” at the time of the Vth Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Sakkâra itself, which lies a short distance south of Abusir, no new
+      royal tombs have, as has been said, been discovered of late years. But a
+      great deal of work has been done among the private mastaba-tombs by the
+      officers of the <i>Service des Antiquités</i>, which reserves to itself
+      the right of excavation here and at Dashûr. The mastaba of the sage and
+      writer Kagernna (or rather Gemnika, “I-have-found-a-ghost,” which sounds
+      very like an American Indian appellation) is very fine.
+      “I-have-found-a-ghost” lived in the reign of the king Tatkarâ Assa, the
+      “Tancheres” of Manetho, and he wrote maxims like his great contemporary
+      Phtahhetep (“Offered to Phtah”), who was also buried at Sakkâra. The
+      officials of the <i>Service des Antiquités</i> who cleaned the tomb
+      unluckily misread his name Ka-bi-n (an impossible form which could only
+      mean, literally translated, “Ghost-soul-of” or “Ghost-soul-to-me”), and
+      they have placed it in this form over the entrance to his tomb. This
+      mastaba, like those, already known, of Mereruka (sometimes misnamed
+      “Mera”) and the famous Ti, both also at Sakkâra, contains a large number
+      of chambers, ornamented with reliefs. In the vicinity M. Grébaut, then
+      Director of the Service of Antiquities, discovered a very interesting
+      Street of Tombs, a regular Via Sacra, with rows of tombs of the
+      dignitaries of the VIth Dynasty on either side of it. They are generally
+      very much like one another; the workmanship of the reliefs is fine, and
+      the portrait of the owner of the tomb is always in evidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several of the smaller mastabas have lately been disposed of to the
+      various museums, as they are liable to damage if they remain where they
+      stand; moreover, they are not of great value to the Museum of Cairo, but
+      are of considerable value to various museums which do not already possess
+      complete specimens of this class of tombs. A fine one, belonging to the
+      chief Uerarina, is now exhibited in the Assyrian Basement of the British
+      Museum; another is in the Museum of Leyden; a third at Berlin, and so on.
+      Most of these are simple tombs of one chamber. In the centre of the rear
+      wall we always see the <i>stele</i> or gravestone proper, built into the
+      fabric of the tomb. Before this stood the low table of offerings with a
+      bowl for oblations, and on either side a tall incense-altar. From the
+      altar the divine smoke (<i>senetr</i>) arose when the <i>hen-ka</i>, or
+      priest of the ghost (literally, “Ghost’s Servant”), performed his duty of
+      venerating the spirits of the deceased, while the <i>Kher-heb</i>, or
+      cantor, enveloped in the mystic folds of the leopard-skin and with bronze
+      incense-burner in hand, sang the holy litanies and spells which should
+      propitiate the ghost and enable him to win his way to ultimate perfection
+      in the next world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stele is always in the form of a door with pyloni-form cornice. On
+      either side is a figure of the deceased, and at the sides are carved
+      prayers to Anubis, and at a later date to Osiris, who are implored to give
+      the funerary meats and “everything good and pure on which the god there
+      (as the dead man in the tomb has been constituted) lives;” often we find
+      that the biography and list of honorary titles and dignities of the
+      deceased have been added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sakkâra was used as a place of burial in the latest as well as in the
+      earliest time. The Egyptians of the XXVIth Dynasty, wearied of the long
+      decadence and devastating wars which had followed the glorious epoch of
+      the conquering Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, turned for a
+      new and refreshing inspiration to the works of the most ancient kings,
+      when Egypt was a simple self-contained country, holding no intercourse
+      with outside lands, bearing no outside burdens for the sake of pomp and
+      glory, and knowing nothing of the decay and decadence which follows in the
+      train of earthly power and grandeur. They deliberately turned their backs
+      on the worn-out and discredited imperial trappings of the Thothmes and
+      Ramses, and they took the supposed primitive simplicity of the Snefrus,
+      the Khufus, and the Ne-user-Râs for a model and ensampler to their lives.
+      It was an age of conscious and intended archaism, and in pursuit of the
+      archaistic ideal the Mem-phites of the Saïte age had themselves buried in
+      the ancient necropolis of Sakkâra, side by side with their ancestors of
+      the time of the Vth and VIth Dynasties. Several of these tombs have lately
+      been discovered and opened, and fitted with modern improvements. One or
+      two of them, of the Persian period, have wells (leading to the sepulchral
+      chamber) of enormous depth, down which the modern tourist is enabled to
+      descend by a spiral iron staircase. The Serapeum itself is lit with
+      electricity, and in the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes nothing disturbs the
+      silence but the steady thumping pulsation of the dynamo-engine which
+      lights the ancient sepulchres of the Pharaohs. Thus do modern ideas and
+      inventions help us to see and so to understand better the works of ancient
+      Egypt. But it is perhaps a little too much like the Yankee at the Court of
+      King Arthur. The interiors of the later tombs are often decorated with
+      reliefs which imitate those of the early period, but with a kind of
+      delicate grace which at once marks them for what they are, so that it is
+      impossible to confound them with the genuine ancient originals from which
+      they were adapted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Riding from Sakkâra southwards to Dashûr, we pass on the way the gigantic
+      stone mastaba known as the <i>Mastabat el-Fara’ûn</i>, “Pharaoh’s Bench.”
+       This was considered to be the tomb of the Vth Dynasty king, Unas, until
+      his pyramid was found by Prof. Maspero at Sakkâra. From its form it might
+      be thought to belong to a monarch of the Hid Dynasty, but the great size
+      of the stone blocks of which it is built seems to point rather to the
+      XIIth. All attempts to penetrate its secret by actual excavation have been
+      unavailing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Further south across the desert we see from the Mastabat el-Fara’ûn four
+      distinct pyramids, symmetrically arranged in two lines, two in each line.
+      The two to the right are great stone erections of the usual type, like
+      those of Gîza and Abusîr, and the southernmost of them has a peculiar
+      broken-backed appearance, due to the alteration of the angle of
+      inclination of its sides during construction. Further, it is covered
+      almost to the ground by the original casing of polished white limestone
+      blocks, so that it gives a very good idea of the original appearance of
+      the other pyramids, which have lost their casing. These two pyramids very
+      probably belong to kings of the Hid Dynasty, as does the Step-Pyramid of
+      Sakkâra. They strongly resemble the Gîza type, and the northernmost of the
+      two looks very like an understudy of the Great Pyramid. It seems to mark
+      the step in the development of the royal pyramid which was immediately
+      followed by the Great Pyramid. But no excavations have yet proved the
+      accuracy of this view. Both pyramids have been entered, but nothing has
+      been found in them. It is very probable that one of them is the second
+      pyramid of Snefru.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other two pyramids, those nearest the cultivation, are of very
+      different appearance. They are half-ruined, they are black in colour, and
+      their whole effect is quite different from that of the stone pyramids. For
+      they are built of brick, not of stone. They are pyramids, it is true, but
+      of a different material and of a different date from those which we have
+      been describing. They are built above the sepulchres of kings of the XIIth
+      Dynasty, the Theban house which transferred its residence northwards to
+      the neighbourhood of the ancient Northern capital. We have, in fact,
+      reached the end of the Old Kingdom at Sakkâra; at Dashûr begin the
+      sepulchres of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramids are still built, but they are
+      not always of stone; brick is used, usually with stone in the interior.
+      The general effect of these brick pyramids, when new, must have been
+      indistinguishable from that of the stone ones, and even now, when it has
+      become half-ruined, such a great brick pyramid as that of Usertsen
+      (Senusret) III at Dashûr is not without impressiveness. After all, there
+      is no reason why a brick building should be less admirable than a stone
+      one. And in its own way the construction of such colossal masses of bricks
+      as the two eastern pyramids of Dashûr must have been as arduous, even as
+      difficult, as that of building a moderate-sized stone pyramid. The
+      photograph of the brick pyramids of Dashûr on this page shows well the
+      great size of these masses of brickwork, which are as impressive as any of
+      the great brick structures of Babylonia and Assyria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0006" id="linkBimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/109.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="109.jpg Exterior of the Southern Brick Pyramid Of Dashur " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+EXTERIOR OF THE SOUTHERN BRICK PYRAMID OF DASHÛR:<br/>
+XIITH DYNASTY.<br/>
+Excavated by M. de Morgan, 1895. This is the secondary tomb of Amenemhat III;
+about 2200 B.C.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The XIIth Dynasty use of brick for the royal tombs was a return to the
+      custom of earlier days, for from the time of Aha to that Tjeser, from the
+      1st Dynasty to the Hid, brick had been used for the building of the royal
+      mastaba-tombs, out of which the pyramids had developed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point, where we take leave of the great pyramids of the Old
+      Kingdom, we may notice the latest theory as to the building of these
+      monuments, which has of late years been enunciated by Dr. Borchardt, and
+      is now generally accepted. The great Prussian explorer Lepsius, when he
+      examined the pyramids in the ‘forties, came to the conclusion that each
+      king, when he ascended the throne, planned a small pyramid for himself.
+      This was built in a few years’ time, and if his reign were short, or if he
+      were unable to enlarge the pyramid for other reasons, it sufficed for his
+      tomb. If, however, his reign seemed likely to be one of some length, after
+      the first plan was completed he enlarged his pyramid by building another
+      and a larger one around it and over it. Then again, when this addition was
+      finished, and the king still reigned and was in possession of great
+      resources, yet another coating, so to speak, was put on to the pyramid,
+      and so on till colossal structures like the First and Second Pyramid of
+      Giza, which, we know, belonged to kings who were unusually long-lived,
+      were completed. And finally the aged monarch died, and was buried in the
+      huge tomb which his long life and his great power had enabled him to
+      erect. This view appeared eminently reasonable at the time, and it seemed
+      almost as though we ought to be able to tell whether a king had reigned
+      long or not by the size of his pyramid, and even to obtain a rough idea of
+      the length of his reign by counting the successive coats or accretions
+      which it had received, much as we tell the age of a tree by the rings in
+      its bole. A pyramid seemed to have been constructed something after the
+      manner of an onion or a Chinese puzzle-box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0007" id="linkBimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/111.jpg"
+       alt="111.jpg the Pyramids of Giza During The Inundation." />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Prof. Pétrie, however, who examined the Griza pyramids in 1881, and
+      carefully measured them all up and finally settled their trigonometrical
+      relation, came to the conclusion that Lepsius’s theory was entirely
+      erroneous, and that every pyramid was built and now stands as it was
+      originally planned. Dr.Borchardt, however, who is an architect by
+      profession, has examined the pyramids again, and has come to the
+      conclusion that Prof. Pétrie’s statement is not correct, and that there is
+      an element of truth in Lepsius’s hypothesis. He has shown that several of
+      the pyramids, notably the First and Second at Giza, show unmistakable
+      signs of a modified, altered, and enlarged plan; in fact, long-lived kings
+      like Khufu seem to have added considerably to their pyramids and even to
+      have entirely remodelled them on a larger scale. This has certainly been
+      the case with the Great Pyramid. We can, then, accept Lepsius’s theory as
+      modified by Dr. Borchardt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another interesting point has arisen in connection with the Great Pyramid.
+      Considerable difference of opinion has always existed between
+      Egyptologists and the professors of European archaeology with regard to
+      the antiquity of the knowledge of iron in Egypt. The majority of the
+      Egyptologists have always maintained, on the authority of the
+      inscriptions, that iron was known to the ancient Egyptians from the
+      earliest period. They argued that the word for a certain metal in old
+      Egyptian was the same as the Coptic word for “iron.” They stated that in
+      the most ancient religious texts the Egyptians spoke of the firmament of
+      heaven as made of this metal, and they came to the conclusion that it was
+      because this metal was blue in colour, the hue of iron or steel; and they
+      further pointed out that some of the weapons in the tomb-paintings were
+      painted blue and others red, some being of iron, that is to say, others of
+      copper or bronze. Finally they brought forward as incontrovertible
+      evidence an actual fragment of worked iron, which had been found between
+      two of the inner blocks, down one of the air-shafts, in the Great Pyramid.
+      Here was an actual piece of iron of the time of the IVth Dynasty, about
+      3500 B.C.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This conclusion was never accepted by the students of the development of
+      the use of metal in prehistoric Europe, when they came to know of it. No
+      doubt their incredulity was partly due to want of appreciation of the
+      Egyptological evidence, partly to disinclination to accept a conclusion
+      which did not at all agree with the knowledge they had derived from their
+      own study of prehistoric Europe. In Southern Europe it was quite certain
+      that iron did not come into use till about 1000 B.C.; in Central Europe,
+      where the discoveries at Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut exhibit the
+      transition from the Age of Bronze to that of Iron, about 800 B.C. The
+      exclusively Iron Age culture of La Tène cannot be dated earlier than the
+      eighth century, if as early as that. How then was it possible that, if
+      iron had been known to the Egyptians as early as 3500 B.C., its knowledge
+      should not have been communicated to the Europeans until over two thousand
+      years later? No; iron could not have been really known to the Egyptians
+      much before 1000 B.C. and the Egyptological evidence was all wrong. This
+      line of argument was taken by the distinguished Swedish archaeologist,
+      Prof. Oscar Montelius, of Upsala, whose previous experience in dealing
+      with the antiquities of Northern Europe, great as it was, was hardly
+      sufficient to enable him to pronounce with authority on a point affecting
+      far-away African Egypt. And when dealing with Greek prehistoric
+      antiquities Prof. Montelius’s views have hardly met with that ready
+      agreement which all acknowledge to be his due when he is giving us the
+      results of his ripe knowledge of Northern antiquities. He has, in fact,
+      forgotten, as most “prehistoric” archaeologists do forget, that the
+      antiquities of Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, the Semites, the bronze-workers
+      of Benin, the miners of Zimbabwe, and the Ohio mound-builders are not to
+      be treated all together as a whole, and that hard and fast lines of
+      development cannot be laid down for them, based on the experience of
+      Scandinavia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may perhaps trace this misleading habit of thought to the influence of
+      the professors of natural science over the students of Stone Age and
+      Bronze Age antiquities. Because nature moves by steady progression and
+      develops on even lines&mdash;<i>nihil facit per sal-tum</i>&mdash;it seems
+      to have been assumed that the works of man’s hands have developed in the
+      same way, in a regular and even scheme all over the world. On this
+      supposition it would be impossible for the great discovery of the use of
+      iron to have been known in Egypt as early as 3500 B.C. for this knowledge
+      to have remained dormant there for two thousand years, and then to have
+      been suddenly communicated about 1000 B.C. to Greece, spreading with
+      lightning-like rapidity over Europe and displacing the use of bronze
+      everywhere. Yet, as a matter of fact, the work of man does develop in
+      exactly this haphazard way, by fits and starts and sudden leaps of
+      progress after millennia of stagnation. Throwsback to barbarism are just
+      as frequent. The analogy of natural evolution is completely inapplicable
+      and misleading.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prof. Montelius, however, following the “evolutionary” line of thought,
+      believed that because iron was not known in Europe till about 1000 B.C. it
+      could not have been known in Egypt much earlier; and in an important
+      article which appeared in the Swedish ethnological journal <i>Ymer</i> in
+      1883, entitled <i>Bronsaldrn i Egypten</i> (“The Bronze Age in Egypt”), he
+      essayed to prove the contrary arguments of the Egyptologists wrong. His
+      main points were that the colour of the weapons in the frescoes was of no
+      importance, as it was purely conventional and arbitrary, and that the
+      evidence of the piece of iron from the Great Pyramid was insufficiently
+      authenticated, and therefore valueless, in the absence of other definite
+      archaeological evidence in the shape of iron of supposed early date. To
+      this article the Swedish Egyptologist, Dr. Piehl, replied in the same
+      periodical, in an article entitled <i>Bronsaldem i Egypten</i>, in which
+      he traversed Prof. Montelius’s conclusions from the Egyptological point of
+      view, and adduced other instances of the use of iron in Egypt, all, it is
+      true, later than the time of the IVth Dynasty. But this protest received
+      little notice, owing to the fact that it remained buried in a Swedish
+      periodical, while Prof. Montelius’s original article was translated into
+      French, and so became well-known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the time Prof. Montelius’s conclusions were generally accepted, and
+      when the discoveries of the prehistoric antiquities were made by M. de
+      Morgan, it seemed more probable than ever that Egypt had gone through a
+      regular progressive development from the Age of Stone through those of
+      copper and bronze to that of iron, which was reached about 1100 or 1000
+      B.C. The evidence of the iron fragment from the Great Pyramid was put on
+      one side, in spite of the circumstantial account of its discovery which
+      had been given by its finders. Even Prof. Pétrie, who in 1881 had accepted
+      the pyramid fragment as undoubtedly contemporary with that building, and
+      had gone so far as to adduce additional evidence for its authenticity,
+      gave way, and accepted Montelius’s view, which held its own until in 1902
+      it was directly controverted by a discovery of Prof. Pétrie at Abydos.
+      This discovery consisted of an undoubted fragment of iron found in
+      conjunction with bronze tools of VIth Dynasty date; and it settled the
+      matter.<a href="#fn3.1" name="fnref3.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> The VIth Dynasty date of this piece of iron, which was more
+      probably worked than not (since it was buried with tools), was held to be
+      undoubted by its discoverer and by everybody else, and, if this were
+      undoubted, the IVth Dynasty date of the Great Pyramid fragment was also
+      fully established. The discoverers of the earlier fragment had no doubt
+      whatever as to its being contemporary with the pyramid, and were supported
+      in this by Prof. Pétrie in 1881. Therefore it is now known to be the fact
+      that iron was used by the Egyptians as early as 3500 B.C.<a href="#fn3.2" name="fnref3.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn3.1"></a> <a href="#fnref3.1">[1]</a>
+     See H. R. Hall’s note on “The Early Use of Iron in Egypt,”
+      in <i>Man</i> (the organ of the Anthropological Society of
+     London), iii (1903), No. 86.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn3.2"></a> <a href="#fnref3.2">[2]</a>
+     Prof. Montelius objected to these conclusions in a review
+     of the British Museum “Guide to the Antiquities of the
+     Bronze Age,” which was published in Man, 1005 (Jan.), No 7.
+     For an answer to these objections, see Hall, ibid., No. 40.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      It would thus appear that though the Egyptians cannot be said to have used
+      iron generally and so to have entered the “Iron Age” before about 1300
+      B.C. (reign of Ramses II), yet iron was well known to them and had been
+      used more than occasionally by them for tools and building purposes as
+      early as the time of the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C. Certainly dated
+      examples of its use occur under the IVth, VIth, and XIIIth Dynasties. Why
+      this knowledge was not communicated to Europe before about 1000 B.C. we
+      cannot say, nor are Egyptologists called upon to find the reason. So the
+      Great Pyramid has played an interesting part in the settlement of a very
+      important question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was supposed by Prof. Pétrie that the piece of iron from the Great
+      Pyramid had been part of some arrangement employed for raising the stones
+      into position. Herodotus speaks of the machines, which were used to raise
+      the stones, as made of little pieces of wood. The generally accepted
+      explanation of his meaning used to be that a small crane or similar wooden
+      machine was used for hoisting the stone by means of pulley and rope; but
+      M. Legrain, the director of the works of restoration in the Great Temple
+      of Karnak, has explained it differently. Among the “foundation deposits”
+       of the XVIIIth Dynasty at Dêr el-Bahari and elsewhere, beside the little
+      plaques with the king’s name and the model hoes and vases, was usually
+      found an enigmatic wooden object like a small cradle, with two sides made
+      of semicircular pieces of wood, joined along the curved portion by round
+      wooden bars. M. Legrain has now explained this as a model of the machine
+      used to raise heavy stones from tier to tier of a pyramid or other
+      building, and illustrations of the method of its use may be found in
+      Choisy’s <i>Art de Bâtir chez les anciens Egyptiens</i>. There is little
+      doubt that this primitive machine is that to which Herodotus refers as
+      having been used in the erection of the pyramids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The later historian, Diodorus, also tells us that great mounds or ramps of
+      earth were used as well, and that the stones were dragged up these to the
+      requisite height. There is no doubt that this statement also is correct.
+      We know that the Egyptians did build in this very way, and the system has
+      been revived by M. Legrain for his work at Karnak, where still exist the
+      remains of the actual mounds and ramps by which the great western pylon
+      was erected in Ptolemaïc times. Work carried on in this way is slow and
+      expensive, but it is eminently suited to the country and understood by the
+      people. If they wish to put a great stone architrave weighing many tons
+      across the top of two columns, they do not hoist it up into position; they
+      rear a great ramp or embankment of earth against the two pillars,
+      half-burying them in the process, then drag the architrave up the ramp by
+      means of ropes and men, and put it into position. Then the ramp is cleared
+      away. This is the ancient system which is now followed at Karnak, and it
+      is the system by which, with the further aid of the wooden machines, the
+      Great Pyramid and its compeers were erected in the days of the IVth
+      Dynasty. <i>Plus cela change, plus c’est la même chose</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brick pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty were erected in the same way, for
+      the Egyptians had no knowledge of the modern combination of wooden
+      scaffolding and ladders. There was originally a small stone pyramid of the
+      same dynasty at Dashûr, half-way between the two brick ones, but this has
+      now almost disappeared. It belonged to the king Amenemhat II, while the
+      others belonged, the northern to Usertsen (Sen-usret) III, the southern to
+      Amenemhat III. Both these latter monarchs had other tombs elsewhere,
+      Usertsen a great rock-cut gallery and chamber in the cliff at Abydos,
+      Amenemhat a pyramid not very far to the south, at Hawara, close to the
+      Fayyûm. It is uncertain whether the Hawara pyramid or that of Dashûr was
+      the real burial-place of the king, as at neither place is his name found
+      alone. At Hawara it is found in conjunction with that of his daughter, the
+      queen-regnant Se-bekneferurâ (Skemiophris), at Dashûr with that of a king
+      Auabrâ Hor, who was buried in a small tomb near that of the king, and
+      adjoining the tombs of the king’s children. Who King Hor was we do not
+      quite know. His name is not given in the lists, and was unknown until M.
+      de Morgan’s discoveries at Dashûr. It is most probable that he was a
+      prince who was given royal honours during the lifetime of Amenemhat III,
+      whom he predeceased.<a href="#fn3.3" name="fnref3.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> In the beautiful wooden statue of him found in his
+      tomb, which is now in the Cairo Museum, he is represented as quite a
+      youth. Amenemhat III was certainly succeeded by Amenemhat IV, and it is
+      impossible to intercalate Hor between them.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn3.3"></a> <a href="#fnref3.3">[3]</a>
+     See below, p. 121. Possibly he was a son of Amenemhat III.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The identification of the owners of the three western pyramids of Dashûr
+      is due to M. de Morgan and his assistants, Messrs. Legrain and Jéquier,
+      who excavated them from 1894 till 1896. The northern pyramid, that of
+      Usertsen (Senusret) III, is not so well preserved as the southern. It is
+      more worn away, and does not present so imposing an appearance. In both
+      pyramids the outer casing of white stone has entirely disappeared, leaving
+      only the bare black bricks. Each stood in the midst of a great necropolis
+      of dignitaries of the period, as was usually the case. Many of the
+      mastabas were excavated by M. de Morgan. Some are of older periods than
+      the XIIth Dynasty, one belonging to a priest of King Snefru, Aha-f-ka
+      (“Ghost-fighter”), who bore the additional titles of “director of prophets
+      and general of infantry.” There were pluralists even in those days. And
+      the distinction between the privy councillor (Geheimrat) and real privy
+      councillor (Wirk-licher-Greheimrat) was quite familiar; for we find it
+      actually made, many an old Egyptian officially priding himself in his tomb
+      on having been a real privy councillor! The Egyptian bureaucracy was
+      already ancient and had its survivals and its anomalies even as early as
+      the time of the pyramid-builders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In front of the pyramid of Usertsen (Senusret) III at one time stood the
+      usual funerary temple, but it has been totally destroyed. By the side of
+      the pyramid were buried some of the princesses of the royal family, in a
+      series of tombs opening out of a subterranean gallery, and in this gallery
+      were found the wonderful jewels of the princesses Sit-hathor and Merit,
+      which are among the greatest treasures of the Cairo Museum. Those who have
+      not seen them can obtain a perfect idea of their appearance from the
+      beautiful water-colour paintings of them by M. Legrain, which are
+      published in M. de Morgan’s work on the “Fouilles à Dahchour” (Vienna,
+      1895). Altogether one hundred and seven objects were recovered, consisting
+      of all kinds of jewelry in gold and coloured stones. Among the most
+      beautiful are the great “pectorals,” or breast-ornaments, in the shape of
+      pylons, with the names of Usertsen II, Usertsen III, and Amenemhat III;
+      the names are surrounded by hawks standing on the sign for gold, gryphons,
+      figures of the king striking down enemies, etc., all in <i>cloisonné</i>
+      work, with beautiful stones such as lapis lazuli, green felspar, and
+      carnelian taking the place of coloured enamels. The massive chains of
+      golden beads and cowries are also very remarkable. These treasures had
+      been buried in boxes in the floor of the subterranean gallery, and had
+      luckily escaped the notice of plunderers, and so by a fortunate chance
+      have survived to tell us what the Egyptian jewellers could do in the days
+      of the XIIth Dynasty. Here also were found two great Nile barges,
+      full-sized boats, with their oars and other gear complete. They also may
+      be seen in the Museum of Cairo. It can only be supposed that they had
+      served as the biers of the royal mummies, and had been brought up in state
+      on sledges. The actual royal chamber was not found, although a
+      subterranean gallery was driven beneath the centre of the pyramid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The southern brick pyramid was constructed in the same way as the northern
+      one. At the side of it were also found the tombs of members of the royal
+      house, including that of the king Hor, already mentioned, with its
+      interesting contents. The remains of the mummy of this ephemeral monarch,
+      known only from his tomb, were also found. The entrails of the king were
+      placed in the usual “canopic jars,” which were sealed with the seal of
+      Amenemhat III; it is thus that we know that Hor died before him. In many
+      of the inscriptions of this king, on his coffin and stelo, a peculiarly
+      affected manner of writing the hieroglyphs is found,&mdash;the birds are
+      without their legs, the snake has no tail, the bee no head. Birds are
+      found without their legs in other inscriptions of this period; it was a
+      temporary fashion and soon discarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the tomb of a princess named Nubhetep, near at hand, were found more
+      jewels of the same style as those of Sit-hathor and Merit. The pyramid
+      itself contained the usual passages and chambers, which were reached with
+      much difficulty and considerable tunnelling by M. de Morgan. In fact, the
+      search for the royal death-chambers lasted from December 5, 1894, till
+      March 17, 1895, when the excavators’ gallery finally struck one of the
+      ancient passages, which were found to be unusually extensive, contrasting
+      in this respect with the northern pyramid. The royal tomb-chamber had, of
+      course, been emptied of what it contained. It must be remembered that, in
+      any case, it is probable that the king was not actually buried here, but
+      in the pyramid of Hawara.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pyramid of Amenemhat II, which lies between the two brick pyramids,
+      was built entirely of stone. Nothing of it remains above ground, but the
+      investigation of the subterranean portions showed that it was remarkable
+      for the massiveness of its stones and the care with which the masonry was
+      executed. The same characteristics are found in the dependent tombs of the
+      princesses Ha and Khnumet, in which more jewelry was found. This splendid
+      stonework is characteristic of the Middle Kingdom; we find it also in the
+      temple of Mentuhetep III at Thebes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some distance south of Dashûr is Mêdûm, where the pyramid of Sneferu
+      reigns in solitude, and beyond this again is Lisht, where in the years
+      1894-6 MM. Gautier and Jéquier excavated the pyramid of Usertsen
+      (Sen-usret) I. The most remarkable find was a cache of the seated statues
+      of the king in white limestone, in absolutely perfect condition. They were
+      found lying on their sides, just as they had been hidden. Six figures of
+      the king in the form of Osiris, with the face painted red, were also
+      found. Such figures seem to have been regularly set up in front of a royal
+      sepulchre; several were found in front of the funerary temple of
+      Mentu-hetep III, Thebes, which we shall describe later. A fine altar of
+      gray granite, with representations in relief of the nomes bringing
+      offerings, was also recovered. The pyramid of Lisht itself is not built of
+      bricks, like those of Dashûr, but of stone. It was not, however, erected
+      in so solid a fashion as those of earlier days at Gîza or Abusîr, and
+      nothing is left of it now but a heap of débris. The XIIth Dynasty
+      architects built walls of magnificent masonry, as we have seen, and there
+      is no doubt that the stone casing of their pyramids was originally very
+      fine, but the interior is of brick or rubble; the wonderful system of
+      building employed by kings of the IVth Dynasty at Giza was not practised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      South of Lisht is Illahun, and at the entrance to the province of the
+      Fayyûm, and west of this, nearer the Fayyûm, is Hawara, where Prof. Petrie
+      excavated the pyramids of Usertsen (Senusret) II and Amenem-hat III. His
+      discoveries have already been described by Prof. Maspero in his history,
+      so that it will suffice here merely to compare them with the results of M.
+      de Morgan’s later work at Dashûr and that of MM. Gautier and Jéquier at
+      Lisht, to note recent conclusions in connection with them, and to describe
+      the newest discoveries in the same region.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both pyramids are of brick, lined with stone, like those of Dashûr, with
+      some differences of internal construction, since stone walls exist in the
+      interior. The central chambers and passages leading to them were
+      discovered; and in both cases the passages are peculiarly complex, with
+      dumb chambers, great stone portcullises, etc., in order to mislead and
+      block the way to possible plunderers. The extraordinary sepulchral chamber
+      of the Hawara pyramid, which, though it is over twenty-two feet long by
+      ten feet wide over all, is hewn out of one solid block of hard yellow
+      quartzite, gives some idea of the remarkable facility of dealing with huge
+      stones and the love of utilizing them which is especially characteristic
+      of the XIIth Dynasty. The pyramid of Hawara was provided with a funerary
+      temple the like of which had never been known in Egypt before and was
+      never known afterwards. It was a huge building far larger than the pyramid
+      itself, and built of fine limestone and crystalline white quartzite, in a
+      style eminently characteristic of the XIIth Dynasty. In actual superficies
+      this temple covered an extent of ground within which the temples of
+      Karnak, Luxor, and the Ramesseum, at Thebes, could have stood, but has now
+      almost entirely disappeared, having been used as a quarry for two thousand
+      years. In Roman times this destroying process had already begun, but even
+      then the building was still magnificent, and had been noted with wonder by
+      all the Greek visitors to Egypt from the time of Herodotus downwards. Even
+      before his day it had received the name of the “Labyrinth,” on account of
+      its supposed resemblance to the original labyrinth in Crete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That the Hawara temple was the Egyptian labyrinth was pointed out by
+      Lepsius in the ‘forties of the last century. Within the last two or three
+      years attention has again been drawn to it by Mr. Arthur Evans’s discovery
+      of the Cretan labyrinth itself in the shape of the Minoan or early
+      Mycenæan palace of Knossos, near Candia in Crete. It is impossible to
+      enter here into all the arguments by which it has been proved that the
+      Knossian palace is the veritable labyrinth of the Minotaur legend, nor
+      would it be strictly germane to our subject were we to do so; but it may
+      suffice to say here that the word
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:10%;">
+      <img src="images/125.jpg" width="100%" alt="125.jpg (greek Word) " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      has been proved to be of Greek-or rather of pre-Hellenic-origin, and would
+      mean in Karian “Place of the Double-Axe,” like La-braunda in Karia, where
+      Zeus was depicted with a double axe (labrys) in his hand. The non-Aryan,
+      “Asianic,” group of languages, to which certainly Lycian and probably
+      Karian belong, has been shown by the German philologer Kretschmer to have
+      spread over Greece into Italy in the period before the Aryan Greeks
+      entered Hellas, and to have left undoubted traces of its presence in Greek
+      place-names and in the Greek language itself. Before the true Hellenes
+      reached Crete, an Asianic dialect must have been spoken there, and to this
+      language the word “labyrinth” must originally have belonged. The classical
+      labyrinth was “in the Knossian territory.” The palace of Knossos was
+      emphatically the chief seat of the worship of a god whose emblem was the
+      double-axe; it was the Knossian “Place of the Double-Axe,” the Cretan
+      “Labyrinth.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It used to be supposed that the Cretan labyrinth had taken its name from
+      the Egyptian one, and the, word itself was supposed to be of Egyptian
+      origin. An Egyptian etymology was found for it as “<i>Ro-pi-ro-henet</i>,”
+       “Temple-mouth-canal,” which might be interpreted, with some violence to
+      Egyptian construction, as “The temple at the mouth of the canal,” i.e. the
+      Bahr Yusuf, which enters the Fayyûm at Hawara. But unluckily this word
+      would have been pronounced by the natives of the vicinity as
+      “Elphilahune,” which is not very much like
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:10%;">
+      <img src="images/126.jpg" width="100%" alt="126.jpg (greek Word) " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      “<i>Ro-pi-ro-henet</i>” is, in fact, a mere figment of the philological
+      imagination, and cannot be proved ever to have existed. The element <i>Ro-henet</i>,
+      “canal-mouth” (according to the local pronunciation of the Fayyûm and
+      Middle Egypt, called <i>La-hunè</i>), is genuine; it is the origin of the
+      modern Illahun (<i>el-Lahun</i>), which is situated at the “canal-mouth.”
+       However, now that we know that the word labyrinth can be explained
+      satisfactorily with the help of Karian, as evidently of Greek (pre-Aryan)
+      origin, and as evidently the original name of the Knossian labyrinth, it
+      is obvious that there is no need to seek a far-fetched explanation of the
+      word in Egypt, and to suppose that the Greeks called the Cretan labyrinth
+      after the Egyptian one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The contrary is evidently the case. Greek visitors to Egypt found a
+      resemblance between the great Egyptian building, with its numerous halls
+      and corridors, vast in extent, and the Knossian palace. Even if very
+      little of the latter was visible in the classical period, as seems
+      possible, yet the site seems always to have been kept holy and free from
+      later building till Roman times, and we know that the tradition of the
+      mazy halls and corridors of the labyrinth was always clear, and was
+      evidently based on a vivid reminiscence. Actually, one of the most
+      prominent characteristics of the Knossian palace is its mazy and
+      labyrinthine system of passages and chambers. The parallel between the two
+      buildings, which originally caused the Greek visitors to give the
+      pyramid-temple of Hawara the name of “labyrinth,” has been traced still
+      further. The white limestone walls and the shining portals of “Parian
+      marble,” described by Strabo as characteristic of the Egyptian labyrinth,
+      have been compared with the shining white selenite or gypsum used at
+      Knossos, and certain general resemblances between the Greek architecture
+      of the Minoan age and the almost contemporary Egyptian architecture of the
+      XIIth Dynasty have been pointed out.<a href="#fn3.4" name="fnref3.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> Such resemblances may go to swell
+      the amount of evidence already known, which tells us that there was a
+      close connection between Egyptian and Minoan art and civilization,
+      established at least as early as 2500 B.C.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn3.4"></a> <a href="#fnref3.4">[4]</a>
+     See H. R. Hall, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1905 (Pt.
+     ii). The Temple of the Sphinx at Gîza may also be compared
+     with those of Hawara and Knossos. It seems most probable
+     that the Temple of the Sphinx is a XIIth Dynasty building.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      For it must be remembered that within the last few years we have learned
+      from the excavations in Crete a new chapter of ancient history, which, it
+      might almost seem, shows us Greece and Egypt in regular communication from
+      nearly the beginnings of Egyptian history. As the excavations which have
+      told us this were carried on in Crete, not in Egypt, to describe them does
+      not lie within the scope of this book, though a short sketch of their
+      results, so far as they affect Egyptian history in later days, is given in
+      Chapter VII. Here it may suffice to say that, as far as the early period
+      is concerned, Egypt and Crete were certainly in communication in the time
+      of the XIIth Dynasty, and quite possibly in that of the VIth or still
+      earlier. We have IIId Dynasty Egyptian vases from Knossos, which were
+      certainly not imported in later days, for no ancient nation had
+      antiquarian tastes till the time of the Saïtes in Egypt and of the Romans
+      still later. In fact, this communication seems to go so far back in time
+      that we are gradually being led to perceive the possibility that the
+      Minoan culture of Greece was in its origin an offshoot from that of
+      primeval Egypt, probably in early Neolithic times. That is to say, the
+      Neolithic Greeks and Neolithic Egyptians were both members of the same
+      “Mediterranean” stock, which quite possibly may have had its origin in
+      Africa, and a portion of which may have crossed the sea to Europe in very
+      early times, taking with it the seeds of culture which in Egypt developed
+      in the Egyptian way, in Greece in the Greek way. Actual communication and
+      connection may not have been maintained at first, and probably they were
+      not. Prof. Petrie thinks otherwise, and would see in the boats painted on
+      the predynastic Egyptian vases (see Chapter I) the identical galleys by
+      which, in late Neolithic times, commerce between Crete and Egypt was
+      carried on across the Mediterranean. It is certain, however, that these
+      boats are ordinary little river craft, the usual Nile <i>felûkas</i> and
+      <i>gyassas</i> of the time; they are depicted together with emblems of the
+      desert and cultivated land,-ostriches, antelopes, hills, and
+      palm-trees,-and the thoroughly inland and Upper Egyptian character of the
+      whole design springs to the eye. There can be no doubt whatever that the
+      predynastic boats were not seagoing galleys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was probably not till the time of the pyramid-builders that connection
+      between the Greek Mediterraneans and the Nilotes was re-established.
+      Thence-forward it increased, and in the time of the XIIth Dynasty, when
+      the labyrinth of Amenemhat III was built, there seems to have been some
+      kind of more or less regular communication between the two countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is certain that artistic ideas were exchanged between them at this
+      period. How communication was carried on we do not know, but it was
+      probably rather by way of Cyprus and the Syrian coast than directly across
+      the open sea. We shall revert to this point when we come to describe the
+      connection between Crete and Egypt in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
+      when Cretan ambassadors visited the Egyptian court and were depicted in
+      tomb paintings at Thebes. Between the time of the XIIth Dynasty and that
+      of the XVIIIth this connection seems to have been very considerably
+      strengthened; for at Knossos have been found an Egyptian statuette of an
+      Egyptian named Abnub, who from his name must have lived about the end of
+      the XIIIth Dynasty, and the top of an alabastron with the royal name of
+      Khian, one of the Hyksos kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quite close to Hawara, at Illahun, in the ruins of the town which was
+      built by Usertsen’s workmen when they were building his pyramid, Prof.
+      Petrie found fragments of pottery of types which we now know well from
+      excavations in Crete and Cyprus, though they were then unknown. They are
+      fragments of the polychrome Cretan ware called, after the name of the
+      place where it was first found in Crete, Kamares ware, and of a black ware
+      ornamented with small punctures, which are often filled up with white.
+      This latter ware has been found elsewhere associated with XIIIth Dynasty
+      antiquities. The former is known to belong in Crete to the “early Minoan”
+       period, long anterior to the “late Minoan” or “Palace” period, which was
+      contemporary with the Egyptian XVIIIth Dynasty. We have here another
+      interesting proof of a connection between XIIth Dynasty Egypt and early
+      Minoan Crete. The later connection, under the XVIIIth and following
+      dynasties, is also illustrated in the same reign by Prof. Petrie’s finds
+      of late Mycenaean objects and foreign graves at Medinet Gurob.<a href="#fn3.5" name="fnref3.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn3.5"></a> <a href="#fnref3.5">[5]</a>
+     One man who was buried here bore the name An-Tursha,
+     “Pillar of the Tursha.” The Tursha were a people of the
+     Mediterranean, possibly Tylissians of Crete.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      These excavations at Hawara, Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob were carried out in
+      the years 1887-9. Since then Prof. Petrie and his co-workers have
+      revisited the same district, and Gurob has been re-examined (in 1904) by
+      Messrs. Loat and Ayrton, who discovered there a shrine devoted to the
+      worship of fish. This work was carried on at the same time as Prof.
+      Petrie’s main excavation for the Egypt Exploration Fund at Annas, or
+      Ahnas-yet el-Medina, the site of the ancient Henensu, the Herakleopolis of
+      the Greeks. Prof. Naville had excavated there for the Egypt Exploration
+      Fund in 1892, but had not completely cleared the temple. This work was now
+      taken up by Prof. Petrie, who laid the whole building bare. It is
+      dedicated to Hershefi, the local deity of Herakleopolis. This god, who was
+      called Ar-saphes by the Greeks, and identified with Herakles, was in fact
+      a form of Horus with the head of a ram; his name means “Terrible-Face.”
+       The greater part of the temple dates to the time of the XIXth Dynasty, and
+      nothing of the early period is left. We know, however, that the Middle
+      Kingdom was the flourishing period of the city of Hershefi. For a
+      comparatively brief period, between the age of Memphite hegemony and that
+      of Theban dominion, Herakleopolis was the capital city of Egypt. The kings
+      of the IXth and Xth Dynasties were Herakleopolites, though we know little
+      of them. One, Kheti, is said to have been a great tyrant. Another,
+      Nebkaurâ, is known only as a figure in the “Legend of the Eloquent
+      Peasant,” a classical story much in vogue in later days. Another,
+      Merikarâ, is a more real personage, for we have contemporary records of
+      his days in the inscriptions of the tombs at Asyût, from which we see that
+      the princes of Thebes were already wearing down the Northerners, in spite
+      of the resistance of the adherents of Herakleopolis, among whom the most
+      valiant were the chiefs of Asyût. The civil war eventuated in favour of
+      Thebes, and the Theban XIth Dynasty assumed the double crown. The sceptre
+      passed from Memphis and the North, and Thebes enters upon the scene of
+      Egyptian history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this event the Nile-land also entered upon a new era of development.
+      The metropolis of the kingdom was once more shifted to the South, and,
+      although the kings of the XIIth Dynasty actually resided in the North,
+      their Theban origin was never forgotten, and Thebes was regarded as the
+      chief city of the country. The XIth Dynasty kings actually reigned at
+      Thebes, and there the later kings of the XIIIth Dynasty retired after the
+      conquest of the Hyksos. The fact that with Thebes were associated all the
+      heroic traditions of the struggle against the Hyksos ensured the final
+      stability of the capital there when the hated Semites were finally driven
+      out, and the national kingdom was re-established in its full extent from
+      north to south. But for occasional intervals, as when Akhunaten held his
+      court at Tell el-Amarna and Ramses II at Tanis, Thebes remained the
+      national capital for six hundred years, till the time of the XXIId
+      Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another great change which differentiates the Middle Kingdom (XIth-XIIIth
+      Dynasties) from the Old Kingdom was caused by Egypt’s coming into contact
+      with other outside nations at this period. During the whole history of the
+      Old Kingdom, Egyptian relations with the outer world had been nil. We have
+      some inkling of occasional connection with the Mediterranean peoples, the
+      <i>Ha-nebu</i> or Northerners; we have accounts of wars with the people of
+      Sinai and other Bedawin and negroes; and expeditions were also sent to the
+      land of Punt (Somaliland) by way of the Upper Nile. But we have not the
+      slightest hint of any connection with, or even knowledge of, the great
+      nations of the Euphrates valley or the peoples of Palestine. The
+      Babylonian king Narâm-Sin invaded the Sinaitic peninsula (the land of
+      Magan) as early as 3750 b. c, about the time of the IIId Egyptian Dynasty.
+      The great King Tjeser, of that dynasty, also invaded Sinai, and so did
+      Snefru, the last king of the dynasty. But we have no hint of any collision
+      between Babylonians and Egyptians at that time, nor do either of them
+      betray the slightest knowledge of one another’s existence. It can hardly
+      be that the two civilized peoples of the world in those days were really
+      absolutely ignorant of each other, but we have no trace of any connection
+      between them, other than the possible one before the founding of the
+      Egyptian monarchy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This early connection, however, is very problematical. We have seen that
+      there seems to be in early Egyptian civilization an element ultimately of
+      Babylonian origin, and that there are two theories as to how it reached
+      Egypt. One supposes that it was brought by a Semitic people of Arab
+      affinities (represented by the modern Grallas), who crossed the Straits of
+      Bab el-Man-deb and reached Egypt either by way of the Wadi Hammamat or by
+      the Upper Nile. The other would bring it across the Isthmus of Suez to the
+      Delta, where, at Heliopolis, there certainly seems to have been a
+      settlement of a Semitic type of very ancient culture. In both cases we
+      should have Semites bringing Babylonian culture to Egypt. This, as we may
+      remind the reader, was not itself of Semitic origin, but was a development
+      due to a non-Semitic people, the Sumerians as they are called, who, so far
+      as we know, were the aboriginal inhabitants of Babylonia. The Sumerian
+      language was of agglutinative type, radically distinct both from the pure
+      Semitic idioms and from Egyptian. The Babylonian elements of culture which
+      the early Semitic invaders brought with them to Egypt were, then,
+      ultimately of Sumerian origin. Sumerian civilization had profoundly
+      influenced the Semitic tribes for centuries before the Semitic conquest of
+      Babylonia, and when the Sumerians became more and more a conquered race,
+      finally amalgamating with their conquerors and losing their racial and
+      linguistic individuality, they were conquered by an alien race but not by
+      an alien culture. For the culture of the Semites was Sumerian, the Semitic
+      races owing their civilization to the Sumerians. That is as much as to say
+      that a great deal of what we call Semitic culture is fundamentally
+      non-Semitic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the earliest days, then, Egypt received elements of Sumerian culture
+      through a Semitic medium, which introduced Semitic elements into the
+      language of the people, and a Semitic racial strain. It is possible. that
+      both theories as to the routes of these primeval conquerors are true, and
+      that two waves of Semites entered the Nile valley towards the close of the
+      Neolithic period, one by way of the Upper Nile or Wadi Hammamat, the other
+      by way of Heliopolis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the reconsolidation of the Egyptian people, with perhaps an
+      autocratic class of Semitic origin and a populace of indigenous Nilotic
+      race, we have no trace of further connection with the far-away centre of
+      Semitic culture in Babylonia till the time of the Theban hegemony. Under
+      the XIIth Dynasty we see Egyptians in friendly relations with the Bedawin
+      of Idumsea and Southern Palestine. Thus Sanehat, the younger son of
+      Amenemhat I, when the death of his royal father was announced, fled from
+      the new king Usertsen (Senusret) into Palestine, and there married the
+      daughter of the chief Ammuanshi and became a Syrian chief himself, only
+      finally returning to Egypt as an old man on the assurance of the royal
+      pardon and favour. We have in the reign of Usertsen (Senusret) II the
+      famous visit of the Arab chief Abisha (Abêshu’) with his following to the
+      court of Khnumhetep, the prince of the Oryx nome in Middle Egypt, as we
+      see it depicted on the walls of Khnumhetep’s tomb at Beni Hasan. We see
+      Usertsen (Senusret) III invading Palestine to chastise the land of Sekmem
+      and the vile Syrians.<a href="#fn3.6" name="fnref3.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn3.6"></a> <a href="#fnref3.6">[6]</a>
+     We know of this campaign from the interesting historical
+     stele of the general Sebek-khu (who took part in it), which
+     was found during Mr. Garstang’s excavations at Abydos, not
+     previously referred to above. They were carried out in 1900,
+     and resulted in the complete clearance of a part of the
+     great cemetery which had been created during the XIIth
+     Dynasty. The group of objects from the tombs of this
+     cemetery, and those of XVIIIth Dynasty tombs also found, is
+     especially valuable as showing the styles of objects in use
+     at these two periods (see Garstang, el-Ardbah, 1901).
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The arm of Egypt was growing longer, and its weight was being felt in
+      regions where it had previously been entirely unknown. Eventually the
+      collision came. Egypt collided with an Asiatic power, and got the worst of
+      the encounter. So much the worse that the Theban monarchy of the Middle
+      Kingdom was overthrown, and Northern Egypt was actually conquered by the
+      Asiatic foreigners and ruled by a foreign house for several centuries. Who
+      these conquering Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were no recent discovery has
+      told us. An old idea was that they were Mongols. It was supposed that the
+      remarkable faces of the sphinxes of Tanis, now in the Cairo Museum, which
+      bore the names of Hyksos kings, were of Mongolian type, as also those of
+      two colossal royal heads discovered by M. Naville at Bubastis. But M.
+      Golénischeff has now shown that these heads are really those of XIIth
+      Dynasty kings, and not of Hyksos at all. Messrs. Newberry and Garstang
+      have lately endeavoured to show that this type was foreign, and probably
+      connected with that of the Kheta, or Hittites, of Northern Syria, who came
+      into prominence as enemies of Egypt at a later period. They think that the
+      type was introduced into the Egyptian royal family by Nefret, the queen of
+      Usertsen (Senusret) II, whom they suppose to have been a Hittite princess.
+      At the same time they think it probable that the type was also that of the
+      Hyksos, whom they consider to have been practically Hittites. They
+      therefore revive the theory of de Cara, which connects the Hyksos with the
+      Hittites and these with the Pelasgi and Tyrseni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is a very interesting theory, which, when carried out to its logical
+      conclusion, would connect the Hyksos and Hittites racially with the
+      pre-Hellenic “Minoan” Mycenseans of Greece, as well as with the Etruscans
+      of Italy. But there is little of certainty in it. It is by no means
+      impossible that we may eventually come to know that the Hittites (<i>Kheta</i>,
+      the <i>Khatte</i> of the Assyrians) and other tribes of Asia Minor were
+      racially akin to the “Minoans” of Greece, but the connection between the
+      Hyksos and the Hittites is to seek. The countenances of the Kheta on the
+      Egyptian monuments of Ramses II’s time have an angular cast, and so have
+      those of the Tanis sphinxes, of Queen Nefret, of the Bubastis statues, and
+      the statues of Usertsen (Senusret) III and Amenemhat III. We might then
+      suppose, with Messrs. Newberry and Garstang, that Nefret was a Kheta
+      princess, who gave her peculiar racial traits to her son Usertsen
+      (Senusret) III and his son Amenem-hat, were it not far more probable that
+      the resemblance between this peculiar XIIth Dynasty type and the Kheta
+      face is purely fortuitous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is really no reason to suppose that the type of face presented by
+      Nefret, Usertsen, and Amenemhat is not purely Egyptian. It may be seen in
+      many a modern fellah, and the truth probably is that the sculptors have in
+      the case of these rulers very faithfully and carefully depicted their
+      portraits, and that their faces happen to have been of a rather hard and
+      forbidding type. But, if we grant the contention of Messrs. Newberry and
+      Garstang for the moment, where is the connection between these XIIth
+      Dynasty kings and the Hyksos? All the Tanite monuments with this peculiar
+      facial type which would be considered Hyksos are certainly of the XIIth
+      Dynasty. The only statue of a Hyksos king, which was undoubtedly
+      originally made for him and is not one of the XIIth Dynasty usurped, is
+      the small one of Khian at Cairo, discovered by M. Naville at Bubastis, and
+      this has no head. So that we have not the slightest idea of what a Hyksos
+      looked like. Moreover, the evidence of the Hyksos names which are known to
+      us points in quite a different direction. The Kheta, or Hittites, were
+      certainly not Semites, yet the Hyksos names are definitely Semitic. In
+      fact it is most probable that the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were, as the
+      classical authorities say they were, and as their name (<i>hiku-semut</i>
+      or <i>hihu-shasu</i>,) “princes of the deserts” or (“princes of the
+      Bedawîn”) also testifies, purely and simply Arabs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it is not a little curious that almost at the same time that a nomad
+      Arab race conquered Lower Egypt and settled in it as rulers (just as ‘Amr
+      and the followers of Islam did over two thousand years later), another
+      Arab race may have imposed its rule upon Babylonia. Yet this may have been
+      the case; for the First Dynasty of Babylon, to which the famous Hammurabi
+      belonged, was very probably of Arab origin, to judge by the forms of some
+      of the royal names. It is by no means impossible that there was some
+      connection between these two conquests, and that both Babylonia and Egypt
+      fell, in the period before the year 2000 B.C. before some great migratory
+      movement from Arabia, which overran Babylonia, Palestine, and even the
+      Egyptian Delta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this manner Egypt and Babylonia may have been brought together in
+      common subjection to the Arab. We do not know whether any regular
+      communication between Egypt, under Semitic rule, and Babylonia was now
+      established; but we do know that during the Hyksos period there were
+      considerable relations between Egypt and over-sea Crete, and relations
+      with Mesopotamia may possibly have been established. At any rate, when the
+      war of liberation, which was directed by the princes of Thebes, was
+      finally brought to a successful conclusion and the Arabs were expelled, we
+      find the Egyptians a much changed nation. They had adopted for war the use
+      of horse and chariot, which they learnt from their Semitic conquerors,
+      whose victory was in all probability largely gained by their use, and,
+      generally speaking, they had become much more like the Western Asiatic
+      nations. Egypt was no longer isolated, for she had been forcibly brought
+      into contact with the foreign world, and had learned much. She was no
+      longer self-contained within her own borders. If the Semites could conquer
+      her, so could she conquer the Semites. Armed with horse and chariot, the
+      Egyptians went forth to battle, and their revenge was complete. All
+      Palestine and Syria were Egyptian domains for five hundred years after the
+      conquest by Thothmes I and III, and Ashur and Babel sent tribute to the
+      Pharaoh of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reaction came, and Egypt was thrown prostrate beneath the feet of
+      Assyria; but her claim to dominion over the Western Asiatics was never
+      abandoned, and was revived in all its pomp by Ptolemy Euergetes, who
+      brought back in triumph to Egypt the images of the gods which had been
+      removed by Assyrians and Babylonians centuries before. This claim was
+      never allowed by the Asiatics, it is true, and their kings wrote to the
+      proudest Pharaoh as to an absolute equal. Even the King of Cyprus calls
+      the King of Egypt his brother. But Palestine was admitted to be an
+      Egyptian possession, and the Phoenicians were always energetic supporters
+      of the Egyptian régime against the lawless Bedawîn tribes, who were
+      constantly intriguing with the Kheta or Hittite power to the north against
+      Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The existence of this extra-Egyptian imperial possession meant that the
+      eyes of the Egyptians were now permanently turned in the direction of
+      Western Asia, with which they were henceforth in constant and intimate
+      communication. The first Theban period and the Hyksos invasion, therefore,
+      mark a turning-point in Egyptian history, at which we may fitly leave it
+      for a time in order to turn our attention to those peoples of Western Asia
+      with whom the Egyptians had now come into permanent contact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as new discoveries have been made in Egypt, which have modified our
+      previous conception of her history, so also have the excavators of the
+      ancient sites in the Mesopotamian valley made, during the last few years,
+      far-reaching discoveries, which have enabled us to add to and revise much
+      of our knowledge of the history of Babylonia and Assyria. In Palestine and
+      the Sinaitic peninsula also the spade has been used with effect, but a
+      detailed account of work in Sinai and Palestine falls within the limits of
+      a description of Biblical discoveries rather than of this book. The
+      following chapters will therefore deal chiefly with modern discoveries
+      which have told us new facts with regard to the history of the ancient
+      Sumerians themselves, and of the Babylonians, Elamites, Kassites, and
+      Assyrians, the inheritors of the ancient Sumerian civilization, which was
+      older than that of Egypt, and which, as we have seen, probably contributed
+      somewhat to its formation. These were the two primal civilizations of the
+      ancient world. For two thousand years each marched upon a solitary road,
+      without meeting the other. Eventually the two roads converged. We have
+      hitherto dealt with the road of the Egyptians; we now describe that of the
+      Mesopotamians, up to the point of convergence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkB2HCH0002" id="linkB2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV&mdash;RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA <br /> AND THE DAWN OF
+      CHALDÆAN HISTORY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the preceding pages it has been shown how recent excavations in Egypt
+      have revealed an entirely new chapter in the history of that country, and
+      how, in consequence, our theories with regard to the origin of Egyptian
+      civilization have been entirely remodelled. Excavations have been and are
+      being carried out in Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries with no less
+      enthusiasm and energy than in Egypt itself, and, although it cannot be
+      said that they have resulted in any sweeping modification of our
+      conceptions with regard to the origin and kinship of the early races of
+      Western Asia, yet they have lately added considerably to our knowledge of
+      the ancient history of the countries in that region of the world. This is
+      particularly the case in respect of the Sumerians, who, so far as we know
+      at present, were the earliest inhabitants of the fertile plains of
+      Mesopotamia. The beginnings of this ancient people stretch back into the
+      remote past, and their origin is still shrouded in the mists of antiquity.
+      When first we come across them they have already attained a high level of
+      civilization. They have built temples and palaces and houses of burnt and
+      unburnt brick, and they have reduced their system of agriculture to a
+      science, intersecting their country with canals for purposes of irrigation
+      and to ensure a good supply of water to their cities. Their sculpture and
+      pottery furnish abundant evidence that they have already attained a
+      comparatively high level in the practice of the arts, and finally they
+      have evolved a complicated system of writing which originally had its
+      origin in picture-characters, but afterwards had been developed along
+      phonetic lines. To have attained to this pitch of culture argues long
+      periods of previous development, and we must conclude that they had been
+      settled in Southern Babylonia many centuries before the period to which we
+      must assign the earliest of their remains at present discovered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That this people were not indigenous to Babylonia is highly probable, but
+      we have little data by which to determine the region from which they
+      originally came. Prom the fact that they built their ziggurats, or temple
+      towers, of huge masses of unburnt brick which rose high above the
+      surrounding plain, and that their ideal was to make each “like a
+      mountain,” it has been argued that they were a mountain race, and the home
+      from which they sprang has been sought in Central Asia. Other scholars
+      have detected signs of their origin in their language and system of
+      writing, and, from the fact that they spoke an agglutinative tongue and at
+      the earliest period arranged the characters of their script in vertical
+      lines like the Chinese, it has been urged that they were of Mongol
+      extraction. Though a case may be made out for this hypothesis, it would be
+      rash to dogmatize for or against it, and it is wiser to await the
+      discovery of further material on which a more certain decision may be
+      based. But whatever their origin, it is certain that the Sumerians
+      exercised an extraordinary influence on all races with which, either
+      directly or indirectly, they came in contact. The ancient inhabitants of
+      Elam at a very early period adopted in principle their method of writing,
+      and afterwards, living in isolation in the mountainous districts of
+      Persia, developed it on lines of their own. [* See Chap. V, and note.] On
+      their invasion of Babylonia the Semites fell absolutely under Sumerian
+      influence, and, although they eventually conquered and absorbed the
+      Sumerians, their civilization remained Sumerian to the core. Moreover, by
+      means of the Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia Sumerian culture continued
+      to exert its influence on other and more distant races. We have already
+      seen how a Babylonian element probably enters into Egyptian civilization
+      through Semitic infiltration across the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb or by way
+      of the Isthmus of Suez, and it was Sumerian culture which these Semites
+      brought with them. In like manner, through the Semitic Babylonians, the
+      Assyrians, the Kassites, and the inhabitants of Palestine and Syria, and
+      of some parts of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan, all in turn
+      experienced indirectly the influence of Sumerian civilization and
+      continued in a greater or less degree to reproduce elements of this early
+      culture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be seen that the influence of the Sumerians furnishes us with a
+      key to much that would otherwise prove puzzling in the history of the
+      early races of Western Asia. It is therefore all the more striking to
+      recall the fact that but a few years ago the very existence of this
+      ancient people was called in question. At that time the excavations in
+      Mesopotamia had not revealed many traces of the race itself, and its
+      previous existence had been mainly inferred from a number of Sumerian
+      compositions inscribed upon Assyrian tablets found in the library of
+      Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh. These compositions were furnished with Assyrian
+      translations upon the tablets on which they were inscribed, and it was
+      correctly argued by the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, the late M. Oppert,
+      Prof. Schrader, Prof. Sayce, and other scholars that they were written in
+      the language of the earlier inhabitants of the country whom the Semitic
+      Babylonians had displaced. But M. Halévy started a theory to the effect
+      that Sumerian was not a language at all, in the proper sense of the term,
+      but was a cabalistic method of writing invented by the Semitic Babylonian
+      priests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0010" id="linkBimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/147.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="147.jpg List of Archaic Cuneiform Signs. " />
+    </div>
+<p class="caption">
+     Drawn up by an Assyrian scribe to assist him in his studies
+     of early texts. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The argument on which the upholders of this theory mainly relied was that
+      many of the phonetic values of the Sumerian signs were obviously derived
+      from Semitic equivalents, and they hastily jumped to the conclusion that
+      the whole language was similarly derived from Semitic Babylonian, and was,
+      in fact, a purely arbitrary invention of the Babylonian priests. This
+      theory ignored all questions of inherent probability, and did not attempt
+      to explain why the Babylonian priests should have troubled themselves to
+      make such an invention and afterwards have stultified themselves by
+      carefully appending Assyrian translations to the majority of the Sumerian
+      compositions which they copied out. Moreover, the nature of these
+      compositions is not such as we should expect to find recorded in a
+      cabalistic method of writing. They contain no secret lore of the
+      Babylonian priests, but are merely hymns and prayers and religious
+      compositions similar to those employed by the Babylonians and Assyrians
+      themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in spite of its inherent improbabilities, M. Halévy succeeded in
+      making many converts to his theory, including Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch
+      and a number of the younger school of German Assyriologists. More
+      conservative scholars, such as Sir Henry Rawlinson, M. Oppert, and Prof.
+      Schrader, stoutly opposed the theory, maintaining that Sumerian was a real
+      language and had been spoken by an earlier race whom the Semitic
+      Babylonians had conquered; and they explained the resemblance of some of
+      the Sumerian values to Semitic roots by supposing that Sumerian had not
+      been suddenly superseded by the language of the Semitic invaders of
+      Babylonia, but that the two tongues had been spoken for long periods side
+      by side and that each had been strongly influenced by the other. This very
+      probable and sane explanation has been fully corroborated by subsequent
+      excavations, particularly those that were carried out at Telloh in
+      Southern Babylonia by the late M. de Sarzec. In these mounds, which mark
+      the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, were found thousands
+      of clay tablets inscribed in archaic characters and in the Sumerian
+      language, proving that it had actually been the language of the early
+      inhabitants of Babylonia; while the examples of their art and the
+      representations of their form and features, which were also afforded by
+      the diggings at Telloh, proved once for all that the Sumerians were a race
+      of strongly marked characteristics and could not be ascribed to a Semitic
+      stock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The system of writing invented by the ancient Sumerians was adopted by the
+      Semitic Babylonians, who modified it to suit their own language. Moreover,
+      the archaic forms of the characters, many of which under the Sumerians
+      still retained resemblances to the pictures of objects from which they
+      were descended, were considerably changed. The lines, of which they were
+      originally composed, gave way to wedges, and the number of the wedges of
+      which each sign consisted was gradually diminished, so that in the time of
+      the Assyrians and the later Babylonians many of the characters bore small
+      resemblance to the ancient Sumerian forms from which they had been
+      derived. The reading of Sumerian and early Babylonian inscriptions by the
+      late Assyrian scribes was therefore an accomplishment only to be acquired
+      as the result of long study, and it is interesting to note that as an
+      assistance to the reading of these early texts the scribes compiled lists
+      of archaic signs. Sometimes opposite each archaic character they drew a
+      picture of the object from which they imagined it was derived. This fact
+      is significant as proving that the Assyrian scribes recognized the
+      pictorial origin of cuneiform writing, but the pictures they drew opposite
+      the signs are rather fanciful, and it cannot be said that their guesses
+      were very successful. That we are able to criticize the theories of the
+      Assyrians as to the origin and forms of the early characters is in the
+      main due to M. de Sarzec’s labours, from whose excavations many thousands
+      of inscriptions of the Sumerians have been recovered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The main results of M. de Sarzec’s diggings at Telloh have already been
+      described by M. Maspero in his history, and therefore we need not go over
+      them again, but will here confine ourselves to the results which have been
+      obtained from recent excavations at Telloh and at other sites in Western
+      Asia. With the death of M. de Sarzec, which occurred in his sixty-fifth
+      year, on May 31, 1901, the wonderfully successful series of excavations
+      which he had carried out at Telloh was brought to an end. In consequence
+      it was feared at the time that the French diggings on this site might be
+      interrupted for a considerable period. Such an event would have been
+      regretted by all those who are interested in the early history of the
+      East, for, in spite of the treasures found by M. de Sarzec in the course
+      of his various campaigns, it was obvious that the site was far from being
+      exhausted, and that the tells as yet unexplored contained inscriptions and
+      antiquities extending back to the very earliest periods of Sumerian
+      history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0011" id="linkBimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/150.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="150.jpg Fragment of a List Of Archaic Cuneiform Signs. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Opposite each the scribe has drawn a picture of the object
+     from which he imagined it was derived. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell &amp; Co.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The announcement which was made in 1902, that the French government had
+      appointed Capt. Gaston Cros as the late M. de Sarzec’s successor, was
+      therefore received with general satisfaction. The fact that Capt. Cros had
+      already successfully carried out several difficult topographical missions
+      in the region of the Sahara was a sufficient guarantee that the new
+      diggings would be conducted on a systematic and exhaustive scale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new director of the French mission in Chaldæa arrived at Telloh in
+      January, 1903, and one of his first acts was to shift the site of the
+      mission’s settlement from the bank of the Shatt el-Hai, where it had
+      always been established in the time of M. de Sarzec, to the mounds where
+      the actual digging took place. The Shatt el-Hai had been previously chosen
+      as the site of the settlement to ensure a constant supply of water, and as
+      it was more easily protected against attack by night. But the fact that it
+      was an hour’s ride from the diggings caused an unnecessary loss of time,
+      and rendered the strict supervision of the diggers a matter of
+      considerable difficulty. During the first season’s work rough huts of
+      reeds, surrounded by a wall of earth and a ditch, served the new
+      expedition for its encampment among the mounds of Telloh, but last year
+      these makeshift arrangements were superseded by a regular house built out
+      of the burnt bricks which are found in abundance on the site. A reservoir
+      has also been built, and caravans of asses bring water in skins from the
+      Shatt el-Hai to keep it filled with a constant supply of water, while the
+      excellent relations which Capt. Cros has established with the Karagul
+      Arabs, who occupy Telloh and its neighbourhood, have proved to be the best
+      kind of protection for the mission engaged in scientific work upon the
+      site.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The group of mounds and hillocks, known as Telloh, which marks the site of
+      the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, is easily distinguished from the
+      flat surrounding desert. The mounds extend in a rough oval formation
+      running north and south, about two and a half miles long and one and a
+      quarter broad. In the early spring, when the desert is covered with a
+      light green verdure, the ruins are clearly marked out as a yellow spot in
+      the surrounding green, for vegetation does not grow upon them. In the
+      centre of this oval, which approximately marks the limits of the ancient
+      city and its suburbs, are four large tells or mounds running, roughly,
+      north and south, their sides descending steeply on the east, but with
+      their western slopes rising by easier undulations from the plain. These
+      four principal tells are known as the “Palace Tell,” the “Tell of the
+      Fruit-house,” the “Tell of the Tablets,” and the “Great Tell,” and, rising
+      as they do in the centre of the site, they mark the position of the
+      temples and the other principal buildings of the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An indication of the richness of the site in antiquities was afforded to
+      the new mission before it had started regular excavation and while it was
+      yet engaged in levelling its encampment and surrounding it with a wall and
+      ditch. The spot selected for the camp was a small mound to the south of
+      the site of Telloh, and here, in the course of preparing the site for the
+      encampment and digging the ditch, objects were found at a depth of less
+      than a foot beneath the surface of the soil. These included daggers,
+      copper vases, seal-cylinders, rings of lapis and cornelian, and pottery.
+      M. de Sarzec had carried out his latest diggings in the Tell of the
+      Tablets, and here Capt. Cros continued the excavations and came upon the
+      remains of buildings and recovered numerous objects, dating principally
+      from the period of Gudea and the kings of Ur. The finds included small
+      terra-cotta figures, a boundary-stone of Gamil-Sin, and a new statue of
+      Gudea, to which we will refer again presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the Tell of the Fruit-house M. de Sarzec had already discovered numbers
+      of monuments dating from the earlier periods of Sumerian history before
+      the conquest and consolidation of Babylonia under Sargon of Agade, and had
+      excavated a primitive terrace built by the early king Ur-Ninâ. Both on and
+      around this large mound Capt. Cros cut an extensive series of trenches,
+      and in digging to the north of the mound he found a number of objects,
+      including an alabaster tablet of Ente-mena which had been blackened by
+      fire. At the foot of the tell he found a copper helmet like those
+      represented on the famous Stele of Vultures discovered by M. de Sarzec,
+      and among the tablets here recovered was one with an inscription of the
+      time of Urukagina, which records the complete destruction of the city of
+      Shirpurla during his reign, and will be described in greater detail later
+      on in this chapter. On the mound itself a considerable area was uncovered
+      with remains of buildings still in place, the use of which appears to have
+      been of an industrial character. They included flights of steps, canals
+      with raised banks, and basins for storing water. Not far off are the
+      previously discovered wells of Bannadu, so that it is legitimate to
+      suppose that Capt. Cros has here come upon part of the works which were
+      erected at a very early period of Sumerian history for the distribution of
+      water to this portion of the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0012" id="linkBimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/154.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="154.jpg Obelisk of Manishtusu. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     An early Semitic king of the city of Kish in Babylonia. The
+     photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s <i>Délégation en Perse,
+     Mém</i>., t. i, pi. ix.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      In the Palace Tell Capt. Cros has sunk a series of deep shafts to
+      determine precisely the relations which the buildings of Ur-Bau and Gudea,
+      found already on this part of the site, bear to each other, and to the
+      building of Adad-nadin-akhê, which had been erected there at a much later
+      period. Prom this slight sketch of the work carried out during the last
+      two years at Telloh it will have been seen that the Prench mission in
+      Chaldæa is at present engaged in excavations of a most important
+      character, which are being conducted in a regular and scientific manner.
+      As the area of the excavations marks the site of the chief city of the
+      Sumerians, the diggings there have yielded and are yielding material of
+      the greatest interest and value for the reconstruction of the early
+      history of Chaldæa. After briefly describing the character and results of
+      other recent excavations in Mesopotamia and the neighbouring lands, we
+      will return to the discoveries at Telloh and sketch the new information
+      they supply on the history of the earliest inhabitants of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another French mission that is carrying out work of the very greatest
+      interest to the student of early Babylonian history is that which is
+      excavating at Susa in Persia, under the direction of M. J. de Morgan,
+      whose work on the prehistoric and early dynastic sites in Egypt has
+      already been described. M. de Morgan’s first season’s digging at Susa was
+      carried out in the years 1897-8, and the success with which he met from
+      the very first, when cutting trenches in the mound which marks the
+      acropolis of the ancient city, has led him to concentrate his main efforts
+      in this part of the ruins ever since. Provisional trenches cut in the part
+      of the ruins called “the Royal City,” and in others of the mounds at Susa,
+      indicate that many remains may eventually be found there dating from the
+      period of the Achæmenian Kings of Persia. But it is in the mound of the
+      acropolis at Susa that M. de Morgan has found monuments of the greatest
+      historical interest and value, not only in the history of ancient Elam,
+      but also in that of the earliest rulers of Chaldæa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the diggings carried out during the first season’s work on the site, an
+      obelisk was found inscribed on four sides with a long text of some
+      sixty-nine columns, written in Semitic Babylonian by the orders of
+      Manishtusu, a very early Semitic king of the city of Kish in Babylonia.[*
+      See illustration.] The text records the purchase by the King of Kish of
+      immense tracts of land situated at Kish and in its neighbourhood, and its
+      length is explained by the fact that it enumerates full details of the
+      size and position of each estate, and the numbers and some of the names of
+      the dwellers on the estates who were engaged in their cultivation. After
+      details have been given of a number of estates situated in the same
+      neighbourhood, a summary is appended referring to the whole neighbourhood,
+      and the fact is recorded that the district dealt with in the preceding
+      catalogue and summary had been duly acquired by purchase by Manishtusu,
+      King of Kish. The long text upon the obelisk is entirely taken up with
+      details of the purchase of the territory, and therefore its subject has
+      not any great historical value. Mention is made in it of two personages,
+      one of whom may possibly be identified with a Babylonian ruler whose name
+      is known from other sources. If the proposed identification t should prove
+      to be correct, it would enable us to assign a more precise date to
+      Manishtusu than has hitherto been possible. One of the personages in
+      question was a certain Urukagina, the son of Engilsa, patesi of Shirpurla,
+      and it has been suggested that he is the same Urukagina who is known to
+      have occupied the throne of Shirpurla, though this identification would
+      bring Manishtusu down somewhat later than is probable from the general
+      character of his inscriptions. The other personage mentioned in the text
+      is the son of Manishtusu, named Mesalim, and there is more to be said for
+      the identification of this prince with Mesilim, the early King of Kish,
+      who reigned at a period anterior to that of Eannadu, patesi of Shirpurla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mere fact of so large and important an obelisk, inscribed with a
+      Semitic text by an early Babylonian king, being found at Susa was an
+      indication that other monuments of even greater interest might be
+      forthcoming from the same spot; and this impression was intensified when a
+      stele of victory was found bearing an inscription of Naram-Sin, the early
+      Semitic King of Agade, who reigned about 3750 B.C. One face of this stele
+      is sculptured with a representation of the king conquering his enemies in
+      a mountainous country. [* See illustration.] The king himself wears a
+      helmet adorned with the horns of a bull, and he carries his battle-axe and
+      his bow and an arrow. He is nearly at the summit of a high mountain, and
+      up its steep sides, along paths through the trees which clothe the
+      mountain, climb his allies and warriors bearing standards and weapons. The
+      king’s enemies are represented suing for mercy as they turn to fly before
+      him. One grasps a broken spear, while another, crouching before the king,
+      has been smitten in the throat by an arrow from the king’s bow. On the
+      plain surface of the stele above the king’s head may be seen traces of an
+      inscription of Narâm-Sin engraved in three columns in the archaic
+      characters of his period. From the few signs of the text that remain, we
+      gather that Narâm-Sin had conducted a campaign with the assistance of
+      certain allied princes, including the Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and
+      Lulubi, and it is not improbable that they are to be identified with the
+      warriors represented on the stele as climbing the mountain behind
+      Narâm-Sin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reference to this most interesting stele of Narâm-Sin we may here
+      mention another inscription of this king, found quite recently at Susa and
+      published only this year, which throws additional light on Narâm-Sin’s
+      allies and on the empire which he and his father Sargon founded. The new
+      inscription was engraved on the base of a diorite statue, which had been
+      broken to pieces so that only the base with a portion of the text
+      remained. From this inscription we learn that Narâm-Sin was the head of a
+      confederation of nine chief allies, or vassal princes, and waged war on
+      his enemies with their assistance. Among these nine allies of course the
+      Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and Lulubi are to be included. The new text
+      further records that Narâm-Sin made an expedition against Magan (the
+      Sinaitic peninsula), and defeated Manium, the lord of that region, and
+      that he cut blocks of stone in the mountains there and transported them to
+      his city of Agade, where from one of them he made the statue on the base
+      of which the text was inscribed. It was already known from the so-called
+      “Omens of Sargon and Narâm-Sin” (a text inscribed on a clay tablet from
+      Ashur-bani-pal’s library at Nineveh which associates the deeds of these
+      two early rulers with certain augural phenomena) that Narâm-Sin had made
+      an expedition to Sinai in the course of his reign and had conquered the
+      king of the country. The new text gives contemporary confirmation of this
+      assertion and furnishes us with additional information with regard to the
+      name of the conquered ruler of Sinai and other details of the campaign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That monuments of such great interest to the early history of Chaldæa
+      should have been found at Susa in Persia was sufficiently startling, but
+      an easy explanation was at first forthcoming from the fact that
+      Narâm-Sin’s stele of victory had been used by the later Elamite king,
+      Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, for an inscription of his own; this he had engraved in
+      seven long lines along the great cone in front of Narâm-Sin, which is
+      probably intended to represent the peak of the mountain. From the fact
+      that it had been used in this way by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, it seemed
+      permissible to infer that it had been captured in the course of a campaign
+      and brought to Susa as a trophy of war. But we shall see later on that the
+      existence of early Babylonian inscriptions and monuments in the mound of
+      the acropolis at Susa is not to be explained in this way, but was due to
+      the wide extension of both Sumerian and Semitic influence throughout
+      Western Asia from the very earliest periods. This subject will be treated
+      more fully in the chapter dealing with the early history of Blam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The upper surface of the tell of the acropolis at Susa for a depth of
+      nearly two metres contains remains of the buildings and antiquities of the
+      Achæmenian kings and others of both later and earlier dates. In these
+      upper strata of the mound are found remains of the Arab, Sassanian,
+      Parthian, Seleucian, and Persian periods, mixed indiscriminately with one
+      another and with Elamite objects and materials of all ages, from that of
+      the earliest patesis down to that of the Susian kings of the seventh
+      century B.C.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0013" id="linkBimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/160.jpg" width="100%" alt="160.jpg Babil. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The most northern of the mounds which now mark the site of
+     the ancient city of Babylon; used for centuries as a quarry
+     for building materials.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The reason of this mixture of the remains of many races and periods is
+      that the later builders on the mound made use of the earlier building
+      materials which they found preserved within it. Along the skirts of the
+      mound may still be seen the foundations of the wall which formed the
+      principal defence of the acropolis in the time of Xerxes, and in many
+      places not only are the foundations preserved but large pieces of the wall
+      itself still rise above the surface of the soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0014" id="linkBimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/160a.jpg" width="100%" alt="160a.jpg ‘Stele of Victory’ " />
+    </div>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/160a-text.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="160a-text.jpg Text for ‘Stele of Victory’ " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Stele of Narâm-Sin, an early Semitic King of Agade in
+     Babylonia, who reigned about B. C. 3750. From the photograph
+     by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The plan of the wall is quite irregular, following the contours of the
+      mound, and, though it is probable that the wall was strengthened and
+      defended at intervals by towers, no trace of these now remains. The wall
+      is very thick and built of unburnt bricks, and the system of fortification
+      seems to have been extremely simple at this period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0016" id="linkBimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/161.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="161.jpg Roughly Hewn Sculpture of a Lion Standing over A Fallen Man, Found at Babylon. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The group probably represents Babylon or the Babylonian king
+     triumphing over the country’s enemies. The Arabs regard the
+     figure as an evil spirit, and it is pitted with the marks of
+     bullets shot at it. They also smear it with filth when they
+     can do so unobserved; in the photograph some newly smeared
+     filth may be seen adhering to the side of the lion.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The earlier citadel or fortress of the city of Susa was built at the top
+      of the mound and must have been a more formidable stronghold than that of
+      the Achæmenian kings, for, besides its walls, it had the additional
+      protection of the steep slopes of the mound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Below the depth of two metres from the surface of the mound are found
+      strata in which Elamite objects and materials are, no longer mixed with
+      the remains of later ages, but here the latest Elamite remains are found
+      mingled with objects and materials dating from the earliest periods of
+      Elam’s history. The use of un-burnt bricks as the principal material for
+      buildings erected on the mound in all ages has been another cause of this
+      mixture of materials, for it has little power of resistance to water, and
+      a considerable rain-storm will wash away large portions of the surface and
+      cause the remains of different strata to be mixed indiscriminately with
+      one another. In proportion as the trenches were cut deeper into the mound
+      the strata which were laid bare showed remains of earlier ages than those
+      in the upper layers, though here also remains of different periods are
+      considerably mixed. The only building that has hitherto been discovered at
+      Susa by M. de Morgan, the ground plan of which was in a comparatively good
+      state of preservation, was a small temple of the god Shu-shinak, and this
+      owed its preservation to the fact that it was not built of unburnt brick,
+      but was largely composed of burnt brick and plaques and tiles of enamelled
+      terra-cotta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But although the diggings of M. de Morgan at Susa have so far afforded
+      little information on the subject of Elamite architecture, the separate
+      objects found have enabled us to gain considerable knowledge of the
+      artistic achievements of the race during the different periods of its
+      existence. Moreover, the stelæ and stone records that have been recovered
+      present a wealth of material for the study of the long history of Elam and
+      of the kings who ruled in Babylonia during the earliest ages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0017" id="linkBimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/163.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="163.jpg General View of the Excavations on The Kasr At Babylon. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Showing the depth in the mound to which the diggings are
+     carried.<br/><br/>
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The most famous of M. de Morgan’s recent finds is the long code of laws
+      drawn up by Hammurabi, the greatest king of the First Dynasty of Babylon.<a href="#fn4.1" name="fnref4.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>
+      This was engraved upon a huge block of black diorite, and was found in the
+      tell of the acropolis in the winter of 1901-2. This document in itself has
+      entirely revolutionized current theories as to the growth and origin of
+      the principal ancient legal codes. It proves that Babylonia was the
+      fountainhead from which many later races borrowed portions of their
+      legislative systems. Moreover, the subjects dealt with in this code of
+      laws embrace most of the different classes of the Babylonian people, and
+      it regulates their duties and their relations to one another in their
+      ordinary occupations and pursuits. It therefore throws much light upon
+      early Babylonian life and customs, and we shall return to it in the
+      chapter dealing with these subjects.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn4.1"></a> <a href="#fnref4.1">[1]</a>
+It will be noted that the Babylonian dynasties are referred to throughout this
+volume as “First Dynasty,” “Second Dynasty,” “Third Dynasty,” etc. They are
+thus distinguished from the Egyptian dynasties, the order of which is indicated
+by Roman numerals, e.g. “Ist Dynasty,” “IId Dynasty,” “IIId Dynasty.”
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The American excavators at Nippur, under the direction of Mr. Haynes, have
+      done much in the past to increase our knowledge of Sumerian and early
+      Babylonian history, but the work has not been continued in recent years,
+      and, unfortunately, little progress has been made in the publication of
+      the material already accumulated. In fact, the leadership in American
+      excavation has passed from the University of Pennsylvania to that of
+      Chicago. This progressive university has sent out an expedition, under the
+      general direction of Prof. R. F. Harper (with Dr. E. J. Banks as director
+      of excavations), which is doing excellent work at Bismya, and, although it
+      is too early yet to expect detailed accounts of their achievements, it is
+      clear that they have already met with considerable success. One of their
+      recent finds consists of a white marble statue of an early Sumerian king
+      named Daudu, which was set up in the temple of E-shar in the city of
+      Udnun, of which he was ruler. From its archaic style of workmanship it may
+      be placed in the earliest period of Sumerian history, and may be regarded
+      as an earnest of what may be expected to follow from the future labours of
+      Prof. Harper’s expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0018" id="linkBimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/165.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="165.jpg Within the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      At Fâra and at Abû Hatab in Babylonia, the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft,
+      under Dr. Koldewey’s direction, has excavated Sumerian and Babylonian
+      remains of the early period. At the former site they unearthed the remains
+      of many private houses and found some Sumerian tablets of accounts and
+      commercial documents, but little of historical interest; and an
+      inscription, which seems to have come from Abu Hatab, probably proves that
+      the Sumerian name of the city whose site it marks was Kishurra. But the
+      main centre of German activity in Babylonia is the city of Babylon itself,
+      where for the last seven years Dr. Koldewey has conducted excavations,
+      unearthing the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on the mound termed the Kasr,
+      identifying the temple of E-sagila under the mound called Tell Amran
+      ibn-Ali, tracing the course of the sacred way between E-sagila and the
+      palace-mound, and excavating temples dedicated to the goddess Ninmakh and
+      the god Ninib.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0019" id="linkBimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/166.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="166.jpg Excavations in the Temple Op Ninib at Babylon. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     In the middle distance may be seen the metal trucks running
+     on light rails which are employed on the work for the
+     removal of the débris from the diggings.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Andrae, Dr. Koldewey’s assistant, has also completed the excavation of
+      the temple dedicated to Nabû at Birs Nimrud. On the principal mound at
+      this spot, which marks the site of the ancient city of Borsippa, traces of
+      the ziggurat, or temple tower, may still be seen rising from the soil, the
+      temple of Nabû lying at a lower level below the steep slope of the mound,
+      which is mainly made up of débris from the ziggurat. Dr. Andrae has
+      recently left Babylonia for Assyria, where his excavations at Sher-ghat,
+      the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Ashur, are confidently expected
+      to throw considerable light on the early history of that country and the
+      customs of the people, and already he has made numerous finds of
+      considerable interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0020" id="linkBimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/167.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="167.jpg the Principal Mound of Birs Nimrud, Which Marks The Site Of the Ancient City Of Borsippa. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Since the early spring of 1903 excavations have been conducted at
+      Kuyunjik, the site of the city of Nineveh, by Messrs. L. W. King and R. C.
+      Thompson on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, and have
+      resulted in the discovery of many early remains in the lower strata of the
+      mound, in addition to the finding of new portions of the two palaces
+      already known and partly excavated, the identification of a third palace,
+      and the finding of an ancient temple dedicated to Nabû, whose existence
+      had already been inferred from a study of the Assyrian inscriptions.<a href="#fn4.2" name="fnref4.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> All
+      these diggings at Babylon, at Ashur, and at Nineveh throw more light upon
+      the history of the country during the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods,
+      and will be referred to later in the volume.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn4.2"></a> <a href="#fnref4.2">[2]</a>
+     It may be noted that excavations are also being actively
+     carried on in Palestine at the present time. Mr. Macalister
+     has for some years been working for the Palestine
+     Exploration Fund at Gezer; Dr. Schumacher is digging at
+     Megiddo for the German Palestine Society; and Prof. Sellin
+     is at present excavating at Taanach (Ta’annak) and will
+     shortly start work at Dothan. Good work on remains of later
+     historical periods is also being carried on under the
+     auspices of the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft at Ba’albek and
+     in Galilee. It would be tempting to include here a summary
+     of the very interesting results that have recently been
+     achieved in this fruitful field of archaeological research,
+     for it is true that these excavations may strictly be said
+     to bear on the history of a portion of Western Asia. But the
+     problems which they raise would more naturally be discussed
+     in a work dealing with recent excavation and research in
+     relation to the Bible, and to have summarized them
+     adequately would have increased the size of the present
+     volume considerably beyond its natural limits. They have
+     therefore not been included within the scope of the present
+     work.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0021" id="linkBimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/168.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="168.jpg the Principal Mound at Sherghat, Which Marks The Site of Ashuk, the Ancient Capital Of The Assyrians. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, we will return to the diggings described at the beginning of
+      this chapter, as affording new information concerning the earliest periods
+      of Chaldæan history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A most interesting inscription has recently been discovered by Capt. Cros
+      at Telloh, which throws considerable light on the rivalry which existed
+      between the cities of Shirpurla and Gishkhu, and at the same time
+      furnishes valuable material for settling the chronology of the earliest
+      rulers whose inscriptions have been found at Mppur and their relations to
+      contemporary rulers in Shirpurla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0022" id="linkBimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/169.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="169.jpg the Mound of Kuyunjik, Which Formed One Of The Palace Mounds of the Ancient Assyrian City Of Nineveh. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla were probably situated not far from
+      one another, and their rivalry is typical of the history of the early
+      city-states of Babylonia. The site of the latter city, as has already been
+      said, is marked by the mounds of Telloh on the east bank of the Shatt
+      el-Hai, the natural stream joining the Tigris and Euphrates, which has
+      been improved and canalized by the dwellers in Southern Babylonia from the
+      earliest period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0023" id="linkBimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/170.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="170.jpg Winged Bull in the Palace of Sennacherib On Kuyunjik, the Principal Mound Marking The Site of Nineveh. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The site of Gishkhu may be set with considerable probability not far to
+      the north of Telloh on the opposite bank of the Shatt el-Hai. These two
+      cities, situated so close to one another, exercised considerable political
+      influence, and though less is known of Gishkhu than of the more famous
+      Babylonian cities such as Ur, Brech, and Larsam, her proximity to
+      Shirpurla gave her an importance which she might not otherwise have
+      possessed. The earliest knowledge we possess of the relations existing
+      between Gishkhu and Shirpurla refers to the reign of Mesilim, King of
+      Kish, the period of whose rule may be provisionally set before that of
+      Sargon of Agade, i.e, about 4000 B.C.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this period there was rivalry between the two cities, in consequence of
+      which Mesilim, King of Kish, was called in as arbitrator. A record of the
+      treaty of delimitation that was drawn up on this occasion has been
+      preserved upon the recently discovered cone of Entemena. This document
+      tells us that at the command of the god Enlil, described as “the king of
+      the countries,” Ningirsu, the chief god of Shirpurla, and the god of
+      Gishkhu decided to draw up a line of division between their respective
+      territories, and that Mesilim, King of Kish, acting under the direction of
+      his own god Kadi, marked out the frontier and set up a stele between the
+      two territories to commemorate the fixing of the boundary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This policy of fixing the boundary by arbitration seems to have been
+      successful, and to have secured peace between Shirpurla and Gishkhu for
+      some generations. But after a period which cannot be accurately determined
+      a certain patesi of Gishkhu, named Ush, was filled with ambition to extend
+      his territory at the expense of Shirpurla. He therefore removed the stele
+      which Mesilim had set up, and, invading the plain of Shirpurla, succeeded
+      in conquering and holding a district named Gu-edin. But Ush’s successful
+      raid was not of any permanent benefit to his city, for he was in his turn
+      defeated by the forces of Shirpurla, and his successor upon the throne, a
+      patesi named Enakalli, abandoned a policy of aggression, and concluded
+      with Eannadu, patesi of Shirpurla, a solemn treaty concerning the boundary
+      between their realms, the text of which has been preserved to us upon the
+      famous Stele of Vultures in the Louvre.<a href="#fn4.3" name="fnref4.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn4.3"></a> <a href="#fnref4.3">[3]</a>
+     A fragment of this stele is also preserved in the British
+     Museum. It is published in Cuneiform Texts in the British
+     Museum, Pt. vii.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      According to this treaty Gu-edin was restored to Shirpurla, and a deep
+      ditch was dug between the two territories which should permanently
+      indicate the line of demarcation. The stele of Mesilim was restored to its
+      place, and a second stele was inscribed and set up as a memorial of the
+      new treaty. Enakalli did not negotiate the treaty on equal terms with
+      Eannadu, for he only secured its ratification by consenting to pay heavy
+      tribute in grain for the supply of the great temples of Nin-girsu and Ninâ
+      in Shirpurla. It would appear that under Eannadu the power and influence
+      of Shirpurla were extended over the whole of Southern Babylonia, and
+      reached even to the borders of Elam. At any rate, it is clear that during
+      his lifetime the city of Gishkhu was content to remain in a state of
+      subjection to its more powerful neighbour. But it was always ready to
+      seize any opportunity of asserting itself and of attempting to regain its
+      independence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0024" id="linkBimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/172.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="172.jpg Clay Memorial-tablet of Eannadu. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The characters of the inscription well illustrate the
+     pictorial origin of the Sumerian system of writing.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, after Eannadu’s death the men of Gishkhu again took the
+      offensive. At this time Urlumma, the son and successor of Enakalli, was on
+      the throne of Gishkhu, and he organized the forces of the city and led
+      them out to battle. His first act was to destroy the frontier ditches
+      named after Ningirsu and Ninâ, the principal god and goddess of Shirpurla,
+      which Eannadu, the powerful foe of Gishkhu, had caused to be dug. He then
+      tore down the stele on which the terms of Eannadu’s treaty had been
+      engraved and broke it into pieces by casting it into the fire, and the
+      shrines which Eannadu had built near the frontier, and had consecrated to
+      the gods of Shirpurla, he razed to the ground. But again Shirpurla in the
+      end proved too strong for Gishkhu. The ruler in Shirpurla at this time was
+      Enannadu, who had succeeded his brother Eannadu upon the throne. He
+      marched out to meet the invading forces of the men of Gishkhu, and a
+      battle was fought in the territory of Shirpurla. According to one account,
+      the forces of Shirpurla were victorious, while on the cone of Ente-mena no
+      mention is made of the issue of the combat. The result may not have been
+      decisive, but Enannadu’s action at least checked Urlumma’s encroachments
+      for the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would appear that the death of the reigning patesi in Shirpurla was
+      always the signal for an attack upon that city by the men of Gishkhu. They
+      may have hoped that the new ruler would prove a less successful leader
+      than the last, or that the accession of a new monarch might give rise to
+      internal dissensions in the city which would weaken Shirpurla’s power of
+      resisting a sudden attack. As Eannadu’s death had encouraged Urlumma to
+      lead out the men of Gishkhu, so the death of Enannadu seemed to him a good
+      opportunity to make another bid for victory. But this time the result of
+      the battle was not indecisive. Entemena had succeeded his father Enannadu,
+      and he led out to victory the forces of Shir-purla. The battle was fought
+      near the canal Lumma-girnun-ta, and when the men of Gishkhu were put to
+      flight they left sixty of their fellows lying dead upon the banks of the
+      canal. Entemena tells us that the bones of these warriors were left to
+      bleach in the open plain, but he seems to have buried those of the men of
+      Gishkhu who fell in the pursuit, for he records that in five separate
+      places he piled up burial-mounds in which the bodies of the slain were
+      interred. Entemena was not content with merely inflicting a defeat upon
+      the army of Gishkhu and driving it back within its own borders, for he
+      followed up his initial advantage and captured the capital itself. He
+      deposed and imprisoned Urlumma, and chose one of his own adherents to rule
+      as patesi of Gishkhu in his stead. The man he appointed for this high
+      office was named Hi, and he had up to that time been priest in Ninâb.
+      Entemena summoned him to his presence, and, after marching in a triumphal
+      procession from Girsu in the neighbourhood of Shirpurla to the conquered
+      city, proceeded to invest him with the office of patesi of Gishkhu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entemena also repaired the frontier ditches named after Ningirsu and Ninâ,
+      which had been employed for purposes of irrigation as well as for marking
+      the frontier; and he gave instructions to Hi to employ the men dwelling in
+      the district of Karkar on this work, as a punishment for the active part
+      they had taken in the recent raid into the territory of Shirpurla.
+      Entemena also restored and extended the system of canals in the region
+      between the Tigris and the Euphrates, lining one of the principal channels
+      with stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0025" id="linkBimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/175.jpg" width="100%" alt="175.jpg Marble Gate " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Marble Gate-Socket Bearing An Inscription Of Entemena, A Powerful
+     Patesi, Or Viceroy, Of Shirpurla.<br/>
+     In the photograph the gate-socket is resting on its side so as to show the
+     inscription, but when in use it was set flat upon the ground and partly
+     buried below the level of the pavement of the building in which it was
+     used. It was fixed at the side of a gateway and the pivot of the heavy
+     gate revolved in the shallow hole or depression in its centre. As stone is
+     not found in the alluvial soil of Babylonia, the blocks for gate-sockets
+     had to be brought from great distances and they were consequently highly
+     prized. The kings and patesis who used them in their buildings generally
+     had their names and titles engraved upon them, and they thus form a
+     valuable class of inscriptions for the study of the early history.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Man-sell &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      He thus added greatly to the wealth of Shirpurla by increasing the area of
+      territory under cultivation, and he continued to exercise authority in
+      Gishkhu by means of officers appointed by himself. A record of his victory
+      over Gishkhu was inscribed by Entemena upon a number of clay cones, that
+      the fame of it might be preserved in future days to the honour of Ningirsu
+      and the goddess Ninâ. He ends this record with a prayer for the
+      preservation of the frontier. If ever in time to come the men of Gishkhu
+      should break out across the frontier-ditch of Ningirsu, or the
+      frontier-ditch of Ninâ, in order to seize or lay waste the lands of
+      Shirpurla, whether they be men of the city of Gishkhu itself or men of the
+      mountains, he prays that Enlil may destroy them and that Ningirsu may lay
+      his curse upon them; and if ever the warriors of his own city should be
+      called upon to defend it, he prays that they may be full of courage and
+      ardour for their task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greater part of this information with regard to the struggles between
+      Gishkhu and Shirpurla, between the period of Mesilim, King of Kish, and
+      that of Entemena, is supplied by the inscription of the latter ruler which
+      has been found written around a small cone of clay. There is little doubt
+      that the text was also engraved by the orders of Entemena upon a stone
+      stele which was set up, like those of Mesilim and Eannadu, upon the
+      frontier. Other copies of the inscription were probably engraved and
+      erected in the cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla, and to ensure the
+      preservation of the record Entemena probably had numerous copies of it
+      made upon small cones of clay which were preserved and possibly buried in
+      the structure of the temples of Shirpurla. Entemena’s foresight in this
+      matter has been justified by results, for, while his great memorials of
+      stone have perished, the preservation of one of his small cones has
+      sufficed to make known to later ages his own and his forefathers’ prowess
+      in their continual contests with their ancient rival Gishkhu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the reign of Entemena we have little information with regard to the
+      relations between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, though it is probable that the
+      effects of his decisive victory continued to exercise a moderating
+      influence on Gishkhu’s desire for expansion and secured a period of
+      peaceful development for Shirpurla without the continual fear of
+      encroachments on the part of her turbulent neighbour. We may assume that
+      this period of tranquillity continued during the reigns of Enannadu II,
+      Enlitarzi, and Lugal-anda, but, when in the reign of Urukagina the men of
+      Gishkhu once more emerge from their temporary obscurity, they appear as
+      the authors of deeds of rapine and bloodshed committed on a scale that was
+      rare even in that primitive age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the earlier stages of their rivalry Gishkhu had always been defeated,
+      or at any rate checked, in her actual conflicts with Shirpurla. When
+      taking the aggressive the men of Gishkhu seem generally to have confined
+      themselves to the seizure of territory, such as the district of Gu-edin,
+      which was situated on the western bank of the Shaft el-Hai and divided
+      from their own lands only by the frontier-ditch. If they ever actually
+      crossed the Shaft el-Hai and raided the lands on its eastern bank, they
+      never ventured to attack the city of Shirpurla itself. And, although their
+      raids were attended with some success in their initial stages, the ruling
+      patesis of Shirpurla were always strong enough to check them; and on most
+      occasions they carried the war into the territory of Gishkhu, with the
+      result that they readjusted the boundary on their own terms. But it would
+      appear that all these primitive Chalæan cities were subject to alternate
+      periods of expansion and defeat, and Shirpurla was not an exception to the
+      rule. It was probably not due so much to Urukagina’s personal qualities or
+      defects as a leader that Shirpurla suffered the greatest reverse in her
+      history during his reign, but rather to Gishkhu’s gradual increase in
+      power at a time when Shirpurla herself remained inactive, possibly lulled
+      into a false sense of security by the memory of her victories in the past.
+      Whatever may have been the cause of Gishkhu’s final triumph, it is certain
+      that it took place in Urukagina’s reign, and that for many years
+      afterwards the hegemony of Southern Babylonia remained in her hands, while
+      Shirpurla for a long period passed completely out of existence as an
+      independent or semi-independent state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evidence of the catastrophe that befell Shirpurla at this period is
+      furnished by a small clay tablet recently found at Telloh during Captain
+      Cros’s excavations on that site. The document on which the facts in
+      question are recorded had no official character, and in all probability it
+      had not been stored in any library or record chamber. The actual spot at
+      Telloh where it was found was to the north of the mound in which the most
+      ancient buildings have been recovered, and at the depth of two metres
+      below the surface. No other tablets appear to have been found near it, but
+      that fact in itself would not be sufficient evidence on which to base any
+      theory as to its not having originally formed part of the archives of the
+      city. Its unofficial character is attested by the form of the tablet and
+      the manner in which the information upon it is arranged. In shape there is
+      little to distinguish the document from the tablets of accounts inscribed
+      in the reign of Urukagina, great numbers of which have been found recently
+      at Telloh. Roughly square in shape, its edges are slightly convex, and the
+      text is inscribed in a series of narrow columns upon both the obverse and
+      the reverse. The text itself is not a carefully arranged composition, such
+      as are the votive and historical inscriptions of early Sumerian rulers. It
+      consists of a series of short sentences enumerating briefly and without
+      detail the separate deeds of violence and sacrilege performed by the men
+      of Gishkhu after their capture of the city. It is little more than a
+      catalogue or list of the shrines and temples destroyed during the sack of
+      the city, or defiled by the blood of the men of Shirpurla who were slain
+      therein. No mention is made in the list of the palace of the Urukagina, or
+      of any secular building, or of the dwellings of the citizens themselves.
+      There is little doubt that these also were despoiled and destroyed by the
+      victorious enemy, but the writer of the tablet is not concerned for the
+      moment with the fate of his city or his fellow citizens. He appears to be
+      overcome with the thought of the deeds of sacrilege committed against his
+      gods; his mind is entirely taken up with the magnitude of the insult
+      offered to the god Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla. His bare
+      enumeration of the deeds of sacrilege and violence loses little by its
+      brevity, and, when he has ended the list of his accusations against the
+      men of Gishkhu, he curses the goddess to whose influence he attributes
+      their success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No composition at all like this document has yet been recovered, and as it
+      is not very long we may here give a translation of the text. It will be
+      seen that the writer plunges at once into the subject of his charges
+      against the men of Gishkhu. No historical <i>résumé</i> prefaces his
+      accusations, and he gives no hint of the circumstances that have rendered
+      their delivery possible. The temples of his city have been profaned and
+      destroyed, and his indignation finds vent in a mere enumeration of their
+      titles. To his mind the facts need no comment, for to him it is barely
+      conceivable that such sacred places of ancient worship should have been
+      defiled. He launches his indictment against Gishkhu in the following
+      terms: “The men of Gishkhu have set fire to the temple of E-ki [... ],
+      they have set fire to Antashura, and they have carried away the silver and
+      the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood in the palace of
+      Tirash, they have shed blood in Abzubanda, they have shed blood in the
+      shrine of Enlil and in the shrine of the Sun-god, they have shed blood in
+      Akhush, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+      therefrom! They have shed blood in the Gikana of the sacred grove of the
+      goddess Ninmakh, and they have carried away the silver and the precious
+      stones therefrom! They have shed blood in Baga, and they have carried away
+      the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood in
+      Abzu-ega, they have set fire to the temple of Gatumdug, and they have
+      carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom, and have
+      destroyed her statue! They have set fire to the.... of the temple E-anna
+      of the goddess Ninni, and they have carried away the silver and the
+      precious stones therefrom, and have destroyed her statue! They have shed
+      blood in Shapada, and they have carried away the silver and precious
+      stones therefrom! They have.... in Khenda, they have shed blood in the
+      temple of Nindar in the town of Kiab, and they have carried away the
+      silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have set fire to the temple
+      of Dumuzi-abzu in the town of Kinunir, and they have carried away the
+      silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have set fire to the temple
+      of Lugaluru, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+      therefrom! They have shed blood in E-engura, the temple of the goddess
+      Ninâ, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+      therefrom! They have shed blood in Sag..., the temple of Amageshtin, and
+      the silver and the precious stones of Amageshtin have they carried away!
+      They have removed the grain from Ginarbaniru, the field of the god
+      Ningirsu, so much of it as was under cultivation! The men of Gishkhu, by
+      the despoiling of Shirpurla, have committed a transgression against the
+      god Ningirsu! The power that is come unto them, from them shall be taken
+      away! Of transgression on the part of Urukagina, King of Girsu, there is
+      none. As for Lugalzaggisi, patesi of Gishkhu, may his goddess Ni-daba bear
+      on her head (the weight of) this transgression!”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the account, which has come down to us from the rough tablet of
+      some unknown scribe, of the greatest misfortune experienced by Shirpurla
+      during the long course of her history. Many of the great temples mentioned
+      in the text as among those which were burnt down and despoiled of their
+      treasures are referred to more than once in the votive and historical
+      inscriptions of earlier rulers of Shirpurla, who occupied the throne
+      before the ill-fated Urukagina. The names of some of them, too, are to be
+      found in the texts of the later pate-sis of that city, so that it may be
+      concluded that in course of time they were rebuilt and restored to their
+      former splendour. But there is no doubt that the despoiling and partial
+      destruction of Shirpurla in the reign of Urukagina had a lasting effect
+      upon the fortunes of that city, and effectively curtailed her influence
+      among the greater cities of Southern Babylonia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may now turn our attention to the leader of the men of Gishkhu, under
+      whose direction they achieved their final triumph over their ancient, and
+      for long years more powerful, rival Shirpurla. The writer of our tablet
+      mentions his name in the closing words of his text when he curses him and
+      his goddess for the destruction and sacrilege that they have wrought. “As
+      for Lugalzaggisi,” he says, “patesi of Gishkhu, may his goddess Nidaba
+      bear on her head (the weight of ) this transgression!” Now the name of
+      Lugalzaggisi has been found upon a number of fragments of vases made of
+      white calcite stalagmite which were discovered by Mr. Haynes during his
+      excavations at Nippur. All the vases were engraved with the same
+      inscription, so that it was possible by piecing the fragments of text
+      together to obtain a more or less complete copy of the records which were
+      originally engraved upon each of them. From these records we learned for
+      the first time, not only the name of Lugalzaggisi, but the fact that he
+      founded a powerful coalition of cities in Babylonia at what was obviously
+      a very early period in the history of the country. In the text he
+      describes himself as “King of Erech, king of the world, the priest of Ana,
+      the hero of Nidaba, the son of Ukush, patesi of Gishkhu, the hero of
+      Nidaba, the man who was favourably regarded by the sure eye of the King of
+      the Lands (i.e. the god Enlil), the great patesi of Enlil, unto whom
+      understanding was granted by Enki, the chosen of the Sun-god, the exalted
+      minister of Enzu, endowed with strength by the Sun-god, the worshipper of
+      Ninni, the son who was conceived by Nidaba, who was nourished by
+      Ninkharsag with the milk of life, the attendant of Umu, priestess of
+      Erech, the servant who was trained by Ninâgidkhadu, the mistress of Erech,
+      the great minister of the gods.” Lugalzaggisi then goes on to describe the
+      extent of his dominion, and he says: “When the god Enlil, the lord of the
+      countries, bestowed upon Lugalzaggisi the kingdom of the world, and
+      granted unto him success in the sight of the world, when he filled the
+      lands with his power, and conquered them from the rising of the sun unto
+      the setting of the same, at that time he made straight his path from the
+      Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates unto the Upper Sea, and he granted
+      him dominion over all from the rising of the sun unto the setting of the
+      same, so that he caused the lands to dwell in peace.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now when first the text of this inscription was published there existed
+      only vague indications of the date to be assigned to Lugalzaggisi and the
+      kingdom that he founded. It was clear from the titles which he bore, that,
+      though Gishkhu was his native place, he had extended his authority far
+      beyond that city and had chosen Erech as his capital. Moreover, he claimed
+      an empire extending from “the Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates unto
+      the Upper Sea.” There is no doubt that the Lower Sea here mentioned is the
+      Persian Gulf, and it has been suggested that the Upper Sea may be taken to
+      be the Mediterranean, though it may possibly have been Lake Van or Lake
+      Urmi. But whichever of these views might be adopted, it was clear that
+      Lugalzaggisi was a great conqueror, and had achieved the right to assume
+      the high-sounding title of lugal halama, “king of the world.” In these
+      circumstances it was of the first importance for the study of primitive
+      Chaldæan history and chronology to ascertain approximately the period at
+      which Lugalzaggisi reigned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evidence on which such a question could be provisionally settled was
+      of the vaguest and most uncertain character, but such as it was it had to
+      suffice, in the absence of more reliable data. In settling all problems
+      connected with early Chaldæan chronology, the starting-point was, and in
+      fact still is, the period of Sargon I, King of Agade, inasmuch as the date
+      of his reign is settled, according to the reckoning of the scribes of
+      Nabonidus, as about 3800 B.C. It is true that this date has been called in
+      question, and ingenious suggestions for amending it have been made by some
+      writers, while others have rejected it altogether, holding that it merely
+      represented a guess on the part of the late Babylonians and could be
+      safely ignored in the chronological schemes which they brought forward.
+      But nearly every fresh discovery made in the last few years has tended to
+      confirm some point in the traditions current among the later Babylonians
+      with regard to the earlier history of their country. Consequently,
+      reliance may be placed with increased confidence on the truth of such
+      traditions as a whole, and we may continue to accept those statements
+      which yet await confirmation from documents more nearly contemporary with
+      the early period to which they refer. It is true that such a date as that
+      assigned by Nabonidus to Sargon is not to be regarded as absolutely fixed,
+      for Nabonidus is obviously speaking in round numbers, and we may allow for
+      some minor inaccuracies in the calculations of his scribes. But it is
+      certain that the later Babylonian priests and scribes had a wealth of
+      historical material at their disposal which has not come down to us. We
+      may therefore accept the date given by Nabonidus for Sargon of Agade and
+      his son Narâm-Sin as approximately accurate, and this is also the opinion
+      of the majority of writers on early Babylonian history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The diggings at Nippur furnished indications that certain inscriptions
+      found on that site and written in a very archaic form of script were to be
+      assigned to a period earlier than that of Sargon. One class of evidence
+      was obtained from a careful study of the different levels at which the
+      inscriptions and the remains of buildings were found. At a comparatively
+      deep level in the mound inscriptions of Sargon himself were recovered,
+      along with bricks stamped with the name of Narâm-Sin, his son. It was,
+      therefore, a reasonable conclusion roughly to date the particular stratum
+      in which these objects were found to the period of the empire established
+      by Sargon, with its centre at Agade. Later on excavations were carried to
+      a lower level, and remains of buildings were discovered which appeared to
+      belong to a still earlier period of civilization. An altar was found
+      standing in a small enclosure surrounded by a kind of curb. Near by were
+      two immense clay vases which appeared to have been placed on a ramp or
+      inclined plane leading up to the altar, and remains were also found of a
+      massive brick building in which was an arch of brick. No inscriptions were
+      actually found at this level, but in the upper level assigned to Sargon
+      were a number of texts which might very probably be assigned to the
+      pre-Sargonic period. None of these were complete, and they had the
+      appearance of having been intentionally broken into small fragments. There
+      was therefore something to be said for the theory that they might have
+      been inscribed by the builders of the construction in the lowest levels of
+      the mound, and that they were destroyed and scattered by some conqueror
+      who had laid their city in ruins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all such evidence derived from noting the levels at which inscriptions
+      are found is in its nature extremely uncertain and liable to many
+      different interpretations, especially if the strata show signs of having
+      been disturbed. Where a pavement or building is still intact, with the
+      inscribed bricks of the builder remaining in their original positions,
+      conclusions may be confidently drawn with regard to the age of the
+      building and its relative antiquity to the strata above and below it. But
+      the strata in the lowest levels at Nippur, as we have seen, were not in
+      this condition, and such evidence as they furnished could only be accepted
+      if confirmed by independent data. Such confirmation was to be found by
+      examination of the early inscriptions themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been remarked that most of them were broken into small pieces, as
+      though by some invader of the country; but this was not the case with
+      certain gate-sockets and great blocks of diorite which were too hard and
+      big to be easily broken. Moreover, any conqueror of a city would be
+      unlikely to spend time and labour in destroying materials which might be
+      usefully employed in the construction of other buildings which he himself
+      might erect. Stone could not be obtained in the alluvial plains of
+      Babylonia and had to be quarried in the mountains and brought great
+      distances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0026" id="linkBimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/188.jpg" width="100%" alt="188.jpg Stone Gate " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Stone Gate-Socket Bearing An Inscription of Uk-Engur, An Early King
+     of The City Of Ur. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      From any building of his predecessors which he razed to the ground, an
+      invader would therefore remove the gate-sockets and blocks of stone for
+      his own use, supposing he contemplated building on the site. If he left
+      the city in ruins and returned to his own country, some subsequent king,
+      when clearing the ruined site for building operations, might come across
+      the stones, and he would not leave them buried, but would use them for his
+      own construction. And this is what actually did happen in the case of some
+      of the building materials of one of these early kings, from the lower
+      strata of Nippur. Certain of the blocks which bore the name of
+      Lugalkigubnidudu had been used again by Sargon, King of Agade, who
+      engraved his own name upon them without obliterating the name of the
+      former king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It followed that Lugalkigubnidudu belonged to the pre-Sargonic period,
+      and, although the same conclusive evidence was not forthcoming in the case
+      of Lugalzag-gisi, he also without much hesitation was set in this early
+      period, mainly on the strength of the archaic forms of the characters
+      employed in his inscriptions. In fact, they were held to be so archaic
+      that, not only was he said to have reigned before Sargon of Agade, but he
+      was set in the very earliest period of Chaldæan history, and his empire
+      was supposed to have been contemporaneous with the very earliest rulers of
+      Shirpurla. The new inscription found by Captain Cros will cause this
+      opinion to be considerably modified. While it corroborates the view that
+      Lugalzaggisi is to be set in the pre-Sargonic period, it proves that he
+      lived and reigned very shortly before him. As we have already seen, he was
+      the contemporary of Urukagina, who belongs to the middle period of the
+      history of Shirpurla. Lugalzaggisi’s capture and sack of the city of
+      Shirpurla was only one of a number of conquests which he achieved. His
+      father Ukush had been merely patesi of the city of Gish-khu, but he
+      himself was not content with the restricted sphere of authority which such
+      a position implied, and he eventually succeeded in enforcing his authority
+      over the greater part of Babylonia. From the fact that he styles himself
+      King of Erech, we may conclude that he removed his capital from Ukush to
+      that city, after having probably secured its submission by force of arms.
+      In fact, his title of “king of the world” can only have been won as the
+      result of many victories, and Captain Cros’s tablet gives us a glimpse of
+      the methods by which he managed to secure himself against the competition
+      of any rival. The capture of Shirpurla must have been one of his earliest
+      achievements, for its proximity to Gish-khu rendered its reduction a
+      necessary prelude to any more extensive plan of conquest. But the kingdom
+      which Lugalzaggisi founded cannot have endured long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under Sargon of Agade, the Semites gained the upper hand in Babylonia, and
+      Erech, Grishkhu, and Shirpurla, as well as the other ancient cities in the
+      land, fell in turn under his domination and formed part of the extensive
+      empire which he ruled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Concerning the later rulers of city-states of Babylonia which succeeded
+      the disruption of the empire founded by Sargon of Agade and consolidated
+      by Narâm-Sin, his son, the excavations have little to tell us which has
+      not already been made use of by Prof. Maspero in his history of this
+      period.<a href="#fn4.4" name="fnref4.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn4.4"></a> <a href="#fnref4.4">[4]</a>
+     The tablets found at Telloh by the late M. de Sarzec, and
+     published during his lifetime, fall into two main classes,
+     which date from different periods in early Chaldæan
+     history. The great majority belong to the period when the
+     city of Ur held pre-eminence among the cities of Southern
+     Babylonia, and they are dated in the reigns of Dungi, Bur-
+     Sin, Gamil-Sin, and Ine-Sin. The other and smaller
+     collection belongs to the earlier period of Sargon and
+     Narâm-Sin; while many of the tablets found in M. de Sarzec’s
+     last diggings, which were published after his death, are to
+     be set in the great gap between these two periods. Some of
+     those recently discovered, which belong to the period of
+     Dungi, contain memoranda concerning the supply of food for
+     the maintenance of officials stopping at Shirpurla in the
+     course of journeys in Babylonia and Elam, and they throw an
+     interesting light on the close and constant communication
+     which took place at this time between the great cities of
+     Mesopotamia and the neighbouring countries.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0027" id="linkBimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/190.jpg" width="100%" alt="190.jpg Statue of Gudea. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The most famous of the later patesis, or viceroys, of
+     Shirpurla, the Sumerian city in Southern Babylonia now
+     marked by the mounds of Telloh. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Ur, Isin, and,Larsam succeeded one another in the position of leading city
+      in Babylonia, holding Mppur, Eridu, Erech, Shirpurla, and the other chief
+      cities in a condition of semi-dependence upon themselves. We may note that
+      the true reading of the name of the founder of the dynasty of Ur has now
+      been ascertained from a syllabary to be Ur-Engur; and an unpublished
+      chronicle in the British Museum relates that his son Dungi cared greatly
+      for the city of Eridu, but sacked Babylon and carried off its spoil,
+      together with the treasures from E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk.
+      Such episodes must have been common at this period when each city was
+      striving for hegemony. Meanwhile, Shirpurla remained the centre of
+      Sumerian influence in Babylonia, and her patesis were content to owe
+      allegiance to so powerful a ruler as Dungi, King of Ur, while at all times
+      exercising complete authority within their own jurisdiction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the most recent diggings that have been carried out at Telloh a
+      find of considerable value to the history of Sumerian art has been made.
+      The find is also of great general interest, since it enables us to
+      identify a portrait of Gudea, the most famous of the later Sumerian
+      patesis. In the course of excavating the Tell of Tablets Captain Cros
+      found a little seated statue made of diorite. It was not found in place,
+      but upside down, and appeared to have been thrown with other débris
+      scattered in that portion of the mound. On lifting it from the trench it
+      was seen that the head of the statue was broken off, as is the case with
+      all the other statues of Gudea found at Telloh. The statue bore an
+      inscription of Gudea, carefully executed and well preserved, but it was
+      smaller than other statues of the same ruler that had been already
+      recovered, and the absence of the head thus robbed it of any extraordinary
+      interest. On its arrival at the Louvre, M. Léon Heuzey was struck by its
+      general resemblance to a Sumerian head of diorite formerly discovered by
+      M. de Sarzec at Telloh, which has been preserved in the Louvre for many
+      years. On applying the head to the newly found statue, it was found to fit
+      it exactly, and to complete the monument, and we are thus enabled to
+      identify the features of Gudea. Prom a photographic reproduction of this
+      statue, it is seen that the head is larger than it should be, in
+      proportion to the body, a characteristic which is also apparent in a small
+      Sumerian statue preserved in the British Museum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0028" id="linkBimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/192.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="192.jpg Tablet Inscribed in Sumerian With Details of A Survey of Certain Property. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Probably situated in the neighbourhood of Telloh. The
+     circular shape is very unusual, and appears to have been
+     used only for survey-tablets. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Gudea caused many statues of himself to be made out of the hard diorite
+      which he brought for that purpose from the Sinaitic peninsula, and from
+      the inscriptions preserved upon them it is possible to ascertain the
+      buildings in which they were originally placed. Thus one of the statues
+      previously found was set up in the temple of Ninkharsag, two others in
+      E-ninnû, the temple of the god Ningirsu, three more in the temple of the
+      goddess Bau, one in E-anna, the temple of the goddess Ninni, and another
+      in the temple of Gatumdug. The newly found statue of the king was made to
+      be set up in the temple erected by Gudea at Girsu in honour of the god
+      Ningishzida, as is recorded in the inscription engraved on the front of
+      the king’s robe, which reads as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      “In the day when the god Ningirsu, the strong warrior of Enlil, granted
+      unto the god Ningishzida, the son of Ninâzu, the beloved of the gods, (the
+      guardianship of) the foundation of the city and of the hills and valleys,
+      on that day Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla, the just man who loveth his god,
+      who for his master Ningirsu hath constructed his temple E-ninnu, called
+      the shining Imgig, and his temple E-pa, the temple of-the seven zones of
+      heaven, and for the goddess Ninâ, the queen, his lady, hath constructed
+      the temple Sirara-shum, which riseth higher than (all) the temples in the
+      world, and hath constructed their temples for the great gods of Lagash,
+      built for his god Ningishzida his temple in Girsu. Whosoever shall
+      proclaim the god Ningirsu as his god, even as I proclaim him, may he do no
+      harm unto the temple of my god! May he proclaim the name of this temple!
+      May that man be my friend, and may he proclaim my name! Gudea hath made
+      the statue, and ‘Unto - Gudea - the - builder - of - the - temple - hath
+      life-been-given hath he called its name, and he hath brought it into the
+      temple.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The long name which Gudea gave to the statue, “Unto - Gudea - the -
+      builder - of - the - temple - hath - life-been-given,” is characteristic
+      of the practice of the Sumerian patesis, who always gave long and
+      symbolical names to statues, stelae, and sacred objects dedicated and set
+      up in their temples. The occasion on which the temple was built, and this
+      statue erected within it, seems to have been the investiture of the god
+      Ningishzida with special and peculiar powers, and it possibly inaugurated
+      his introduction into the pantheon of Shirpurla. Ningishzida is called in
+      the inscription the son of Ninazu, who was the husband of the Queen of the
+      Underworld.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one of his aspects he was therefore probably a god of the underworld
+      himself, and it is in this character that he was appointed by Ningirsu as
+      guardian of the city’s foundations. But “the hills and valleys” (i.e. the
+      open country) were also put under his jurisdiction, so that in another
+      aspect he was a god of vegetation. It is therefore not improbable that,
+      like the god Dumuzi, or Tammuz, he was supposed to descend into the
+      underworld in winter, ascending to the surface of the earth with the
+      earliest green shoots of vegetation in the spring.<a href="#fn4.5" name="fnref4.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn4.5"></a> <a href="#fnref4.5">[5]</a>
+     Cf. Thureau-Dangin, Rev. d’Assyr., vol. vi. (1904), p. 24.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      A most valuable contribution has recently been made to our knowledge of
+      Sumerian religion and of the light in which these early rulers regarded
+      the cult and worship of their gods, by the complete interpretation of the
+      long texts inscribed upon the famous cylinders of Gudea, the patesi of
+      Shirpurla, which have been preserved for many years in the Louvre. These
+      two great cylinders of baked clay were discovered by the late M. de Sarzec
+      so long ago as the year 1877, during the first period of his diggings at
+      Telloh, and, although the general nature of their contents has long been
+      recognized, no complete translation of the texts inscribed upon them had
+      been published until a few months ago. M. Thureau-Dangin, who has made the
+      early Sumerian texts his special study, has devoted himself to their
+      interpretation for some years past, and he has just issued the first part
+      of his monograph upon them. In view of the importance of the texts and of
+      the light they throw upon the religious beliefs and practices of the early
+      Sumerians, a somewhat detailed account of their contents may here be
+      given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The occasion on which the cylinders were made was the rebuilding by Gudea
+      of E-ninnû, the great temple of the god Ningirsu, in the city of
+      Shirpurla. The two cylinders supplement one another, one of them having
+      been inscribed while the work of construction was still in progress, the
+      other after the completion of the temple, when the god Ningirsu had been
+      installed within his shrine with due pomp and ceremony. It would appear
+      that Southern Babylonia had been suffering from a prolonged drought, and
+      that the water in the rivers and canals had fallen, so that the crops had
+      suffered and the country was threatened with famine. Gudea was at a loss
+      to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country, when one
+      night he had a dream, and it was in consequence of this dream that he
+      eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of Sumerian
+      temples. By this means he secured the return of Ningirsu’s favour and that
+      of the other gods, and his country once more enjoyed the blessings of
+      peace and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the opening words of the first of his cylinders Gudea describes how the
+      great gods themselves took counsel and decreed that he should build the
+      temple of E-ninnû and thereby restore to his city the supply of water it
+      had formerly enjoyed. He records that on the day on which the destinies
+      were fixed in heaven and upon earth, Enlil, the chief of the gods, and
+      Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla, held converse. And Enlil, turning to
+      Ningirsu, said: “In my city that which is fitting is not done. The stream
+      doth not rise. The stream of Enlil doth not rise. The high waters shine
+      not, neither do they show their splendour. The stream of Enlil bringeth
+      not good water like the Tigris. Let the King (i.e. Ningirsu) therefore
+      proclaim the temple. Let the decrees of the temple E-ninnû be made
+      illustrious in heaven and upon earth!” The great gods did not communicate
+      their orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed their wishes to him by means
+      of a dream. And while the patesi slept a vision of the night came to him,
+      and he beheld a man whose stature was so great that it equalled the
+      heavens and the earth. And by the crown he wore upon his head Gudea knew
+      that the figure must be a god. And by his side was the divine eagle, the
+      emblem of Shirpurla, and his feet rested upon the whirlwind, and a lion
+      was crouching upon his right hand and upon his left. And the figure spoke
+      to the patesi, but he did not understand the meaning of the words. Then it
+      seemed to Gudea that the sun rose from the earth and he beheld a woman
+      holding in her hand a pure reed, and she carried also a tablet on which
+      was a star of the heavens, and she seemed to take counsel with herself.
+      And while Gudea was gazing he seemed to see a second man who was like a
+      warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis lazuli and on it he drew out the
+      plan of a temple. And before the patesi himself it seemed that a fair
+      cushion was placed, and upon the cushion was set a mould, and within the
+      mould was a brick, the brick of destiny. And on the right hand the patesi
+      beheld an ass which lay upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the dream which Gudea beheld in a vision of the night, and he was
+      troubled because he could not interpret it. So he decided to go to the
+      goddess Ninâ, who could divine all mysteries of the gods, and beseech her
+      to tell him the meaning of the vision. But before applying to the goddess
+      for her help, he thought it best to secure the mediation of the god
+      Ningirsu and the goddess Gatumdug, in order that they should use their
+      influence with Ninâ to induce her to reveal the interpretation of the
+      dream. So the patesi set out to the temple of Ningirsu, and, having
+      offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water, he prayed to the god that
+      his sister, Ninâ, the child of Eridu, might be prevailed upon to give him
+      help. And the god hearkened to his prayer. Then Gudea made offerings, and
+      before the sleeping-chamber of the goddess Gatumdug he offered a sacrifice
+      and poured out fresh water. And he prayed to the goddess, calling her his
+      queen and the child of the pure heaven, who gave life to the countries and
+      befriended and preserved the people or the man on whom she looked with
+      favour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      “I have no mother,” cried Gudea, “but thou art my mother! I have no
+      father, but thou art a father to me!” And the goddess Gatumdug gave ear to
+      the patesi’s prayer. Thus encouraged by her favour and that of Ningirsu,
+      Gudea set out for the temple of the goddess Ninâ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his arrival at the temple, the patesi offered a sacrifice and poured
+      out fresh water, as he had already done when approaching the presence of
+      Ningirsu and Gatumdug. And he prayed to Ninâ, as the goddess who divines
+      the secrets of the gods, beseeching her to interpret the vision that had
+      been sent to him; and he then recounted to her the details of his dream.
+      When the patesi had finished his story, the goddess addressed him and told
+      him that she would explain the meaning of his dream to him. And this was
+      the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so great that
+      it equalled the heavens and the earth, whose head was that of a god, at
+      whose side was the divine eagle, whose feet rested on the whirlwind, while
+      a lion couched on his right hand and on his left, was her brother, the god
+      Ningirsu. And the words which he uttered were an order to the patesi that
+      he should build the temple E-ninnû. And the sun which rose from the earth
+      before the patesi was the god Ningishzida, for like the sun he goes forth
+      from the earth. And the maiden who held a pure reed in her hand, and
+      carried the tablet with the star, was her sister, the goddess Nidaba: the
+      star was the pure star of the temple’s construction, which she proclaimed.
+      And the second man, who was like a warrior and carried the slab of lapis
+      lazuli, was the god Nindub, and the plan of the temple which he drew was
+      the plan of E-ninnû. And the brick which rested in its mould upon the
+      cushion was the sacred brick of E-ninnû. And as for the ass which lay upon
+      the ground, that, the goddess said, was the patesi himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having interpreted the meaning of the dream, the goddess Ninâ proceeded to
+      give Gudea instruction as to how he should go to work to build the temple.
+      She told him first of all to go to his treasure-house and bring forth his
+      treasures from their sealed cases, and out of these to make certain
+      offerings which he was to place near the god Ningirsu, in the temple in
+      which he was dwelling at that time. The offerings were to consist of a
+      chariot, adorned with pure metal and precious stones; bright arrows in a
+      quiver; the weapon of the god, his sacred emblem, on which Gudea was to
+      inscribe his own name; and finally a lyre, the music of which was wont to
+      soothe the god when he took counsel with himself. Ninâ added that if the
+      patesi carried out her instructions and made the offerings she had
+      specified, Ningirsu would reveal to him the plan on which the temple was
+      to be built, and would also bless him. Gudea bowed himself down in token
+      of his submission to the commands of the goddess, and proceeded to execute
+      them forthwith. He brought out his treasures, and from the precious woods
+      and metals which he possessed his craftsmen fashioned the objects he was
+      to present, and he set them in Ningirsu’s temple near to the god. He
+      worked day and night, and, having prepared a suitable spot in the
+      precincts of the temple at the place of judgment, he spread out upon it as
+      offerings a fat sheep and a kid and the skin of a young female kid. Then
+      he built a fire of cypress and cedar and other aromatic woods, to make a
+      sweet savour, and, entering the inner chamber of the temple, he offered a
+      prayer to Ningirsu. He said that he wished to build the temple, but he had
+      received no sign that this was the will of the god, and he prayed for a
+      sign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he prayed the patesi was stretched out upon the ground, and the god,
+      standing near his head, then answered him. He said that he who should
+      build his temple was none other than Gudea, and that he would give him the
+      sign for which he asked. But first he described the plan on which the
+      temple was to be built, naming its various shrines and chambers and
+      describing the manner in which they were to be fashioned and adorned. And
+      the god promised that when Gudea should build the temple, the land would
+      once more enjoy abundance, for Ningirsu would send a wind which should
+      proclaim to the heavens the return of the waters. And on that day the
+      waters would fall from the heavens, the water in the ditches and canals
+      would rise, and water would gush out from the dry clefts in the ground.
+      And the great fields would once more produce their crops, and oil would be
+      poured out plenteously in Sumer[sp.] and wool would again be weighed in
+      great abundance. In that day the god would go to the mountain where dwelt
+      the whirlwind, and he would himself direct the wind which should give the
+      land the breath of life. Gudea must therefore work day and night at the
+      task of building the temple. One company of men was to relieve another at
+      its toil, and during the night the men were to kindle lights so that the
+      plain should be as bright as day. Thus the builders would build
+      continuously. Men were also to be sent to the mountains to cut down cedars
+      and pines and other trees and bring their trunks to the city, while masons
+      were to go to the mountains and were to cut and transport huge blocks of
+      stone to be used in the construction of the temple. Finally the god gave
+      Gudea the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his
+      side touched as by a flame, and thereby he should know that he was the man
+      chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gudea bowed his head in submission, and his first act was to consult the
+      omens, and the omens were favourable. He then proceeded to purify the city
+      by special rites, so that the mother when angered did not chide her son,
+      and the master did not strike his servant’s head, and the mistress, though
+      provoked by her handmaid, did not smite her face. And Gudea drove all the
+      evil wizards and sorcerers from the city, and he purified and sanctified
+      the city completely. Then he kindled a great fire of cedar and other
+      aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour for the gods, and prayers were
+      offered day and night; and the patesi addressed a prayer to the Anun-naki,
+      or Spirits of the Earth, who dwelt in Shirpurla, and assigned a place to
+      them in the temple. Then, having completed his purification of the city
+      itself, he consecrated its immediate surroundings. Thus he consecrated the
+      district of Gu-edin, whence the revenues of Ningirsu were derived, and the
+      lands of the goddess Ninâ with their populous villages. And he consecrated
+      the wild and savage bulls which no man could turn aside, and the cedars
+      which were sacred to Ningirsu, and the cattle of the plains. And he
+      consecrated the armed men, and the famous warriors, and the warriors of
+      the Sun-god. And the emblems of the god Ningirsu, and of the two great
+      goddesses, Ninâ and Ninni, he installed before them in their shrines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Gudea sent far and wide to fetch materials for the construction of
+      the temple. And the Elamite came from Elani, and men of Susa came from
+      Susa, and men brought wood from the mountains of Sinai and Melukh-kha. And
+      into the mountain of cedars, where no man before had penetrated, the
+      patesi cut a road, and he brought cedars and beams of other precious woods
+      in great quantities to the city. And he also made a road into the mountain
+      where stone was quarried, into places where no man before had penetrated.
+      And he carried great blocks of stone down from the mountain and loaded
+      them into barges and brought them to the city. And the barges brought
+      bitumen and plaster, and they were loaded as though they were carrying
+      grain, and all manner of great things were brought to the city. Copper ore
+      was brought from the mountain of copper in the land of Kimash, and gold
+      was brought in powder from the mountains, and silver was brought from the
+      mountains and porphyry from the land of Melukhkha, and marble from the
+      mountain of marble. And the patesi installed goldsmiths and silversmiths,
+      who wrought in these precious metals, for the adornment of the temple; and
+      he brought smiths who worked in copper and lead, who were priests of
+      Nin-tu-kalama. In his search for fitting materials for the building of the
+      temple, Gudea journeyed from the lower country to the upper country, and
+      from the upper country to the lower country he returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only other materials now wanting for the construction of the temple
+      were the sun-dried bricks of clay, of which the temple platform and the
+      structure of the temple itself were in the main composed. Their
+      manufacture was now inaugurated by a symbolical ceremony carried out by
+      the patesi in person. At dawn he performed an ablution with the fitting
+      rites that accompanied it, and when the day was more advanced he slew a
+      bull and a kid as sacrifices, and he then entered the temple of Ningirsu,
+      where he prostrated himself. And he took the sacred mould and the fair
+      cushion on which it rested in the temple, and he poured a libation into
+      the mould. Afterwards, having made offerings of honey and butter, and
+      having burnt incense, he placed the cushion and the mould upon his head
+      and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed clay in the mould,
+      shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its mould within the
+      temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
+      And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And Gudea
+      took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he carried
+      the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
+      manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick which
+      he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks to be
+      used in its construction. He then marked out the plan of the temple, and
+      the text states that he devoted himself to the building of the temple like
+      a young man who has begun building a house and allows no pleasure to
+      interfere with his task. And he chose out skilled workmen and employed
+      them on the building, and he was filled with joy. The gods, too, are
+      stated to have helped with the building, for Enki fixed the temennu of the
+      temple, and the goddess Ninâ looked after its oracles, and Gatumdug, the
+      mother of Shir-purla, fashioned bricks for it morning and evening, while
+      the goddess Bau sprinkled aromatic oil of cedar-wood. Gudea himself laid
+      its foundations, and as he did so he blessed the temple seven times,
+      comparing it to the sacred brick, to the holy libation-vase, to the divine
+      eagle of Shirpurla, to a terrible couching panther, to the beautiful
+      heavens, to the day of offerings, and to the morning light which brightens
+      the land. He caused the temple to rise towards heaven like a mountain, or
+      like a cedar growing in the desert. He built it of bricks of Sumer, and
+      the timbers which he set in place were as strong as the dragon of the
+      deep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was engaged on the building Gudea took counsel of the god Enki,
+      and he built a fountain for the gods, where they might drink. With the
+      great stones which he had brought and fashioned he built a reservoir and a
+      basin for the temple. And seven of the great stones he set up as stelæ,
+      and he gave them favourable names. The text then recounts the various
+      parts and shrines of the temple, and it describes their splendours in
+      similes drawn from the heavens and the earth and the abyss, or deep,
+      beneath the earth. The temple itself is described as, being like the
+      crescent of the new moon, or like the sun in the midst of the stars, or
+      like a mountain of lapis lazuli, or like a mountain of shining marble.
+      Parts of it are said to have been terrible and strong as a savage bull, or
+      a lion, or the antelope of the abyss, or the monster Lakhamu who dwells in
+      the abyss, or the sacred leopard that inspires terror. One of the doors of
+      the temple was guarded by a figure of the hero who slew the monster with
+      six heads, and at another door was a good dragon, and at another a lion;
+      opposite the city were set figures of the seven heroes, and facing the
+      rising sun was fixed the emblem of the Sun-god. Figures of other heroes
+      and favourable monsters were set up as guardians of other portions of the
+      temple. The fastenings of the main entrance were decorated with dragons
+      shooting out their tongues, and the bolt of the great door was fashioned
+      like a raging hound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this description of the construction and adornment of the temple the
+      text goes on to narrate how Gudea arranged for its material endowment. He
+      stalled oxen and sheep, for sacrifice and feasting, in the outhouses and
+      pens within the temple precincts, and he heaped up grain in its granaries.
+      Its storehouses he filled with spices so that they were like the Tigris
+      when its waters are in flood, and in its treasure-chambers he piled up
+      precious stones, and silver, and lead in abundance. Within the temple
+      precincts he planted a sacred garden which was like a mountain covered
+      with vines; and on the terrace he built a great reservoir, or tank, lined
+      with lead, in addition to the great stone reservoir within the temple
+      itself. He constructed a special dwelling-place for the sacred doves, and
+      among the flowers of the temple garden and under the shade of the great
+      trees the birds of heaven flew about unmolested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first of the two great cylinders of Gudea ends at this point in the
+      description of the temple, and it is evident that its text was composed
+      while the work of building was still in progress. Moreover, the writing of
+      the cylinder was finished before the actual work of building the temple
+      was completed, for the last column of the text concludes with a prayer to
+      Ningirsu to make it glorious during the progress of the work, the prayer
+      ending with the words, “O Ningirsu, glorify it! Glorify the temple of
+      Ningirsu during its construction!” The text of the second of the two great
+      cylinders is shorter than that of the first, consisting of twenty-four
+      instead of thirty columns of writing, and it was composed and written
+      after the temple was completed. Like the first of the cylinders, it
+      concludes with a prayer to Ningirsu on behalf of the temple, ending with
+      the similar refrain, “O Ningirsu, glorify it! Glorify the temple of
+      Ningirsu after its construction!” The first cylinder, as we have seen,
+      records how it came about that Gudea decided to rebuild the temple E-ninnû
+      in honour of Ningirsu. It describes how, when the land was suffering from
+      drought and famine, Gudea had a dream, how Ninâ interpreted the dream to
+      mean that he must rebuild the temple, and how Ningirsu himself promised
+      that this act of piety would restore abundance and prosperity to the land.
+      Its text ends with the long description of the sumptuous manner in which
+      the patesi carried out the work, the most striking points of which we have
+      just summarized. The narrative of the second cylinder begins at the moment
+      when the building of the temple was finished, and when all was ready for
+      the great god Nin-girsu to be installed therein, and its text is taken up
+      with a description of the ceremonies and rites with which this solemn
+      function was carried out. It presents us with a picture, drawn from life,
+      of the worship and cult of the ancient Sumerians in actual operation. In
+      view of its importance from the point of view of the study and comparison
+      of the Sumerian and Babylonian religious systems, its contents also may be
+      summarized. We will afterwards discuss briefly the information furnished
+      by both the cylinders on the Sumerian origin of many of the religious
+      beliefs and practices which were current among the later Semitic
+      inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Gudea had finished building the new temple of E-ninnû, and had
+      completed the decoration and adornment of its shrines, and had planted its
+      gardens and stocked its treasure-chambers and storehouses, he applied
+      himself to the preliminary ceremonies and religious preparations which
+      necessarily preceded the actual function of transferring the statue of the
+      god Ningirsu from his old temple to his new one. Gudea’s first act was to
+      install the Anunnaki, or Spirits of the Earth, in the new temple, and when
+      he had done this, and had supplied additional sheep for their sacrifices
+      and food in abundance for their offerings, he prayed to them to give him
+      their assistance and to pronounce a prayer at his side when he should lead
+      Ningirsu into his new dwelling-place. The text then describes how Gudea
+      went to the old temple of Ningirsu, accompanied by his protecting spirits
+      who walked before him and behind him. Into the old temple he carried
+      sumptuous offerings, and when he had set them before the god, he addressed
+      him in prayer and said: “O my King, Ningirsu! O Lord, who curbest the
+      raging waters! O Lord, whose word surpasseth all others! O Son of Enlil, O
+      warrior, what commands shall I faithfully carry out? O Ningirsu, I have
+      built thy temple, and with joy would I lead thee therein, and my goddess
+      Bau would install at thy side.” We are told that the god accepted Gudea’s
+      prayer, and thereby he gave his consent to be removed from the old temple
+      of E-ninnû to his new one which bore the same name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the ceremony of the god’s removal was not carried out at once, for the
+      due time had not arrived. The year ended, and the new year came, and then
+      “the month of the temple” began. The third day of the month was that
+      appointed for the installation of Ningirsu. Gudea meanwhile had sprinkled
+      the ground with oil, and set out offerings of honey and butter and wine,
+      and grain mixed with milk, and dates, and food untouched by fire, to serve
+      as food for the gods; and the gods themselves had assisted in the
+      preparations for the reception of Ningirsu. The god Asaru made ready the
+      temple itself, and Ninmada performed the ceremony of purification. The god
+      Enki issued oracles, and the god Nindub, the supreme priest of Eridu,
+      brought incense. Ninâ performed chants within the temple, and brought
+      black sheep and holy cows to its folds and stalls. This record of the help
+      given by the other gods we may interpret as meaning that the priests
+      attached to the other great Sumerian temples took part in the preparation
+      of the new temple, and added their offerings to the temple stores. To many
+      of the gods, also, special shrines within the temple were assigned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the purification of E-ninnû was completed and the way between the old
+      temple and the new made ready, all the inhabitants of the city prostrated
+      themselves on the ground. “The city,” says Gudea, “was like the mother of
+      a sick man who prepareth a potion for him, or like the cattle of the plain
+      which lie down together, or like the fierce lion, the master of the plain,
+      when he coucheth.” During the day and the night before the ceremony of
+      removal, prayers and supplications were uttered, and at the first light of
+      dawn on the appointed day the god Ningirsu went into his new temple “like
+      a whirlwind,” the goddess Bau entering at his side “like the sun rising
+      over Shirpurla.” She entered beside his couch, like a faithful wife, whose
+      cares are for her own household, and she dwelt beside his ear and bestowed
+      abundance upon Shirpurla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the day began to brighten and the sun rose, Gudea set out as offerings
+      in the temple a fat ox and a fat sheep, and he brought a vase of lead and
+      filled it with wine, which he poured out as a libation, and he performed
+      incantations. Then, having duly established Ningirsu and Bau in the chief
+      shrine, he turned his attention to the lesser gods and installed them in
+      their appointed places in the temple, where they would be always ready to
+      assist Ningirsu in the temple ceremonies and in the issue of his decrees
+      for the welfare of the city and its inhabitants. Thus he established the
+      god Galalim, the son of Ningirsu, in a chosen spot in the great court in
+      front of the temple, where, under the orders of his father, he should
+      direct the just and curb the evil-doer; he would also by his presence
+      strengthen and preserve the temple, while his special duty was to guard
+      the throne of destiny and, on behalf of Ningirsu, to place the sceptre in
+      the hands of the reigning patesi. Near to Ningirsu and under his orders
+      Gudea also established the god Dunshaga, whose function it was to sanctify
+      the temple and to look after its libations and offerings, and to see to
+      the due performance of the ceremonies of ablution. This god would offer
+      water to Ningirsu with a pure hand, he would pour out libations of wine
+      and strong drink, and would tend the oxen, sheep, kids, and other
+      offerings which were brought to the temple night and day. To the god
+      Lugalkurdub, who was also installed in the temple, was assigned the
+      privilege of holding in his hand the mace with the seven heads, and it was
+      his duty to open the door of the Gate of Combat. He guarded the sacred
+      weapons of Ningirsu and destroyed the countries of his enemies. He was
+      Ningirsu’s chief leader in battle, and another god with lesser powers was
+      associated with him as his second leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ningirsu’s counsellor was the god Lugalsisa, and he also had his appointed
+      place in E-ninnû. It was his duty to receive the prayers of Shirpurla and
+      render them propitious; he superintended and blessed Ningirsu’s journey
+      when he visited Eridu or returned from that city, and he made special
+      intercessions for the life of Gudea. The minister of Ningirsu’s harîm was
+      the god Shakanshabar, and he was installed near to Nin-girsu that he might
+      issue his commands, both great and small. The keeper of the harîm was the
+      god Urizu, and it was his duty to purify the water and sanctify the grain,
+      and he tended Ningirsu’s sleeping-chamber and saw that all was arranged
+      therein as was fitting. The driver of Ningirsu’s chariot was the god
+      Ensignun; it was his duty to keep the sacred chariot as bright as the
+      stars of heaven, and morning and evening to tend and feed Ningirsu’s
+      sacred ass, called Ug-kash, and the ass of Eridu. The shepherd of
+      Ningirsu’s kids was the god Enlulim, and he tended the sacred she-goat who
+      suckled the kids, and he guarded her so that the serpent should not steal
+      her milk. This god also looked after the oil and the strong drink of
+      E-ninnû, and saw that its store increased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ningirsu’s beloved musician was the god Ushum-gabkalama, and he was
+      installed in E-ninnû that he might take his flute and fill the temple
+      court with joy. It was his privilege to play to Ningirsu as he listened in
+      his harîm, and to render the life of the god pleasant in E-ninnû.
+      Ningirsu’s singer was the god Lugaligi-khusham, and he had his appointed
+      place in E-ninnû, for he could appease the heart and soften anger; he
+      could stop the tears which flowed from weeping eyes, and could lessen
+      sorrow in the sighing heart. Gudea also installed in E-ninnû the seven
+      twin-daughters of the goddess Bau, all virgins, whom Ningirsu had
+      begotten. Their names were Zarzaru, Impaë, Urenuntaëa, Khegir-nuna,
+      Kheshaga, Gurmu, and Zarmu. Gudea installed them near their father that
+      they might offer favourable prayers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cultivator of the district of Gu-edin was the god Gishbare, and he was
+      installed in the temple that he might cause the great fields to be
+      fertile, and might make the wheat glisten in Gu-edin, the plain assigned
+      to Ningirsu for his revenues. It was this god’s duty also to tend the
+      machines for irrigation, and to raise the water into the canals and
+      ditches of Shirpurla, and thus to keep the city’s granaries well filled.
+      The god Kal was the guardian of the fishing in Gu-edin, and his chief duty
+      was to place fish in the sacred pools. The steward of Gu-edin was the god
+      Dimgalabzu, whose duty it was to keep the plain in good order, so that the
+      birds might abound there and the beasts might raise their young in peace;
+      he also guarded the special privilege, which the plain enjoyed, of freedom
+      from any tax levied upon the increase of the cattle pastured there. Last
+      of all Gudea installed in E-ninnû the god Lugalenurua-zagakam, who looked
+      after the construction of houses in the city and the building of
+      fortresses upon the city wall; in the temple it was his privilege to raise
+      on high a battle-axe made of cedar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these lesser deities, having close relations to the god Ningirsu, were
+      installed by Gudea in his temple in close proximity to him, that they
+      might be always ready to perform their special functions. But the greater
+      deities also had their share in the inauguration of the temple, and of
+      these Gudea specially mentions Ana, Enlil, Ninkharsag, Enki, and Enzu, who
+      all assisted in rendering the temple’s lot propitious. For at least three
+      of the greater gods (Ana, Enlil, and the goddess Nin-makh) Gudea erected
+      shrines near one another and probably within the temple’s precincts, and,
+      as the passage which records this fact is broken, it is possible that the
+      missing portion of the text recorded the building of shrines to other
+      deities. In any case, it is clear that the composer of the text represents
+      all the great gods as beholding the erection and inauguration of
+      Ningirsu’s new temple with favour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the account of the installation of Ningirsu, and his spouse Bau, and
+      his attendant deities, the text records the sumptuous offerings which
+      Gudea placed within Ningirsu’s shrine. These included another chariot
+      drawn by an ass, a seven-headed battle-axe, a sword with nine emblems, a
+      bow with terrible arrows and a quiver decorated with wild beasts and
+      dragons shooting out their tongues, and a bed which was set within the
+      god’s sleeping-chamber. On the couch in the shrine the goddess Bau
+      reclined beside her lord Ningirsu, and ate of the great victims which were
+      sacrificed in their honour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the ceremony of installation had been successfully performed, Gudea
+      rested, and for seven days he feasted with his people. During this time
+      the maid was the equal of her mistress, and master and servant consorted
+      together as friends. The powerful and the humble man lay down side by
+      side, and in place of evil speech only propitious words were heard. The
+      rich man did not wrong the orphan and the strong man did not oppress the
+      widow. The laws of Ninâ and Ningirsu were observed, justice was bright in
+      the sunlight, and the Sun-god trampled iniquity under foot. The building
+      of the temple also restored material prosperity to the land, for the
+      canals became full of water and fish swarmed in the pools, the granaries
+      were filled with grain and the flocks and herds brought forth their
+      increase. The city of Shirpurla was satiated with abundance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is a summary of the account which Gudea has left us of his rebuilding
+      of the temple E-ninnû, of the reasons which led him to undertake the work,
+      and of the results which followed its completion. It has often been said
+      that the inscriptions of the ancient Sumerians are without much intrinsic
+      value, that they mainly consist of dull votive formulæ, and that for
+      general interest the best of them cannot be compared with the later
+      inscriptions of the Semitic inhabitants of Mesopotamia. This reproach, for
+      which until recently there was considerable justification, has been
+      finally removed by the working out of the texts upon Gudea’s cylinders.
+      For picturesque narrative, for wealth of detail, and for striking similes,
+      it would be hard to find their superior in Babylonian and Assyrian
+      literature. They are, in fact, very remarkable compositions, and in
+      themselves justify the claim that the Sumerians were possessed of a
+      literature in the proper sense of the term.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But that is not their only value, for they give a vivid picture of ancient
+      Sumerian life and of the ideals and aims which actuated the people and
+      their rulers. The Sumerians were essentially an unmilitary race. That they
+      could maintain a stubborn fight for their territory is proved by the
+      prolonged struggle maintained by Shirpurla against her rival Gishkhu, but
+      neither ruler nor people was inflamed by love of conquest for its own
+      sake. They were settled in a rich and fertile country, which supplied
+      their own wants in abundance, and they were content to lead a peaceful
+      life therein, engaged in agricultural and industrial pursuits, and devoted
+      wholly to the worship of their gods. Gudea’s inscriptions enable us to
+      realize with what fervour they carried out the rebuilding of a temple, and
+      how the whole resources of the nation were devoted to the successful
+      completion of the work. It is true that the rebuilding of E-ninnû was
+      undertaken in a critical period when the land was threatened with famine,
+      and the peculiar magnificence with which the work was carried out may be
+      partly explained as due to the belief that such devotion would ensure a
+      return of material prosperity. But the existence of such a belief is in
+      itself an index to the people’s character, and we may take it that the
+      record faithfully represents the relations of the Sumerians to their gods,
+      and the important place which worship and ritual occupied in the national
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, the inscriptions of Gudea furnish much valuable information with
+      regard to the details of Sumerian worship and the elaborate organization
+      of the temples. From them we can reconstruct a picture of one of these
+      immense buildings, with its numerous shrines and courts, surrounded by
+      sacred gardens and raising its ziggurat, or temple tower, high above the
+      surrounding city. Within its dark chambers were the mysterious figures of
+      the gods, and what little light could enter would have been reflected in
+      the tanks of sacred water sunk to the level of the pavement. The air
+      within the shrines must have been heavy with the smell of incense and of
+      aromatic woods, while the deep silence would have been broken only by the
+      chanting of the priests and the feet of those that bore offerings. Outside
+      in the sunlight cedars and other rare trees cast a pleasant shade, and
+      birds flew about among the flowers and bushes in the outer courts and on
+      the garden terraces. The area covered by the temple buildings must have
+      been enormous, for they included the dwellings of the priests, stables and
+      pens for the cattle, sheep, and kids employed for sacrifice, and
+      treasure-chambers and storehouses and granaries for the produce from the
+      temple lands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We also get much information with regard to the nature of the offerings
+      and the character of the ceremonies which were performed. We may mention
+      as of peculiar interest Gudea’s symbolical rite which preceded the making
+      of the sun-dried bricks, and the ceremony of the installation of Ningirsu
+      in the presence of the prostrate city. The texts also throw an interesting
+      light on the truly Oriental manner in which, when approaching one deity
+      for help, the cooperation and assistance of other deities were first
+      secured. Thus Gudea solicited the intercession of Ningirsu and Gatumdug
+      before applying to the goddess Ninâ to interpret his dream. The extremely
+      human character of the gods themselves is also well illustrated. Thus we
+      gather from the texts that Ningirsu’s temple was arranged like the palace
+      of a Sumerian ruler and that he was surrounded by gods who took the place
+      of the attendants and ministers of his human counterpart. His son was
+      installed in a place of honour and shared with him the responsibility of
+      government. Another god was his personal attendant and cupbearer, who
+      offered him fair water and looked after the ablutions. Two more were his
+      generals, who secured his country against the attacks of foes. Another was
+      his counsellor, who received and presented petitions from his subjects and
+      superintended his journeys. Another was the head of his harîm, a position
+      of great trust and responsibility, while a keeper of the harîm looked
+      after the practical details. Another god was the driver of his chariot,
+      and it is interesting to note that the chariot was drawn by an ass, for
+      horses were not introduced into Western Asia until a much later period.
+      Other gods performed the functions of head shepherd, chief musician, chief
+      singer, head cultivator and inspector of irrigation, inspector of the
+      fishing, land steward, and architect. His household also included his wife
+      and his seven virgin daughters. In addition to the account of the various
+      functions performed by these lesser deities, the texts also furnish
+      valuable facts with regard to the characters and attributes of the greater
+      gods and goddesses, such as the attributes of Ningirsu himself, and the
+      character of Ninâ as the goddess who divined and interpreted the secrets
+      of the gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But perhaps the most interesting conclusions to be drawn from the texts
+      relate to the influence exerted by the ancient Sumerians upon Semitic
+      beliefs and practices. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
+      later Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria drew most of their
+      culture from the Sumerians, whom they displaced and absorbed. Their system
+      of writing, the general structure of their temples, the ritual of their
+      worship, the majority of their religious compositions, and many of their
+      gods themselves are to be traced to a Sumerian origin, and much of the
+      information obtained from the cylinders of Gudea merely confirms or
+      illustrates the conclusions already deduced from other sources. As
+      instances we may mention the belief in spirits, which is illustrated by
+      the importance attached to the placating of the Anunnaki, or Spirits of
+      the Earth, to whom a special place and special offerings were assigned in
+      E-ninnû. The Sumerian origin of ceremonies of purification is confirmed by
+      Gudea’s purification of the city before beginning the building of the
+      temple, and again before the transference of the god from his old temple
+      to the new one. The consultation of omens, which was so marked a feature
+      of Babylonian and Assyrian life, is seen in actual operation under the
+      Sumerians; for, even after Gudea had received direct instructions from
+      Ningirsu to begin building his temple, he did not proceed to carry them
+      out until he had consulted the omens and found that they were favourable.
+      Moreover, the references to mythological beings, such as the seven heroes,
+      the dragon of the deep, and the god who slew the dragon, confirm the
+      opinion that the creation legends and other mythological compositions of
+      the Babylonians were derived by them from Sumerian sources. But there are
+      two incidents in the narrative which are on a rather different plane and
+      are more startling in their novelty. One is the story of Gudea’s dream,
+      and the other the sign which he sought from his god. The former is
+      distinctly apocalyptic in character, and both may be parallelled in what
+      is regarded as purely Semitic literature. That such conceptions existed
+      among the Sumerians is a most interesting fact, and although the theory of
+      independent origin is possible, their existence may well have influenced
+      later Semitic beliefs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkC2HCH0001" id="linkC2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V&mdash;ELAM AND BABYLON, <br /> THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE
+      KASSITES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Up to five years ago our knowledge of Elam and of the part she played in
+      the ancient world was derived, in the main, from a few allusions to the
+      country to be found in the records of Babylonian and Assyrian kings. It is
+      true that a few inscriptions of the native rulers had been found in
+      Persia, but they belonged to the late periods of her history, and the
+      majority consisted of short dedicatory formulae and did not supply us with
+      much historical information. But the excavations carried on since then by
+      M. de Morgan at Susa have revealed an entirely new chapter of ancient
+      Oriental history, and have thrown a flood of light upon the position
+      occupied by Elam among the early races of the East.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lying to the north of the Persian Gulf and to the east of the Tigris, and
+      rising from the broad plains nearer the coast to the mountainous districts
+      within its borders on the east and north, Elam was one of the nearest
+      neighbours of Chaldæa. A few facts concerning her relations with Babylonia
+      during certain periods of her history have long been known, and her
+      struggles with the later kings of Assyria are known in some detail; but
+      for her history during the earliest periods we have had to trust mainly to
+      conjecture. That in the earlier as in the later periods she should have
+      been in constant antagonism with Babylonia might legitimately be
+      suspected, and it is not surprising that we should find an echo of her
+      early struggles with Chaldæa in the legends which were current in the
+      later periods of Babylonian history. In the fourth and fifth tablets, or
+      sections, of the great Babylonian epic which describes the exploits of the
+      Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, a story is told of an expedition undertaken by
+      Gilgamesh and his friend Ba-bani against an Elamite despot named
+      Khum-baba. It is related in the poem that Khumbaba was feared by all who
+      dwelt near him, for his roaring was like the storm, and any man perished
+      who was rash enough to enter the cedar-wood in which he dwelt. But
+      Gilgamesh, encouraged by a dream sent him by Sha-mash, the Sun-god,
+      pressed on with his friend, and, having entered the wood, succeeded in
+      slaying Khumbaba and in cutting off his head. This legend is doubtless
+      based on episodes in early Babylonian and Elamite history. Khumbaba may
+      not have been an actual historical ruler, but at least he represents or
+      personifies the power of Elam, and the success of Gilgamesh no doubt
+      reflects the aspirations with which many a Babylonian expedition set out
+      for the Elamite frontier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Incidentally it may be noted that the legend possibly had a still closer
+      historical parallel, for the name of Khumbaba occurs as a component in a
+      proper name upon one of the Elamite contracts found recently by M. de
+      Morgan at Mai-Amir. The name in question is written <i>Khumbaba-arad-ili</i>,
+      “Khumbaba, the servant of God,” and it proves that at the date at which
+      the contract was written (about 1300-1000 B.C.) the name of Khumbaba was
+      still held in remembrance, possibly as that of an early historical ruler
+      of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In her struggles with Chaldæa, Elam was not successful during the earliest
+      historical period of which we have obtained information; and, so far as we
+      can tell at present, her princes long continued to own allegiance to the
+      Semitic rulers whose influence was predominant from time to time in the
+      plains of Lower Mesopotamia. Tradition relates that two of the earliest
+      Semitic rulers whose names are known to us, Sargon and Narâm-Sin, kings of
+      Agade, held sway in Elam, for in the “Omens” which were current in a later
+      period concerning them, the former is credited with the conquest of the
+      whole country, while of the latter it is related that he conquered Apirak,
+      an Elamite district, and captured its king. Some doubts were formerly cast
+      upon these traditions inasmuch as they were found in a text containing
+      omens or forecasts, but these doubts were removed by the discovery of
+      contemporary documents by which the later traditions were confirmed.
+      Sargon’s conquest of Elam, for instance, was proved to be historical by a
+      reference to the event in a date-formula upon tablets belonging to his
+      reign. Moreover, the event has received further confirmation from an
+      unpublished tablet in the British Museum, containing a copy of the
+      original chronicle from which the historical extracts in the “Omens” were
+      derived. The portion of the composition inscribed upon this tablet does
+      not contain the lines referring to Sargon’s conquest of Elam, for these
+      occurred in an earlier section of the composition; but the recovery of the
+      tablet puts beyond a doubt the historical character of the traditions
+      preserved upon the omen-tablet as a whole, and the conquest of Elam is
+      thus confirmed by inference. The new text does recount the expedition
+      undertaken by Narâm-Sin, the son of Sargon, against Apirak, and so
+      furnishes a direct confirmation of this event.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another early conqueror of Elam, who was probably of Semitic origin, was
+      Alu-usharshid, king of the city of Kish, for, from a number of his
+      inscriptions found near those of Sargon at Nippur in Babylonia, we learn
+      that he subdued Elam and Para’se, the district in which the city of Susa
+      was probably situated. From a small mace-head preserved in the British
+      Museum we know of another conquest of Elam by a Semitic ruler of this
+      early period. The mace-head was made and engraved by the orders of
+      Mutabil, an early governor of the city of Dûr-ilu, to commemorate his own
+      valour as the man “who smote the head of the hosts” of Elam. Mutabil was
+      not himself an independent ruler, and his conquest of Elam must have been
+      undertaken on behalf of the suzerain to whom he owed allegiance, and thus
+      his victory cannot be classed in the same category as those of his
+      predecessors. A similar remark applies to the success against the city of
+      Anshan in Elam, achieved by Grudea, the Sumerian ruler of Shirpurla,
+      inasmuch as he was a patesi, or viceroy, and not an independent king. Of
+      greater duration was the influence exercised over Elam by the kings of Ur,
+      for bricks and contract-tablets have been found at Susa proving that
+      Dungi, one of the most powerful kings of Ur, and Bur-Sin, Ine-Sin, and
+      Oamil-Sin, kings of the second dynasty in that city, all in turn included
+      Elam within the limits of their empire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such are the main facts which until recently had been ascertained with
+      regard to the influence of early Babylonian rulers in Elam. The
+      information is obtained mainly from Babylonian sources, and until recently
+      we have been unable to fill in any details of the picture from the Elamite
+      side. But this inability has now been removed by M. de Morgan’s
+      discoveries. From the inscribed bricks, cones, stelæ, and statues that
+      have been brought to light in the course of his excavations at Susa, we
+      have recovered the name of a succession of native Elamite rulers. All
+      those who are to be assigned to this early period, during which Elam owed
+      allegiance to the kings of Babylonia, ascribe to themselves the title of
+      <i>patesi</i>, or viceroy, of Susa, in acknowledgment of their dependence.
+      Their records consist principally of building inscriptions and foundation
+      memorials, and they commemorate the construction or repair of temples, the
+      cutting of canals, and the like. They do not, therefore, throw much light
+      upon the problems connected with the external history of Elam during this
+      early period, but we obtain from them a glimpse of the internal
+      administration of the country. We see a nation without ambition to extend
+      its boundaries, and content, at any rate for the time, to owe allegiance
+      to foreign rulers, while the energies of its native princes are devoted
+      exclusively to the cultivation of the worship of the gods and to the
+      amelioration of the conditions of the life of the people in their charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A difficult but interesting problem presents itself for solution at the
+      outset of our inquiry into the history of this people as revealed by their
+      lately recovered inscriptions,&mdash;the problem of their race and origin.
+      Found at Susa in Elam, and inscribed by princes bearing purely Elamite
+      names, we should expect these votive and memorial texts to be written
+      entirely in the Elamite language. But such is not the case, for many of
+      them are written in good Semitic Babylonian. While some are entirely
+      composed in the tongue which we term Elamite or Anzanite, others, so far
+      as their language and style is concerned, might have been written by any
+      early Semitic king ruling in Babylonia. Why did early princes of Susa make
+      this use of the Babylonian tongue?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first sight it might seem possible to trace a parallel in the use of
+      the Babylonian language by kings and officials in Egypt and Syria during
+      the fifteenth century B.C., as revealed in the letters from Tell
+      el-Amarna. But a moment’s thought will show that the cases are not
+      similar. The Egyptian or Syrian scribe employed Babylonian as a medium for
+      his official foreign correspondence because Babylonian at that period was
+      the <i>lingua franca</i> of the East. But the object of the early Elamite
+      rulers was totally different. Their inscribed bricks and memorial stelæ
+      were not intended for the eyes of foreigners, but for those of their own
+      descendants. Built into the structure of a temple, or buried beneath the
+      edifice, one of their principal objects was to preserve the name and deeds
+      of the writer from oblivion. Like similar documents found on the sites of
+      Assyrian and Babylonian cities, they sometimes include curses upon any
+      impious man, who, on finding the inscription after the temple shall have
+      fallen into ruins, should in any way injure the inscription or deface the
+      writer’s name. It will be obvious that the writers of these inscriptions
+      intended that they should be intelligible to those who might come across
+      them in the future. If, therefore, they employed the Babylonian as well as
+      the Elamite language, it is clear that they expected that their future
+      readers might be either Babylonian or Elamite; and this belief can only be
+      explained on the supposition that their own subjects were of mixed race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is therefore certain that at this early period of Elamite history
+      Semitic Babylonians and Elamites dwelt side by side in Susa and retained
+      their separate languages. The problem therefore resolves itself into the
+      inquiry: which of these two peoples occupied the country first? Were the
+      Semites at first in sole possession, which was afterwards disputed by the
+      incursion of Elamite tribes from the north and east? Or were the Elamites
+      the original inhabitants of the land, into which the Semites subsequently
+      pressed from Babylonia?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A similar mixture of races is met with in Babylonia itself in the early
+      period of the history of that country. There the early Sumerian
+      inhabitants were gradually dispossessed by the invading Semite, who
+      adopted the civilization of the conquered race, and took over the system
+      of cuneiform writing, which he modified to suit his own language. In
+      Babylonia the Semites eventually predominated and the Sumerians as a race
+      disappeared, but during the process of absorption the two languages were
+      employed indiscriminately. The kings of the First Babylonian Dynasty wrote
+      their votive inscriptions sometimes in Sumerian, sometimes in Semitic
+      Babylonian; at other times they employed both languages for the same text,
+      writing the record first in Sumerian and afterwards appending a Semitic
+      translation by the side; and in the legal and commercial documents of the
+      period the old Sumerian legal forms and phrases were retained intact. In
+      Elam we may suppose that the use of the Sumerian and Semitic languages was
+      the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be surmised, however, that the first Semitic incursions into Elam
+      took place at a much later period than those into Babylonia, and under
+      very different conditions. When overrunning the plains and cities of the
+      Sumerians, the Semites were comparatively uncivilized, and, so far as we
+      know, without a system of writing of their own. The incursions into Elam
+      must have taken place under the great Semitic conquerors, such as Sar-gon
+      and Narâm-Sin and Alu-usharshid. At this period they had fully adopted and
+      modified the Sumerian characters to express their own Semitic tongue, and
+      on their invasion of Elam they brought their system of writing with them.
+      The native princes of Elam, whom they conquered, adopted it in turn for
+      many of their votive texts and inscribed monuments when they wished to
+      write them in the Babylonian language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the most probable explanation of the occurrence in Elam of
+      inscriptions in the Old Babylonian language, written by native princes
+      concerning purely domestic matters. But a further question now suggests
+      itself. Assuming that this was the order in which events took place, are
+      we to suppose that the first Semitic invaders of Elam found there a native
+      population in a totally undeveloped stage of civilization? Or did they
+      find a population enjoying a comparatively high state of culture,
+      different from their own, which they proceeded to modify and transform!
+      Luckily, we have not to fall back on conjecture for an answer to these
+      questions, for a recent discovery at Susa has furnished material from
+      which it is possible to reconstruct in outline the state of culture of
+      these early Elamites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This interesting discovery consists of a number of clay tablets inscribed
+      in the proto-Elamite system of writing, a system which was probably the
+      only one in use in the country during the period before the Semitic
+      invasion. The documents in question are small, roughly formed tablets of
+      clay very similar to those employed in the early periods of Babylonian
+      history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them offer the
+      greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian characters with
+      which we are familiar. Although they cannot be fully deciphered at
+      present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts, the signs upon
+      them consisting of lists of figures and what are probably ideographs for
+      things. Some of the ideographs, such as that for “tablet,” with which many
+      of the texts begin, are very similar to the Sumerian or Babylonian signs
+      for the same objects; but the majority are entirely different and have
+      been formed and developed upon a system of their own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0005" id="linkCimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/230.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="230.jpg Clay Tablet, Found at Susa, Bearing An Inscription in the Early Proto-elamite Character. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s <i>Délégation en
+     Perse, Mém.</i>, t. vi, pi. 23.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in an
+      early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial
+      character of the ideographs was still prominent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0006" id="linkCimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/231.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="231.jpg Clay Tablet, Recently Found at Susa, Bearing An Inscription in the Early Proto-elamite Character. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan’s <i>Délégation
+     en Perse, Mém.</i>, t. vi, pi. 22.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet been
+      identified, Père Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded in making
+      out the system of numeration. He has identified the signs for unity, 10,
+      100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for these figures
+      are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/231a.jpg" width="100%" alt="231a.jpg Fractions " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The system, too, is different, for it is a decimal, and not a sexagesimal,
+      system of numeration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That in its origin this form of writing had some connection with that
+      employed and, so far as we know, invented by the ancient Sumerians is
+      possible.<a href="#fn5.1" name="fnref5.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> But it shows small trace of Sumerian influence, and the
+      disparity in the two systems of numeration is a clear indication that, at
+      any rate, it broke off and was isolated from the latter at a very early
+      period. Having once been adopted by the early Elamites, it continued to be
+      used by them for long periods with but small change or modification.
+      Employed far from the centre of Sumerian civilization, its development was
+      slow, and it seems to have remained in its ideographic state, while the
+      system employed by the Sumerians, and adopted by the Semitic Babylonians,
+      was developed along syllabic lines.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn5.1"></a> <a href="#fnref5.1">[1]</a>
+     It is, of course, also possible that the system of writing
+     had no connection in its origin with that of the Sumerians,
+     and was invented independently of the system employed in
+     Babylonia. In that case, the signs which resemble certain of
+     the Sumerian characters must have been adopted in a later
+     stage of its development. Though it would be rash to
+     dogmatize on the subject, the view that connects its origin
+     with the Sumerians appears on the whole to fit in best with
+     the evidence at present available.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      It was without doubt this proto-Elamite system of writing which the
+      Semites from Babylonia found employed in Elam on their first incursions
+      into that country. They brought with them their own more convenient form
+      of writing, and, when the country had once been finally subdued, the
+      subject Elamite princes adopted the foreign system of writing and language
+      from their conquerors for memorial and monumental inscriptions. But the
+      ancient native writing was not entirely ousted, and continued to be
+      employed by the common people of Elam for the ordinary purposes of daily
+      life. That this was the case at least until the reign of
+      Karibu-sha-Shu-shinak, one of the early subject native rulers, is clear
+      from one of his inscriptions engraved upon a block of limestone to
+      commemorate the dedication of what were probably some temple furnishings
+      in honour of the god Shu-shinak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0008" id="linkCimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/233.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="233.jpg Block of Limestone, Found at Susa, Bearing Inscriptions of Karibu-sha-Shushinak. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s <i>Délégation en
+     Perse</i>, Mém., t. vi, pi. 2.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The main part of the inscription is written in Semitic Babylonian, and
+      below there is an addition to the text written in proto-Elamite
+      characters, probably enumerating the offerings which the
+      Karibu-sha-Shushinak decreed should be made for the future in honour of
+      the god.<a href="#fn5.2" name="fnref5.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> In course of time this proto-Elamite system of writing by means
+      of ideographs seems to have died out, and a modified form of the
+      Babylonian system was adopted by the Elamites for writing their own
+      language phonetically. It is in this phonetic character that the so-called
+      “Anzanite” texts of the later Elamite princes were composed.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn5.2"></a> <a href="#fnref5.2">[2]</a>
+     We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of
+     Karibu-sha-Shushinak. But it is also possible that the
+     second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later
+     period. From its position on the stone it is clear that it
+     was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak’s
+     inscription in Semitic Babylonian. See the photographic
+     reproduction.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription has
+      been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject princes of
+      Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C. 3000. He styles
+      himself “patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,” but we do not know
+      at present to what contemporary king in Babylonia he owed allegiance. The
+      longest of his inscriptions that have been recovered is engraved upon a
+      stele of limestone and records the building of the Gate of Shushinak at
+      Susa and the cutting of a canal; it also recounts the offerings which
+      Karibu-sha-Shushinak dedicated on the completion of the work. It may here
+      be quoted as an example of the class of votive inscriptions from which the
+      names of these early Elamite rulers have been recovered. The inscription
+      runs as follows: “For the god Shushinak, his lord, Karibu-sha-Shushinak,
+      the son of Shimbi-ish-khuk, patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,&mdash;when
+      he set the (door) of his Gate in place,... in the Gate of the god
+      Shushinak, his lord, and when he had opened the canal of Sidur, he set up
+      in face thereof his canopy, and he set planks of cedar-wood for its gate.
+      A sheep in the interior thereof, and sheep without, he appointed (for
+      sacrifice) to him each day. On days of festival he caused the people to
+      sing songs in the Gate of the god Shushinak. And twenty measures of fine
+      oil he dedicated to make his gate beautiful. Four <i>magi</i> of silver he
+      dedicated; a censer of silver and gold he dedicated for a sweet odour;
+      a,sword he dedicated; an axe with four blades he dedicated, and he
+      dedicated silver in addition for the mounting thereof.... A righteous
+      judgment he judged in the city! As for the man who shall transgress his
+      judgment or shall remove his gift, may the gods Shushinak and Shamash, Bel
+      and Ea, Ninni and Sin, Mnkharsag and Nati&mdash;may all the gods uproot
+      his foundation, and his seed may they destroy!”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be seen that Karibu-sha-Shushinak takes a delight in enumerating
+      the details of the offerings he has ordained in honour of his city-god
+      Shushinak, and this religious temper is peculiarly characteristic of the
+      princes of Elam throughout the whole course of their history. Another
+      interesting point to notice in the inscription is that, although the
+      writer invokes Shushinak, his own god, and puts his name at the head of
+      the list of deities whose vengeance he implores upon the impious, he also
+      calls upon the gods of the Babylonians. As he wrote the inscription itself
+      in Babylonian, in the belief that it might be recovered by some future
+      Semitic inhabitant of his country, so he included in his imprecations
+      those deities whose names he conceived would be most reverenced by such a
+      reader. In addition to Karibu-sha-Shushinak the names of a number of other
+      patesis, or viceroys, have recently been recovered, such as Khutran-tepti,
+      and Idadu I and his son Kal-Rukhu-ratir, and his grandson Idadu II. All
+      these probably ruled after Karibu-sha-Shushinak, and may be set in the
+      early period of Babylonian supremacy in Elam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been stated above that the allegiance which these early Elamite
+      princes owed to their overlords in Babylonia was probably reflected in the
+      titles which they bear upon their inscriptions recently found at Susa.
+      These titles are “<i>patesi</i> of Susa, <i>shakkannak</i> of Elam,” which
+      may be rendered as “viceroy of Susa, governor of Elam.” But inscriptions
+      have been found on the same site belonging to another series of rulers, to
+      whom a different title is applied. Instead of referring to themselves as
+      viceroys of Susa and governors of Elam, they bear the title of <i>sukkal</i>
+      of Elam, of Siparki, and of Susa. Siparki, or Sipar, was probably the name
+      of an important section of Elamite territory, and the title <i>sukkalu</i>,
+      “ruler,” probably carries with it an idea of independence of foreign
+      control which is absent from the title of <i>patesi</i>. It is therefore
+      legitimate to trace this change of title to a corresponding change in the
+      political condition of Elam; and there is much to be said for the view
+      that the rulers of Elam who bore the title of <i>sukkalu</i> reigned at a
+      period when Elam herself was independent, and may possibly have exercised
+      a suzerainty over the neighbouring districts of Babylonia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The worker of this change in the political condition of Elam and the
+      author of her independence was a king named Kutir-Nakhkhunte or
+      Kutir-Na’khunde, whose name and deeds have been preserved in later
+      Assyrian records, where he is termed Kudur-Nankhundi and Kudur-Nakhundu.<a href="#fn5.3" name="fnref5.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+      This ruler, according to the Assyrian king Ashur-bani-pal, was not content
+      with throwing off the yoke under which his land had laboured for so long,
+      but carried war into the country of his suzerain and marched through
+      Babylonia devastating and despoiling the principal cities. This successful
+      Elamite campaign took place, according to the computation of the later
+      Assyrian scribes, about the year 2280 B. c, and it is probable that for
+      many years afterwards the authority of the King of Elam extended over the
+      plains of Babylonia. It has been suggested that Kutir-Nakh-khunte, after
+      including Babylonia within his empire, did not remain permanently in Elam,
+      but may have resided for a part of each year, at least, in Lower
+      Mesopotamia. His object, no doubt, would have been to superintend in
+      person the administration of his empire and to check any growing spirit of
+      independence among his local governors. He may thus have appointed in Susa
+      itself a local governor who would carry on the business of the country
+      during his absence, and, under the king himself, would wield supreme
+      authority. Such governors may have been the sukkali, who, unlike the
+      patesi, were independent of foreign control, but yet did not enjoy the
+      full title of “king.”
+     </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn5.3"></a> <a href="#fnref5.3">[3]</a>
+     For references to the passages where the name occurs, see
+     King, <i>Letters of Hammurabi</i>, vol. i, p. Ivy.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      It is possible that the sukkalu who ruled in Elam during the reign of
+      Kutir-Nakhkhunte was named Temti-agun, for a short inscription of this
+      ruler has been recovered, in which he records that he built and dedicated
+      a certain temple with the object of ensuring the preservation of the life
+      of Kutir-Na’khundi. If we may identify the Kutir-Va’khundi of this text
+      with the great Elamite conqueror, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, it follows that
+      Temti-agun, the sukkal of Susa, was his subordinate. The inscription
+      mentions other names which are possibly those of rulers of this period,
+      and reads as follows: “Temti-agun, sukkal of Susa, the son of the sister
+      of Sirukdu’, hath built a temple of bricks at Ishme-karab for the
+      preservation of the life of Kutir-Na’khundi, and for the preservation of
+      the life of Lila-irtash, and for the preservation of his own life, and for
+      the preservation of the life of Temti-khisha-khanesh and of
+      Pil-kishamma-khashduk.” As Lila-irtash is mentioned immediately after
+      Kutir-Na’khundi, he was possibly his son, and he may have succeeded him as
+      ruler of the empire of Elam and Babylonia, though no confirmation of this
+      view has yet been discovered. Temti-khisha-khanesh is mentioned
+      immediately after the reference to the preservation of the life of
+      Temti-agun himself, and it may be conjectured that the name was that of
+      Temti-agun’s son, or possibly that of his wife, in which event the last
+      two personages mentioned in the text may have been the sons of Temti-agun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This short text affords a good example of one class of votive inscriptions
+      from which it is possible to recover the names of Elamite rulers of this
+      period, and it illustrates the uncertainty which at present attaches to
+      the identification of the names themselves and the order in which they are
+      to be arranged. Such uncertainty necessarily exists when only a few texts
+      have been recovered, and it will disappear with the discovery of
+      additional monuments by which the results already arrived at may be
+      checked. We need not here enumerate all the names of the later Elamite
+      rulers which have been found in the numerous votive inscriptions recovered
+      during the recent excavations at Susa. The order in which they should be
+      arranged is still a matter of considerable uncertainty, and the facts
+      recorded by them in such inscriptions as we possess mainly concern the
+      building and restoration of Elamite temples and the decoration of shrines,
+      and they are thus of no great historical interest. These votive texts are
+      well illustrated by a remarkable find of foundation deposits made last
+      year by M. de Morgan in the temple of Shushinak at Susa, consisting of
+      figures and jewelry of gold and silver, and objects of lead, bronze, iron,
+      stone, and ivory, cylinder-seals, mace-heads, vases, etc. This is the
+      richest foundation deposit that has been recovered on any ancient site,
+      and its archaeological interest in connection with the development of
+      Elamite art is great. But in no other way does the find affect our
+      conception of the history of the country, and we may therefore pass on to
+      a consideration of such recent discoveries as throw new light upon the
+      course of history in Western Asia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the advent of the First Dynasty in Babylon Elam found herself face to
+      face with a power prepared to dispute her claims to exercise a suzerainty
+      over the plains of Mesopotamia. It is held by many writers that the First
+      Dynasty of Babylon was of Arab origin, and there is much to be said for
+      this view. M. Pognon was the first to start the theory that its kings were
+      not purely Babylonian, but were of either Arab or Aramaean extraction, and
+      he based his theory on a study of the forms of the names which some of
+      them bore. The name of Samsu-imna, for instance, means “the sun is our
+      god,” but the form of the words of which the name is composed betray
+      foreign influence. Thus in Babylonian the name for “sun” or the Sun-god
+      would be <i>Shamash</i> or <i>Shamshu</i>, not <i>Samsu</i>; in the second
+      half of the name, while <i>ilu</i> (“god”) is good Babylonian, the ending
+      <i>na</i>, which is the pronominal suffix of the first person plural, is
+      not Babylonian, but Arabic. We need not here enter into a long
+      philological discussion, and the instance already cited may suffice to
+      show in what way many of the names met in the Babylonian inscriptions of
+      this period betray a foreign, and possibly an Arabic, origin. But whether
+      we assign the forms of these names to Arabic influence or not, it may be
+      regarded as certain that, the First Dynasty of Babylon had its origin in
+      the incursion into Babylonia of a new wave of Semitic immigration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0009" id="linkCimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/240.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="240.jpg Brick Stamped With an Inscription Of Kudur-mabug" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The invading Semites brought with them fresh blood and unexhausted energy,
+      and, finding many of their own race in scattered cities and settlements
+      throughout the country, they succeeded in establishing a purely Semitic
+      dynasty, with its capital at Babylon, and set about the task of freeing
+      the country from any vestiges of foreign control. Many centuries earlier
+      Semitic kings had ruled in Babylonian cities, and Semitic empires had been
+      formed there. Sargon and Narâm-Sin, having their capital at Agade, had
+      established their control over a considerable area of Western Asia and had
+      held Elam as a province. But so far as Elam was concerned Kutir-Nakhkhunte
+      had reversed the balance and had raised Elam to the position of the
+      predominant power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the struggles and campaigns of the earlier kings of the First Dynasty
+      of Babylon we know little, for, although we possess a considerable number
+      of legal and commercial documents of the period, we have recovered no
+      strictly historical inscriptions. Our main source of information is the
+      dates upon these documents, which are not dated by the years of the
+      reigning king, but on a system adopted by the early Babylonian kings from
+      their Sumerian predecessors. In the later periods of Babylonian history
+      tablets were dated in the year of the king who was reigning at the time
+      the document was drawn up, but this simple system had not been adopted at
+      this early period. In place of this we find that each year was cited by
+      the event of greatest importance which occurred in that year. This event
+      might be the cutting of a canal, when the year in which this took place
+      might be referred to as “the year in which the canal named Ai-khegallu was
+      cut;” or it might be the building of a temple, as in the date-formula,
+      “the year in which the great temple of the Moon-god was built;” or it
+      might be “the conquest of a city, such as the year in which the city of
+      Kish was destroyed.” Now it will be obvious that this system of dating had
+      many disadvantages. An event might be of great importance for one city,
+      while it might never have been heard of in another district; thus it
+      sometimes happened that the same event was not adopted throughout the
+      whole country for designating a particular year, and the result was that
+      different systems of dating were employed in different parts of Babylonia.
+      Moreover, when a particular system had been in use for a considerable
+      time, it required a very good memory to retain the order and period of the
+      various events referred to in the date-formulae, so as to fix in a moment
+      the date of a document by its mention of one of them. In order to assist
+      themselves in their task of fixing dates in this manner, the scribes of
+      the First Dynasty of Babylon drew up lists of the titles of the years,
+      arranged in chronological order under the reigns of the kings to which
+      they referred. Some of these lists have been recovered, and they are of
+      the greatest assistance in fixing the chronology, while at the same time
+      they furnish us with considerable information concerning the history of
+      the period of which we should otherwise have been in ignorance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From these lists of date-formulæ, and from the dates themselves which are
+      found upon the legal and commercial tablets of the period, we learn that
+      Kish, Ka-sallu, and Isin all gave trouble to the earlier kings of the
+      First Dynasty, and had in turn to be subdued. Elam did not watch the
+      diminution of her influence in Babylonia without a struggle to retain it.
+      Under Kudur-mabug, who was prince or governor of the districts lying along
+      the frontier of Elam, the Elamites struggled hard to maintain their
+      position in Babylonia, making the city of Ur the centre from which they
+      sought to check the growing power of Babylon. From bricks that have been
+      recovered from Mukayyer, the site of the city of Ur, we learn that
+      Kudur-mabug rebuilt the temple in that city dedicated to the Moon-god,
+      which is an indication of the firm hold he had obtained upon the city. It
+      was obvious to the new Semitic dynasty in Babylon that, until Ur and the
+      neighbouring city of Larsam had been captured, they could entertain no
+      hope of removing the Elamite yoke from Southern Babylonia. It is probable
+      that the earlier kings of the dynasty made many attempts to capture them,
+      with varying success. An echo of one of their struggles in which they
+      claimed the victory may be seen in the date-formula for the fourteenth
+      year of the reign of Sin-muballit, Hammurabi’s father and predecessor on
+      the throne of Babylon. This year was referred to in the documents of the
+      period as “the year in which the people of Ur were slain with the sword.”
+       It will be noted that the capture of the city is not commemorated, so that
+      we may infer that the slaughter of the Elamites which is recorded did not
+      materially reduce their influence, as they were left in possession of
+      their principal stronghold. In fact, Elam was not signally defeated in the
+      reign of Kudur-mabug, but in that of his son Rim-Sin. From the
+      date-formulæ of Hammurabi’s reign we learn that the struggle between Elam
+      and Babylon was brought to a climax in the thirtieth year of his reign,
+      when it is recorded in the formulas that he defeated the Elamite army and
+      overthrew Rim-Sin, while in the following year we gather that he added the
+      land of E’mutbal, that is, the western district of Elam, to his dominions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An unpublished chronicle in the British Museum gives us further details of
+      Hammurabi’s victory over the Elamites, and at the same time makes it clear
+      that the defeat and overthrow of Rim-Sin was not so crushing as has
+      hitherto been supposed. This chronicle relates that Hammurabi attacked
+      Rim-Sin, and, after capturing the cities of Ur and Larsam, carried their
+      spoil to Babylon. Up to the present it has been supposed that Hammurabi’s
+      victory marked the end of Elamite influence in Babylonia, and that
+      thenceforward the supremacy of Babylon was established throughout the
+      whole of the country. But from the new chronicle we gather that Hammurabi
+      did not succeed in finally suppressing the attempts of Elam to regain her
+      former position. It is true that the cities of Ur and Larsam were finally
+      incorporated in the Babylonian empire, and the letters of Hammurabi to
+      Sin-idinnam, the governor whom he placed in authority over Larsam, afford
+      abundant evidence of the stringency of the administrative control which he
+      established over Southern Babylonia. But Rîm-Sin was only crippled for the
+      time, and, on being driven from Ur and Larsam, he retired beyond the
+      Elamite frontier and devoted his energies to the recuperation of his
+      forces against the time when he should feel himself strong enough again to
+      make a bid for victory in his struggle against the growing power of
+      Babylon. It is probable that he made no further attempt to renew the
+      contest during the life of Hammurabi, but after Samsu-iluna, the son of
+      Hammurabi, had succeeded to the Babylonian throne, he appeared in
+      Babylonia at the head of the forces he had collected, and attempted to
+      regain the cities and territory he had lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0010" id="linkCimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/245.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="245.jpg Semitic Babylonian Contract-tablet " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Inscribed in the reign of Hammurabi with a deed recording
+     the division of property. The actual tablet is on the right;
+     that which appears to be another and larger tablet on the
+     left is the hollow clay case in which the tablet on the
+     right was originally enclosed. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The portion of the text of the chronicle relating to the war between
+      Rîm-Sin and Samsu-iluna is broken so that it is not possible to follow the
+      campaign in detail, but it appears that Samsu-iluna defeated Rim-Sin, and
+      possibly captured him or burnt him alive in a palace in which he had taken
+      refuge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the final defeat of Rîm-Sin by Samsu-iluna it is probable that Elam
+      ceased to be a thorn in the side of the kings of Babylon and that she made
+      no further attempts to extend her authority beyond her own frontiers. But
+      no sooner had Samsu-iluna freed his country from all danger from this
+      quarter than he found himself faced by a new foe, before whom the dynasty
+      eventually succumbed. This fact we learn from the unpublished chronicle to
+      which reference has already been made, and the name of this new foe, as
+      supplied by the chronicle, will render it necessary to revise all current
+      schemes of Babylonian chronology. Samsu-iluna’s new foe was no other than
+      Iluma-ilu, the first king of the Second Dynasty, and, so far from having
+      been regarded as Samsu-iluna’s contemporary, hitherto it has been imagined
+      that he ascended the throne of Babylon one hundred and eighteen years
+      after Samsu-iluna’s death. The new information supplied by the chronicle
+      thus proves two important facts: first, that the Second Dynasty, instead
+      of immediately succeeding the First Dynasty, was partly contemporary with
+      it; second, that during the period in which the two dynasties were
+      contemporary they were at war with one another, the Second Dynasty
+      gradually encroaching on the territory of the First Dynasty, until it
+      eventually succeeded in capturing Babylon and in getting the whole of the
+      country under its control. We also learn from the new chronicle that this
+      Second Dynasty at first established itself in “the Country of the Sea,”
+       that is to say, the districts in the extreme south of Babylonia bordering
+      on the Persian Gulf, and afterwards extended its borders northward until
+      it gradually absorbed the whole of Babylonia. Before discussing the other
+      facts supplied by the new chronicle, with regard to the rise and growth of
+      the Country of the Sea, whose kings formed the so-called “Second Dynasty,”
+       it will be well to refer briefly to the sources from which the information
+      on the period to be found in the current histories is derived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the schemes of Babylonian chronology that have been suggested during
+      the last twenty years have been based mainly on the great list of kings
+      which is preserved in the British Museum. This document was drawn up in
+      the Neo-Babylonian or Persian period, and when complete it gave a list of
+      the names of all the Babylonian kings from the First Dynasty of Babylon
+      down to the time in which it was written. The names of the kings are
+      arranged in dynasties, and details are given as to the length of their
+      reigns and the total number of years each dynasty lasted. The beginning of
+      the list which gave the names of the First Dynasty is wanting, but the
+      missing portion has been restored from a smaller document which gives a
+      list of the kings of the First and Second Dynasties only. In the great
+      list of kings the dynasties are arranged one after the other, and it was
+      obvious that its compiler imagined that they succeeded one another in the
+      order in which he arranged them. But when the total number of years the
+      dynasties lasted is learned, we obtain dates for the first dynasties in
+      the list which are too early to agree with other chronological information
+      supplied by the historical inscriptions. The majority of writers have
+      accepted the figures of the list of kings and have been content to ignore
+      the discrepancies; others have sought to reconcile the available data by
+      ingenious emendations of the figures given by the list and the historical
+      inscriptions, or have omitted the Second Dynasty entirely from their
+      calculations. The new chronicle, by showing that the First and Second
+      Dynasties were partly contemporaneous, explains the discrepancies that
+      have hitherto proved so puzzling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed discussion of
+      Babylonian chronology, and therefore we will confine ourselves to a brief
+      description of the sequence of events as revealed by the new chronicle.
+      According to the list of kings, Iluma-ilu’s reign was a long one, lasting
+      for sixty years, and the new chronicle gives no indication as to the
+      period of his reign at which active hostilities with Babylon broke out. If
+      the war occurred in the latter portion of his reign, it would follow that
+      he had been for many years organizing the forces of the new state he had
+      founded in the south of Babylonia before making serious encroachments in
+      the north; and in that case the incessant campaigns carried on by Babylon
+      against Blam in the reigns of Hammurabi and Samsu-iluna would have
+      afforded him the opportunity of establishing a firm foothold in the
+      Country of the Sea without the risk of Babylonian interference. If, on the
+      other hand, it was in the earlier part of his reign that hostilities with
+      Babylon broke out, we may suppose that, while Samsu-iluna was devoting all
+      his energies to crush Bim-Sin, the Country of the Sea declared her
+      independence of Babylonian control. In this case we may imagine
+      Samsu-iluna hurrying south, on the conclusion of his Elamite campaign, to
+      crush the newly formed state before it had had time to organize its forces
+      for prolonged resistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whichever of these alternatives eventually may prove to be correct, it is
+      certain that Samsu-iluna took the initiative in Babylon’s struggle with
+      the Country of the Sea, and that his action was due either to her
+      declaration of independence or to some daring act of aggression on the
+      part of this small state which had hitherto appeared too insignificant to
+      cause Babylon any serious trouble. The new chronicle tells us that
+      Samsu-iluna undertook two expeditions against the Country of the Sea, both
+      of which proved unsuccessful. In the first of these he penetrated to the
+      very shores of the Persian Gulf, where a battle took place in which
+      Samsu-iluna was defeated, and the bodies of many of the Babylonian
+      soldiers were washed away by the sea. In the second campaign Iluma-ilu did
+      not await Samsu-iluna’s attack, but advanced to meet him, and again
+      defeated the Babylonian army. In the reign of Abêshu’, Samsu-iluna’s son
+      and successor, Iluma-ilu appears to have undertaken fresh acts of
+      aggression against Babylon; and it was probably during one of his raids in
+      Babylonian territory that Abêshu’ attempted to crush the growing power of
+      the Country of the Sea by the capture of its daring leader, Iluma-ilu
+      himself. The new chronicle informs us that, with this object in view,
+      Abêshu’ dammed the river Tigris, hoping by this means to cut off Iluma-ilu
+      and his army, but his stratagem did not succeed, and Iluma-ilu got back to
+      his own territory in safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new chronicle does not supply us with further details of the struggle
+      between Babylon and the Country of the Sea, but we may conclude that all
+      similar attempts on the part of the later kings of the First Dynasty to
+      crush or restrain the power of the new state were useless. It is probable
+      that from this time forward the kings of the First Dynasty accepted the
+      independence of the Country of the Sea upon their southern border as an
+      evil which they were powerless to prevent. They must have looked back with
+      regret to the good times the country had enjoyed under the powerful sway
+      of Hammurabi, whose victorious arms even their ancient foes, the Blamites,
+      had been unable to withstand. But, although the chronicle does not recount
+      the further successes achieved by the Country of the Sea, it records a
+      fact which undoubtedly contributed to hasten the fall of Babylon and bring
+      the First Dynasty to an end. It tells us that in the reign of
+      Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty, the men of the land of
+      Khattu (the Hittites from Northern Syria) marched against him in order to
+      conquer the land of Akkad; in other words, they marched down the Euphrates
+      and invaded Northern Babylonia. The chronicle does not state how far the
+      invasion was successful, but the appearance of a new enemy from the
+      northwest must have divided the Babylonian forces and thus have reduced
+      their power of resisting pressure from the Country of the Sea.
+      Samsu-ditana may have succeeded in defeating the Hittites and in driving
+      them from his country; but the fact that he was the last king of the First
+      Dynasty proves that in his reign Babylon itself fell into the hands of the
+      king of the Country of the Sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question now arises, To what race did the people of the Country of the
+      Sea belong? Did they represent an advance-guard of the Kassite tribes, who
+      eventually succeeded in establishing themselves as the Third Dynasty in
+      Babylon? Or were they the Elamites who, when driven from Ur and Larsam,
+      retreated southwards and maintained their independence on the shores of
+      the Persian Gulf? Or did they represent some fresh wave of Semitic
+      immigration’? That they were not Kassites is proved by the new chronicle
+      which relates how the Country of the Sea was conquered by the Kassites,
+      and how the dynasty founded by Iluma-ilu thus came to an end. There is
+      nothing to show that they were Elamites, and if the Country of the Sea had
+      been colonized by fresh Semitic tribes, so far from opposing their kindred
+      in Babylon, most probably they would have proved to them a source of
+      additional strength and support. In fact, there are indications that the
+      people of the Country of the Sea are to be referred to an older stock than
+      the Elamites, the Semites, or the Kassites. In the dynasty of the Country
+      of the Sea there is no doubt that we may trace the last successful
+      struggle of the ancient Sumerians to retain possession of the land which
+      they had held for so many centuries before the invading Semites had
+      disputed its possession with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Evidence of the Sumerian origin of the kings of the Country of the Sea may
+      be traced in the names which several of them bear. Ishkibal, Grulkishar,
+      Peshgal-daramash, A-dara-kalama, Akur-ul-ana, and Melam-kur-kura, the
+      names of some of them, are all good Sumerian names, and Shushshi, the
+      brother of Ishkibal, may also be taken as a Sumerian name. It is true that
+      the first three kings of the dynasty, Iluma-ilu, Itti-ili-nibi, and
+      Damki-ilishu, and the last king of the dynasty, Ea-gamil, bear Semitic
+      Babylonian names, but there is evidence that at least one of these is
+      merely a Semitic rendering of a Sumerian equivalent. Iluma-ilu, the
+      founder of the dynasty, has left inscriptions in which his name is written
+      in its correct Sumerian form as Dingir-a-an, and the fact that he and some
+      of his successors either bore Semitic names or appear in the late list of
+      kings with their Sumerian names translated into Babylonian form may be
+      easily explained by supposing that the population of the Country of the
+      Sea was mixed and that the Sumerian and Semitic tongues were to a great
+      extent employed indiscriminately. This supposition is not inconsistent
+      with the suggestion that the dynasty of the Country of the Sea was
+      Sumerian, and that under it the Sumerians once more became the predominant
+      race in Babylonia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new chronicle also relates how the dynasty of the Country of the Sea
+      succumbed in its turn before the incursions of the Kassites. We know that
+      already under the First Dynasty the Kassite tribes had begun to make
+      incursions into Babylonia, for the ninth year of Samsu-iluna was named in
+      the date-formulae after a Kassite invasion, which, as it was commemorated
+      in this manner by the Babylonians, was probably successfully repulsed.
+      Such invasions must have taken place from time to time during the period
+      of supremacy attained by the Country of the Sea, and it was undoubtedly
+      with a view to stopping such incursions&mdash;for the future that Ea-gamil&mdash;the
+      last king of the Second Dynasty, decided to invade Elam and conquer the
+      mountainous districts in which the Kassite tribes had built their
+      strongholds. This Elamite campaign of Ea-gamil is recorded by the new
+      chronicle, which relates how he was defeated and driven from the country
+      by Ulam-Buriash, the brother of Bitiliash the Kassite. Ulam-Buriash did
+      not rest content with repelling Ea-gamil’s invasion of his land, but
+      pursued him across the border and succeeded in conquering the Country of
+      the Sea and in establishing there his own administration. The gradual
+      conquest of the whole of Babylonia by the Kassites no doubt followed the
+      conquest of the Country of the Sea, for the chronicle relates how the
+      process of subjugation, begun by Ulam-Buriash, was continued by his nephew
+      Agum, and we know from the lists of kings that Ea-gamil was the last king
+      of the dynasty founded by Iluma-ilu. In this fashion the Second Dynasty
+      was brought to an end, and the Sumerian element in the mixed population of
+      Babylonia did not again succeed in gaining control of the government of
+      the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be noticed that the account of the earliest Kassite rulers of
+      Babylonia which is given by the new chronicle does not exactly tally with
+      the names of the kings of the Third Dynasty as found upon the list of
+      kings. On this document the first king of the dynasty is named Gandash,
+      with whom we may probably identify Ulam-Buriash, the Kassite conqueror of
+      the Country of the Sea; the second king is Agum, and the third is
+      Bitiliashi. According to the new chronicle Agum was the son of Bitiliashi,
+      and it would be improbable that he should have ruled in Babylonia before
+      his father. But this difficulty is removed by supposing that the two names
+      were transposed by some copyist. The different names assigned to the
+      founder of the Kassite dynasty may be due to the existence of variant
+      traditions, or Ulam-Buriash may have assumed another name on his conquest
+      of Babylonia, a practice which was usual with the later kings of Assyria
+      when they occupied the Babylonian throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The information supplied by the new chronicle with regard to the relations
+      of the first three dynasties to one another is of the greatest possible
+      interest to the student of early Babylonian history. We see that the
+      Semitic empire founded at Babylon by Sumu-abu, and consolidated by
+      Hammurabi, was not established on so firm a basis as has hitherto been
+      believed. The later kings of the dynasty, after Elam had been conquered,
+      had to defend their empire from encroachments on the south, and they
+      eventually succumbed before the onslaught of the Sumerian element, which
+      still remained in the population of Babylonia and had rallied in the
+      Country of the Sea. This dynasty in its turn succumbed before the invasion
+      of the Kassites from the mountains in the western districts of Elam, and,
+      although the city of Babylon retained her position as the capital of the
+      country throughout these changes of government, she was the capital of
+      rulers of different races, who successively fought for and obtained the
+      control of the fertile plains of Mesopotamia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty exercised
+      authority not only over Babylonia but also over the greater part of Elam,
+      for a number of inscriptions of Kassite kings of Babylonia have been found
+      by M. de Morgan at Susa. These inscriptions consist of grants of land
+      written on roughly shaped stone stelæ, a class which the Babylonians
+      themselves called <i>kudurru</i>, while they have been frequently referred
+      to by modern writers as “boundary-stones.” This latter term is not very
+      happily chosen, for it suggests that the actual monuments themselves were
+      set up on the limits of a field or estate to mark its boundary. It is true
+      that the inscription on a kudurru enumerates the exact position and size
+      of the estate with which it is concerned, but the kudurru was never
+      actually used to mark the boundary. It was preserved as a title-deed, in
+      the house of the owner of the estate or possibly in the temple of his god,
+      and formed his charter or title-deed to which he could appeal in case of
+      any dispute arising as to his right of ownership. One of the kudurrus
+      found by M. de Morgan records the grant of a number of estates near
+      Babylon by Nazimaruttash, a king of the Third or Kassite Dynasty, to the
+      god Marduk, that is to say they were assigned by the king to the service
+      of E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk at Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0011" id="linkCimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/256.jpg"
+       alt="256.jpg a Kudurru Or ‘boundary-stone.’ " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      All the crops and produce from the land were granted for the supply of the
+      temple, which was to enjoy the property without the payment of any tax or
+      tribute. The text also records the gift of considerable tracts of land in
+      the same district to a private individual named Kashakti-Shugab, who was
+      to enjoy a similar freedom from taxation so far as the lands bestowed upon
+      him were concerned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This freedom from taxation is specially enacted by the document in the
+      words: “Whensoever in the days that are to come the ruler of the country,
+      or one of the governors, or directors, or wardens of these districts,
+      shall make any claim with regard to these estates, or shall attempt to
+      impose the payment of a tithe or tax upon them, may all the great gods
+      whose names are commemorated, or whose arms are portrayed, or whose
+      dwelling-places are represented, on this stone, curse him with an evil
+      curse and blot out his name!”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Incidentally, this curse illustrates one of the most striking
+      characteristics of the kudurrus, or “boundary-stones,” viz. the carved
+      figures of gods and representations of their emblems, which all of them
+      bare in addition to the texts inscribed upon them. At one time it was
+      thought that these symbols were to be connected with the signs of the
+      zodiac and various constellations and stars, and it was suggested that
+      they might have been intended to represent the relative positions of the
+      heavenly bodies at the time the document was drawn up. But this text of
+      Nazimaruttash and other similar documents that have recently been
+      discovered prove that the presence of the figures and emblems of the gods
+      upon the stones is to be explained on another and far more simple theory.
+      They were placed there as guardians of the property to which the kudurru
+      referred, and it was believed that the carving of their figures or emblems
+      upon the stone would ensure their intervention in case of any attempted
+      infringement of the rights and privileges which it was the object of the
+      document to commemorate and preserve. A photographic reproduction of one
+      side of the kudurru of Nazi-maruttash is shown in the accompanying
+      illustration. There will be seen a representation of Gula or Bau, the
+      mother of the gods, who is portrayed as seated on her throne and wearing
+      the four-horned head-dress and a long robe that reaches to her feet. In
+      the field are emblems of the Sun-god, the Moon-god, Ishtar, and other
+      deities, and the representation of divine emblems and dwelling-places is
+      continued on another face of the stone round the corner towards which
+      Grula is looking. The other two faces of the document are taken up with
+      the inscription.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An interesting note is appended to the text inscribed upon the stone,
+      beginning under the throne and feet of Marduk and continuing under the
+      emblems of the gods upon the other side. This note relates the history of
+      the document in the following words: “In those days Kashakti-Shugab, the
+      son of Nusku-na’id, inscribed (this document) upon a memorial of clay, and
+      he set it before his god. But in the reign of Marduk-aplu-iddina, king of
+      hosts, the son of Melishikhu, King of Babylon, the wall fell upon this
+      memorial and crushed it. Shu-khuli-Shugab, the son of Nibishiku, wrote a
+      copy of the ancient text upon a new stone stele, and he set it (before the
+      god).” It will be seen, therefore, that this actual stone that has been
+      recovered was not the document drawn up in the reign of Nazimaruttash, but
+      a copy made under Marduk-aplu-iddina, a later king of the Third Dynasty.
+      The original deed was drawn up to preserve the rights of Kashakti-Shugab,
+      who shared the grant of land with the temple of Marduk. His share was less
+      than half that of the temple, but, as both were situated in the same
+      district, he was careful to enumerate and describe the temple’s share, to
+      prevent any encroachment on his rights by the Babylonian priests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that such grants of land were made to private individuals
+      in return for special services which they had rendered to the king. Thus a
+      broken kudurru among M. de Morgan’s finds records the confirmation of a
+      man’s claims to certain property by Biti-liash II, the claims being based
+      on a grant made to the man’s ancestor by Kurigalzu for services rendered
+      to the king during his war with Assyria. One of the finest specimens of
+      this class of charters or title-deeds has been found at Susa, dating from
+      the reign of Melishikhu, a king of the Third Dynasty. The document in
+      question records a grant of certain property in the district of
+      Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, near the cities Agade and Dûr-Kurigalzu, made by
+      Melishikhu to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son, who succeeded him upon the
+      throne of Babylon. The text first gives details with regard to the size
+      and situation of the estates included in the grant of land, and it states
+      the names of the high officials who were entrusted with the duty of
+      measuring them. The remainder of the text defines and secures the
+      privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina together with the land, and, as
+      it throws considerable light upon the system of land tenure at the period,
+      an extract from it may here be translated:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      “To prevent the encroachment on his land,” the inscription runs, “thus
+      hath he (i.e. the king) established his (Marduk-aplu-iddina’s) charter. On
+      his land taxes and tithes shall they not impose; ditches, limits, and
+      boundaries shall they not displace; there shall be no plots, stratagems,
+      or claims (with regard to his possession); for forced labour or public
+      work for the prevention of floods, for the maintenance and repair of the
+      royal canal under the protection of the towns of Bit-Sikkamidu and
+      Damik-Adad, among the gangs levied in the towns of the district of
+      Ninâ-Agade, they shall not call out the people of his estate; they are not
+      liable to forced labour on the sluices of the royal canal, nor are they
+      liable for building dams, nor for closing the canal, nor for digging out
+      the bed thereof.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0012" id="linkCimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:50%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/260.jpg"
+       alt="260.jpg Kuottrru, Or ‘boundary-stone.’ " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      “A cultivator of his lands, whether hired or belonging to the estate, and
+      the men who receive his instructions (i.e. his overseers) shall no
+      governor of Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû cause to leave his lands, whether by the
+      order of the king, or by the order of the governor, or by the order of
+      whosoever may be at Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû. On wood, grass, straw, corn, and
+      every other sort of crop, on his carts and yoke, on his ass and
+      man-servant, shall they make no levy. During the scarcity of water in the
+      canal running between the Bati-Anzanim canal and the canal of the royal
+      district, on the waters of his ditch for irrigation shall they make no
+      levy; from the ditch of his reservoir shall they not draw water, neither
+      shall they divert (his water for) irrigation, and other land shall they
+      not irrigate nor water therewith. The grass of his lands shall they not
+      mow; the beasts belonging to the king or to a governor, which may be
+      assigned to the district of Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, shall they not drive
+      within his boundary, nor shall they pasture them on his grass. He shall
+      not be forced to build a road or a bridge, whether for the king, or for
+      the governor who may be appointed in the district of Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû,
+      neither shall he be liable for any new form of forced labour, which in the
+      days that are to come a king, or a governor appointed in the district of
+      Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, shall institute and exact, nor for forced labour long
+      fallen into disuse which may be revived anew. To prevent encroachment on
+      his land the king hath fixed the privileges of his domain, and that which
+      appertaineth unto it, and all that he hath granted unto him; and in the
+      presence of Shamash, and Marduk, and Anunitu, and the great gods of heaven
+      and earth, he hath inscribed them upon a stone, and he hath left it as an
+      everlasting memorial with regard to his estate.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole of the text is too long to quote, and it will suffice to note
+      here that Melishikhu proceeds to appeal to future kings to respect the
+      land and privileges which he has granted to his son, Marduk-aplu-iddina,
+      even as he himself has respected similar grants made by his predecessors
+      on the throne; and the text ends with some very vivid curses against any
+      one, whatever his station, who should make any encroachments on the
+      privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina, or should alter or do any harm
+      to the memorial-stone itself. The emblems of the gods whom Melishikhu
+      invokes to avenge any infringement of his grant are sculptured upon one
+      side of the stone, for, as has already been remarked, it was believed that
+      by carving them upon the memorial-stone their help in guarding the stone
+      itself and its enactments was assured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the portion of the text inscribed upon the stone which has just been
+      translated it is seen that the owner of land in Babylonia in the period of
+      the Kassite kings, unless he was granted special exemption, was liable to
+      furnish forced labour for public works to the state or to his district, to
+      furnish grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of the king or
+      governor, and to pay various taxes and tithes on his land, his water for
+      irrigation, and his crops. From the numerous documents of the First
+      Dynasty of Babylon that have been recovered and published within the last
+      few years we know that similar customs were prevalent at that period, so
+      that it is clear that the successive conquests to which the country was
+      subjected, and the establishment of different dynasties of foreign kings
+      at Babylon, did not to any appreciable extent affect the life and customs
+      of the inhabitants of the country or even the general character of its
+      government and administration. Some documents of a commercial and legal
+      nature, inscribed upon clay tablets during the reigns of the Kassite kings
+      of Babylon, have been found at Nippur, but they have not yet been
+      published, and the information we possess concerning the life of the
+      people in this period is obtained indirectly from kudurrus or
+      boundary-stones, such as those of Nazimaruttash and Melishikhu which have
+      been already described. Of documents relating to the life of the people
+      under the rule of the kings of the Country of the Sea we have none, and,
+      with the exception of the unpublished chronicle which has been described
+      earlier in this chapter, our information for this period is confined to
+      one or two short votive inscriptions. But the case is very different with
+      regard to the reigns of the Semitic kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon.
+      Thousands of tablets relating to legal and commercial transactions during
+      this period have been recovered, and more recently a most valuable series
+      of royal letters, written by Hammurabi and other kings of his dynasty, has
+      been brought to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="264 (43K)" src="images/264.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkCimage-0013" id="linkCimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/264a.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="264a.jpg Upper Part of the Stele Of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The stele is inscribed with his great code of laws. The Sun-
+     god is represented as seated on a throne in the form of a
+     temple façade, and his feet are resting upon the mountains.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, the recently discovered code of laws drawn up by Hammurabi
+      contains information of the greatest interest with regard to the
+      conditions of life that were prevalent in Babylonia at that period. From
+      these three sources it is possible to draw up a comparatively full account
+      of early Babylonian life and customs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkC2HCH0002" id="linkC2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI&mdash;EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In tracing the ancient history of Mesopotamia and the surrounding
+      countries it is possible to construct a narrative which has the appearance
+      of being comparatively full and complete. With regard to Babylonia it may
+      be shown how dynasty succeeded dynasty, and for long periods together the
+      names of the kings have been recovered and the order of their succession
+      fixed with certainty. But the number and importance of the original
+      documents on which this connected narration is based vary enormously for
+      different periods. Gaps occur in our knowledge of the sequence of events,
+      which with some ingenuity may be bridged over by means of the native lists
+      of kings and the genealogies furnished by the historical inscriptions. On
+      the other hand, as if to make up for such parsimony, the excavations have
+      yielded a wealth of material for illustrating the conditions of early
+      Babylonian life which prevailed in such periods. The most fortunate of
+      these periods, so far as the recovery of its records is concerned, is
+      undoubtedly the period of the Semitic kings of the First Dynasty of
+      Babylon, and in particular the reign of its greatest ruler, Hammurabi.
+      When M. Maspero wrote his history, thousands of clay tablets, inscribed
+      with legal and commercial documents and dated in the reigns of these early
+      kings, had already been recovered, and the information they furnished was
+      duly summarized by him.<a href="#fn6.1" name="fnref6.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> But since that time two other sources of
+      information have been made available which have largely increased our
+      knowledge of the constitution of the early Babylonian state, its system of
+      administration, and the conditions of life of the various classes of the
+      population.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn6.1"></a> <a href="#fnref6.1">[1]</a>
+     Most of these tablets are preserved in the British Museum.
+     The principal?works in which they have been published are
+     Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum (1896, etc.),
+     Strassmaier’s Altbabylonischen Vertràge aus Warka, and
+     Meissner’s Beitràge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht. A
+     number of similar tablets of this period, preserved in the
+     Pennsylvania Museum, will shortly be published by Dr. Ranke.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      One of these new sources of information consists of a remarkable series of
+      royal letters, written by kings of the First Dynasty, which has been
+      recovered and is now preserved in the British Museum. The letters were
+      addressed to the governors and high officials of various great cities in
+      Babylonia, and they contain the king’s orders with regard to details of
+      the administration of the country which had been brought to his notice.
+      The range of subjects with which they deal is enormous, and there is
+      scarcely one of them which does not add to our knowledge of the period.<a href="#fn6.2" name="fnref6.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>
+      The other new source of information is the great code of laws, drawn up by
+      Hammurabi for the guidance of his people and defining the duties and
+      privileges of all classes of his subjects, the discovery of which at Susa
+      has been described in a previous chapter. The laws are engraved on a great
+      stele of diorite in no less than forty-nine columns of writing, of which
+      forty-four are preserved,<a href="#fn6.3" name="fnref6.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> and at the head of the stele is sculptured a
+      representation of the king receiving them from Shamash, the Sun-god.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn6.2"></a> <a href="#fnref6.2">[2]</a>
+     See King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, 3 vols.
+     (1898-1900).
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn6.3"></a> <a href="#fnref6.3">[3]</a>
+See Scheil, <i>Délégationen perse, Mémoires</i>, tome iv (1902).
+</p>
+
+    <p>
+      This code shows to what an extent the administration of law and justice
+      had been developed in Babylonia in the time of the First Dynasty. From the
+      contracts and letters of the period we already knew that regular judges
+      and duly appointed courts of law were in existence, and the code itself
+      was evidently intended by the king to give the royal sanction to a great
+      body of legal decisions and enactments which already possessed the
+      authority conferred by custom and tradition. The means by which such a
+      code could have come into existence are illustrated by the system of
+      procedure adopted in the courts at this period. After a case had been
+      heard and judgment had been given, a summary of the case and of the
+      evidence, together with the judgment, was drawn up and written out on
+      tablets in due legal form and phraseology. A list of the witnesses was
+      appended, and, after the tablet had been dated and sealed, it was stored
+      away among the legal archives of the court, where it was ready for
+      production in the event of any future appeal or case in which the recorded
+      decision was involved. This procedure represents an advanced stage in the
+      system of judicial administration, but the care which was taken for the
+      preservation of the judgments given was evidently traditional, and would
+      naturally give rise in course of time to the existence of a recognized
+      code of laws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, when once a judgment had been given and had been duly recorded
+      it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision he
+      was severely punished. For not only was he expelled from his
+      judgment-seat, and debarred from exercising judicial functions in the
+      future, but, if his judgment had involved the infliction of a penalty, he
+      was obliged to pay twelve times the amount to the man he had condemned.
+      Such an enactment must have occasionally given rise to hardship or
+      injustice, but at least it must have had the effect of imbuing the judges
+      with a sense of their responsibility and of instilling a respect for their
+      decisions in the minds of the people. A further check upon injustice was
+      provided by the custom of the elders of the city, who sat with the judge
+      and assisted him in the carrying out of his duties; and it was always open
+      to a man, if he believed that he could not get justice enforced, to make
+      an appeal to the king. It is not our present purpose to give a technical
+      discussion of the legal contents of the code, but rather to examine it
+      with the object of ascertaining what light it throws upon ancient
+      Babylonian life and customs, and the conditions under which the people
+      lived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The code gives a good deal of information with regard to the family life
+      of the Babylonians, and, above all, proves the sanctity with which the
+      marriage-tie was invested. The claims that were involved by marriage were
+      not lightly undertaken. Any marriage, to be legally binding, had to be
+      accompanied by a duly executed and attested marriage-contract. If a man
+      had taken a woman to wife without having carried out this necessary
+      preliminary, the woman was not regarded as his wife in the legal sense. On
+      the other hand, when once such a marriage-contract had been drawn up, its
+      inviolability was stringently secured. A case of proved adultery on the
+      part of a man’s wife was punished by the drowning of the guilty parties,
+      though the husband of the woman, if he wished to save his wife, could do
+      so by an appeal to the king. Similarly, death was the penalty for a man
+      who ravished another man’s betrothed wife while she was still living in
+      her father’s house, but in this case the girl’s innocence and inexperience
+      were taken into account, and no penalty was enforced against her and she
+      was allowed to go free. Where the adultery of a wife was not proved, and
+      only depended on the accusation of the husband, the woman could clear
+      herself by swearing her own innocence; if, however, the accusation was not
+      brought by the husband himself, but by others, the woman could clear
+      herself by submitting to the ordeal by water; that is to say, she would
+      plunge into the Euphrates; if the river carried her away and she were
+      drowned, it was regarded as proof that the accusation was well founded;
+      if, on the contrary, she survived and got safely to the bank, she was
+      considered innocent and was forthwith allowed to return to her household
+      completely vindicated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will have been seen that the duty of chastity on the part of a married
+      woman was strictly enforced, but the husband’s responsibility to properly
+      maintain his wife was also recognized, and in the event of his desertion
+      she could under certain circumstances become the wife of another man.
+      Thus, if he left his city and fled from it of his own free will and
+      deserted his wife, he could not reclaim her on his return, since he had
+      not been forced to leave the city, but had done so because he hated it.
+      This rule did not apply to the case of a man who was taken captive in
+      battle. In such circumstances the wife’s action was to be guided by the
+      condition of her husband’s affairs. If the captive husband possessed
+      sufficient property on which his wife could be maintained during his
+      captivity in a strange land, she had no reason nor excuse for seeking
+      another marriage. If under these circumstances she became another man’s
+      wife, she was to be prosecuted at law, and, her action being the
+      equivalent of adultery, she was to be drowned. But the case was regarded
+      as altered if the captive husband had not sufficient means for the
+      maintenance of his wife during his absence. The woman would then be thrown
+      on her own resources, and if she became the wife of another man she
+      incurred no blame. On the return of the captive he could reclaim his wife,
+      but the children of the second marriage would remain with their own
+      father. These regulations for the conduct of a woman, whose husband was
+      captured in battle, give an intimate picture of the manner in which the
+      constant wars of this early period affected the lives of those who took
+      part in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the Babylonians at the period of the First Dynasty divorce was
+      strictly regulated, though it was far easier for the man to obtain one
+      than for the woman. If we may regard the copies of Sumerian laws, which
+      have come down to us from the late Assyrian period, as parts of the code
+      in use under the early Sumerians, we must conclude that at this earlier
+      period the law was still more in favour of the husband, who could divorce
+      his wife whenever he so desired, merely paying her half a mana as
+      compensation. Under the Sumerians the wife could not obtain a divorce at
+      all, and the penalty for denying her husband was death. These regulations
+      were modified in favour of the woman in Hammurabi’s code; for under its
+      provisions, if a man divorced his wife or his concubine, he was obliged to
+      make proper provision for her maintenance. Whether she were barren or had
+      borne him children, he was obliged to return her marriage portion; and in
+      the latter case she had the custody of the children, for whose maintenance
+      and education he was obliged to furnish the necessary supplies. Moreover,
+      at the man’s death she and her children would inherit a share of his
+      property. When there had been no marriage portion, a sum was fixed which
+      the husband was obliged to pay to his divorced wife, according to his
+      status. In cases where the wife was proved to have wasted her household
+      and to have entirely failed in her duty, her husband could divorce her
+      without paying any compensation, or could make her a slave in his house,
+      and the extreme penalty for this offence was death. On the other hand, a
+      woman could not be divorced because she had contracted a permanent
+      disease; and, if she desired to divorce her husband and could prove that
+      her past life had been seemly, she could do so, returning to her father’s
+      house and taking her marriage portion with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not necessary here to go very minutely into the regulations given by
+      the code with regard to marriage portions, the rights of widows, the laws
+      of inheritance, and the laws regulating the adoption and maintenance of
+      children. The customs that already have been described with regard to
+      marriage and divorce may serve to indicate the spirit in which the code is
+      drawn up and the recognized status occupied by the wife in the Babylonian
+      household. The extremely independent position enjoyed by women in the
+      early Babylonian days is illustrated by the existence of a special class
+      of women, to which constant reference is made in the contracts and letters
+      of the period. When the existence of this class of women was first
+      recognized from the references to them in the contract-tablets inscribed
+      at the time of the First Dynasty, they were regarded as priestesses, but
+      the regulations concerning them which occur in the code of Hammurabi prove
+      that their duties were not strictly sacerdotal, but that they occupied the
+      position of votaries. The majority of those referred to in the
+      inscriptions of this period were vowed to the service of E-bab-bara, the
+      temple of the Sun-god at Sippara, and of E-sagila, the great temple of
+      Marduk at Babylon, but it is probable that all the great temples in the
+      country had classes of female votaries attached to them. From the evidence
+      at present available it may be concluded that the functions of these women
+      bore no resemblance to that of the sacred prostitutes devoted to the
+      service of the goddess Ishtar in the city of Erech. They seem to have
+      occupied a position of great influence and independence in the community,
+      and their duties and privileges were defined and safeguarded by special
+      legislation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generally they lived together in a special building, or convent, attached
+      to the temple, but they had considerable freedom and could leave the
+      convent and also contract marriage. Their vows, however, while securing
+      them special privileges, entailed corresponding responsibilities. Even
+      when married a votary was still obliged to remain a virgin, and, should
+      her husband desire to have children, she could not bear them herself, but
+      must provide him with a maid or concubine. Also she had to maintain a high
+      standard of moral conduct, for any breach of which severe penalties were
+      enforced. Thus, if a votary who was not living in the convent opened a
+      beer-shop, or should enter one for drink, she ran the risk of being put to
+      death. But the privileges she enjoyed were also considerable, for even
+      when unmarried she enjoyed the status of a married woman, and if any man
+      slandered her he incurred the penalty of branding on the forehead.
+      Moreover, a married votary, though she could not bear her husband
+      children, was secured in her position as the permanent head of his
+      household. The concubine she might give to her husband was always the
+      wife’s inferior, even after bearing him children, and should the former
+      attempt to put herself on a level of equality with the votary, the latter
+      might brand her as a slave and put her with the female slaves. If the
+      concubine proved barren she could be sold. The votary could also possess
+      property, and on taking her vows was provided with a portion by her father
+      exactly as though she were being given in marriage. Her portion was vested
+      in herself and did not become the property of the order of votaries, nor
+      of the temple to which she was attached. The proceeds of her property were
+      devoted to her own maintenance, and on her father’s death her brothers
+      looked after her interests, or she might farm the property out. Under
+      certain circumstances she could inherit property and was not obliged to
+      pay taxes on it, and such property she could bequeath at her own death;
+      but upon her death her portion returned to her own family unless her
+      father had assigned her the privilege of bequeathing it. That the social
+      position enjoyed by a votary was considerable is proved by the fact that
+      many women of good family, and even members of the royal house, took vows.
+      The existence of the order and its high repute indicate a very advanced
+      conception of the position of women among the early Babylonians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the code of Hammurabi we also gather considerable information with
+      regard to the various classes of which the community was composed and to
+      their relative social positions. For the purposes of legislation the
+      community was divided into three main classes or sections, which
+      corresponded to well-defined strata in the social system. The lowest of
+      these classes consisted of the slaves, who must have formed a considerable
+      portion of the population. The class next above them comprised the large
+      body of free men, who were possessed of a certain amount of property but
+      were poor and humble, as their name, <i>muslikênu</i>, implied. These we
+      may refer to as the middle class. The highest, or upper class, in the
+      Babylonian community embraced all the officers and ministers attached to
+      the court, the higher officials and servants of the state, and the owners
+      of considerable lands and estates. The differences which divided and
+      marked off from one another the two great classes of free men in the
+      population of Babylonia is well illustrated by the scale of payments as
+      compensation for injury which they were obliged to make or were entitled
+      to receive. Thus, if a member of the upper class were guilty of stealing
+      an ox, or a sheep, or an ass, or a pig, or a boat, from a temple or a
+      private house, he had to pay the owner thirty times its value as
+      compensation, whereas if the thief were a member of the middle class he
+      only had to pay ten times its price, but if he had no property and so
+      could not pay compensation he was put to death. The penalty for
+      manslaughter was less if the assailant was a man of the middle class, and
+      such a man could also divorce his wife more cheaply, and was privileged to
+      pay his doctor or surgeon a smaller fee for a successful operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the privileges enjoyed by a man of the middle class were
+      counterbalanced by a corresponding diminution of the value at which his
+      life and limbs were assessed. Thus, if a doctor by carrying out an
+      operation unskilfully caused the death of a member of the upper class, or
+      inflicted a serious injury upon him, such as the loss of an eye, the
+      punishment was the amputation of both hands, but no such penalty seems to
+      have been exacted if the patient were a member of the middle class. If,
+      however, the patient were a slave of a member of the middle class, in the
+      event of death under the operation, the doctor had to give the owner
+      another slave, and in the event of the slave losing his eye, he had to pay
+      the owner half the slave’s value. Penalties for assault were also
+      regulated in accordance with the social position and standing of the
+      parties to the quarrel. Thus, if one member of the upper class knocked out
+      the eye or the tooth of one of his equals, his own eye or his own tooth
+      was knocked out as a punishment, and if he broke the limb of one of the
+      members of his own class, he had his corresponding limb broken; but if he
+      knocked out the eye of a member of the middle class, or broke his limb, he
+      suffered no punishment in his own person, but was fined one mana of
+      silver, and for knocking out the tooth of such a man he was fined
+      one-third of a mana. If two members of the same class were engaged in a
+      quarrel, and one of them made a peculiarly improper assault upon the
+      other, the assailant was only fined, the fine being larger if the quarrel
+      was between members of the upper class. But if such an assault was made by
+      one man upon another who was of higher rank than himself, the assailant
+      was punished by being publicly beaten in the presence of the assembly,
+      when he received sixty stripes from a scourge of ox-hide. These
+      regulations show the privileges and responsibilities which pertained to
+      the two classes of free men in the Babylonian community, and they indicate
+      the relative social positions which they enjoyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both classes of free men could own slaves, though it is obvious that they
+      were more numerous in the households and on the estates of members of the
+      upper class. The slave was the absolute property of his master and could
+      be bought and sold and employed as a deposit for a debt, but, though
+      slaves as a class had few rights of their own, in certain circumstances
+      they could acquire them. Thus, if the owner of a female slave had begotten
+      children by her he could not use her as the payment for a debt, and in the
+      event of his having done so he was obliged to ransom her by paying the
+      original amount of the debt in money. It was also possible for a male
+      slave, whether owned by a member of the upper or of the middle class, to
+      marry a free woman, and if he did so, his children were free and did not
+      become the property of his master. Also, if the free woman whom the slave
+      married brought with her a marriage portion from her father’s house, this
+      remained her own property on the slave’s death, and supposing the couple
+      had acquired other property during the time they lived together as man and
+      wife, the owner of the slave could only claim half of such property, the
+      other half being retained by the free woman for her own use and for that
+      of her children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generally speaking, the lot of the slave was not a particularly hard one,
+      for he was a recognized member of his owner’s household, and, as a
+      valuable piece of property, it was obviously to his owner’s interest to
+      keep him healthy and in good condition. In fact, the value of the slave is
+      attested by the severity of the penalty imposed for abducting a male or
+      female slave from the owner’s house and removing him or her from the city;
+      for a man guilty of this offence was put to death. The same penalty was
+      imposed for harbouring and taking possession of a runaway slave, whereas a
+      fixed reward was paid by the owner to any one by whom a runaway slave was
+      captured and brought back. Special legislation was also devised with the
+      object of rendering the theft of slaves difficult and their detection
+      easy. Thus, if a brander put a mark upon a slave without the owner’s
+      consent, he was liable to have his hands cut off, and if he could prove
+      that he did so through being deceived by another man, that man was put to
+      death. For bad offences slaves were liable to severe punishments, such as
+      cutting off the ear, which was the penalty for denying his master, and
+      also for making an aggravated assault on a member of the upper class of
+      free men. But it is clear that on the whole the slave was well looked
+      after. He was also not condemned to remain perpetually a slave, for while
+      still in his master’s service it was possible for him, under certain
+      conditions, to acquire property of his own, and if he did so he was able
+      with his master’s consent to purchase his freedom. If a slave were
+      captured by the enemy and taken to a foreign land and sold, and were then
+      brought back by his new owner to his own country, he could claim his
+      liberty without having to pay any purchase-money to either of his masters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The code of Hammurabi also contains detailed regulations concerning the
+      duties of debtors and creditors, and it throws an interesting light on the
+      commercial life of the Babylonians at this early period. For instance, it
+      reveals the method by which a wealthy man, or a merchant, extended his
+      business and obtained large profits by trading with other towns. This he
+      did by employing agents who were under certain fixed obligations to him,
+      but acted independently so far as their trading was concerned. From the
+      merchant these agents would receive money or grain or wool or oil or any
+      sort of goods wherewith to trade, and in return they paid a fixed share of
+      their profits, retaining the remainder as the recompense for their own
+      services. They were thus the earliest of commercial travellers. In order
+      to prevent fraud between the merchant and the agent special regulations
+      were framed for the dealings they had with one another. Thus, when the
+      agent received from the merchant the money or goods to trade with, it was
+      enacted that he should at the time of the transaction give a properly
+      executed receipt for the amount he had received. Similarly, if the agent
+      gave the merchant money in return for the goods he had received and in
+      token of his good faith, the merchant had to give a receipt to the agent,
+      and in reckoning their accounts after the agent’s return from his journey,
+      only such amounts as were specified in the receipts were to be regarded as
+      legal obligations. If the agent forgot to obtain his proper receipt he did
+      so at his own risk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0014" id="linkCimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/280.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="280.jpg Clay Contract Tablet and Its Outer Case " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Dating from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Travelling at this period was attended with some risk, as it is in the
+      East at the present day, and the caravan with which an agent travelled was
+      liable to attack from brigands, or it might be captured by enemies of the
+      country from which it set out. It was right that loss from this cause
+      should not be borne by the agent, who by trading with the goods was
+      risking his own life, but should fall upon the merchant who had merely
+      advanced the goods and was safe in his own city. It is plain, however,
+      that disputes frequently arose in consequence of the loss of goods through
+      a caravan being attacked and robbed, for the code states clearly the
+      responsibility of the merchant in the matter. If in the course of his
+      journey an enemy had forced the agent to give up some of the goods he was
+      carrying, on his return the agent had to specify the amount on oath, and
+      he was then acquitted of all responsibility in the matter. If he attempted
+      to cheat his employer by misappropriating the money or goods advanced to
+      him, on being convicted of the offence before the elders of the city, he
+      was obliged to repay the merchant three times the amount he had taken. On
+      the other hand, if the merchant attempted to defraud his agent by denying
+      that the due amount had been returned to him, he was obliged on conviction
+      to pay the agent six times the amount as compensation. It will thus be
+      seen that the law sought to protect the agent from the risk of being
+      robbed by his more powerful employer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The merchant sometimes furnished the agent with goods which he was to
+      dispose of in the best markets he could find in the cities and towns along
+      his route, and sometimes he would give the agent money with which to
+      purchase goods in foreign cities for sale on his return. If the venture
+      proved successful the merchant and his agent shared the profits between
+      them, but if the agent made bad bargains he had to refund to the merchant
+      the value of the goods he had received; if the merchant had not agreed to
+      risk losing any profit, the amount to be refunded to him was fixed at
+      double the value of the goods advanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0015" id="linkCimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/282.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="282.jpg a Track in the Desert. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This last enactment gives an indication of the immense profits which were
+      obtained by both the merchant and the agent from this system of foreign
+      trade, for it is clear that what was regarded fair profit for the merchant
+      was double the value of the goods disposed of. The profits of a successful
+      journey would also include a fair return to the agent for the trouble and
+      time involved in his undertaking. Many of the contract tablets of this
+      early period relate to such commercial journeys, which show that various
+      bargains were made between the different parties interested, and sometimes
+      such contracts, or partnerships, were entered into, not for a single
+      journey only, but for long periods. We may therefore conclude that at the
+      time of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and probably for long centuries
+      before that period, the great trade-routes of the East were crowded with
+      traffic. With the exception that donkeys and asses were employed for
+      beasts of burden and were not supplemented by horses and camels until a
+      much later period, a camping-ground in the desert on one of the great
+      trade-routes must have presented a scene similar to that of a caravan
+      camping in the desert at the present day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0016" id="linkCimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/283.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="283.jpg a Camping-ground in the Desert, Between Birejik And Urfa. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The rough tracks beaten by the feet of men and beasts are the same to-day
+      as they were in that remote period. We can imagine a body of these early
+      travellers approaching a walled city at dusk and hastening their pace to
+      get there before the gates were shut. Such a picture as that of the
+      approach to the city of Samarra, with its mediaeval walls, may be taken as
+      having had its counterpart in many a city of the early Babylonians. The
+      caravan route leads through the desert to the city gate, and if we
+      substitute two massive temple towers for the domes of the mosques that
+      rise above the wall, little else in the picture need be changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0017" id="linkCimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/284.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="284.jpg Approach to the City of Samarra, Situated on The Left Bank of the Tigris. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     A small caravan is here seen approaching the city at sunset
+     before the gates are shut. Samarra was only founded in A. D.
+     834, by the Khalif el-Motasim, the son of Harûn er-Rashîd,
+     but customs in the East do not change, and the photograph
+     may be used to illustrate the approach of an early
+     Babylonian caravan to a walled city of the period.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The houses, too, at this period must have resembled the structures of
+      unburnt brick of the present day, with their flat mud tops, on which the
+      inmates sleep at night during the hot season, supported on poles and
+      brushwood. The code furnishes evidence that at that time, also, the houses
+      were not particularly well built and were liable to fall, and, in the
+      event of their doing so, it very justly fixes the responsibility upon the
+      builder. It is clear from the penalties for bad workmanship enforced upon
+      the builder that considerable abuses had existed in the trade before the
+      time of Hammurabi, and it is not improbable that the enforcement of the
+      penalties succeeded in stamping them out. Thus, if a builder built a house
+      for a man, and his work was not sound and the house fell and crushed the
+      owner so that he died, it was enacted that the builder himself should be
+      put to death. If the fall of the house killed the owner’s son, the
+      builder’s own son was to be put to death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0018" id="linkCimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/285.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="285.jpg a Small Caravan in the Mountains of Kurdistan. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      If one or more of the owner’s slaves were killed, the builder had to
+      restore him slave for slave. Any damage which the owner’s goods might have
+      suffered from the fall of the house was to be made good by the builder. In
+      addition to these penalties the builder was obliged to rebuild the house,
+      or any portion of it that had fallen through not being properly secured,
+      at his own cost. On the other hand, due provisions were made for the
+      payment of the builder for sound work; and as the houses of the period
+      rarely, if ever, consisted of more than one story, the scale of payment
+      was fixed by the area of ground covered by the building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0019" id="linkCimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/286.jpg" width="100%" alt="286.jpg the City of Mosul. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Situated on the right bank of the Tigris opposite the mounds
+     which mark the site of the ancient city of Nineveh. The
+     flat-roof ednouses which may be distinguished in the
+     photograph are very similar in form and construction to
+     those employed by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      From the code of Hammurabi we also gain considerable information with
+      regard to agricultural pursuits in ancient Babylonia, for elaborate
+      regulations are given concerning the landowner’s duties and
+      responsibilities, and his relations to his tenants. The usual practice in
+      hiring land for cultivation was for the tenant to pay his rent in kind, by
+      assigning a certain proportion of the crop, generally a third or a half,
+      to the owner. If a tenant hired certain land for cultivation he was bound
+      to till it and raise a crop, and should he neglect to do so he had to pay
+      the owner what was reckoned as the average rent of the land, and he had
+      also to break up the land and plough it before handing it back. As the
+      rent of a field was usually reckoned at harvest, and its amount depended
+      on the size of the crop, it was only fair that damage to the crop from
+      flood or storm should not be made up by the tenant; thus it was enacted by
+      the code that any loss from such a cause should be shared equally by the
+      owner of the field and the farmer, though if the latter had already paid
+      his rent at the time the damage occurred he could not make a claim for
+      repayment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0020" id="linkCimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/287.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="287.jpg the Village of Nebi Yunus. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Built on one of the mounds marking the site of the Assyrian
+     city of Nineveh. The mosque in the photograph is built over
+     the traditional site of the prophet Jonah’s tomb. The flat-
+     roofed houses of the modern dwellers on the mound can be
+     well seen in the picture.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      It is clear from the enactments of the code that disputes were frequent,
+      not only between farmers and landowners, but also between farmers and
+      shepherds. It is certain that the latter, in the attempt to find pasture
+      for the flocks, often allowed their sheep to feed off the farmers’ fields
+      in the spring. This practice the code set itself to prevent by fixing a
+      scale of compensation to be paid by any shepherd who caused his sheep to
+      graze on cultivated land without the owner’s consent. If the offence was
+      committed in the early spring, when the crop was still small, the farmer
+      was to harvest the crop and receive a considerable price in kind as
+      compensation for the shepherd. But if it occurred later on in the spring,
+      when the sheep had been brought in from the meadows and turned into the
+      great common field at the city gate, the offence would less probably be
+      due to accident and the damage to the crop would be greater. In these
+      circumstances the shepherd had to take over the crop and pay the farmer
+      very heavily for his loss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0021" id="linkCimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/288.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="288.jpg Portrait-sculpture of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     From a stone slab in the British Museum.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The planting of gardens and orchards was encouraged, and a man was allowed
+      to use a field for this purpose without paying a yearly rent. He might
+      plant it and tend it for four years, and in the fifth year of his tenancy
+      the original owner of the field took half of the garden in payment, while
+      the other half the planter of the garden kept for himself. If a bare patch
+      had been left in the garden it was to be reckoned in the planter’s half.
+      Regulations were framed to ensure the proper carrying out of the planting,
+      for if the tenant neglected to do this during the first four years, he was
+      still liable to plant the plot he had taken without receiving his half,
+      and he had to pay the owner compensation in addition, which varied in
+      amount according to the original condition of the land. If a man hired a
+      garden, the rent he paid to the owner was fixed at two-thirds of its
+      produce. Detailed regulations are also given in the code concerning the
+      hire of cattle and asses, and the compensation to be paid to the owner for
+      the loss or ill-treatment of his beasts. These are framed on the just
+      principle that the hirer was responsible only for damage or loss which he
+      could have reasonably prevented. Thus, if a lion killed a hired ox or ass
+      in the open country, or if an ox was killed by lightning, the loss fell
+      upon the owner and not on the man who hired the beast. But if the hirer
+      killed the ox through carelessness or by beating it unmercifully, or if
+      the beast broke its leg while in his charge, he had to restore another ox
+      to the owner in place of the one he had hired. For lesser damages to the
+      beast the hirer had to pay compensation on a fixed scale. Thus, if the ox
+      had its eye knocked out during the period of its hire, the man who hired
+      it had to pay to the owner half its value; while for a broken horn, the
+      loss of the tail, or a torn muzzle, he paid a quarter of the value of the
+      beast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fines were also levied for carelessness in looking after cattle, though in
+      cases of damage or injury, where carelessness could not be proved, the
+      owner of a beast was not held responsible. A bull might go wild at any
+      time and gore a man, however careful and conscientious the owner might be,
+      and in these circumstances the injured man could not bring an action
+      against the owner. But if a bull had already gored a man, and, although it
+      was known to be vicious, the owner had not blunted its horns or shut it
+      up, in the event of its goring and killing a free man, he had to pay half
+      a mana of silver. One-third of a mana was the price paid for a slave who
+      was killed. A landed proprietor who might hire farmers to cultivate his
+      fields inflicted severe fines for acts of dishonesty with regard to the
+      cattle, provender, or seed-corn committed to their charge. If a man stole
+      the provender for the cattle he had to make it good, and he was also
+      liable to the punishment of having his hands cut off. In the event of his
+      being convicted of letting out the oxen for hire, or stealing the
+      seed-corn so that he did not produce a crop, he had to pay very heavy
+      compensation, and, if he could not pay, he was liable to be torn to pieces
+      by the oxen in the field he should have cultivated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a dry land like Babylonia, where little rain falls and that in only one
+      season of the year, the irrigation of his fields forms one of the most
+      important duties of the agriculturist. The farmer leads the water to his
+      fields along small irrigation-canals or channels above the level of the
+      soil, their sides being formed of banks of earth. It is clear that similar
+      methods were employed by the early Babylonians. One such channel might
+      supply the fields of several farmers, and it was the duty of each man
+      through whose land the channel flowed to keep its banks on his land in
+      repair. If he omitted to strengthen his bank or dyke, and the water forced
+      a breach and flooded his neighbour’s field, he had to pay compensation in
+      kind for any crop that was ruined; while if he could not pay, he and his
+      goods were sold, and his neighbours, whose fields had been damaged through
+      his carelessness, shared the money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The land of Babylonian farmers was prepared for irrigation before it was
+      sown by being divided into a number of small square or oblong tracts, each
+      separated from the others by a low bank of earth, the seed being
+      afterwards sown within the small squares or patches. Some of the banks
+      running lengthwise through the field were made into small channels, the
+      ends of which were carried up to the bank of the nearest main irrigation
+      canal. No system of gates or sluices was employed, and when the farmer
+      wished to water one of his fields he simply broke away the bank opposite
+      one of his small channels and let the water flow into it. He would let the
+      water run along this small channel until it reached the part of his land
+      he wished to water. He then blocked the channel with a little earth, at
+      the same time breaking down its bank so that the water flowed over one of
+      the small squares and thoroughly soaked it. When this square was finished
+      he filled up the bank and repeated the process for the next square, and so
+      on until he had watered the necessary portion of the field. When this was
+      finished he returned to the main channel and stopped the flow of the water
+      by blocking up the hole he had made in the dyke. The whole process was,
+      and to-day still is, extremely simple, but it needs care and vigilance,
+      especially in the case of extensive irrigation when water is being carried
+      into several parts of an estate at once. It will be obvious that any
+      carelessness on the part of the irrigator in not shutting off the water in
+      time may lead to extensive damage, not only to his own fields, but to
+      those of his neighbours. In the early Babylonian period, if a farmer left
+      the water running in his channel, and it flooded his neighbour’s field and
+      hurt his crop, he had to pay compensation according to the amount of
+      damage done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was stated above that the irrigation-canals and little channels were
+      made above the level of the soil so that the water could at any point be
+      tapped and allowed to flow over the surrounding land; and in a flat
+      country like Babylonia it will be obvious that some means had to be
+      employed for raising the water from its natural level to the higher level
+      of the land. As we should expect, reference is made in the Babylonian
+      inscriptions to irrigation-machines, and, although their exact form and
+      construction are not described, they must have been very similar to those
+      employed at the present day. The modern inhabitants of Mesopotamia employ
+      four sorts of contrivances for raising the water into their
+      irrigation-channels; three of these are quite primitive, and are those
+      most commonly employed. The method which gives the least trouble and which
+      is used wherever the conditions allow is a primitive form of water-wheel.
+      This can be used only in a river with a good current. The wheel is formed
+      of rough boughs and branches nailed together, with spokes joining the
+      outer rims to a roughly hewn axle. A row of rough earthenware cups or
+      bottles are tied round the outer rim for picking up the water, and a few
+      rough paddles are fixed so that they stick out beyond the rim. The wheel
+      is then fixed in place near the bank of the river, its axle resting in
+      pillars of rough masonry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0022" id="linkCimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/293.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="293.jpg a Modern Machine for Irrigation on The Euphrates. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      As the current turns the wheel, the bottles on the rim dip below the
+      surface and are raised up full. At the top of the wheel is fixed a trough
+      made by hollowing half the trunk of a date-palm, and into this the bottles
+      pour their water, which is conducted from the trough by means of a small
+      aqueduct into the irrigation-channel on the bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The convenience of the water-wheel will be obvious, for the water is
+      raised without the labour of man or beast, and a constant supply is
+      secured day and night so long as the current is strong enough to turn the
+      wheel. The water can be cut off by blocking the wheel or tying it up.
+      These wheels are most common on the Euphrates, and are usually set up
+      where there is a slight drop in the river bed and the water runs swiftly
+      over shallows. As the banks are very high, the wheels are necessarily huge
+      contrivances in order to reach the level of the fields, and their very
+      rough construction causes them to creak and groan as they turn with the
+      current. In a convenient place in the river several of these are sometimes
+      set up side by side, and the noise of their combined creakings can be
+      heard from a great distance. Some idea of what one of these machines looks
+      like can be obtained from the illustration. At Hit on the Euphrates a line
+      of gigantic water-wheels is built across the river, and the noise they
+      make is extraordinary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where there is no current to turn one of these wheels, or where the bank
+      is too high, the water must be raised by the labour of man or beast. The
+      commonest method, which is the one employed generally on the Tigris, is to
+      raise it in skins, which are drawn up by horses, donkeys, or cattle. A
+      recess with perpendicular sides is cut into the bank, and a wooden spindle
+      on wooden struts is supported horizontally over the recess. A rope running
+      over the spindle is fastened to the skin, while the funnel end of the skin
+      is held up by a second rope, running over a lower spindle, until its mouth
+      is opposite the trough into which the water is to be poured. The beasts
+      which are employed for raising the skin are fastened to the ends of the
+      ropes, and they get a good purchase for their pull by being driven down a
+      short cutting or inclined plane in the bank. To get a constant flow of
+      water, two skins are usually employed, and as one is drawn up full the
+      other is let down empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third primitive method of raising water, which is commoner in Egypt
+      than in Mesopotamia at the present day, is the <i>shadduf</i>, and is
+      worked by hand. It consists of a beam supported in the centre, at one end
+      of which is tied a rope with a bucket or vessel for raising the water, and
+      at the other end is fixed a counterweight.<a href="#fn6.4" name="fnref6.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> On an Assyrian bas-relief
+      found at Kuyunjik are representations of the shadduf in operation, two of
+      them being used, the one above the other, to raise the water to successive
+      levels. These were probably the contrivances usually employed by the early
+      Babylonians for raising the water to the level of their fields, and the
+      fact that they were light and easily removed must have made them tempting
+      objects to the dishonest farmer. Hammurabi therefore fixed a scale of
+      compensation to be paid to the owner by a detected thief, which varied
+      according to the class and value of the machine he stole. The rivers and
+      larger canals of Babylonia were used by the ancient inhabitants not only
+      for the irrigation of their fields, but also as waterways for the
+      transport of heavy materials. The recently published letters of Hammurabi
+      and Abêshu’ contain directions for the transportation of corn, dates,
+      sesame seed, and wood, which were ordered to be brought in ships to
+      Babylon, and the code of Hammurabi refers to the transportation by water
+      of wool and oil. It is therefore clear that at this period considerable
+      use was made of vessels of different size for conveying supplies in bulk
+      by water. The method by which the size of such ships and barges was
+      reckoned was based on the amount of grain they were capable of carrying,
+      and this was measured by the <i>gur</i>, the largest measure of capacity.
+      Thus mention is made in the inscriptions of vessels of five, ten, fifteen,
+      twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and seventy-five gur capacity. A
+      boat-builder’s fee for building a vessel of sixty gur was fixed at two
+      shekels of silver, and it was proportionately less for boats of smaller
+      capacity. To ensure that the boat-builder should not scamp his work,
+      regulations were drawn up to fix on him the responsibility for unsound
+      work. Thus if a boat-builder were employed to build a vessel, and he put
+      faulty work into its construction so that it developed defects within a
+      year of its being launched, he was obliged to strengthen and rebuild it at
+      his own expense.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn6.4"></a> <a href="#fnref6.4">[4]</a>
+     The fourth class of machine for raising water employed in
+     Mesopotamia at the present day consists of an endless chain
+     of iron buckets running over a wheel. This is geared by
+     means of rough wooden cogs to a horizontal wheel, the
+     spindle of which has long poles fixed to it, to which horses
+     or cattle are harnessed. The beasts go round in a circle and
+     so turn the machine. The contrivance is not so primitive as
+     the three described above, and the iron buckets are of
+     European importation.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The hire of a boatman was fixed at six gur of corn to be paid him yearly,
+      but it is clear that some of the larger vessels carried crews commanded by
+      a chief boatman, or captain, whose pay was probably on a larger scale. If
+      a man let his boat to a boatman, the latter was responsible for losing or
+      sinking it, and he had to replace it. A boatman was also responsible for
+      the safety of his vessel and of any goods, such as corn, wool, oil, or
+      dates, which he had been hired to transport, and if they were sunk through
+      his carelessness he had to make good the loss. If he succeeded in
+      refloating the boat after it had been sunk, he was only under obligation
+      to pay the owner half its value in compensation for the damage it had
+      sustained. In the case of a collision between two vessels, if one was at
+      anchor at the time, the owner of the other vessel had to pay compensation
+      for the boat that was sunk and its cargo, the owner of the latter
+      estimating on oath the value of what had been sunk. Boats were also
+      employed as ferries, and they must have resembled the primitive form of
+      ferry-boat in use at the present day, which is heavily built of huge
+      timbers, and employed for transporting beasts as well as men across a
+      river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0023" id="linkCimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/297.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="297.jpg Kaiks, Or Native Boats on the Euphrates At Birejik. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Employed for ferrying caravans across the river.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      There is evidence that under the Assyrians rafts floated on inflated skins
+      were employed for the transport of heavy goods, and these have survived in
+      the keleks of the present day. They are specially adapted for the
+      transportation of heavy materials, for they are carried down by the
+      current, and are kept in the course by means of huge sweeps or oars. Being
+      formed only of logs of wood and skins, they are not costly, for wood is
+      plentiful in the upper reaches of the rivers. At the end of their journey,
+      after the goods are landed, they are broken up. The wood is sold at a
+      profit, and the skins, after being deflated, are packed on to donkeys to
+      return by caravan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0024" id="linkCimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/298.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="298.jpg the Modern Bridge of Boats Across The Tigris Opposite Mosul. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is not improbable that such rafts were employed on the Tigris and the
+      Euphrates from the earliest periods of Chaldæan history, though boats
+      would have been used on the canals and more sluggish waterways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the preceding pages we have given a sketch of the more striking aspects
+      of early Babylonian life, on which light has been thrown by recently
+      discovered documents belonging to the period of the First Dynasty of
+      Babylon. We have seen that, in the code of laws drawn up by Hammurabi,
+      regulations were framed for settling disputes and fixing responsibilities
+      under almost every condition and circumstance which might arise among the
+      inhabitants of the country at that time; and the question naturally arises
+      as to how far the code of laws was in actual operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0025" id="linkCimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:50%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/299.jpg"
+       alt="299.jpg a Small Kelek, Ok Raft, Upon the Tigris At Baghdad. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is conceivable that the king may have held admirable convictions, but
+      have been possessed of little power to carry them out and to see that his
+      regulations were enforced. Luckily, we have not to depend on conjecture
+      for settling the question, for Hammurabi’s own letters which are now
+      preserved in the British Museum afford abundant evidence of the active
+      control which the king exercised over every department of his
+      administration and in every province of his empire. In the earlier periods
+      of history, when each city lived independently of its neighbours and had
+      its own system of government, the need for close and frequent
+      communication between them was not pressing, but this became apparent as
+      soon as they were welded together and formed parts of an extended empire.
+      Thus in the time of Sargon of Agade, about 3800 B.C., an extensive system
+      of royal convoys was established between the principal cities. At Telloh
+      the late M. de Sarzec came across numbers of lumps of clay bearing the
+      seal impressions of Sargon and of his son Narâm-Sin, which had been used
+      as seals and labels upon packages sent from Agade to Shirpurla. In the
+      time of Dungi, King of Ur, there was a constant interchange of officials
+      between the various cities of Babylonia and Elam, and during the more
+      recent diggings at Telloh there have been found vouchers for the supply of
+      food for their sustenance when stopping at Shirpurla in the course of
+      their journeys. In the case of Hammurabi we have recovered some of the
+      actual letters sent by the king himself to Sin-idinnam, his local governor
+      in the city of Larsam, and from them we gain considerable insight into the
+      principles which guided him in the administration of his empire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The letters themselves, in their general characteristics, resembled the
+      contract tablets of the period which have been already described. They
+      were written on small clay tablets oblong in shape, and as they were only
+      three or four inches long they could easily be carried about the person of
+      the messenger into whose charge they were delivered. After the tablet was
+      written it was enclosed in a thin envelope of clay, having been first
+      powdered with dry clay to prevent its sticking to the envelope. The name
+      of the person for whom the letter was intended was written on the outside
+      of the envelope, and both it and the tablet were baked hard to ensure that
+      they should not be broken on their travels. The recipient of the letter,
+      on its being delivered to him, broke the outer envelope by tapping it
+      sharply, and it then fell away in pieces, leaving the letter and its
+      message exposed. The envelopes were very similar to those in which the
+      contract tablets of the period were enclosed, of which illustrations have
+      already been given, their only difference being that the text of the
+      tablet was not repeated on the envelope, as was the case with the former
+      class of documents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The royal letters that have been recovered throw little light on military
+      affairs and the prosecution of campaigns, for, being addressed to
+      governors of cities and civil officials, most of them deal with matters
+      affecting the internal administration of the empire. One letter indeed
+      contains directions concerning the movements of two hundred and forty
+      soldiers of “the King’s Company” who had been stationed in Assyria, and
+      another letter mentions certain troops who were quartered in the city of
+      Ur. A third deals with the supply of clothing and oil for a section of the
+      Babylonian army, and troops are also mentioned as having formed the escort
+      for certain goddesses captured from the Elamites; while directions are
+      sent to others engaged in a campaign upon the Elamite frontier. The letter
+      which contains directions for the safe escort of the captured Elamite
+      goddesses, and the one ordering the return of these same goddesses to
+      their own shrines, show that foreign deities, even when captured from an
+      enemy, were treated by the Babylonians with the same respect and reverence
+      that was shown by them to their own gods and goddesses. Hammurabi gave
+      directions in the first letter for the conveyance of the goddesses to
+      Babylon with all due pomp and ceremony, sheep being supplied for sacrifice
+      upon the journey, and their usual rites being performed by their own
+      temple-women and priestesses. The king’s voluntary restoration of the
+      goddesses to their own country may have been due to the fact that, after
+      their transference to Babylon, the army of the Babylonians suffered defeat
+      in Elam. This misfortune would naturally have been ascribed by the king
+      and the priests to the anger of the Elamite goddesses at being detained in
+      a foreign land, and Hammurabi probably arrived at his decision that they
+      should be escorted back in the hope of once more securing victory for the
+      Babylonian arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The care which the king exercised for the due worship of his own gods and
+      the proper supply of their temples is well illustrated from the letters
+      that have been recovered, for he superintended the collection of the
+      temple revenues, and the herdsmen and shepherds attached to the service of
+      the gods sent their reports directly to him. He also took care that the
+      observances of religious rites and ceremonies were duly carried out, and
+      on one occasion he postponed the hearing of a lawsuit concerning the title
+      to certain property which was in dispute, as it would have interfered with
+      the proper observance of a festival in the city of Ur. The plaintiff in
+      the suit was the chief of the temple bakers, and it was his duty to
+      superintend the preparation of certain offerings for the occasion. In
+      order that he should not have to leave his duties, the king put off the
+      hearing of the case until after the festival had been duly celebrated. The
+      king also exercised a strict control over the priests themselves, and
+      received reports from the chief priests concerning their own subordinates,
+      and it is probable that the royal sanction was obtained for all the
+      principal appointments. The guild of soothsayers was an important
+      religious class at this time, and they also were under the king’s direct
+      control. A letter written by Ammiditana, one of the later kings of the
+      First Dynasty, to three high officials of the city of Sippar, contains
+      directions with regard to certain duties to be carried out by the
+      soothsayers attached to the service of the city, and indicates the nature
+      of their functions. Ammiditana wrote to the officials in question, stating
+      that there was a scarcity of corn in the city of Shagga, and he therefore
+      ordered them to send a supply thither. But before the corn was brought
+      into the city they were told to consult the soothsayers, who were to
+      divine the future and ascertain whether the omens were favourable. If they
+      proved to be so, the corn was to be brought in. We may conjecture that the
+      king took this precaution, as he feared the scarcity of corn in Shagga was
+      due to the anger of some local deity or spirit, and that, if this were the
+      case, the bringing in of the corn would only lead to fresh troubles. This
+      danger it was the duty of the soothsayers to prevent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another class of the priesthood, which we may infer was under the king’s
+      direct control, was the astrologers, whose duty it probably was to make
+      reports to the king of the conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, with a
+      view to ascertaining whether they portended good or evil to the state. No
+      astrological reports written in this early period have been recovered, but
+      at a later period under the Assyrian empire the astrologers reported
+      regularly to the king on such matters, and it is probable that the
+      practice was one long established. One of Hammurabi’s letters proves that
+      the king regulated the calendar, and it is legitimate to suppose that he
+      sought the advice of his astrologers as to the times when intercalary
+      months were to be inserted. The letter dealing with the calendar was
+      written to inform Sin-idinnam, the governor of Larsam, that an intercalary
+      month was to be inserted. “Since the year (i.e. the calendar) hath a
+      deficiency,” he writes, “let the month which is now beginning be
+      registered as a second Elul,” and the king adds that this insertion of an
+      extra month will not justify any postponement in the payment of the
+      regular tribute due from the city of Larsam, which had to be paid a month
+      earlier than usual to make up for the month that was inserted. The
+      intercalation of additional months was due to the fact that the Babylonian
+      months were lunar, so that the calendar had to be corrected at intervals
+      to make it correspond to the solar year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the description already given of the code of laws drawn up by
+      Hammurabi it will have been seen that the king attempted to incorporate
+      and arrange a set of regulations which should settle any dispute likely to
+      arise with regard to the duties and privileges of all classes of his
+      subjects. That this code was not a dead letter, but was actively
+      administered, is abundantly proved by many of the letters of Hammurabi
+      which have been recovered. From these we learn that the king took a very
+      active part in the administration of justice in the country, and that he
+      exercised a strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the
+      capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities
+      and towns of Babylonia. Any private citizen was entitled to make a direct
+      appeal to the king for justice, if he thought he could not obtain it in
+      his local court, and it is clear from Hammurabi’s letters that he always
+      listened to such an appeal and gave it adequate consideration. The king
+      was anxious to stamp out all corruption on the part of those who were
+      invested with authority, and he had no mercy on any of his officers who
+      were convicted of taking bribes. On one occasion when he had been informed
+      of a case of bribery in the city of Dûr-gurgurri, he at once ordered the
+      governor of the district in which Dûr-gurgurri lay to investigate the
+      charge and send to Babylon those who were proved to be guilty, that they
+      might be punished. He also ordered that the bribe should be confiscated
+      and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise provision which must have
+      tended to discourage those who were inclined to tamper with the course of
+      justice, while at the same time it enriched the state. It is probable that
+      the king tried all cases of appeal in person when it was possible to do
+      so. But if the litigants lived at a considerable distance from Babylon, he
+      gave directions to his local officials on the spot to try the case. When
+      he was convinced of the justice of any claim, he would decide the case
+      himself and send instructions to the local authorities to see that his
+      decision was duly carried out. It is certain that many disputes arose at
+      this period in consequence of the extortions of money-lenders. These men
+      frequently laid claim in a fraudulent manner to fields and estates which
+      they had received in pledge as security for seed-corn advanced by them. In
+      cases where fraud was proved Hammurabi had no mercy, and summoned the
+      money-lender to Babylon to receive punishment, however wealthy and
+      powerful he might be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A subject frequently referred to in Hammurabi’s letters is the collection
+      of revenues, and it is clear that an elaborate system was in force
+      throughout the country for the levying and payment of tribute to the state
+      by the principal cities of Babylonia, as well as for the collection of
+      rent and revenue from the royal estates and from the lands which were set
+      apart for the supply of the great temples. Collectors of both secular and
+      religious tribute sent reports directly to the king, and if there was any
+      deficit in the supply which was expected from a collector he had to make
+      it up himself; but the king was always ready to listen to and investigate
+      a complaint and to enforce the payment of tribute or taxes so that the
+      loss should not fall upon the collector. Thus, in one of his letters
+      Hammurabi informs the governor of Larsam that a collector named Sheb-Sin
+      had reported to him, saying “Enubi-Marduk hath laid hands upon the money
+      for the temple of Bît-il-kittim (i.e. the great temple of the Sun-god at
+      Larsam) which is due from the city of Dûr-gurgurri and from the (region
+      round about the) Tigris, and he hath not rendered the full sum; and
+      Gimil-Marduk hath laid hands upon the money for the temple of
+      Bît-il-kittim which is due from the city.of Rakhabu and from the region
+      round about that city, and he hath not (paid) the full amount. But the
+      palace hath exacted the full sum from me.” It is probable that both
+      Enubi-Marduk and Gimil-Marduk were money-lenders, for we know from another
+      letter that the former had laid claim to certain property on which he had
+      held a mortgage, although the mortgage had been redeemed. In the present
+      case they had probably lent money or seed-corn to certain cultivators of
+      land near Dûr-gurgurri and Rakhabu and along the Tigris, and in settlement
+      of their claims they had seized the crops and had, moreover, refused to
+      pay to the king’s officer the proportion of the crops that was due to the
+      state as taxes upon the land. The governor of Larsam, the principal city
+      in the district, had rightly, as the representative of the palace (i.e.
+      the king), caused the tax-collector to make up the deficiency, but
+      Hammurabi, on receiving the subordinate officer’s complaint, referred the
+      matter back to the governor. The end of the letter is wanting, but we may
+      infer that Hammurabi condemned the defaulting money-lenders to pay the
+      taxes due, and fined them in addition, or ordered them to be sent to the
+      capital for punishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On another occasion Sheb-Sin himself and a second tax-collector named
+      Sin-mushtal appear to have been in fault and to have evaded coming to
+      Babylon when summoned thither by the king. It had been their duty to
+      collect large quantities of sesame seed as well as taxes paid in money.
+      When first summoned, they had made the excuse that it was the time of
+      harvest and they would come after the harvest was over. But as they did
+      not then make their appearance, Hammurabi wrote an urgent letter insisting
+      that they should be despatched with the full amount of the taxes due, in
+      the company of a trustworthy officer who would see that they duly arrived
+      at the capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tribute on flocks and herds was also levied by the king, and collectors or
+      assessors of the revenue were stationed in each district, whose duty it
+      was to report any deficit in the revenue accounts. The owners of flocks
+      and herds were bound to bring the young cattle and lambs that were due as
+      tribute to the central city of the district in which they dwelt, and they
+      were then collected into large bodies and added to the royal flocks and
+      herds; but, if the owners attempted to hold back any that were due as
+      tribute, they were afterwards forced to incur the extra expense and
+      trouble of driving the beasts to Babylon. The flocks and herds owned by
+      the king and the great temples were probably enormous, and yielded a
+      considerable revenue in themselves apart from the tribute and taxes due
+      from private owners. Shepherds and herdsmen were placed in charge of them,
+      and they were divided into groups under chief shepherds, who arranged the
+      districts in which the herds and flocks were to be grazed, distributing
+      them when possible along the banks and in the neighbourhood of rivers and
+      canals which would afford good pasturage and a plentiful supply of water.
+      The king received reports from the chief shepherds and herdsmen, and it
+      was the duty of the governors of the chief cities and districts of
+      Babylonia to make tours of inspection and see that due care was taken of
+      the royal flocks and sheep. The sheep-shearing for all the flocks that
+      were pastured near the capital took place in Babylon, and the king used to
+      send out summonses to his chief shepherds to inform them of the day when
+      the shearing would take place; and it is probable that the governors of
+      the other great cities sent out similar orders to the shepherds of flocks
+      under their charge. Royal and priestly flocks were often under the same
+      chief officer, a fact which shows the very strict control the king
+      exercised over the temple revenues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interests of the agricultural population were strictly looked after by
+      the king, who secured a proper supply of water for purposes of irrigation
+      by seeing that the canals and waterways were kept in a proper state of
+      repair and cleaned out at regular intervals. There is also evidence that
+      nearly every king of the First Dynasty of Babylon cut new canals, and
+      extended the system of irrigation and transportation which had been handed
+      down to him from his fathers. The draining of the marshes and the proper
+      repair of the canals could only be carried out by careful and continuous
+      supervision, and it was the duty of the local governors to see that the
+      inhabitants of villages and owners of land situated on the banks of a
+      canal should keep it in proper order. When this duty had been neglected
+      complaints were often sent to the king, who gave orders to the local
+      governor to remedy the defect. Thus on one occasion it had been ordered
+      that a canal at Erech which had silted up should be deepened, but the
+      dredging had not been carried out thoroughly, so that the bed of the canal
+      soon silted up again and boats were prevented from entering the city. In
+      these circumstances Hammurabi gave pressing orders that the obstruction
+      was to be removed and the canal made navigable within three days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Damage was often done to the banks of canals by floods which followed the
+      winter rains, and a letter of Abêshu’ gives an interesting account of a
+      sudden rise of the water in the Irnina canal so that it overflowed its
+      banks. The king was building a palace at the city of Kâr-Irnina, which was
+      supplied by the Irnina canal, and every year it was possible to put so
+      much work into the building. But one year, when little more than a third
+      of the year’s work was done, the building operations were stopped by
+      flood, the canal having overflowed its banks so that the water rose right
+      up to the wall of the town. In return for the duty of keeping the canals
+      in order, the villagers along the banks had the privilege of fishing in
+      its waters in the portion which was in their charge, and any poaching by
+      other villagers in this part of the stream was strictly forbidden. On one
+      occasion, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Hammurabi’s son and successor, the
+      fishermen of the district of Rabim went down in their boats to the
+      district of Shakanim and caught fish there contrary to the law. So the
+      inhabitants of Shakanim complained of this poaching to the king, who sent
+      a palace official to the authorities of Sippar, near which city the
+      districts in question lay, with orders to inquire into the matter and take
+      steps to prevent all such poaching for the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The regulation of transportation on the canals was also under the royal
+      jurisdiction. The method of reckoning the size of ships has already been
+      described, and there is evidence that the king possessed numerous vessels
+      of all sizes for the carrying of grain, wool, and dates, as well as for
+      the wood and stone employed in his building operations. Each ship seems to
+      have had its own crew, under the command of a captain, and it is probable
+      that officials who regulated the transportation from the centres where
+      they were stationed were placed in charge of separate sections of the
+      rivers and of the canals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is obvious, from the account that has been given of the numerous
+      operations directly controlled and superintended by the king, that he had
+      need of a very large body of officials, by whose means he was enabled to
+      carry out successfully the administration of the country. In the course of
+      the account we have made mention of the judges and judicial officers, the
+      assessors and collectors of revenue, and the officials of the palace who
+      were under the king’s direct orders. It is also obvious that different
+      classes of officers were in charge of all the departments of the
+      administration. Two classes of officials, who were placed in charge of the
+      public works and looked after and controlled the public slaves, and
+      probably also had a good deal to do with the collection of the revenue,
+      had special privileges assigned to them, and special legislation was drawn
+      up to protect them in the enjoyment of the same. As payment for their
+      duties they were each granted land with a house and garden, they were
+      assigned the use of certain sheep and cattle with which to stock their
+      land, and in addition they received a regular salary. They were in a sense
+      personal retainers of the king and were liable to be sent at any moment on
+      a special mission to carry out the king’s commands. Disobedience was
+      severely punished; for, if such an officer, when detailed for a special
+      mission, did not go but hired a substitute, he was liable to be put to
+      death and the substitute he had hired could take his office. Sometimes an
+      officer was sent for long periods some distance from his home to take
+      charge of a garrison, and when this was done his home duties were
+      performed by another man, who temporarily occupied his house and land, but
+      gave it back to the officer on his return. If such an officer had a son
+      old enough to perform his duty in his father’s absence, he was allowed to
+      do so and to till his father’s lands; but if the son was too young, the
+      substitute who took the officer’s place had to pay one-third of the
+      produce of the land to the child’s mother for his education. Before
+      departing on his journey to the garrison it was the officer’s duty to
+      arrange for the proper cultivation of his land and the discharge of his
+      local duties during his absence. If he omitted to do so and left his land
+      and duties neglected for more than a year, and another had meanwhile taken
+      his place, on his return he could not reclaim his land and office. It will
+      be obvious, therefore, that his position was a specially favoured one and
+      much sought after, and these regulations ensured that the duties attaching
+      to the office were not neglected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of his garrison duty or when on special service, these
+      officers ran some risk of being captured by the enemy, and in that event
+      regulations were drawn up for their ransom. If the captured officer was
+      wealthy and could pay for his own ransom, he was bound to do so, but if he
+      had not the necessary means his ransom was to be paid out of the local
+      temple treasury, and, when the funds in the temple treasury did not
+      suffice, he was to be ransomed by the state. It was specially enacted that
+      his land and garden and house were in no case to be sold in order to pay
+      for his ransom. These were inalienably attached to the office which he
+      held, and he was not allowed to sell them or the sheep and cattle with
+      which they were stocked. Moreover, he was not allowed to bequeath any of
+      this property to his wife or daughter, so that his office would appear to
+      have been hereditary and the property attached to it to have been entailed
+      on his son if he succeeded him. Such succession would not, of course, have
+      taken place if the officer by his own neglect or disobedience had
+      forfeited his office and its privileges during his lifetime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been suggested with considerable probability that these officials
+      were originally personal retainers and follows of Sumu-abu, the founder of
+      the First Dynasty of Babylon. They were probably assigned lands throughout
+      the country in return for their services to the king, and their special
+      duties were to preserve order and uphold the authority of their master. In
+      the course of time their duties were no doubt modified, but they retained
+      their privileges and they must have continued to be a very valuable body
+      of officers, on whose personal loyalty the king could always rely. In the
+      preceding chapter we have already seen how grants of considerable estates
+      were made by the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty to followers who had
+      rendered conspicuous services, and at the same time they received the
+      privilege of holding such lands free of all liability to forced labour and
+      the payment of tithes and taxes. We may conclude that the class of royal
+      officers under the kings of the First Dynasty had a similar origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the present chapter, from information recently made available, we have
+      given some account of the system of administration adopted by the early
+      kings of Babylon, and we have described in some detail the various classes
+      of the Babylonian population, their occupations, and the conditions under
+      which they lived. In the two preceding chapters we have dealt with the
+      political history of Western Asia from the very earliest period of the
+      Sumerian city-states down to the time of the Kassite kings. In the course
+      of this account we have seen how Mesopotamia in the dawn of history was in
+      the sole possession of the Sumerian race and how afterwards it fell in
+      turn under the dominion of the Semites and the kings of Elam. The
+      immigration of fresh Semitic tribes at the end of the third millennium
+      before Christ resulted in the establishment in Babylon of the Semitic
+      kings who are known as First Dynasty kings; and under the sway of
+      Hammurabi, the greatest of this group of kings, the empire thus
+      established in Western Asia had every appearance of permanence. Although
+      Elam no longer troubled Babylon, a great danger arose from a new and
+      unexpected quarter. In the Country of the Sea&mdash;which comprised the
+      districts in the extreme south of Babylonia on the shores of the Persian
+      Gulf&mdash;the Sumerians had rallied their forces, and they now declared
+      themselves independent of Babylonian control. A period of conflict
+      followed between the kings of the First Dynasty and the kings of the
+      Country of the Sea, in which the latter more than held their own; and,
+      when the Hittite tribes of Syria invaded Northern Babylonia in the reign
+      of Samsu-ditana, Babylon’s power of resistance was so far weakened that
+      she fell an easy prey to the rulers of the Country of the Sea. But the
+      reappearance of the Sumerians in the rôle of leading race in Western Asia
+      was destined not to last long, and was little more than the last flicker
+      of vitality exhibited by this ancient and exhausted race. Thus the Second
+      Dynasty fell in its turn before the onslaught of the Kassite tribes who
+      descended from the mountainous districts in the west of Elam, and, having
+      overrun the whole of Mesopotamia, established a new dynasty at Babylon,
+      and adopted Babylonian civilization.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the advent of the Kassite kings a new chapter opens in the history of
+      Western Asia. Up to that time Egypt and Babylon, the two chief centres of
+      ancient civilization, had no doubt indirectly influenced one another, but
+      they had not come into actual contact. During the period of the Kassite
+      kings both Babylon and Assyria established direct relations with Egypt,
+      and from that time forward the influence they exerted upon one another was
+      continuous and unbroken. We have already traced the history of Babylon up
+      to this point in the light of recent discoveries, and a similar task
+      awaits us with regard to Assyria. Before we enter into a discussion of
+      Assyria’s origin and early history in the light of recent excavation and
+      research, it is necessary that we should return once more to Egypt, and
+      describe the course of her history from the period when Thebes succeeded
+      in displacing Memphis as the capital city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkD2HCH0001" id="linkD2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII&mdash;TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We have seen that it was in the Theban period that Egypt emerged from her
+      isolation, and for the first time came into contact with Western Asia.
+      This grand turning-point in Egyptian history seemed to be the appropriate
+      place at which to pause in the description of our latest knowledge of
+      Egyptian history, in order to make known the results of archaeological
+      discovery in Mesopotamia and Western Asia generally. The description has
+      been carried down past the point of convergence of the two originally
+      isolated paths of Egyptian and Babylonian civilization, and what new
+      information the latest discoveries have communicated to us on this subject
+      has been told in the preceding chapters. We now have to retrace our steps
+      to the point where we left Egyptian history and resume the thread of our
+      Egyptian narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hyksos conquest and the rise of Thebes are practically
+      contemporaneous. The conquest took place perhaps three or four hundred
+      years after the first advancement of Thebes to the position of capital of
+      Egypt, but it must be remembered that this position was not retained
+      during the time of the XIIth Dynasty. The kings of that dynasty, though
+      they were Thebans, did not reign at Thebes. Their royal city was in the
+      North, in the neighbourhood of Lisht and Mêdûm, where their pyramids were
+      erected, and their chief care was for the lake province of the Fayyûm,
+      which was largely the creation of Amenemhat III, the Moeris of the Greeks.
+      It was not till Thebes became the focus of the national resistance to the
+      Hyksos that its period of greatness began. Henceforward it was the
+      undisputed capital of Egypt, enlarged and embellished by the care and
+      munificence of a hundred kings, enriched by the tribute of a hundred
+      conquered nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But were we to confine ourselves to the consideration only of the latest
+      discoveries of Theban greatness after the expulsion of the Hyksos, we
+      should be omitting much that is of interest and importance. For the
+      Egyptians the first grand climacteric in their history (after the
+      foundation of the monarchy) was the transference of the royal power from
+      Memphis and Herakleopolis to a Theban house. The second, which followed
+      soon after, was the Hyksos invasion. The two are closely connected in
+      Theban history; it is Thebes that defeated Herakleopolis and conquered
+      Memphis; it is Theban power that was overthrown by the Hyksos; it is
+      Thebes that expelled them and initiated the second great period of
+      Egyptian history. We therefore resume our narrative at a point before the
+      great increase of Theban power at the time of the expulsion of the Hyksos,
+      and will trace this power from its rise, which followed the defeat of
+      Herakleopolis and Memphis. It is upon this epoch&mdash;the beginning of
+      Theban power&mdash;that the latest discoveries at Thebes have thrown some
+      new light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More than anywhere else in Egypt excavations have been carried on at
+      Thebes, on the site of the ancient capital of the country. And here, if
+      anywhere, it might have been supposed that there was nothing more to be
+      found, no new thing to be exhumed from the soil, no new fact to be added
+      to our knowledge of Egyptian history. Yet here, no less than at Abydos,
+      has the archaeological exploration of the last few years been especially
+      successful, and we have seen that the ancient city of Thebes has a great
+      deal more to tell us than we had expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most ancient remains at Thebes were discovered by Mr. Newberry in the
+      shape of two tombs of the VIth Dynasty, cut upon the face of the
+      well-known hill of Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna, on the west bank of the Nile
+      opposite Luxor. Every winter traveller to Egypt knows, well the ride from
+      the sandy shore opposite the Luxor temple, along the narrow pathway
+      between the gardens and the canal, across the bridges and over the
+      cultivated land to the Ramesseum, behind which rises Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna,
+      with its countless tombs, ranged in serried rows along the scarred and
+      scarped face of the hill. This hill, which is geologically a fragment of
+      the plateau behind which some gigantic landslip was sent sliding in the
+      direction of the river, leaving the picturesque gorge and cliffs of Dêr
+      el-Bahari to mark the place from which it was riven, was evidently the
+      seat of the oldest Theban necropolis. Here were the tombs of the Theban
+      chiefs in the period of the Old Kingdom, two of which have been found by
+      Mr. Newberry. In later times, it would seem, these tombs were largely
+      occupied and remodelled by the great nobles of the XVIIIth Dynasty, so
+      that now nearly all the tombs extant on Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna belong to that
+      dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the Thebes of the IXth and Xth Dynasties, when the Herakleopolites
+      ruled, we have in the British Museum two very remarkable statues&mdash;one
+      of which is here illustrated&mdash;of the steward of the palace, Mera. The
+      tomb from which they came is not known. Both are very beautiful examples
+      of the Egyptian sculptor’s art, and are executed in a style eminently
+      characteristic of the transition period between the work of the Old and
+      Middle Kingdoms. As specimens of the art of the Hierakonpolite period, of
+      which we have hardly any examples, they are of the greatest interest. Mera
+      is represented wearing a different head-dress in each figure; in one he
+      has a short wig, in the other a skullcap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0005" id="linkDimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/320.jpg" width="100%" alt="320.jpg Statue of Mera " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      When the Herakleopolite dominion was finally overthrown, in spite of the
+      valiant resistance of the princes of Asyût, and the Thebans assumed the
+      Pharaonic dignity, thus founding the XIth Dynasty, the Theban necropolis
+      was situated in the great bay in the cliffs, immediately north of Shêkh
+      Abd el-Kûrna, which is known as Dêr el-Bahari. In this picturesque part of
+      Western Thebes, in many respects perhaps the most picturesque place in
+      Egypt, the greatest king of the XIth Dynasty, Neb-hapet-Râ Mentuhetep,
+      excavated his tomb and built for the worship of his ghost a funerary
+      temple, which he called <i>Akh-aset</i>, “Glorious-is-its- Situation,” a
+      name fully justified by its surroundings. This temple is an entirely new
+      discovery, made by Prof. Naville and Mr. Hall in 1903. The results
+      obtained up to date have been of very great importance, especially with
+      regard to the history of Egyptian art and architecture, for our sources of
+      information were few and we were previously not very well informed as to
+      the condition of art in the time of the XIth Dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new temple lies immediately to the south of the great XVIIIth Dynasty
+      temple at Dêr el-Bahari, which has always been known, and which was
+      excavated first by Mariette and later by Prof. Naville, for the Egypt
+      Exploration Fund. To the results of the later excavations we shall return.
+      When they were finally completed, in the year 1898, the great XVIIIth
+      Dynasty temple, which was built by Queen Hatshepsu, had been entirely
+      cleared of débris, and the colonnades had been partially restored (under
+      the care of Mr. Somers Clarke) in order to make a roof under which to
+      protect the sculptures on the walls. The whole mass of débris, consisting
+      largely of fallen <i>talus</i> from the cliffs above, which had almost
+      hidden the temple, was removed; but a large tract lying to the south of
+      the temple, which was also covered with similar mounds of débris, was not
+      touched, but remained to await further investigation. It was here, beneath
+      these heaps of débris, that the new temple was found when work was resumed
+      by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1903. The actual tomb of the king has not
+      yet been revealed, although that of Neb-hetep Mentuhetep, who may have
+      been his immediate predecessor, was discovered by Mr. Carter in 1899. It
+      was known, however, and still uninjured in the reign of Ramses IX of the
+      XXth Dynasty. Then, as we learn from the report of the inspectors sent to
+      examine the royal tombs, which is preserved in the Abbott Papyrus, they
+      found the <i>pyramid-tomb</i> of King Xeb-hapet-Râ which is in Tjesret
+      (the ancient Egyptian name for Dêr el-Bahari); it was intact. We know,
+      therefore, that it was intact about 1000 B.C. The description of it as a
+      pyramid-tomb is interesting, for in the inscription of Tetu, the priest of
+      Akh-aset, who was buried at Abydos, Akh-aset is said to have been a
+      pyramid. That the newly discovered temple was called Akh-aset we know from
+      several inscriptions found in it. And the most remarkable thing about this
+      temple is that in its centre there was a pyramid. This must be the
+      pyramid-tomb which was found intact by the inspectors, so that the tomb
+      itself must be close by. But it does not seem to have been beneath the
+      pyramid, below which is only solid rock. It is perhaps a gallery cut in
+      the cliffs at the back of the temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pyramid was then a dummy, made of rubble within a revetment of heavy
+      flint nodules, which was faced with fine limestone. It was erected on a
+      pyloni-form base with heavy cornice of the usual Egyptian pattern. This
+      central pyramid was surrounded by a roofed hall or ambulatory of small
+      octagonal pillars, the outside wall of which was decorated with coloured
+      reliefs, depicting various scenes connected with the <i>sed-heb</i> or
+      jubilee-festival of the king, processions of the warriors and magnates of
+      the realm, scenes of husbandry, boat-building, and so forth, all of which
+      were considered appropriate to the chapel of a royal tomb at that period.
+      Outside this wall was an open colonnade of square pillars. The whole of
+      this was built upon an artificially squared rectangular platform of
+      natural rock, about fifteen feet high. To north and south of this were
+      open courts. The southern is bounded by the hill; the northern is now
+      bounded by the Great Temple of Hat-shepsu, but, before this was built,
+      there was evidently a very large open court here. The face of the rock
+      platform is masked by a wall of large rectangular blocks of fine white
+      limestone, some of which measure six feet by three feet six inches. They
+      are beautifully squared and laid in bonded courses of alternate sizes, and
+      the walls generally may be said to be among the finest yet found in Egypt.
+      We have already remarked that the architects of the Middle Kingdom appear
+      to have been specially fond of fine masonry in white stone. The contrast
+      between these splendid XIth Dynasty walls, with their great base-stones of
+      sandstone, and the bad rough masonry of the XVIIIth Dynasty temple close
+      by, is striking. The XVIIIth Dynasty architects and masons had degenerated
+      considerably from the standard of the Middle Kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This rock platform was approached from the east in the centre by an
+      inclined plane or ramp, of which part of the original pavement of wooden
+      beams remains <i>in situ</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0006" id="linkDimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/324.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="324.jpg Xith Dynasty Wall: Dêr el-Bahari. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Excavated by Mr. Hall, 1904, for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      To right and left of this ramp are colonnades, each of twenty-two square
+      pillars, all inscribed with the name and titles of Mentuhetep. The walls
+      masking the platform in these colonnades were sculptured with various
+      scenes, chiefly representing boat processions and campaigns against the
+      Aamu or nomads of the Sinaitic peninsula. The design of the colonnades is
+      the same as that of the Great Temple, and the whole plan of this part,
+      with its platform approached by a ramp flanked by colonnades, is so like
+      that of the Great Temple that we cannot but assume that the peculiar
+      design of the latter, with its tiers of platforms approached by ramps
+      flanked by colonnades, is not an original idea, but was directly copied by
+      the XVIIIth Dynasty architects from the older XIth Dynasty temple which
+      they found at Dêr el-Bahari when they began their work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0007" id="linkDimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/325.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="325.jpg Xviiith Dynasty Wall, Dêr el-Bahari. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Excavated by M. Naville, 1896; repaired by Mr. Howard
+     Carter, 1904.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The supposed originality of Hatshepsu’s temple is then non-existent; it
+      was a copy of the older design, in fact, a magnificent piece of archaism.
+      But Hatshepsu’s architects copied this feature only; the actual
+      arrangements <i>on</i> the platforms in the two temples are as different
+      as they can possibly be. In the older we have a central pyramid with a
+      colonnade round it, in the newer may be found an open court in front of
+      rock-cave shrines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0008" id="linkDimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/326.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="326.jpg Excavation of the North Lower Colonnade Of The Xith Dynasty Temple, Dêr el-Bahari, 1904. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Before the XIth Dynasty temple was set up a series of statues of King
+      Mentuhetep and of a later king, Amenhetep I, in the form of Osiris, like
+      those of Usertsen (Senusret) I at Lisht already mentioned. One of these
+      statues is in the British Museum. In the south court were discovered six
+      statues of King Usertsen (Senusret) III, depicting him at different
+      periods of his life. Pour of the heads are preserved, and, as the
+      expression of each differs from that of the other, it is quite evident
+      that some show him as a young, others as an old, man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0009" id="linkDimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/327.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="327.jpg Granite Threshold and Octagonal Sandstone Pillars " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Of The XIth Dynasty Temple At Dêr El-Bahari. About 2500 B.C.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The face is of the well-known hard and lined type which is seen also in
+      the portraits of Amenemhat III, and was formerly considered to be that of
+      the Hyksos. Messrs. Newberry and Garstang, as we have seen, consider it to
+      be so, indirectly, as they regard the type as having been introduced into
+      the XIIth Dynasty by Queen Nefret, the mother of Usertsen (Sen-usret) III.
+      This queen, they think, <i>was</i> a Hittite princess, and the Hittites
+      were practically the same thing as the Hyksos. We have seen, however, that
+      there is very little foundation for this view, and it is more than
+      probable that this peculiar physiognomy is of a type purely Egyptian in
+      character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0010" id="linkDimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/328.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="328.jpg Excavation of the Tomb Of a Priestess, " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     On The Platform Of The XIth Dynasty Temple, Dêr El-Bahari,
+     1904.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      On the platform, around the central pyramid, were buried in small
+      chamber-tombs a number of priestesses of the goddess Hathor, the mistress
+      of the desert and special deity of Dêr el-Bahari. They were all members of
+      the king’s harîm, and they bore the title of “King’s Favourite.” As told
+      in a previous chapter, all were buried at one time, before the final
+      completion of the temple, and it is by no means impossible that they were
+      strangled at the king’s death and buried round him in order that their
+      ghosts might accompany him in the next world, just as the slaves were
+      buried around the graves (or secondary graves) of the 1st Dynasty kings at
+      Aby-dos. They themselves, as also already related, took with them to the
+      next world little waxen figures which when called upon could by magic be
+      turned into ghostly slaves. These images were <i>ushabtiu,</i>
+      “answerers,” the predecessors of the little figures of wood, stone, and
+      pottery which are found buried with the dead in later times. The
+      priestesses themselves were, so to speak, human <i>ushabtiu,</i> for royal
+      use only, and accompanied the kings to their final resting-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the priestesses was buried the usual funerary furniture
+      characteristic of the period. This consisted of little models of granaries
+      with the peasants bringing in the corn, models of bakers and brewers at
+      work, boats with their crews, etc., just as we find them in the XIth and
+      XIIth Dynasty tombs at el-Bersha and Beni Hasan. These models, too, were
+      supposed to be transformed by magic into actual workmen who would work for
+      the deceased, heap up grain for her, brew beer for her, ferry her over the
+      ghostly Nile into the tomb-world, or perform any other services required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the stone sarcophagi of the priestesses are very elaborately
+      decorated with carved and painted reliefs depicting each deceased
+      receiving offerings from priests, one of whom milks the holy cows of
+      Hathor to give her milk. The sarcophagi were let down into the tomb in
+      pieces and there joined together, and they have been removed in the same
+      way. The finest is a unique example of XIth Dynasty art, and it is now
+      preserved in the Museum of Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0011" id="linkDimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/330.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="330.jpg Cases of Antiquities Leaving Dêr el-Bahari For Transport to Cairo. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In memory of the priestesses there were erected on the platform behind the
+      pyramid a number of small shrines, which were decorated with the most
+      delicately coloured carvings in high relief, representing chiefly the same
+      subjects as those on the sarcophagi. The peculiar style of these reliefs
+      was previously unknown. In connection with them a most interesting
+      possibility presents itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0012" id="linkDimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/331.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="331.jpg Shipping Cases of Antiquities on Board the Nile Steamer at Luxor, for the Egypt Exploration Fund. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We know the name of the chief artist of Mentuhetep’s reign. He was called
+      Mertisen, and he thus describes himself on his tombstone from Abydos, now
+      in the Louvre: “I was an artist skilled in my art. I knew my art, how to
+      represent the forms of going forth and returning, so that each limb may be
+      in its proper place. I knew how the figure of a man should walk and the
+      carriage of a woman, the poising of the arm to bring the hippopotamus low,
+      the going of the runner. I knew how to make amulets, which enable us to go
+      without fire burning us and without the flood washing us away. No man
+      could do this but I, and the eldest son of my body. Him has the god
+      decreed to excel in art, and I have seen the perfections of the work of
+      his hands in every kind of rare stone, in gold and silver, in ivory and
+      ebony.” Now since Mertisen and his son were the chief artists of their
+      day, it is more than probable that they were employed to decorate their
+      king’s funerary chapel. So that in all probability the XIth Dynasty
+      reliefs from Dêr el-Bahari are the work of Mertisen and his son, and in
+      them we see the actual “forms of going forth and returning, the poising of
+      the arm to bring the hippopotamus low, the going of the runner,” to which
+      he refers on his tombstone. This adds a note of personal interest to the
+      reliefs, an interest which is often sadly wanting in Egypt, where we
+      rarely know the names of the great artists whose works we admire so much.
+      We have recovered the names of the sculptor and painter of Seti I’s temple
+      at Abydos and that of the sculptor of some of the tombs at Tell el-Amarna,
+      but otherwise very few names of the artists are directly associated with
+      the temples and tombs which they decorated, and of the architects we know
+      little more. The great temple of Dêr el-Bahari was, however, we know,
+      designed by Senmut, the chief architect to Queen Hatshepsu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is noticeable that Mertisen’s art, if it is Mertisen’s, is of a
+      peculiar character. It is not quite so fully developed as that of the
+      succeeding XIIth Dynasty. The drawing of the figures is often peculiar,
+      strange lanky forms taking the place of the perfect proportions of the
+      IVth-VIth and the XIIth Dynasty styles. Great elaboration is bestowed upon
+      decoration, which is again of a type rather archaic in character when
+      compared with that of the XIIth Dynasty. We are often reminded of the rude
+      sculptures which used to be regarded as typical of the art of the XIth
+      Dynasty, while at the same time we find work which could not be surpassed
+      by the best XIIth Dynasty masters. In fact, the art of Neb-hapet-Râ’s
+      reign was the art of a transitional period. Under the decadent Memphites
+      of the VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties, Egyptian art rapidly fell from the high
+      estate which it had attained under the Vth Dynasty, and, though good work
+      was done under the Hierakonpolites, the chief characteristic of Egyptian
+      art at the time of the Xth and early XIth Dynasties is its curious
+      roughness and almost barbaric appearance. When, however, the kings of the
+      XIth Dynasty reunited the whole land under one sceptre, and the long reign
+      of Neb-hapet-Râ Mentuhetep enabled the reconsolidation of the realm to be
+      carried out by one hand, art began to revive, and, just as to Neb-hapet-Râ
+      must be attributed the renascence of the Egyptian state under the hegemony
+      of Thebes, so must the revival of art in his reign be attributed to his
+      great artists, Mertisen and his son. They carried out in the realm of art
+      what their king had carried out in the political realm, and to them must
+      be attributed the origin of the art of the Middle Kingdom which under the
+      XIIth Dynasty attained so high a pitch of excellence. The sculptures of
+      the king’s temple at Dêr el-Bahari, then, are monuments of the renascence
+      of Egyptian art, after the state of decadence into which it had fallen
+      during the long civil wars between South and North; it is a reviving art,
+      struggling out of barbarism to regain perfection, and therefore has much
+      about it that seems archaic, stiff, and curious when compared with later
+      work. To the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptian it would no doubt have seemed
+      hopelessly old-fashioned and even semi-barbarous, and he had no qualms
+      about sweeping it aside whenever it appeared in the way of the work of his
+      own time; but to us this very strangeness gives additional charm and
+      interest, and we can only be thankful that Mertisen’s work has lasted (in
+      fragments only, it is true) to our own day, to tell us the story of a
+      little known chapter in the history of ancient Egyptian art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this description it will have been seen that the temple is an
+      important monument of the Egyptian art and architecture of the Middle
+      Kingdom. It is the only temple of that period of which considerable traces
+      have been found, and on that account the study of it will be of the
+      greatest interest. It is the best preserved of the older temples of Egypt,
+      and at Thebes it is by far the most ancient building recovered.
+      Historically it has given us a new king of the XIth Dynasty,
+      Sekhâhe-tep-Râ Mentuhetep, and the name of the queen of Neb-hapet-Râ
+      Mentuhetep, Aasheit, who seems to have been an Ethiopian, to judge from
+      her portrait, which has been discovered. It is interesting to note that
+      one of the priestesses was a negress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The name Neb-hapet-Râ may be unfamiliar to those readers who are
+      acquainted with the lists of the Egyptian kings. It is a correction of the
+      former reading, “Neb-kheru-Râ,” which is now known from these excavations
+      to be erroneous. Neb-hapet-Râ (or, as he used to be called, Neb-kheru-Râ)
+      is Mentuhetep III of Prof. Petrie’s arrangement. Before him there seem to
+      have come the kings Mentuhetep Neb-hetep (who is also commemorated in this
+      temple) and Neb-taui-Râ; after him, Sekhâhetep-Râ Mentuhetep IV and
+      Seânkhkarâ Mentuhetep V, who were followed by an Antef, bearing the banner
+      or hawk-name Uah-ânkh. This king was followed by Amenemhat I, the first
+      king of the XIIth Dynasty. Antef Uah-ânkh may be numbered Antef I, as the
+      prince Antefa, who founded the XIth Dynasty, did not assume the title of
+      king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other kings of the name of Antef also ruled over Egypt, and they used to
+      be regarded as belonging to the XIth Dynasty; but Prof. Steindorff has now
+      proved that they really reigned after the XIIIth Dynasty, and immediately
+      before the Sekenenrâs, who were the fighters of the Hyksos and
+      predecessors of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The second names of Antef III
+      (Seshes-Râ-up-maat) and Antef IV (Seshes-Râ-her-her-maat) are exactly
+      similar to those of the XIIIth Dynasty kings and quite unlike those of the
+      Mentuheteps; also at Koptos a decree of Antef II (Nub-kheper-Râ) has been
+      found inscribed on a doorway of Usertsen (Senusret) I; so that he cannot
+      have preceded him. Prof. Petrie does not yet accept these conclusions, and
+      classes all the Antefs together with the Mentuheteps in the XIth Dynasty.
+      He considers that he has evidence from Herakleopolis that Antef
+      Xub-kheper-Râ (whom he numbers Antef V) preceded the XIIth Dynasty, and he
+      supposes that the decree of Nub-kheper-Râ at Koptos is a later copy of the
+      original and was inscribed during the XIIth Dynasty. But this is a
+      difficult saying. The probabilities are that Prof. Steindorff is right.
+      Antef Uah-ânkh must, however, have preceded the XIIth Dynasty, since an
+      official of that period refers to his father’s father as having lived in
+      Uah-ânkh ‘s time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The necropolis of Dêr el-Bahari was no doubt used all through the period
+      of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties, and many tombs of that period have been
+      found there. A large number of these were obliterated by the building of
+      the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, in the northern part of the
+      cliff-bay. We know of one queen’s tomb of that period which runs right
+      underneath this temple from the north, and there is another that is
+      entered at the south side which also runs down underneath it. Several
+      tombs were likewise found in the court between it and the XIth Dynasty
+      temple. We know that the XVIIIth Dynasty temple was largely built over
+      this court, and we can see now the XIth Dynasty mask-wall on the west of
+      the court running northwards underneath the mass of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+      temple. In all probability, then, when the temple of Hatshepsu was built,
+      the larger portion of the Middle Kingdom necropolis (of chamber-tombs
+      reached by pits), which had filled up the bay to the north of the
+      Mentuhetep temple, was covered up and obliterated, just as the older VIth
+      Dynasty gallery tombs of Shêkh Abd el-Kûrna had been appropriated and
+      altered at the same period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kings of the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties were not buried at Thebes, as
+      we have seen, but in the North, at Dashûr, Lisht, and near the Fayymn,
+      with which their royal city at Itht-taui had brought them into contact.
+      But at the end of the XIIIth Dynasty the great invasion of the Hyksos
+      probably occurred, and all Northern Egypt fell under the Arab sway. The
+      native kings were driven south from the Fayymn to Abydos, Koptos, and
+      Thebes, and at Thebes they were buried, in a new necropolis to the north
+      of Dêr el-Bahari (probably then full), on the flank of a long spur of hill
+      which is now called Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga, “Abu-’l-Negga’s Arm.” Here the
+      Theban kings of the period between the XIIIth and XVIIth Dynasties,
+      Upuantemsaf, Antef Nub-kheper-Râ, and his descendants, Antefs III and IV,
+      were buried. In their time the pressure of foreign invasion seems to have
+      been felt, for, to judge from their coffins, which show progressive
+      degeneration of style and workmanship, poverty now afflicted Upper Egypt
+      and art had fallen sadly from the high standard which it had reached in
+      the days of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties. Probably the later Antefs and
+      Sebekemsafs were vassals of the Hyksos. Their descendants of the XVIIth
+      Dynasty were buried in the same necropolis of Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga, and so
+      were the first two kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty, Aahmes and Amenhetep I.
+      The tombs of the last two have not yet been found, but we know from the
+      Abbott Papyrus that Amenhetep’s was here, for, like that of Menttihetep
+      III, it was found intact by the inspectors. It was a gallery-tomb of very
+      great length, and will be a most interesting find when it is discovered,
+      as it no doubt eventually will be. Aahmes had a tomb at Abydos, which was
+      discovered by Mr. Currelly, working for the Egypt Exploration Fund. This,
+      however, like the Abydene tomb of Usert-sen (Senusret) III, was in all
+      likelihood a sham or secondary tomb, the king having most probably been
+      buried at Thebes, in the Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga. The Abydos tomb is of
+      interesting construction. The entrance is by a simple pit, from which a
+      gallery runs round in a curving direction to a great hall supported by
+      eighteen square pillars, beyond which is a further gallery which was never
+      finished. Nothing was found in the tomb. On the slope of the mountain, due
+      west of and in a line with the tomb, Mr. Currelly found a terrace-temple
+      analogous to those of Dêr el-Bahari, approached not by means of a ramp but
+      by stairways at the side. It was evidently the funerary temple of the
+      tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0013" id="linkDimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/338.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="338.jpg Statue of Queen Teta-shera " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Statue of Queen Teta-shera<br/>
+     Grandmother of Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos and
+     founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty. About 1700 B. C. British
+     Museum. From the photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The secondary tomb of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Abydos, which has already
+      been mentioned, was discovered in the preceding year by Mr. A. E. P.
+      Weigall, and excavated by Mr. Currelly in 1903. It lies north of the
+      Aahmes temple, between it and the main cemetery of Abydos. It is a great
+      <i>bâb</i> or gallery-tomb, like those of the later kings at Thebes, with
+      the usual apparatus of granite plugs, barriers, pits, etc., to defy
+      plunderers. The tomb had been plundered, nevertheless, though it is
+      probable that the robbers were vastly disappointed with what they found in
+      it. Mr. Currelly ascribes the absence of all remains to the plunderers,
+      but the fact is that there probably never was anything in it but an empty
+      sarcophagus. Near the tomb Mr. Weigall discovered some dummy mastabas, a
+      find of great interest. Just as the king had a secondary tomb, so
+      secondary mastabas, mere dummies of rubble like the XIth Dynasty pyramid
+      at Dêr el-Bahari, were erected beside it to look like the tombs of his
+      courtiers. Some curious sinuous brick walls which appear to act as
+      dividing lines form a remarkable feature of this sham cemetery. In a line
+      with the tomb, on the edge of the cultivation, is the funerary temple
+      belonging to it, which was found by Mr. Randall-Maclver in 1900. Nothing
+      remains but the bases of the fluted limestone columns and some brick
+      walls. A headless statue of Usertsen was found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have an interesting example of the custom of building a secondary tomb
+      for royalties in these two nécropoles of Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga and Abydos.
+      Queen Teta-shera, the grandmother of Aahmes, a beautiful statuette of whom
+      may be seen in the British Museum, had a small pyramid at Abydos, eastward
+      of and in a line with the temple and secondary tomb of Aahmes. In 1901 Mr.
+      Mace attempted to find the chamber, but could not. In the next year Mr.
+      Currelly found between it and the Aahmes tomb a small chapel, containing a
+      splendid stele, on which Aahmes commemorates his grandmother, who, he
+      says, was buried at Thebes and had a <i>mer-âhât</i> at Abydos, and he
+      records his determination to build her also a pyramid at Abydos, out of
+      his love and veneration for her memory. It thus appeared that the pyramid
+      to the east was simply a dummy, like Usertsen’s mastabas, or the
+      Mentuhetep pyramid at Dêr el-Bahari. Teta-shera was actually buried at
+      Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga. Her secondary pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was
+      in the “holy ground” at Abydos, though it was not an imitation <i>bâb</i>,
+      but a dummy pyramid of rubble. This well illustrates the whole custom of
+      the royal primary and secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had
+      obtained in the case of royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty,
+      when Aha had two tombs, one at Nakâda and the other at Abydos. It is
+      probable that all the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings
+      being really buried elsewhere. After their time we know for certain that
+      Tjeser and Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly
+      Usertsen (Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III
+      and Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs. Ramses III
+      also had two tombs, both at Thebes. The reasons for this custom were two:
+      first, the desire to elude plunderers, and second, the wish to give the
+      ghost a <i>pied-à-terre</i> on the sacred soil of Abydos or Sakkâra.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the inscription of Aahmes which records the building of the dummy
+      pyramid of Teta-shera is of considerable interest, it may here be
+      translated. The text reads: “It came to pass that when his Majesty the
+      king, even the king of South and North, Neb-pehti-Râ, Son of the Sun,
+      Aahmes, Giver of Life, was taking his pleasure in the <i>tjadu</i>-hall,
+      the hereditary princess greatly favoured and greatly prized, the king’s
+      daughter, the king’s sister, the god’s wife and great wife of the king,
+      Nefret-ari-Aahmes, the living, was in the presence of his Majesty. And the
+      one spake unto the other, seeking to do honour to These There,<a href="#fn7.1" name="fnref7.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> which
+      consisteth in the pouring of water, the offering upon the altar, the
+      painting of the stele at the beginning of each season, at the Festival of
+      the New Moon, at the feast of the month, the feast of the going-forth of
+      the <i>Sem</i>-priest, the Ceremonies of the Night, the Feasts of the
+      Fifth Day of the Month and of the Sixth, the <i>Hak</i>-festival, the <i>Uag</i>-festival,
+      the feast of Thoth, the beginning of every season of heaven and earth. And
+      his sister spake, answering him: ‘Why hath one remembered these matters,
+      and wherefore hath this word been said? Prithee, what hath come into thy
+      heart?’ The king spake, saying: ‘As for me, I have remembered the mother
+      of my mother, the mother of my father, the king’s great wife and king’s
+      mother Teta-shera, deceased, whose tomb-chamber and <i>mer-ahât</i> are at
+      this moment upon the soil of Thebes and Abydos. I have spoken thus unto
+      thee because my Majesty desireth to cause a pyramid and chapel to be made
+      for her in the Sacred Land, as a gift of a monument from my Majesty, and
+      that its lake should be dug, its trees planted, and its offerings
+      prescribed; that it should be provided with slaves, furnished with lands,
+      and endowed with cattle, with <i>hen-ka</i> priests and <i>kher-heb</i>
+      priests performing their duties, each man knowing what he hath to do.’
+      Behold! when his Majesty had thus spoken, these things were immediately
+      carried out. His Majesty did these things on account of the greatness of
+      the love which he bore her, which was greater than anything. Never had
+      ancestral kings done the like for their mothers. Behold! his Majesty
+      extended his arm and bent his hand, and made for her the king’s offering
+      to Geb, to the Ennead of Gods, to the lesser Ennead of Gods... [to Anubis]
+      in the God’s Shrine, thousands of offerings of bread, beer, oxen, geese,
+      cattle... to [the Queen Teta-shera].” This is one of the most interesting
+      inscriptions discovered in Egypt in recent years, for the picturesqueness
+      of its diction is unusual.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn7.1"></a> <a href="#fnref7.1">[1]</a>
+     A polite periphrasis for the dead.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      As has already been said, the king Amenhetep I was also buried in the Dra’
+      Abu-’l-Negga, but the tomb has not yet been found. Amenhetep I and his
+      mother, Queen Nefret-ari-Aahmes, who is mentioned in the inscription
+      translated above, were both venerated as tutelary demons of the Western
+      Necropolis of Thebes after their deaths, as also was Mentuhetep III. At
+      Dêr el-Bahari both kings seem to have been worshipped with Hathor, the
+      Mistress of the Waste. The worship of Amen-Râ in the XVIIIth Dynasty
+      temple of Dêr el-Bahari was a novelty introduced by the priests of Amen at
+      that time. But the worship of Hathor went on side by side with that of
+      Amen in a chapel with a rock-cut shrine at the side of the Great Temple.
+      Very possibly this was the original cave-shrine of Hathor, long before
+      Mentuhetep’s time, and was incorporated with the Great Temple and
+      beautified with the addition of a pillared hall before it, built over part
+      of the XIth Dynasty north court and wall, by Hatshepsu’s architects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Great Temple, the excavation of which for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+      was successfully brought to an end by Prof. Naville in 1898, was erected
+      by Queen Hatshepsu in honour of Amen-Râ, her father Thothmes I, and her
+      brother-husband Thothmes II, and received a few additions from Thothmes
+      III, her successor. He, however, did not complete it, and it fell into
+      disrepair, besides suffering from the iconoclastic zeal of the heretic
+      Akhunaten, who hammered out some of the beautifully painted scenes upon
+      its walls. These were badly restored by Ramses II, whose painting is
+      easily distinguished from the original work by the dulness and badness of
+      its colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The peculiar plan and other remarkable characteristics of this temple are
+      well known. Its great terraces, with the ramps leading up to them, flanked
+      by colonnades, which, as we have seen, were imitated from the design of
+      the old XIth Dynasty temple at its side, are familiar from a hundred
+      illustrations, and the marvellously preserved colouring of its delicate
+      reliefs is known to every winter visitor to Egypt, and can be realized by
+      those who have never been there through the medium of Mr. Howard Carter’s
+      wonderful coloured reproductions, published in Prof. Naville’s edition of
+      the temple by the Egypt Exploration Fund. The Great Temple stands to-day
+      clear of all the débris which used to cover it, a lasting monument to the
+      work of the greatest of the societies which busy themselves with the
+      unearthing of the relics of the ancient world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0014" id="linkDimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/344.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="344.jpg the Two Temples of Dêr el-Bahari.  Excavated By Prof. Naville, 1893-8 and 1903-6, for the Egypt Exploration Fund " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The two temples of Dêr el-Bahari will soon stand side by side, as they
+      originally stood, and will always be associated with the name of the
+      society which rescued them from oblivion, and gave us the treasures of the
+      royal tombs at Abydos. The names of the two men whom the Egypt Exploration
+      Fund commissioned to excavate Dêr el-Bahari and Abydos, and for whose work
+      it exclusively supplied the funds, Profs. Naville and Petrie, will live
+      chiefly in connection with their work at Dêr el-Bahari and Abydos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Egyptians called the two temples <i>Tjeserti</i>, “the two holy
+      places,” the new building receiving the name of <i>Tjeser-tjesru</i>,
+      “Holy of Holies,” and the whole tract of Dêr el-Bahari the appellation <i>Tjesret</i>,
+      “the Holy.” The extraordinary beauty of the situation in which they are
+      placed, with its huge cliffs and rugged hillsides, may be appreciated from
+      the photograph which is taken from a steep path half-way up the cliff
+      above the Great Temple. In it we see the Great Temple in the foreground
+      with the modern roofs of two of its colonnades, devised in order to
+      protect the sculptures beneath them, the great trilithon gate leading to
+      the upper court, and the entrance to the cave-shrine of Amen-Râ, with the
+      niches of the kings on either side, immediately at the foot of the cliff.
+      In the middle distance is the duller form of the XIth Dynasty temple, with
+      its rectangular platform, the ramp leading up to it, and the pyramid in
+      the centre of it, surrounded by pillars, half-emerging from the great
+      heaps of sand and débris all around. The background of cliffs and hills,
+      as seen in the photograph, will serve to give some idea of the beauty of
+      the surroundings,&mdash;an arid beauty, it is true, for all is desert.
+      There is not a blade of vegetation near; all is salmon-red in colour
+      beneath a sky of ineffable blue, and against the red cliffs the white
+      temple stands out in vivid contrast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second illustration gives a nearer view of the great trilithon gate in
+      the upper court, at the head of the ramp. The long hill of Dra’
+      Abu-’l-Negga is seen bending away northward behind the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0015" id="linkDimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/346.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="346.jpg the Upper Court and Trilithon Gate " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Of The Xviiith Dynasty Temple At Dêk El-Bahari. About 1500
+     B.C.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      This is the famous gate on which the jealous Thothmes III chiselled out
+      Hatshepsu’s name in the royal cartouches and inserted his own in its
+      place; but he forgot to alter the gender of the pronouns in the
+      accompanying inscription, which therefore reads “King Thothmes III, she
+      made this monument to her father Amen.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Among Prof. Naville’s discoveries here one of the most important is that
+      of the altar in a small court to the north, which, as the inscription
+      says, was made in honour of the god Râ-Harmachis “of beautiful white stone
+      of Anu.” It is of the finest white limestone known. Here also were found
+      the carved ebony doors of a shrine, now in the Cairo Museum. One of the
+      most beautiful parts of the temple is the Shrine of Anubis, with its
+      splendidly preserved paintings and perfect columns and roof of white
+      limestone. The effect of the pure white stone and simplicity of
+      architecture is almost Hellenic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Shrine of Hathor has been known since the time of Mariette, but in
+      connection with it some interesting discoveries have been made during the
+      excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple. In the court between the two
+      temples were found a large number of small votive offerings, consisting of
+      scarabs, beads, little figures of cows and women, etc., of blue glazed <i>faïence</i>
+      and rough pottery, bronze and wood, and blue glazed ware ears, eyes, and
+      plaques with figures of the sacred cow, and other small objects of the
+      same nature. These are evidently the ex-votos of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+      fellahîn to the goddess Hathor in the rock-shrine above the court. When
+      the shrine was full or the little ex-votos broken, the sacristans threw
+      them over the wall into the court below, which thus became a kind of
+      dust-heap. Over this heap the sand and débris gradually collected, and
+      thus they were preserved. The objects found are of considerable interest
+      to anthropological science.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Great Temple was built, as we have said, in honour of Thothmes I and
+      II, and the deities Amen-Râ and Hathor. More especially it was the
+      funerary chapel of Thothmes I. His tomb was excavated, not in the Dra’
+      Abu-l-Negga, which was doubtless now too near the capital city and not in
+      a sufficiently dignified position of aloofness from the common herd, but
+      at the end of the long valley of the Wadiyên, behind the cliff-hill above
+      Dêr el-Bahari. Hence the new temple was oriented in the direction of his
+      tomb. Immediately behind the temple, on the other side of the hill, is the
+      tomb which was discovered by Lepsius and cleared in 1904 for Mr. Theodore
+      N. Davis by Mr. Howard Carter, then chief inspector of antiquities at
+      Thebes. Its gallery is of very small dimensions, and it winds about in the
+      hill in corkscrew fashion like the tomb of Aahmes at Aby-dos. Owing to its
+      extraordinary length, the heat and foul air in the depths of the tomb were
+      almost insupportable and caused great difficulty to the excavators. When
+      the sarcophagus-chamber was at length reached, it was found to contain the
+      empty sarcophagi of Thothmes I and of Hatshepsu. The bodies had been
+      removed for safe-keeping in the time of the XXIst Dynasty, that of
+      Thothmes I having been found with those of Set! I and Ramses II in the
+      famous pit at Dêr el-Bahari, which was discovered by M. Maspero in 1881.
+      Thothmes I seems to have had another and more elaborate tomb (No. 38) in
+      the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, which was discovered by M. Loret in
+      1898. Its frescoes had been destroyed by the infiltration of water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fashion of royal burial in the great valley behind Dêr el-Bahari was
+      followed during the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth Dynasties. Here in the
+      eastern branch of the Wadiyên, now called the <i>Bibân el-Mulûk</i>, “the
+      Tombs of the Kings,” the greater number of the mightiest Theban Pharaohs
+      were buried. In the western valley rested two of the kings of the XVIIIth
+      Dynasty, who desired even more remote burial-places, Amenhetep III and Ai.
+      The former chose for his last home a most kingly site. Ancient kings had
+      raised great pyramids of artificial stone over their graves. Amenhetep,
+      perhaps the greatest and most powerful Pharaoh of them all, chose to have
+      a natural pyramid for his grave, a mountain for his tumulus. The
+      illustration shows us the tomb of this monarch, opening out of the side of
+      one of the most imposing hills in the Western Valley. No other king but
+      Amenhetep rested beneath this hill, which thus marks his grave and his
+      only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is in the Eastern Valley, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings properly
+      speaking, that the tombs of Thothmes I and Hatshepsu lie, and here the
+      most recent discoveries have been made. It is a desolate spot. As we come
+      over the hill from Dêr el-Bahari we see below us in the glaring sunshine a
+      rocky canon, with sides sometimes sheer cliff, sometimes sloped by great
+      falls of rock in past ages. At the bottom of these slopes the square
+      openings of the many royal tombs can be descried. [See illustration.] Far
+      below we see the forms of tourists and the tomb-guards accompanying them,
+      moving in and out of the openings like ants going in and out of an ants’
+      nest. Nothing is heard but the occasional cry of a kite and the ceaseless
+      rhythmical throbbing of the exhaust-pipe of the electric light engine in
+      the unfinished tomb of Ramses XI. Above and around are the red desert
+      hills. The Egyptians called it “The Place of Eternity.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0016" id="linkDimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/350.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="350.jpg the Tomb-mountain of Amenhetep Iii, in The Western Valley, Thebes. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In this valley some remarkable discoveries have been made during the last
+      few years. In 1898 M. Grébaut discovered the tomb of Amenhetep II, in
+      which was found the mummy of the king, intact, lying in its sarcophagus in
+      the depths of the tomb. The royal body now lies there for all to see. The
+      tomb is lighted with electricity, as are all the principal tombs of the
+      kings. At the head of the sarcophagus is a single lamp, and, when the
+      party of visitors is collected in silence around the place of death, all
+      the lights are turned out, and then the single light is switched on,
+      showing the royal head illuminated against the surrounding blackness. The
+      effect is indescribably weird and impressive. The body has only twice been
+      removed from the tomb since its burial, the second time when it was for a
+      brief space taken up into the sunlight to be photographed by Mr.. Carter,
+      in January, 1902. The temporary removal was carefully carried out, the
+      body of his Majesty being borne up through the passages of the tomb on the
+      shoulders of the Italian electric light workmen, preceded and followed by
+      impassive Arab candle-bearers. The workmen were most reverent in their
+      handling of the body of “<i> il gran ré</i>,” as they called him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the tomb were found some very interesting objects, including a model
+      boat (afterwards stolen), across which lay the body of a woman. This body
+      now lies, with others found close by, in a side chamber of the tomb. One
+      may be that of Hatshepsu. The walls of the tomb-chamber are painted to
+      resemble papyrus, and on them are written chapters of the “Book of What Is
+      in the Underworld,” for the guidance of the royal ghost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1902-3 Mr. Theodore Davis excavated the tomb of Thothmes IV. It yielded
+      a rich harvest of antiquities belonging to the funeral state of the king,
+      including a chariot with sides of embossed and gilded leather, decorated
+      with representations of the king’s warlike deeds, and much fine blue
+      pottery, all of which are now in the Cairo Museum. The tomb-gallery
+      returns upon itself, describing a curve. An interesting point with regard
+      to it is that it had evidently been violated even in the short time
+      between the reigns of its owner and Horem-heb, probably in the period of
+      anarchy which prevailed at Thebes during the reign of the heretic
+      Akhunaten; for in one of the chambers is a hieratic inscription recording
+      the repair of the tomb in the eighth year of Horemheb by Maya,
+      superintendent of works in the Tombs of the Kings. It reads as follows:
+      “In the eighth year, the third month of summer, under the Majesty of King
+      Tjeser-khepru-Râ Sotp-n-Râ, Son of the Sun, Horemheb Meriamen, his Majesty
+      (Life, health, and wealth unto him!) commanded that orders should be sent
+      unto the Fanbearer on the King’s Left Hand, the King’s Scribe and Overseer
+      of the Treasury, the Overseer of the Works in the Place of Eternity, the
+      Leader of the Festivals of Amen in Karnak, Maya, son of the judge Aui,
+      born of the Lady Ueret, that he should renew the burial of King
+      Men-khepru-Râ, deceased, in the August Habitation in Western Thebes.”
+       Men-khepru-Râ was the prenomen or throne-name of Thothmes IV. Tied round a
+      pillar in the tomb is still a length of the actual rope used by the
+      thieves for crossing the chasm, which, as in many of the tombs here, was
+      left open in the gallery to bar the way to plunderers. The mummy of the
+      king was found in the tomb of Amenhetep II, and is now at Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discovery of the tomb of Thothmes I and Hat-shepsu has already been
+      described. In 1905 Mr. Davis made his latest find, the tomb of Iuaa and
+      Tuaa, the father and mother of Queen Tii, the famous consort of Amenhetep
+      III and mother of Akhunaten the heretic. Readers of Prof. Maspero’s
+      history will remember that Iuaa and Tuaa are mentioned on one of the large
+      memorial scarabs of Amenhetep III, which commemorates his marriage. The
+      tomb has yielded an almost incredible treasure of funerary furniture,
+      besides the actual mummies of Tii’s parents, including a chariot overlaid
+      with gold. Gold overlay of great thickness is found on everything, boxes,
+      chairs, etc. It was no wonder that Egypt seemed the land of gold to the
+      Asiatics, and that even the King of Babylon begs this very Pharaoh
+      Amenhetep to send him gold, in one of the letters found at Tell el-Amarna,
+      “for gold is as water in thy land.” It is probable that Egypt really
+      attained the height of her material wealth and prosperity in the reign of
+      Amenhetep III. Certainly her dominion reached its farthest limits in his
+      time, and his influence was felt from the Tigris to the Sudan. He hunted
+      lions for his pleasure in Northern Mesopotamia, and he built temples at
+      Jebel Barkal beyond Dongola. We see the evidence of lavish wealth in the
+      furniture of the tomb of Iuaa and Tuaa. Yet, fine as are many of these
+      gold-overlaid and overladen objects of the XVIIIth Dynasty, they have
+      neither the good taste nor the charm of the beautiful jewels from the
+      XIIth Dynasty tombs at Dashûr. It is mere vulgar wealth. There is too much
+      gold thrown about. “For gold is as water in thy land.” In three hundred
+      years’ time Egypt was to know what poverty meant, when the poor
+      priest-kings of the XXIst Dynasty could hardly keep body and soul together
+      and make a comparatively decent show as Pharaohs of Egypt. Then no doubt
+      the latter-day Thebans sighed for the good old times of the XVIIIth
+      Dynasty, when their city ruled a considerable part of Africa and Western
+      Asia and garnered their riches into her coffers. But the days of the XIIth
+      Dynasty had really been better still. Then there was not so much wealth,
+      but what there was (and there was as much gold then, too) was used
+      sparingly, tastefully, and simply. The XIIth Dynasty, not the XVIIIth, was
+      the real Golden Age of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the funeral panoply of a tomb like that of Iuaa and Tuaa we can
+      obtain some idea of the pomp and state of Amenhetep III. But the remains
+      of his Theban palace, which have been discovered and excavated by Mr. C.
+      Tytus and Mr. P. E. Newberry, do not bear out this idea of magnificence.
+      It is quite possible that the palace was merely a pleasure house, erected
+      very hastily and destined to fall to pieces when its owner tired of it or
+      died, like the many palaces of the late Khedive Ismail. It stood on the
+      border of an artificial lake, whereon the Pharaoh and his consort Tii
+      sailed to take their pleasure in golden barks. This is now the cultivated
+      rectangular space of land known as the Birket Habû, which is still
+      surrounded by the remains of the embankment built to retain its waters,
+      and becomes a lake during the inundation. On the western shore of this
+      lake Amenhetep erected the “stately pleasure dome,” the remains of which
+      still cover the sandy tract known as el-Malkata, “the Salt-pans,” south of
+      the great temple of Medînet Habû. These remains consist merely of the
+      foundations and lowest wall-courses of a complicated and rambling building
+      of many chambers, constructed of common unburnt brick and plastered with
+      white stucco on walls and floors, on which were painted beautiful frescoes
+      of fighting bulls, birds of the air, water-fowl, fish-ponds, etc., in much
+      the same style as the frescoes of Tell el-Amarna executed in the next
+      reign. There were small pillared halls, the columns of which were of wood,
+      mounted on bases of white limestone. The majority still remain in
+      position. In several chambers there are small daïses, and in one the
+      remains of a throne, built of brick and mud covered with plaster and
+      stucco, upon which the Pharaoh Amenhetep sat. This is the palace of him
+      whom the Greeks called Memnon, who ruled Egypt when Israel was in bondage
+      and when the dynasty of Minos reigned in Crete. Here by the side of his
+      pleasure-lake the most powerful of Egyptian Pharaohs whiled away his time
+      during the summer heats. Evidently the building was intended to be of the
+      lightest construction, and never meant to last; but to our ideas it seems
+      odd that an Egyptian Pharaoh should live in a mud palace. Such a building
+      is, however, quite suited to the climate of Egypt, as are the modern crude
+      brick dwellings of the fellahîn. In the ruins of the palace were found
+      several small objects of interest, and close by was an ancient glass
+      manufactory of Amenhetep III’s time, where much of the characteristic
+      beautifully coloured and variegated opaque glass of the period was made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0017" id="linkDimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/356.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="356.jpg the Tomb-hill of Shêkh ’abd el-Kûrna, Thebes" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The tombs of the magnates of Amenhetep III’s reign and of the reigns of
+      his immediate predecessors were excavated, as has been said, on the
+      eastern slope of the hill of Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna, where was the earliest
+      Theban necropolis. No doubt many of the early tombs of the time of the
+      VIth Dynasty were appropriated and remodelled by the XVIIIth Dynasty
+      magnates. We have an instance of time’s revenge in this matter, in the
+      case of the tomb of Imadua, a great priestly official of the time of the
+      XXth Dynasty. This tomb previously belonged to an XVIIIth Dynasty worthy,
+      but Imadua appropriated it three hundred years later and covered up all
+      its frescoes with the much begilt decoration fashionable in his period.
+      Perhaps the XVIIIth Dynasty owner had stolen it from an original owner of
+      the time of the VIth Dynasty. The tomb has lately been cleared out by Mr.
+      Newberry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much work of the same kind has been done here of late years by Messrs.
+      Newberry and R. L. Mond, in succession. To both we are indebted for the
+      excavation of many known tombs, as well as for the discovery of many
+      others previously unknown. Among the former was that of Sebekhetep,
+      cleared by Mr. Newberry. Se-bekhetep was an official of the time of
+      Thothmes III. From his tomb, and from others in the same hill, came many
+      years ago the fine frescoes shown in the illustration, which are among the
+      most valued treasures of the Egyptian department of the British Museum.
+      They are typical specimens of the wall-decoration of an XVIIIth Dynasty
+      tomb. On one may be seen a bald-headed peasant, with staff in hand,
+      pulling an ear of corn from the standing crop in order to see if it is
+      ripe. He is the “Chief Reaper,” and above him is a prayer that the “great
+      god in heaven” may increase the crop. To the right of him is a charioteer
+      standing beside a car and reining back a pair of horses, one black, the
+      other bay. Below is another charioteer with two white horses. He sits on
+      the floor of the car with his back to them, eating or resting, while they
+      nibble the branches of a tree close by. Another scene is that of a scribe
+      keeping tally of offerings brought to the tomb, while fellahm are bringing
+      flocks of geese and other fowl, some in crates. The inscription above is
+      apparently addressed by the goose-herd to the man with the crates. It
+      reads: “Hasten thy feet because of the geese! Hearken! thou knowest not
+      the next minute what has been said to thee!” Above, a reïs with a stick
+      bids other peasants squat on the ground before addressing the scribe, and
+      he is saying to them: “Sit ye down to talk.” The third scene is in another
+      style; on it may be seen Semites bringing offerings of vases of gold,
+      silver, and copper to the royal presence, bowing themselves to the ground
+      and kissing the dust before the throne. The fidelity and accuracy with
+      which the racial type of the tribute-bearers is given is most
+      extraordinary; every face seems a portrait, and each one might be seen any
+      day now in the Jewish quarters of Whitechapel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0018" id="linkDimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/358.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="358.jpg Wall-painting from a Tomb " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The first two paintings are representative of a very common style of
+      fresco-pictures in these tombs. The care with which the animals are
+      depicted is remarkable. Possibly one of the finest Egyptian
+      representations of an animal is the fresco of a goat in the tomb of
+      Gen-Amen, discovered by Mr. Mond. There is even an attempt here at
+      chiaroscuro, which is unknown to Egyptian art generally, except at Tell
+      el-Amarna. Evidently the Egyptian painters reached the apogee of their art
+      towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The third, the representation of
+      tribute-bearers, is of a type also well known at this period. In all the
+      chief tombs we have processions of Egyptians, Westerners, Northerners,
+      Easterners, and Southerners, bringing tribute to the Pharaoh. The North is
+      represented by the Semites, the East by the Punites (when they occur), the
+      South by negroes, the West by the Keftiu or people of Crete and Cyprus.
+      The representations of the last-named people have become of the very
+      highest interest during the last few years, on account of the discoveries
+      in Crete, which have revealed to us the state and civilization of these
+      very Keftiu. Messrs. Evans and Halbherr have discovered at Knossos and
+      Phaistos the cities and palace-temples of the king who sent forth their
+      ambassadors to far-away Egypt with gifts for the mighty Pharaoh; these
+      ambassadors were painted in the tombs of their hosts as representative of
+      the quarter of the world from which they came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two chief Egyptian representations of these people, who since they
+      lived in Greece may be called Greeks, though their more proper title would
+      be “Pe-lasgians,” are to be found in the tombs of Rekhmarâ and Senmut, the
+      former a vizier under Thothmes III, the latter the architect of
+      Hatshepsu’s temple at Dêr el-Bahari. Senmut’s tomb is a new rediscovery.
+      It was known, as Rekhmarâ’s was, in the early days of Egyptological
+      science, and Prisse d’Avennes copied its paintings. It was afterwards lost
+      sight of until rediscovered by Mr. Newberry and Prof. Steindorff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0019" id="linkDimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/360.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="360.jpg Fresco in the Tomb of Senmut at Thebes.  About 1500 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of Rekhmarâ (No. 35) is well known to every visitor to Thebes,
+      but it is difficult to get at that of Senmut (No. 110); it lies at the top
+      of the hill round to the left and overlooking Dêr el-Bahari, an
+      appropriate place for it, by the way. In some ways Senmut’s
+      representations are more interesting than Rekhmarâ’s. They are more easily
+      seen, since they are now in the open air, the fore hall of the tomb having
+      been ruined; and they are better preserved, since they have not been
+      subjected to a century of inspection with naked candles and pawing with
+      greasy hands, as have Rekhmarâ’s frescoes. Further, there is no
+      possibility of mistaking what they represent. From right to left, walking
+      in procession, we see the Minoan gift-bearers from Crete, carrying in
+      their hands and on their shoulders great cups of gold and silver, in shape
+      like the famous gold cups found at Vaphio in Lakonia, but much larger,
+      also a ewer of gold and silver exactly like one of bronze discovered by
+      Mr. Evans two years ago at Knossos, and a huge copper jug with four
+      ring-handles round the sides. All these vases are specifically and
+      definitely Mycenaean, or rather, following the new terminology, Minoan.
+      They are of Greek manufacture and are carried on the shoulders of
+      Pelasgian Greeks. The bearers wear the usual Mycenaean costume, high boots
+      and a gaily ornamented kilt, and little else, just as we see it depicted
+      in the fresco of the Cupbearer at Knossos and in other Greek
+      representations. The coiffure, possibly the most characteristic thing
+      about the Mycenaean Greeks, is faithfully represented by the Egyptians
+      both here and in Rekhmarâ’s tomb. The Mycenaean men allowed their hair to
+      grow to its full natural length, like women, and wore it partly hanging
+      down the back, partly tied up in a knot or plait (the <i>kepas</i> of the
+      dandy Paris in the Iliad) on the crown of the head. This was the universal
+      fashion, and the Keftiu are consistently depicted by the XVIIIth Dynasty
+      Egyptians as following it. The faces in the Senmut fresco are not so well
+      portrayed as those in the Rekhmarâ fresco. There it is evident that the
+      first three ambassadors are faithfully depicted, as the portraits are
+      marked. The procession advances from left to right. The first man, “the
+      Great Chief of the Kefti and the Isles of the Green Sea,” is young, and
+      has a remarkably small mouth with an amiable expression. His complexion is
+      fair rather than dark, but his hair is dark brown. His lieutenant, the
+      next in order, is of a different type,&mdash;elderly, with a most
+      forbidding visage, Roman nose, and nutcracker jaws. Most of the others are
+      very much alike,&mdash;young, dark in complexion, and with long black hair
+      hanging below their waists and twisted up into fantastic knots and curls
+      on the tops of their heads. One, carrying on his shoulder a great silver
+      vase with curving handles and in one hand a dagger of early European
+      Bronze Age type, is looking back to hear some remark of his next
+      companion. Any one of these gift-bearers might have sat for the portrait
+      of the Knossian Cupbearer, the fresco discovered by Mr. Evans in the
+      palace-temple of Minos; he has the same ruddy brown complexion, the same
+      long black hair dressed in the same fashion, the same parti-coloured kilt,
+      and he bears his vase in much the same way. We have only to allow for the
+      difference of Egyptian and Mycenaean ways of drawing. There is no doubt
+      whatever that these Keftiu of the Egyptians were Cretans of the Minoan
+      Age. They used to be considered Phoenicians, but this view was long ago
+      exploded. They are not Semites, and that is quite enough. Neither are they
+      Asiatics of any kind. They are purely and simply Mycenaean, or rather
+      Minoan, Greeks of the pre-Hellenic period&mdash;Pelasgi, that is to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably no discovery of more far-reaching importance to our knowledge of
+      the history of the world generally and of our own culture especially has
+      ever been made than the finding of Mycenæ by Schliemann, and the further
+      finds that have resulted therefrom, culminating in the discoveries of Mr.
+      Arthur Evans at Knossos. Naturally, these discoveries are of extraordinary
+      interest to us, for they have revealed the beginnings and first bloom of
+      the European civilization of to-day. For our culture-ancestors are neither
+      the Egyptians, nor the Assyrians, nor the Hebrews, but the Hellenes, and
+      they, the Aryan-Greeks, derived most of their civilization from the
+      pre-Hellenic people whom they found in the land before them, the Pelasgi
+      or “Mycenæan” Greeks, “Minoans,” as we now call them, the Keftiu of the
+      Egyptians. These are the ancient Greeks of the Heroic Age, to which the
+      legends of the Hellenes refer; in their day were fought the wars of Troy
+      and of the Seven against Thebes, in their day the tragedy of the Atridse
+      was played out to its end, in their day the wise Minos ruled Knossos and
+      the <i>Ægean</i>. And of all the events which are at the back of these
+      legends we know nothing. The hiéroglyphed tablets of the pre-Hellenic
+      Greeks lie before us, but we cannot read them; we can only see that the
+      Minoan writing in many ways resembled the Egyptian, thus again confirming
+      our impression of the original early connection of the two cultures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In view of this connection, and the known close relations between Crete
+      and Egypt, from the end of the XIIth Dynasty to the end of the XVIIIth, we
+      might have hoped to recover at Knossos a bilingual inscription in Cretan
+      and Egyptian hieroglyphs which would give us the key to the Minoan script
+      and tell us what we so dearly wish to know. But this hope has not yet been
+      realized. Two Egyptian inscriptions have been found at Knossos, but no
+      bilingual one. A list of Keftian names is preserved in the British Museum
+      upon an Egyptian writing-board from Thebes with what is perhaps a copy of
+      a single Cretan hieroglyph, a vase; but again, nothing bilingual. A list
+      of “Keftian words” occurs at the head of a papyrus, also in the British
+      Museum, but they appear to be nonsense, a mere imitation of the sounds of
+      a strange tongue. Still we need not despair of finding the much desired
+      Cretan-Egyptian bilingual inscription yet. Perhaps the double text of a
+      treaty between Crete and Egypt, like that of Ramses II with the Hittites,
+      may come to light. Meanwhile we can only do our best with the means at our
+      hand to trace out the history of the relations of the oldest European
+      culture with the ancient civilization of Egypt. The tomb-paintings at
+      Thebes are very important material. Eor it is due to them that the voice
+      of the doubter has finally ceased to be heard, and that now no
+      archaeologist questions that the Egyptians were in direct communication
+      with the Cretan Mycenæans in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, some fifteen
+      hundred years before Christ, for no one doubts that the pictures of the
+      Keftiu are pictures of Mycenaeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we have seen, we know that this connection was far older than the time
+      of the XVIIIth Dynasty, but it is during that time and the Hyksos period
+      that we have the clearest documentary proof of its existence, from the
+      statuette of Abnub and the alabastron lid of King Khian, found at Knossos,
+      down to the Mycenaean pottery fragments found at Tell el-Amarna, a site
+      which has been utterly abandoned since the time of the heretic Akhunaten
+      (B.C. 1430), so that there is no possibility of anything found there being
+      later than his time. That the connection existed as late as the time of
+      the XXth Dynasty we know from the representations of golden <i>Bügelkannen</i>
+      or false-necked vases of Mycenaean form in the tomb of Ramses III in the
+      Bibân el-Mulûk, and of golden cups of Vaphio type in the tomb of Imadua,
+      already mentioned. This brings the connection down to about 1050 B.C.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that date we cannot hope to find any certain evidence of connection,
+      for by that time the Mycenaean civilization had probably come to an end.
+      In the days of the XIIth and XVIIIth Dynasties a great and splendid power
+      evidently existed in Crete, and sent its peaceful ambassadors, the Keftiu
+      who are represented in the Theban tombs, to Egypt. But with the XIXth
+      Dynasty the name of the Keftiu disappears from Egyptian records, and their
+      place is taken by a congeries of warring seafaring tribes, whose names as
+      given by the Egyptians seem to be forms of tribal and place names well
+      known to us in the Greece of later days. We find the Akaivasha (<i>Axaifol</i>,
+      Achaians), Shakalsha (Sagalassians of Pisidia), Tursha (Tylissians of
+      Crete?), and Shardana (Sardians) allied with the Libyans and Mashauash
+      (Maxyes) in a land attack upon Egypt in the days of Meneptah, the
+      successor of Ramses II&mdash;just as in the later days of the XXVIth
+      Dynasty the Northern pirates visited the African shore of the
+      Mediterranean, and in alliance with the predatory Libyans attacked Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prof. Petrie has lately [History of Egypt, iii, pp. Ill, I12.] proffered
+      an alternative view, which would make all these tribes Tunisians and
+      Algerians, thus disposing of the identification of the Akaivasha with the
+      Achaians, and making them the ancient representatives of the town of
+      el-Aghwat (Roman Agbia) in Tunis. But several difficulties might be
+      pointed out which are in the way of an acceptance of this view, and it is
+      probable that the older identifications with Greek tribes must still be
+      retained, so that Meneptah’s Akaivasha are evidently the ancient
+      representatives of the Achai(v)ans, the Achivi of the Roman poets. The
+      terminations <i>sha</i> and <i>na</i>, which appear in these names, are
+      merely ethnic and locative affixes belonging to the Asianic language
+      system spoken by these tribes at that time, to which the language of the
+      Minoan Cretans (which is written in the Knossian hieroglyphs) belonged.
+      They existed in ancient Lycian in the forms <i>azzi</i> and <i>nna</i>,
+      and we find them enshrined in the Asia Minor place-names terminating in <i>assos</i>
+      and <i>nda</i>, as Halikarnassos, Sagalassos (Shakalasha in Meneptah’s
+      inscription), Oroanda, and Labraunda (which, as we have seen, is the same
+      as the [Greek word], a word of pre-Hellenic origin, both meaning “Place of
+      the Double Axe”) The identification of these <i>sha</i> and <i>nal</i>
+      terminations in the Egyptian transliterations of the foreign names, with
+      the Lycian affixes referred to, was made some five years ago,<a href="#fn7.2" name="fnref7.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> and is now
+      generally accepted. We have, then, to find the equivalents of these names,
+      to strike off the final termination, as in the case of Akaiva-sha, where
+      Akaiva only is the real name, and this seems to be the Egyptian equivalent
+      of <i>Axaifol</i>, Achivi. It is strange to meet with this great name on
+      an Egyptian monument of the thirteenth century B.C. But yet not so
+      strange, when we recollect that it is precisely to that period that Greek
+      legend refers the war of Troy, which was an attack by Greek tribes from
+      all parts of the Ægean upon the Asianic city at Hissarlik in the Troad,
+      exactly parallel to the attacks of the Northerners on Egypt. And Homer
+      preserves many a reminiscence of early Greek visits, peaceful and the
+      reverse, to the coast of Egypt at this period. The reader will have
+      noticed that one no longer treats the siege of Troy as a myth. To do so
+      would be to exhibit a most uncritical mind; even the legends of King
+      Arthur have a historic foundation, and those of the Nibelungen are still
+      more probable.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn7.2"></a> <a href="#fnref7.2">[2]</a>
+     See Hall, <i>Oldest Civilization of Greece</i>, p. 178 <i>f</i>.
+</p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="366 (179K)" src="images/366.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="367 (193K)" src="images/367.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/368.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="368.jpg Page Image to Display Greek Words " />
+    </div>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/369.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="369.jpg Page Image to Display Greek Words " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In the eighth year of Ramses III the second Northern attack was made, by
+      the Pulesta (<i>Pelishtim</i>, Philistines), Tjakaray, Shakalasha
+      (Sagalassians), Vashasha, and Danauna or Daanau, in alliance with North
+      Syrian tribes. The Danauna are evidently the ancient representatives of
+      the <i>Aavaoî</i>, the Danaans who formed the bulk of the Greek army
+      against Troy under the leadership of the long-haired Achaians, [Greek
+      words] (like the Keftiu). The Vashasha have been identified by the writer
+      with the Axians, the [Greek word] of Crete. Prof. Petrie compares the name
+      of the Tjakaray with that of the (modern) place Zakro in Crete.
+      Identifications with modern place-names are of doubtful value; for
+      instance, we cannot but hold that Prof. Petrie errs greatly in identifying
+      the name of the Pidasa (another tribe mentioned in Ramses II’s time) with
+      that of the river Pidias in Cyprus. “Pidias” is a purely modern corruption
+      of the ancient Pediseus, which means the “plain-river” (because it flows
+      through the central plain of the island), from the Greek [Greek word]. If,
+      then, we make the Pidasa Cypriotes we assume that pure Greek was spoken in
+      Cyprus as early as 1100 b. c, which is highly improbable. The Pidasa were
+      probably Le-leges (Pedasians); the name of Pisidia may be the same, by
+      metathesis. Pedasos is a name always connected with the much wandering
+      tribe of the Leleges, where-ever they are found in Lakonia or in Asia
+      Minor. We believe them to have been known to the Egyptians as Pidasa. The
+      identification of the Tjakaray with Zakro is very tempting. The name was
+      formerly identified with that of the Teukrians, but the v in the word
+      Tewpot lias always been a stumbling-block in the way. Perhaps Zakro is
+      neither more nor less than the Tetkpoc-name, since the legendary Teucer,
+      the archer, was connected with the eastern or Eteokretan end of Crete,
+      where Zakro lies. In Mycenæan times Zakro was an important place, so that
+      the Tjakaray may be the Teukroi, after all, and Zakro may preserve the
+      name. At any rate, this identification is most alluring and, taken in
+      conjunction with the other cumulative identifications, is very probable;
+      but the identification of the Pidæa with the river Pediæus in Cyprus is
+      neither alluring nor probable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the time of Ramses II some of these Asia Minor tribes had marched
+      against Egypt as allies of the Hittites. We find among them the Luka or
+      Lycians, the Dardenui (Dardanians, who may possibly have been at that time
+      in the Troad, or elsewhere, for all these tribes were certainly
+      migratory), and the Masa (perhaps the Mysians). With the Cretans of Ramses
+      Ill’s time must be reckoned the Pulesta, who are certainly the
+      Philistines, then most probably in course of their traditional migration
+      from Crete to Palestine. In Philistia recent excavations by Mr. Welch have
+      disclosed the unmistakable presence of a late Mycenæan culture, and we can
+      only ascribe this to the Philistines, who were of Cretan origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus we see that all these Northern tribal names hold together with
+      remarkable persistence, and in fact refuse to be identified with any
+      tribes but those of Asia Minor and the Ægean. In them we see the broken
+      remnants of the old Minoan (Keftian) power, driven hither and thither
+      across the seas by intestinal feuds, and “winding the skein of grievous
+      wars till every man of them perished,” as Homer says of the heroes after
+      the siege of Troy. These were in fact the wanderings of the heroes, the
+      period of <i>Sturm und Drang</i> which succeeded the great civilized epoch
+      of Minos and his thalassocracy, of Knossos, Phaistos, and the Keftius. On
+      the walls of the temple of Medînet Habû, Ramses III depicted the portraits
+      of the conquered heroes who had fallen before the Egyptian onslaught, and
+      he called them heroes, <i>tuher</i> in Egyptian, fully recognizing their
+      Berserker gallantry. Above all in interest are the portraits of the
+      Philistines, those Greeks who at this very time seized part of Palestine
+      (which takes its name from them), and continued to exist there as a
+      separate people (like the Normans in France) for at least two centuries.
+      Goliath the giant was, then, a Greek; certainly he was of Cretan descent,
+      and so a Pelasgian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such are the conclusions to which modern discovery in Crete has impelled
+      us with regard to the pictures of the Keftiu at Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna. It is
+      indeed a new chapter in the history of the relations of ancient Egypt with
+      the outside world that Dr. Arthur Evans has opened for us. And in this
+      connection some American work must not be overlooked. An expedition sent
+      out by the University of Pennsylvania, under Miss Harriet Boyd, has
+      discovered much of importance to Mycenæan study in the ruins of an ancient
+      town at Gournia in Crete, east of Knossos. Here, however, little has been
+      found that will bear directly on the question of relations between
+      Mycenaean Greece and Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Theban nécropoles of the New Empire are by no means exhausted by a
+      description of the Tombs of the Kings and Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna; but few new
+      discoveries have been made anywhere except in the picturesque valley of
+      the Tombs of the Queens, south of Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna. Here the Italian
+      Egyptologist, Prof. Schiaparelli, has lately discovered and excavated some
+      very fine tombs of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties. The best is that of Queen
+      Nefertari, one of the wives of Ramses II. The colouring of the reliefs
+      upon these walls is extraordinarily bright, and the portraits of the
+      queen, who has a very beautiful face, with aquiline nose, are wonderfully
+      preserved. She was of the dark type, while another queen, Titi by name,
+      who was buried close by, was fair, and had a retroussé nose. Prof.
+      Schiaparelli also discovered here the tombs of some princes of the XXth
+      Dynasty, who died young. All the tombs are much alike, with a single short
+      gallery, on the walls of which are mythological scenes, figures of the
+      prince and of his father, the king, etc., painted in a crude style, which
+      shows a great degeneration from that of the XVIIIth Dynasty tombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We now leave the great necropolis and turn to the later temples of the
+      Western Bank at Thebes. These were of a funerary character, like those of
+      Dêr el-Bahari, already described. The most imposing of all in some
+      respects is the Ramesseum, where lies the huge granite colossus of Ramses
+      II, prostrate and broken, which Diodorus knew as the statue of Osymandyas.
+      This name is a late corruption of Ramses II’s throne-name, User-maat-Rà,
+      pronounced Ûsimare. The temple has been cleared by Mr. Howard Carter for
+      the Egyptian government, and the small town of priests’ houses, magazines,
+      and cellars, to the west of it, has been excavated by him. This is quite a
+      little Pompeii, with its small streets, its houses with the stucco still
+      clinging to the walls, its public altar, its market colonnade, and its
+      gallery of statues. The statues are only of brick like the walls, and
+      roughly shaped and plastered, but they were portraits, undoubtedly, of
+      celebrities of the time, though we do not know of whom. On either side are
+      the long magazines in which were kept the possessions of the priests of
+      the Ramesseum, the grain from the lands with which they were endowed, and
+      everything meet to be offered to the ghost of the king whom they served.
+      The plan of the place had evidently been altered after the time of Ramses
+      II, as remains of overbuilding were found here and there. The magazines
+      were first investigated in 1896 by Prof. Petrie, who also found in the
+      neighbourhood the remains of a number of small royal funerary temples of
+      the XVIIIth Dynasty, all looking in the direction of the hill, beyond
+      which lay the tombs of the kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0022" id="linkDimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/372.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="372.jpg the Valley of The Tombs Of The Queens at Thebes. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     In which Prof. Schiaparelli discovered the tomb of Ramses
+     II’s wife (1904).
+</p>
+    <p>
+      We may now turn to Luxor, where immediately above the landing-place of the
+      steamers and dahabiyas rise the stately coloured colonnades of the Temple
+      of Luxor. Unfortunately, modern excavations have not been allowed to
+      pursue their course to completion here, as in the first great colonnaded
+      court, which was added by Ramses II to the original building of Amenhetep
+      III, Tutankhamen, and Horemheb, there still remains the Mohammedan Mosque
+      of Abu-’l-Haggâg, which may not be removed. Abu-’l-Haggâg, “the Father of
+      Pilgrims” (so called on account of the number of pilgrims to his shrine),
+      was a very holy shêkh, and his memory is held in the greatest reverence by
+      the Luksuris. It is unlucky that this mosque was built within the court of
+      the Great Temple, and it cannot be removed till Moslem religious
+      prejudices become at least partially ameliorated, and then the work of
+      completely excavating the Temple of Luxor may be carried out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between Luxor and Karnak lay the temple of the goddess Mut, consort of
+      Amen and protectress of Thebes. It stood in the part of the city known as
+      Asheru. This building was cleared in 1895 at the expense and under the
+      supervision of two English ladies, Miss Benson and Miss Gourlay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0023" id="linkDimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/374.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="374.jpg the Nile-bank at Luxor " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     With A Dahabîya And A Steamer Of The Anglo-American Nile
+     Company.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The temple had always been remarkable on account of the prodigious number
+      of seated figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhemet, or Pakhet, which
+      it contains, dedicated by Amenhetep III and Sheshenk I; most of those in
+      the British Museum were brought from this temple. The excavators found
+      many more of them, and also some very interesting portrait-statues of the
+      late period which had been dedicated there. The most important of these
+      was the head and shoulders of a statue of Mentuemhat, governor of Thebes
+      at the time of the sack of the city by Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668
+      B.C. In Miss Benson’s interesting book, <i>The Temple of Mut in Asher</i>,
+      it is suggested, on the authority of Prof. Petrie, that his facial type is
+      Cypriote, but this speculation is a dangerous one, as is also the similar
+      speculation that the wonderful portrait-head of an old man found by Miss
+      Benson [* Plate vii of her book.] is of Philistine type. We have only to
+      look at the faces of elderly Egyptians to-day to see that the types
+      presented by Mentuemhat and Miss Benson’s “Philistine” need be nothing but
+      pure Egyptian. The whole work of the clearing was most efficiently carried
+      out, and the Cairo Museum obtained from it some valuable specimens of
+      Egyptian sculpture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Great Temple of Karnak is one of the chief cares of the Egyptian
+      Department of Antiquities. Its paramount importance, so to speak, as the
+      cathedral temple of Egypt, renders its preservation and exploration a work
+      of constant necessity, and its great extent makes this work one which is
+      always going on and which probably will be going on for many years to
+      come. The Temple of Karnak has cost the Egyptian government much money,
+      yet not a piastre of this can be grudged. For several years past the works
+      have been under the charge of M. Georges Legrain, the well-known engineer
+      and draughtsman who was associated with M. de Morgan in the work at
+      Dashûr. His task is to clear out the whole temple thoroughly, to discover
+      in it what previous investigators have left undiscovered, and to restore
+      to its original position what has fallen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0024" id="linkDimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/376.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="376.jpg the Great Temple Op Karnak. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was
+     erected by Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by
+     Thothmes III.
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+     No general work of restoration is contemplated, nor would this be in the
+     slightest degree desirable. Up to the present M. Legrain has certainly
+     carried out all three branches of his task with great success. An
+     unforeseen event has, however, considerably complicated and retarded the
+     work. In October, 1899, one of the columns of the side aisles of the great
+     Hypostyle Hall fell, bringing down with it several others. The whole place
+     was a chaotic ruin, and for a moment it seemed as though the whole of the
+     Great Hall, one of the wonders of the world, would collapse. The disaster
+     was due to the gradual infiltration of water from the Nile beneath the
+     structure, whose foundations, as is usual in Egypt, were of the flimsiest
+     description. Even the most imposing Egyptian temples have jerry-built
+     foundations; usually they are built on the top of the wall-stumps of
+     earlier buildings of different plan, filled in with a confused mass of
+     earlier slabs and weak rubbish of all kinds. Had the Egyptian buildings
+     been built on sure foundations, they would have been preserved to a much
+     greater extent even than they are. In such a climate as that of Egypt a
+     stone building well built should last for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. Legrain has for the last five years been busy repairing the damage. All
+      the fallen columns are now restored to the perpendicular, and the capitals
+      and architraves are in process of being hoisted into their original
+      positions. The process by which M. Legrain carries out this work has been
+      already described. He works in the old Egyptian fashion, building great
+      inclines or ramps of earth up which the pillar-drums, the capitals, and
+      the architrave-blocks are hauled by manual labour, and then swung into
+      position. This is the way in which the Egyptians built Karnak, and in this
+      way, too, M. Le-grain is rebuilding it. It is a slow process, but a sure
+      one, and now it will not be long before we shall see the hall, except its
+      roof, in much the same condition as it was when Seti built it. Lovers of
+      the picturesque will, however, miss the famous leaning column, hanging
+      poised across the hall, which has been a main feature in so many pictures
+      and photographs of Karnak. This fell in the catastrophe of 1899, and
+      naturally it has not been possible to restore it to its picturesque, but
+      dangerous, position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work at Karnak has been distinguished during the last two years by two
+      remarkable discoveries. Outside the main temple, to the north of the
+      Hypostyle Hall, M. Legrain found a series of private sanctuaries or
+      shrines, built of brick by personages of the XVIIIth Dynasty and later, in
+      order to testify their devotion to Amen. In these small cells were found
+      some remarkable statues, one of which is illustrated. It is one of the
+      most perfect of its kind. A great dignitary of the XVIIIth Dynasty is seen
+      seated with his wife, their daughter standing between them. Round his neck
+      are four chains of golden rings, with which he had been decorated by the
+      Pharaoh for his services. It is a remarkable group, interesting for its
+      style and workmanship as well as for its subject. As an example of the
+      formal hieratic type of portraiture it is very fine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other and more important discovery of the two was made by M. Legrain
+      on the south side of the Hypo-style Hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0025" id="linkDimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/379.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="379.jpg the Great Temple Of Karnak. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was erected by
+      Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by Thothmes III.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de Morgan in the work at Dashûr. His task is to clear out the whole
+      temple thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have left
+      undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has fallen.
+      Tentative excavations, begun in an unoccupied tract under the wall of the
+      hall, resulted in the discovery of parts of statues; the place was then
+      regularly excavated, and the result has been amazing. The ground was full
+      of statues, large and small, at some unknown period buried pell-mell, one
+      on the top of another. Some are broken, but the majority are perfect,
+      which is in itself unusual, and is due very much to the soft, muddy soil
+      in which they have lain. Statues found on dry desert land are often
+      terribly cracked, especially when they are of black granite, the crystals
+      of which seem to have a greater tendency to disintegration than have those
+      of the red syenite. The Karnak statues are figures of pious persons, who
+      had dedicated portraits of themselves in the temple of Amen, together with
+      those of great men whom the king had honoured by ordering their statues
+      placed in the temple during their lives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this number was the great sage Amenhetep, son of Hapi, the founder of
+      the little desert temple of Dêr el-Medîna, near Dêr el-Bahari, who was a
+      sort of prime minister under Amenhetep III, and was venerated in later
+      days as a demigod. His statue was found with the others by M. Legrain.
+      Among them is a figure made entirely of green felspar, an unusual material
+      for so large a statuette. A fine portrait of Thothmes III was also found.
+      The illustration shows this wonderfully fruitful excavation in progress,
+      with the diggers at work in the black mud soil, in the foreground the
+      basket-boys carrying away the rubbish on their shoulders, and the massive
+      granite walls of the Great Hypostyle Hall of Seti in the background. The
+      huge size of the roof-blocks is noticeable. These are not the actual
+      uppermost roof-blocks, but only the architraves from pillar to pillar; the
+      original roof consisted of similar blocks laid across in the transverse
+      direction from architrave to architrave. An Egyptian granite temple was in
+      fact built upon the plan of a child’s box of bricks; it was but a modified
+      and beautified Stonehenge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0026" id="linkDimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/381.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="381.jpg Portrait-group of a Great Noble and his Wife " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Of The Time Of The Xviiith Dynasty. Discovered by M. Legrain
+     at Karnak.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Other important discoveries have been made by M. Legrain in the course of
+      his work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0027" id="linkDimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/382.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="382.jpg a Tomb Fitted up As an Explorer’s Residence. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     The Tomb of Pentu (No. 5) at Tell el-Amarna, inhabited by
+     Mr. de G. Davies during his work for the Archaeological
+     Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund). About 1400 B.C.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Among them are statues of the late Middle Kingdom, including one of King
+      Usertsen (Senusret) IV of the XIIIth Dynasty. There are also reliefs of
+      the reign of Amenhetep I, which are remarkable for the delicacy of their
+      workmanship and the sureness of their technique.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We know that the temple was built as early as the time of TJsertsen, for
+      in it have been found one or two of his blocks; and no doubt the original
+      shrine, which was rebuilt in the time of Philip Arrhidseus, was of the
+      same period, but hitherto no remains of the centuries between his time and
+      that of Hatshepsu had been found. With M. Legrain’s work in the greatest
+      temple of Thebes we finish our account of the new discoveries in the chief
+      city of ancient Egypt, as we began it with the work of M. Naville in the
+      oldest temple there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the most interesting questions connected with the archaeology of
+      Thebes is that which asks whether the heretical disk-worshipper Akhunaten
+      (Amenhetep IV) erected buildings there, and whether any trace of them has
+      ever been discovered. To those who are interested in Egyptian history and
+      religion the transitory episode of the disk-worship heresy is already
+      familiar. The precise character of the heretical dogma, which Amenhetep IV
+      proclaimed and desired his subjects to. accept, has lately been well
+      explained by Mr. de Garis Davies in his volumes, published by the
+      “Archaeological Survey of Egypt” branch of the Egypt Exploration Fund, on
+      the tombs of el-Amarna. He shows that the heretical doctrine was a
+      monotheism of a very high order. Amenhetep IV (or as he preferred to call
+      himself, Akhunaten, “Glory of the Disk”) did not, as has usually been
+      supposed, merely worship the Sun-disk itself as the giver of life, and
+      nothing more. He venerated the glowing disk merely as the visible
+      emanation of the deity behind it, who dispensed heat and life to all
+      living things through its medium. The disk was, so to speak, the window in
+      heaven through which the unknown God, the “Lord of the Disk,” shed a
+      portion of his radiance on the world. Now, given an ignorance of the true
+      astronomical character of the sun, we see how eminently rational a
+      religion this was. In effect, the sun is the source of all life upon this
+      earth, and so Akhunaten caused its rays to be depicted each with a hand
+      holding out the sign of life to the earth. The monotheistic worship of the
+      sun alone is certainly the highest form of pagan religion, but Akhunaten
+      saw further than this. His doctrine was that there was a deity behind the
+      sun, whose glory shone through it and gave us life. This deity was unnamed
+      and unnamable; he was “the Lord of the Disk.” We see in his heresy,
+      therefore, the highest attitude to which religious ideas had attained
+      before the days of the Hebrew prophets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This religion seems to have been developed out of the philosophical
+      speculations of the priests of the Sun at Heliopolis. Akhunaten with
+      unwise iconoclastic zeal endeavoured to root out the worship of the
+      ancient gods of Egypt, and especially that of Amen-Bà, the ruler of the
+      Egyptian pantheon, whose primacy in the hearts of the people made him the
+      most redoubtable rival of the new doctrine. But the name of the old
+      Sun-god Bà-Harmaehis was spared, and it is evident that Akhunaten regarded
+      him as more or less identical with his god.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been supposed by Prof. Petrie that Queen Tii, the mother of
+      Akhunaten, was of Mitannian (Armenian) origin, and that she brought the
+      Aten religion to Egypt from her native land, and taught it to her son.
+      Certainly it seems as though the new doctrine had made some headway before
+      the death of Amenhetep III, but we have no reason to attribute it to Tii,
+      or to suppose that she brought it with her from abroad. There is no proof
+      whatever that she was not a native Egyptian, and the mummies of her
+      parents, Iuaa and Tuaa, are purely Egyptian in facial type. It seems
+      undoubted that the Aten cult was a development of pure Egyptian religious
+      thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first Akhunaten tried to establish his religion at Thebes alongside
+      that of Amen and his attendant pantheon. He seems to have built a temple
+      to the Aten there, and we see that his courtiers began to make tombs for
+      themselves in the new realistic style of sculptural art, which the king,
+      heretical in art as in religion, had introduced. The tomb of Barnes at
+      Shêkh ‘Abd el-Kûrna has on one side of the door a representation of the
+      king in the old regular style, and on the other side one in the new
+      realistic style, which depicts him in all the native ugliness in which
+      this strange truth-loving man seems to have positively gloried. We find,
+      too, that he caused a temple to the Aten to be erected in far-away Napata,
+      the capital of Nubia, by Jebel Barkal in the Sudan. The facts as to the
+      Theban and Napata temples have been pointed out by Prof. Breasted, of
+      Chicago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the opposition of the Theban priesthood was too strong. Akhunaten
+      shook the dust of the capital off his feet and retired to the isolated
+      city of Akhet-aten, “the Glory of the Disk,” at the modern Tell el-Amarna,
+      where he could philosophize in peace, while his kingdom was left to take
+      care of itself. He and his wife Nefret-iti, who seems to have been a
+      faithful sharer of his views, reigned over a select court of
+      Aten-worship-ping nobles, priests, and artists. The artists had under
+      Akhunaten an unrivalled opportunity for development, of which they had
+      already begun to take considerable advantage before the end of his reign
+      and the restoration of the old order of ideas. Their style takes on itself
+      an almost bizarre freedom, which reminds us strongly of the similar
+      characteristic in Mycenaean art. There is a strange little relief in the
+      Berlin Museum of the king standing cross-legged, leaning on a staff, and
+      languidly smelling a flower, while the queen stands by with her garments
+      blown about by the wind. The artistic monarch’s graceful attitude is
+      probably a faithful transcript of a characteristic pose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We see from this what an Egyptian artist could do when his shackles were
+      removed, but unluckily Egypt never produced another king who was at the
+      same time an original genius, an artist, and a thinker. When Akhunaten
+      died, the Egyptian artists’ shackles were riveted tighter than ever. The
+      reaction was strong. The kingdom had fallen into anarchy, and the foreign
+      empire which his predecessors had built up had practically been thrown to
+      the winds by Akhunaten. The whole is an example of the confusion and
+      disorganization which ensue when a philosopher rules. Not long after the
+      heretic’s death the old religion was fully restored, the cult of the disk
+      was blotted out, and the Egyptians returned joyfully to the worship of
+      their myriad deities. Akhunaten’s ideals were too high for them. The
+      débris of the foreign empire was, as usual in such cases, put together
+      again, and customary law and order restored by the conservative
+      reactionaries who succeeded him. Henceforth Egyptian civilization runs an
+      uninspired and undeveloping course till the days of the Saïtes and the
+      Ptolemies. This point in the history of Egypt, therefore, forms a
+      convenient stopping-place at which to pause, while we turn once more to
+      Western Asia, and ascertain to what extent recent excavations and research
+      have thrown new light upon the problems connected with the rise and
+      history of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires.
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/387.jpg" width="100%" alt="387.jpg " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkD2HCH0002" id="linkD2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII&mdash;THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT RESEARCH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The early history of Assyria has long been a subject on which historians
+      were obliged to trust largely to conjecture, in their attempts to
+      reconstruct the stages by which its early rulers obtained their
+      independence and laid the foundations of the mighty empire over which
+      their successors ruled. That the land was colonized from Babylonia and was
+      at first ruled as a dependency of the southern kingdom have long been
+      regarded as established facts, but until recently little was known of its
+      early rulers and governors, and still less of the condition of the country
+      and its capital during the early periods of their existence. Since the
+      excavations carried out by the British Museum at Kala Sherghat, on the
+      western bank of the Tigris, it has been known that the mounds at that spot
+      mark the site of the city of Ashur, the first capital of the Assyrians,
+      and the monuments and records recovered during those excavations have
+      hitherto formed our principal source of information for the early history
+      of the country.<a href="#fn8.1" name="fnref8.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Some of the oldest records found in the course of these
+      excavations were short votive texts inscribed by rulers who bore the title
+      of <i>ishshakku</i>, corresponding to the Sumerian and early Babylonian
+      title of patesi, and with some such meaning as “viceroy.” It was rightly
+      conjectured from the title which they bore that these early rulers owed
+      allegiance to the kings of Babylon and were their nominees, or at any rate
+      their tributaries. The names of a few of these early viceroys were
+      recovered from their votive inscriptions and from notices in later
+      historical texts, but it was obvious that our knowledge of early Assyrian
+      history would remain very fragmentary until systematic excavations in
+      Assyria were resumed. Three years ago (1902) the British Museum resumed
+      excavations at Kuyunjik, the site of Nineveh. The work was begun and
+      carried out under the direction of Mr. L. W. King, but since last summer
+      has been continued by Mr. R. C. Thompson. Last year, too, excavations were
+      reopened at Sherghat by the Deutsch-Orient Ge-sellschaft, at first under
+      the direction of Dr. Koldewey, and afterwards under that of Dr. Andrae, by
+      whom they are at present being carried on. This renewed activity on the
+      sites of the ancient cities of Assyria is already producing results of
+      considerable interest, and the veil which has so long concealed the
+      earlier periods in the history of that country is being lifted.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn8.1"></a> <a href="#fnref8.1">[1]</a>
+     For the texts and translations of these documents, see
+     Budge and King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, pp. iff.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly before these excavations in Assyria were set on foot an indication
+      was obtained from an early Babylonian text that the history of Assyria as
+      a dependent state or province of Babylon must be pushed back to a far more
+      remote period than had hitherto been supposed. In one of Hammurabi’s
+      letters to Sin-idinnam, governor of the city of Larsam, to which reference
+      has already been made, directions are given for the despatch to the king
+      of “two hundred and forty men of ‘the King’s Company’ under the command of
+      Nannar-iddina... who have left the country of Ashur and the district of
+      Shitullum.” From this most interesting reference it followed that the
+      country to the north of Babylonia was known as Assyria at the time of the
+      kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and the fact that Babylonian troops
+      were stationed there by Hammurabi proved that the country formed an
+      integral part of the Babylonian empire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These conclusions were soon after strikingly confirmed by two passages in
+      the introductory sections of Hammurabi’s code of laws which was discovered
+      at Susa. Here Hammurabi records that he “restored his (i.e. the god
+      Ashur’s) protecting image unto the city of Ashur,” and a few lines farther
+      on he describes himself as the king “who hath made the names of Ishtar
+      glorious in the city of Nineveh in the temple of E-mish-mish.” That Ashur
+      should be referred to at this period is what we might expect, inasmuch as
+      it was known to have been the earliest capital of Assyria; more striking
+      is the reference to Nineveh, proving as it does that it was a flourishing
+      city in Hammurabi’s time and that the temple of Ishtar there had already
+      been long established. It is true that Gudea, the Sumerian patesi of
+      Shirpurla, records that he rebuilt the temple of the goddess Ninni
+      (Ishtar) at a place called Nina. Now Nina may very probably be identified
+      with Nineveh, but many writers have taken it to be a place in Southern
+      Babylonia and possibly a district of Shirpurla itself. No such uncertainty
+      attaches to Hammurabi’s reference to Nineveh, which is undoubtedly the
+      Assyrian city of that name. Although no account has yet been published of
+      the recent excavations carried out at Nineveh by the British Museum, they
+      fully corroborate the inference drawn with regard to the great age of the
+      city. The series of trenches which were cut deep into the lower strata of
+      Kuyunjik revealed numerous traces of very early habitations on the mound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither in Hammurabi’s letters, nor upon the stele inscribed with his code
+      of laws, is any reference made to the contemporary governor or ruler of
+      Assyria, but on a contract tablet preserved in the Pennsylvania Museum a
+      name has been recovered which will probably be identified with that of the
+      ruler of Assyria in Hammurabi’s reign. In legal and commercial documents
+      of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon the contracting parties
+      frequently swore by the names of two gods (usually Shamash and Marduk) and
+      also that of the reigning king. Now it has been found by Dr. Banke that on
+      this document in the Pennsylvania Museum the contracting parties swear by
+      the name of Hammurabi and also by that of Shamshi-Adad. As only gods and
+      kings are mentioned in the oath formulas of this period, it follows that
+      Shamshi-Adad was a king, or at any rate a patesi or ishshakku. Now from
+      its form the name Shamshi-Adad must be that of an Assyrian, not that of a
+      Babylonian, and, since he is associated in the oath formula with
+      Hammurabi, it is legitimate to conclude that he governed Assyria in the
+      time of Hammurabi as a dependency of Babylon. An early Assyrian ishshakku
+      of this name, who was the son of Ishme-Dagan, is mentioned by
+      Tiglath-Pileser I, but he cannot be identified with the ruler of the time
+      of Hammurabi, since, according to Tiglath-Pileser, he ruled too late,
+      about 1800 B.C. A brick-inscription of another Shamshi-Adad, however, the
+      son of Igur-kapkapu, is preserved in the British Museum, and it is
+      probable that we may identify him with Hammurabi’s Assyrian viceroy.
+      Erishum and his son Ikunum, whose inscriptions are also preserved in the
+      British Museum, should certainly be assigned to an early period of
+      Assyrian history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The recent excavations at Sherghat are already yielding the names of other
+      early Assyrian viceroys, and, although the texts of the inscriptions in
+      which their names occur have not yet been published, we may briefly
+      enumerate the more important of the discoveries that have been made. Last
+      year a small cone or cylinder was found which, though it bears only a few
+      lines of inscription, restores the names of no less than seven early
+      Assyrian viceroys whose existence was not previously known. The cone was
+      inscribed by Ashir-rîm-nishêshu, who gives his own genealogy and records
+      the restoration of the wall of the city of Ashur, which he states had been
+      rebuilt by certain of his predecessors on the throne. The principal
+      portion of the inscription reads as follows: “Ashir-rîm-nishêshu, the
+      viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of Ashir-nirari, the viceroy of the god
+      Ashir, the son of Ashir-rabi, the viceroy. The city wall which Kikia,
+      Ikunum, Shar-kenkate-Ashir, and Ashir-nirari, the son of Ishme-Dagan, my
+      forefathers, had built, was fallen, and for the preservation of my life...
+      I rebuilt it.” Perhaps no inscription has yet been recovered in either
+      Assyria or Babylonia which contained so much new information packed into
+      so small a space. Of the names of the early viceroys mentioned in it only
+      one was previously known, i.e. the name of Ikunum, the son of Erishum, is
+      found in a late copy of a votive text preserved in the British Museum.
+      Thus from these few lines the names of three rulers in direct succession
+      have been recovered, viz., Ashir-rabi, Ashir-nirari, and
+      Ashur-rîm-nishêshu, and also those of four earlier rulers, viz., Kikia,
+      Shar-kenkate-Ashir, Ishme-Dagan, and his son Ashir-nirari. Another
+      interesting point about the inscription is the spelling of the name of the
+      national god of the Assyrians. In the later periods it is always written
+      <i>Ashur</i>, but at this early time we see that the second vowel is
+      changed and that at first the name was written <i>Ashir</i>, a form that
+      was already known from the Cappadocian cuneiform inscriptions. The form
+      Ashir is a good participial construction and signifies “the Beneficent,”
+       “the Merciful One.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another interesting find, which was also made last year, consists of four
+      stone tablets, each engraved with the same building-inscription of
+      Shalmaneser I, a king who reigned over Assyria about 1300 B.C. In
+      recording his rebuilding of E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of the god Ashur
+      in the city of Ashur, he gives a brief summary of the temple’s history
+      with details as to the length of time which elapsed between the different
+      periods during which it had been previously restored. The temple was
+      burned in Shalmaneser’s time, and, when recording this fact and the
+      putting out of the fire, he summarizes the temple’s history in a long
+      parenthesis, as will be seen from the following translation of the
+      extract: “When E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of Ashur, my lord, which
+      Ushpia (variant <i>Aushpia</i>), the priest of Ashur, my forefather, had
+      built aforetime,&mdash;and it fell into decay and Erishu, my forefather,
+      the priest of Ashur, rebuilt it; 159 years passed by after the reign of
+      Erishu, and that temple fell into decay, and Shamshi-Adad, the priest of
+      Ashur, rebuilt it; (during) 580 years that temple which Shamshi-Adad, the
+      priest of Ashur, had built, grew hoary and old&mdash;(when) fire broke out
+      in the midst thereof..., at that time I drenched that temple (with water)
+      in (all) its circuit.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From this extract it will be seen that Shalmaneser gives us, in Ushpia or
+      Aushpia, the name of a very early Assyrian viceroy, who in his belief was
+      the founder of the great temple of the god Ashur. He also tells us that
+      159 years separated Erishu from a viceroy named Shamshi-Adad, and that 580
+      years separated Shamshi-Adad from his own time. When these inscriptions
+      were first found they were hailed with considerable satisfaction by
+      historians, as they gave what seemed to be valuable information for
+      settling the chronology of the early patesis. But confidence in the
+      accuracy of Shalmaneser’s reckoning was somewhat shaken a few months
+      afterwards by the discovery of a prism of Esarhaddon, who gave in it a
+      history of the same temple, but ascribed totally different figures for the
+      periods separating the reigns of Erishu and Shamshi-Adad, and the temple’s
+      destruction by fire. Esarhaddon agrees with Shalmaneser in ascribing the
+      founding of the temple to Ushpia, but he states that only 126 years
+      (instead of 159 years) separated Erishu (whom he spells Irishu), the son
+      of Ilu-shumma, from Shamshi-Adad, the son of Bêl-kabi; and he adds that
+      434 years (instead of 580 years) elapsed between Shamshi-Adad’s
+      restoration of the temple and the time when it was burned down. As
+      Shalmaneser I lived over six hundred years earlier than Esarhaddon, he was
+      obviously in a better position to ascertain the periods at which the
+      events recorded took place, but the discrepancy between the figures he
+      gives and those of Esarhaddon is disconcerting. It shows that Assyrian
+      scribes could make bad mistakes in their reckoning, and it serves to cast
+      discredit on the absolute accuracy of the chronological notices contained
+      in other late Assyrian inscriptions. So far from helping to settle the
+      unsolved problems of Assyrian chronology, these two recent finds at
+      Sherghat have introduced fresh confusion, and Assyrian chronology for the
+      earlier periods is once more cast into the melting pot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In addition to the recovery of the names of hitherto unknown early rulers
+      of Assyria, the recent excavations at Sherghat have enabled us to
+      ascertain the true reading of the name of Shalmaneser I’s grandfather, who
+      reigned a considerable time after Assyria had gained her independence. The
+      name of this king has hitherto been read as Pudi-ilu, but it is now shown
+      that the signs composing the first part of the name are not to be taken
+      phonetically, but as ideographs, the true reading of the name being
+      Arik-dên-ilu, the signification of which is “Long (i.e. far-reaching) is
+      the judgment of God.” Arik-dên-ilu was a great conqueror, as were his
+      immediate descendants, all of whom extended the territory of Assyria. By
+      strengthening the country and increasing her resources they enabled
+      Arik-dên-ilu ‘s great-grandson, Tukulti-Ninib I, to achieve the conquest
+      of Babylon itself. Concerning Tukulti-Ninib’s reign and achievements an
+      interesting inscription has recently been discovered. This is now
+      preserved in the British Museum, and before describing it we may briefly
+      refer to another phase of the excavations at Sherghat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0029" id="linkDimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/396.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="396.jpg Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription Of Arik-dên-ilu. " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     An early independent King of Assyria, who reigned about B.C.
+     1350. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The mounds of Sherghat rise a considerable height above the level of the
+      plain, and are to a great extent of natural and not of artificial
+      formation. In fact, the existence of a group of high natural mounds at
+      this point on the bank of the Tigris must have led to its selection by the
+      early Assyrians as the site on which to build their first stronghold. The
+      mounds were already so high, from their natural formation, that there was
+      no need for the later Assyrian kings to increase their height artificially
+      (as they raised the chief palace-mound at Nineveh), and the remains of the
+      Assyrian buildings of the early period are thus only covered by a few feet
+      of débris and not by masses of unburnt brick and artificially piled up
+      soil. This fact has considerably facilitated the systematic uncovering of
+      the principal mound that is now being carried out by Dr. Andrae.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0030" id="linkDimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/397.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="397.jpg Entrance Into One of the Galleries Or Tunnels Cut Into the Principal Mound at Sherghat. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Work has hitherto been confined to the northwest corner of the mound
+      around the ziggurat, or temple tower, and already considerable traces of
+      Assyrian buildings have been laid bare in this portion of the site. The
+      city wall on the northern side has been uncovered, as well as quays with
+      steps leading down to the water along the river front. Part of the great
+      temple of the god Ashur has been excavated, though a considerable portion
+      of it must be still covered by the modern Turkish fort at the extreme
+      northern point of the mounds; also part of a palace erected by
+      Ashur-nasir-pal has been identified. In fact, the work at Sherghat
+      promises to add considerably to our knowledge of ancient Assyrian
+      architecture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inscription of Tukulti-Ninib I, which was referred to above as having
+      been recently acquired by the trustees of the British Museum, affords
+      valuable information for the reconstruction of the history of Assyria
+      during the first half of the thirteenth century B.C.<a href="#fn8.2" name="fnref8.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> It is seen from the
+      facts summarized that for our knowledge of the earlier history of the
+      country we have to depend to a large extent on short brick-inscriptions
+      and votive texts supplemented by historical references in inscriptions of
+      the later period. The only historical inscription of any length belonging
+      to the early Assyrian period, which had been published up to a year ago,
+      was the famous memorial slab containing an inscription of Adad-nirari I,
+      which was acquired by the late Mr. George Smith some thirty years ago.
+      Although purchased in Mosul, the slab had been found by the natives in the
+      mounds at Sherghat, for the text engraved upon it in archaic Assyrian
+      characters records the restoration of a part of the temple of the god
+      Ashur in the ancient city of Ashur, the first capital of the Assyrians,
+      now marked by the mounds of Sherghat, which have already been described.
+      The object of Adad-nirari in causing the memorial slab to be inscribed was
+      to record the restoration of the portion of the temple which he had
+      rebuilt, but the most important part of the inscription was contained in
+      the introductory phrases with which the text opens. They recorded the
+      conquests achieved not only by Adad-nirari but by his father Arik-dên-ilu,
+      his grandfather Bél-nirari, and his great-grandfather Ashur-uballit. They
+      thus enabled the historian to trace the gradual extension and
+      consolidation of the Assyrian empire during a critical period in its early
+      history.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn8.2"></a> <a href="#fnref8.2">[2]</a>
+     For the text and translation of the inscription, see King,
+     Studies it Eastern History, i (1904).
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The recently recovered memorial slab of Tukulti-Ninib I is similar to that
+      of his grandfather Adad-nirari I, and ranks in importance with it for the
+      light it throws on the early struggles of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninib ‘s slab,
+      like that of Adad-nirari, was a foundation memorial intended to record
+      certain building operations carried out by order of the king. The building
+      so commemorated was not the restoration of a portion of a temple, but the
+      founding of a new city, in which the king erected no less than eight
+      temples dedicated to various deities, while he also records that he built
+      a palace therein for his own habitation, that he protected the city by a
+      strongly fortified wall, and that he cut a canal from the Tigris by which
+      he ensured a continuous supply of fresh water. These were the facts which
+      the memorial was primarily intended to record, but, like the text of
+      Adad-nirari I, the most interesting events for the historian are those
+      referred to in the introductory portions of the inscription. Before giving
+      details concerning the founding of the new city, named Kar-Tukulti-Mnib,
+      “the Fortress of Tukulti-Mnib,” the king supplies an account of the
+      military expeditions which he had conducted during the course of his reign
+      up to the time when the foundation memorial was inscribed. These
+      introductory paragraphs record how the king gradually conquered the
+      peoples to the north and northeast of Assyria, and how he finally
+      undertook a successful campaign against Babylon, during which he captured
+      the city and completely subjugated both Northern and Southern Babylonia.
+      Tukulti-Mnib’s reign thus marks an epoch in the history of his country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have already seen how, during the early ages of her history, Assyria
+      had been merely a subject province of the Babylonian empire. Her rulers
+      had been viceroys owing allegiance to their overlords in Babylon, under
+      whose orders they administered the country, while garrisons of Babylonian
+      soldiers, and troops commanded by Babylonian officers, served to keep the
+      country in a state of subjection. Gradually, however, the country began to
+      feel her feet and long for independence. The conquest of Babylon by the
+      kings of the Country of the Sea afforded her the opportunity of throwing
+      off the Babylonian yoke. In the fifteenth century the Assyrian kings were
+      powerful enough to have independent relations with the kings of Egypt,
+      and, during the two centuries which preceded Tukulti-Mnib’s reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Assyria’s relations with Babylon were the cause of constant friction due
+      to the northern kingdom’s growth in power and influence. The frontier
+      between the two countries was constantly in dispute, and, though sometimes
+      rectified by treaty, the claims of Assyria often led to war between the
+      two countries. The general result of these conflicts was that Assyria
+      gradually extended her authority farther southwards, and encroached upon
+      territory which had previously been Babylonian. The successes gained by
+      Ashur-uballit, Bêl-nirari, and Adad-nirari I against the contemporary
+      Babylonian kings had all resulted in the cession of fresh territory to
+      Assyria and in an increase of her international importance. Up to the time
+      of Tukulti-Mnib no Assyrian king had actually seated himself upon the
+      Babylonian throne. This feat was achieved by Tukulti-Mnib, and his reign
+      thus marks an important step in the gradual advance of Assyria to the
+      position which she later occupied as the predominant power in Western
+      Asia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before undertaking his campaign against Babylon, Tukulti-Mnib secured
+      himself against attack from other quarters, and his newly discovered
+      memorial inscription supplies considerable information concerning the
+      steps he took to achieve this object. In his inscription the king does not
+      number his military expeditions, and, with the exception of the first one,
+      he does not state the period of his reign in which they were undertaken.
+      The results of his campaigns are summarized in four paragraphs of the
+      text, and it is probable that they are not described in chronological
+      order, but are arranged rather according to the geographical position of
+      the districts which he invaded and subdued. Tukulti-Ninib records that his
+      first campaign took place at the beginning of his sovereignty, in the
+      first year of his reign, and it was directed against the tribes and
+      peoples inhabiting the territory on the east of Assyria. Of the tribes
+      which he overran and conquered on this occasion the most important was the
+      Kuti, who probably dwelt in the districts to the east of the Lower Zâb.
+      They were a turbulent race and they had already been conquered by
+      Arik-dên-ilu and Adad-nirari I, but on neither occasion had they been
+      completely subdued, and they had soon regained their independence. Their
+      subjugation by Tukulti-Ninib was a necessary preliminary to any conquest
+      in the south, and we can well understand why it was undertaken by the king
+      at the beginning of his reign. Other conquests which were also made in the
+      same region were the Ukumanî and the lands of Elkhu-nia, Sharnida, and
+      Mekhri, mountainous districts which probably lay to the north of the Lower
+      Zâb. The country of Mekhri took its name from the mekhru-tree, a kind of
+      pine or fir, which grew there in abundance upon the mountainsides, and was
+      highly esteemed by the Assyrian kings as affording excellent wood for
+      building purposes. At a later period Ashur-nasir-pal invaded the country
+      in the course of his campaigns and brought back beams of mekhru-wood,
+      which he used in the construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess
+      Ishtar in Nineveh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second group of tribes and districts enumerated by Tukulti-Ninib as
+      having been subdued in his early years, before his conquest of Babylon,
+      all lay probably to the northwest of Assyria. The most powerful among
+      these peoples were the Shubari, who, like the Kutî on the eastern border
+      of Assyria, had already been conquered by Adad-nirari I, but had regained
+      their independence and were once more threatening the border on this side.
+      The third group of his conquests consisted of the districts ruled over by
+      forty kings of the lands of Na’iri, which was a general term for the
+      mountainous districts to the north of Assyria, including territory to the
+      west of Lake Van and extending eastwards to the districts around Lake
+      Urmi. The forty kings in this region whom Tukulti-Ninib boasts of having
+      subdued were little more than chieftains of the mountain tribes, each one
+      possessing authority over a few villages scattered among the hills and
+      valleys. But the men of Na’iri were a warlike and hardy race, and, if left
+      long in undisturbed possession of their native fastnesses, they were
+      tempted to make raids into the fertile plains of Assyria. It was therefore
+      only politic for Tukulti-Ninib to traverse their country with fire and
+      sword, and, by exacting heavy tribute, to keep the fear of Assyrian power
+      before their eyes. From the king’s records we thus learn that he subdued
+      and crippled the semi-independent races living on his borders to the
+      north, to the northwest, and to the east. On the west was the desert, from
+      which region he need fear no organized attack when he concentrated his
+      army elsewhere, for his permanent garrisons were strong enough to repel
+      and punish any incursion of nomadic tribes. He was thus in a position to
+      try conclusions with his hereditary foe in the south, without any fear of
+      leaving his land open to invasion in his absence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The campaign against Babylon was the most important one undertaken by
+      Tukulti-Ninib, and its successful issue was the crowning point of his
+      military career. The king relates that the great gods Ashur, Bel, and
+      Shamash, and the goddess Ishtar, the queen of heaven and earth, marched at
+      the head of his warriors when he set out upon the expedition. After
+      crossing the border and penetrating into Babylonian territory he seems to
+      have had some difficulty in forcing Bitiliashu, the Kassite king who then
+      occupied the throne of Babylon, to a decisive engagement. But by a skilful
+      disposition of his forces he succeeded in hemming him in, so that the
+      Babylonian army was compelled to engage in a pitched battle. The result of
+      the fighting was a complete victory for the Assyrian arms. Many of the
+      Babylonian warriors fell fighting, and Bitiliashu himself was captured by
+      the Assyrian soldiers in the midst of the battle. Tukulti-Ninib boasts
+      that he trampled his lordly neck beneath his feet, and on his return to
+      Assyria he carried his captive back in fetters to present him with the
+      spoils of the campaign before Ashur, the national god of the Assyrians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before returning to Assyria, however, Tukulti-Ninib marched with his army
+      throughout the length and breadth of Babylonia, and achieved the
+      subjugation of the whole of the Sumer and Akkad. He destroyed the
+      fortifications of Babylon to ensure that they should not again be used
+      against himself, and all the inhabitants who did not at once submit to his
+      decrees he put co the sword. He then appointed his own officers to rule
+      the country and established his own system of administration, adding to
+      his previous title of “King of Assyria,” those of “King of Karduniash (i.
+      e. Babylonia)” and “King of Sumer and Akkad.” It was probably from this
+      period that he also adopted the title of “King of the Poor Quarters of the
+      World.” As a mark of the complete subjugation of their ancient foe,
+      Tukulti-Ninib and his army carried back with them to Assyria not only the
+      captive Babylonian king, but also the statue of Marduk, the national god
+      of Babylon. This they removed from B-sagila, his sumptuous temple in
+      Babylon, and they looted the sacred treasures from the treasure-chambers,
+      and carried them off together with the spoil of the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tukulti-Ninib no doubt left a sufficient proportion of his army in Babylon
+      to garrison the city and support the governors and officials into whose
+      charge he committed the administration of the land, but he himself
+      returned to Assyria with the rich spoil of the campaign, and it was
+      probably as a use for this large increase of wealth and material that he
+      decided to found another city which should bear his own name and
+      perpetuate it for future ages. The king records that he undertook this
+      task at the bidding of Bel (i.e. the god Ashur), who commanded that he
+      should found a new city and build a dwelling-place for him therein. In
+      accordance with the desire of Ashur and the gods, which was thus conveyed
+      to him, the king founded the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and he erected
+      therein temples dedicated not only to Ashur, but also to the gods Adad,
+      and Sha-mash, and Ninib, and Nusku, and Nergal, and Imina-bi, and the
+      goddess Ishtar. The spoils from Babylon and the temple treasures from
+      E-sagila were doubtless used for the decoration of these temples and the
+      adornment of their shrines, and the king endowed the temples and appointed
+      regular offerings, which he ordained should be their property for ever. He
+      also built a sumptuous palace for his own abode when he stayed in the
+      city, which he constructed on a mound or terrace of earth, faced with
+      brick, and piled high above the level of the city. Finally, he completed
+      its fortification by the erection of a massive wall around it, and the
+      completion of this wall was the occasion on which his memorial tablet was
+      inscribed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The memorial tablet was buried and bricked up within the actual structure
+      of the wall, in order that in future ages it might be read by those who
+      found it, and so it might preserve his name and fame. After finishing the
+      account of his building operations in the new city and recording the
+      completion of the city wall from its foundation to its coping stone, the
+      king makes an appeal to any future ruler who should find it, in the
+      following words: “In the days that are to come, when this wall shall have
+      grown old and shall have fallen into ruins, may a future prince repair the
+      damaged parts thereof, and may he anoint my memorial tablet with oil, and
+      may he offer sacrifices and restore it unto its place, and then Ashur will
+      hearken unto his prayers. But whosoever shall destroy this wall, or shall
+      remove my memorial tablet or my name that is inscribed thereon, or shall
+      leave Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, the city of my dominion, desolate, or shall
+      destroy it, may the lord Ashur overthrow his kingdom, and may he break his
+      weapons, and may he cause his warriors to be defeated, and may he diminish
+      his boundaries, and may he ordain that his rule shall be cut off, and on
+      his days may he bring sorrow, and his years may he make evil, and may he
+      blot out his name and his seed from the land!”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By such blessings and curses Tukulti-Ninib hoped to ensure the
+      preservation of his name and the rebuilding of his city, should it at any
+      time be neglected and fall into decay. Curiously enough, it was in this
+      very city that Tukulti-Ninib met his own fate less than seven years after
+      he had founded it. At that time one of his own sons, who bore the name of
+      Ashur-nasir-pal, conspired against his father and stirred up the nobles to
+      revolt. The insurrection was arranged when Tukulti-Ninib was absent from
+      his capital and staying in Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, where he was probably
+      protected by only a small bodyguard, the bulk of his veteran warriors
+      remaining behind in garrison at Ashur. The insurgent nobles, headed by
+      Ashur-nasir-pal, fell upon the king without warning when he was passing
+      through the city without any suspicion of risk from a treacherous attack.
+      The king defended himself and sought refuge in a neighbouring house, but
+      the conspirators surrounded the building and, having forced an entrance,
+      slew him with the sword. Thus Tukulti-Ninib perished in the city he had
+      built and beautified with the spoils of his campaigns, where he had looked
+      forward to passing a peaceful and secure old age. Of the fate of the city
+      itself we know little except that its site is marked to-day by a few
+      mounds which rise slightly above the level of the surrounding desert. The
+      king’s memorial tablet only has survived. For some 3,200 years it rested
+      undisturbed in the foundations of the wall of unburnt brick, where it was
+      buried by Tukulti-Ninib on the completion of the city wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0031" id="linkDimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/408.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="408.jpg Stone Tablet. Bearing an Inscription Of Tukulti-Ninib I " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     King of Assyria, about B. C. 1275.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Thence it was removed by the hands of modern Arabs, and it is now
+      preserved in the British Museum, where the characters of the inscription
+      may be seen to be as sharp and uninjured as on the day when the Assyrian
+      graver inscribed them by order of the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the account of his first campaign, which is preserved upon the memorial
+      tablet, it is stated that the peoples conquered by Tukulti-Ninib brought
+      their yearly tribute to the city of Ashur. This fact is of considerable
+      interest, for it proves that Tukulti-Ninib restored the capital of Assyria
+      to the city of Ashur, removing it from Calah, whither it had been
+      transferred by his father Shalmaneser I. The city of Calah had been
+      founded and built by Shalmaneser I in the same way that his son
+      Tukulti-Ninib built the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and the building of
+      both cities is striking evidence of the rapid growth of Assyria and her
+      need of expansion around fresh centres prepared for administration and
+      defence. The shifting of the Assyrian capital to Calah by Shalmaneser I
+      was also due to the extension of Assyrian power in the north, in
+      consequence of which there was need of having the capital nearer the
+      centre of the country so enlarged. Ashur’s recovery of her old position
+      under Tukulti-Ninib I was only a temporary check to this movement
+      northwards, and, so long as Babylon remained a conquered province of the
+      Assyrian empire, obviously the need for a capital farther north than Ashur
+      would not have been pressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0032" id="linkDimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/410.jpg"
+       alt="410.jpg the Ziggurat, Or Temple Tower, of The Assyrian City of Calah. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      But with Tukulti-Ninib’s death Babylon regained her independence and freed
+      herself from Assyrian control, and the centre of the northern kingdom was
+      once more subject to the influences which eventually resulted in the
+      permanent transference of her capital to Nineveh. To the comparative
+      neglect into which Ashur and Calah consequently fell, we may probably
+      trace the extensive remains of buildings belonging to the earlier periods
+      of Assyrian history which have been recovered and still remain to be
+      found, in the mounds that mark their sites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have given some account of the results already achieved from the
+      excavations carried out during the last two years at Sherghat, the site of
+      the city of Ashur. That much remains to be done on the site of Calah, the
+      other early capital of Assyria, is evident from even a cursory examination
+      of the present condition of the mounds that mark the location of the city.
+      These mounds are now known by the name of Nimrûd and are situated on the
+      left or eastern bank of the Tigris, a short distance above the point at
+      which it is joined by the stream of the Upper Zâb, and the great mound
+      which still covers the remains of the ziggurat, or temple tower, can be
+      seen from a considerable distance across the plain. During the excavations
+      formerly carried out here for the British Museum, remains of palaces were
+      recovered which had been built or restored by Shal-maneser I,
+      Ashur-nasir-pal, Shalmaneser II, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon, Esarhaddon,
+      and Ashur-etil-ilâni. After the conclusion of the diggings and the removal
+      of many of the sculptures to England, the site was covered again with
+      earth, in order to protect the remains of Assyrian buildings which were
+      left in place. Since that time the soil has sunk and been washed away by
+      the rains so that many of the larger sculptures are now protruding above
+      the soil, an example of which is seen in the two winged bulls in the
+      palace of Ashur-nasir-pal. It is improbable that the mounds of Nimrûd will
+      yield such rich results as Sherghat, but the site would probably well
+      repay prolonged and systematic excavation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have hitherto summarized and described the principal facts, with regard
+      to the early history of Babylonia and Assyria and the neighbouring
+      countries, which have been obtained from the excavations conducted
+      recently on the sites of ancient cities. From the actual remains of the
+      buildings that have been unearthed we have secured information with regard
+      to the temples and palaces of ancient rulers and the plans on which they
+      were designed. Erom the objects of daily life and of religious use which
+      have been recovered, such as weapons of bronze and iron, and vessels of
+      metal, stone, and clay, it is possible for the archaeologist to draw
+      conclusions with regard to the customs of these early peoples; while from
+      a study of their style and workmanship and of such examples of their
+      sculpture as have been brought to light, he may determine the stage of
+      artistic development at which they had arrived. The clay tablets and stone
+      monuments that have been recovered reveal the family life of the people,
+      their commercial undertakings, their system of legislation and land
+      tenure, their epistolary correspondence, and the administration under
+      which they lived, while the royal inscriptions and foundation-memorials
+      throw light on the religious and historical events of the period in which
+      they were inscribed. Information on all these points has been acquired as
+      the result of excavation, and is based on the discoveries in the ruins of
+      early cities which have remained buried beneath the soil for some
+      thousands of years. But for the history of Assyria and of the other
+      nations in the north there is still another source of information to which
+      reference must now be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kings of Assyria were not content with recording their achievements on
+      the walls of their buildings, on stelae set up in their palaces and
+      temples, on their tablets of annals preserved in their archive-chambers,
+      and on their cylinders and foundation-memorials concealed within the
+      actual structure of the buildings themselves. They have also left records
+      graven in the living rock, and these have never been buried, but have been
+      exposed to wind and weather from the moment they were engraved. Records of
+      irrigation works and military operations successfully undertaken by
+      Assyrian kings remain to this day on the face of the mountains to the
+      north and east of Assyria. The kings of one great mountain race that had
+      its capital at Van borrowed from the Assyrians this method of recording
+      their achievements, and, adopting the Assyrian character, have left
+      numerous rock-inscriptions in their own language in the mountains of
+      Armenia and Kurdistan. In some instances the action of rain and frost has
+      nearly if not quite obliterated the record, and a few have been defaced by
+      the hand of man. But as the majority are engraved in panels cut on the
+      sheer face of the rock, and are inaccessible except by means of ropes and
+      tackle, they have escaped mutilation. The photograph reproduced will serve
+      to show the means that must be adopted for reaching such rock-inscriptions
+      in order to examine or copy them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0033" id="linkDimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/413.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="413.jpg Work in Progress on One of the Rock-inscriptions Of Sennacherib " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     In The Gorge Of The River Gomel, Near Bavian.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The inscription shown in the photograph is one of those cut by Sennacherib
+      in the gorge near Bavian, through which the river Gomel flows, and can be
+      reached only by climbing down ropes fixed to the top of the cliff. The
+      choice of such positions by the kings who caused the inscriptions to be
+      engraved was dictated by the desire to render it difficult to destroy
+      them, but it has also had the effect of delaying to some extent their
+      copying and decipherment by modern workers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0034" id="linkDimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/414.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="414.jpg the Principal Rock Sculptures in The Gorge of The Gomel " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Near Bavian In Assyria.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Considerable progress, however, has recently been made in identifying and
+      copying these texts, and we may here give a short account of what has been
+      done and of the information furnished by the inscriptions that have been
+      examined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Recently considerable additions have been made to our knowledge of the
+      ancient empire of Van and of its relation to the later kings of Assyria by
+      the labours of Prof Lehmann and Dr. Belck on the inscriptions which the
+      kings of that period caused to be engraved upon the rocks among the
+      mountains of Armenia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0035" id="linkDimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/415.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="415.jpg the Rock and Citadel of Van. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The flat roofs of the houses of the city of Van may be seen to the left of
+      the photograph nestling below the rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The centre and capital of this empire was the ancient city which stood on
+      the site of the modern town of Van at the southwest corner of the lake
+      which bears the same name. The city was built at the foot of a natural
+      rock which rises precipitously from the plain, and must have formed an
+      impregnable stronghold against the attack of the foe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this citadel at the present day remain the ancient galleries and
+      staircases and chambers which were cut in the living rock by the kings who
+      made it their fortress, and their inscriptions, engraved upon the face of
+      the rock on specially prepared and polished surfaces, enable us to
+      reconstruct in some degree the history of that ancient empire. From time
+      to time there have been found and copied other similar texts, which are
+      cut on the mountainsides or on the massive stones which formed part of the
+      construction of their buildings and fortifications. A complete collection
+      of these texts, together with translations, will shortly be published by
+      Prof. Lehmann. Meanwhile, this scholar has discussed and summarized the
+      results to be obtained from much of his material, and we are thus already
+      enabled to sketch the principal achievements of the rulers of this
+      mountain race, who were constantly at war with the later kings of Assyria,
+      and for two centuries at least disputed her claim to supremacy in this
+      portion of Western Asia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The country occupied by this ancient people of Van was the great
+      table-land which now forms Armenia. The people themselves cannot be
+      connected with the Armenians, for their language presents no
+      characteristics of those of the Indo-European family, and it is equally
+      certain that they are not to be traced to a Semitic origin. It is true
+      that they employed the Assyrian method of writing their inscriptions, and
+      their art differs only in minor points from that of the Assyrians, but in
+      both instances this similarity of culture was directly borrowed at a time
+      when the less civilized race, having its centre at Van, came into direct
+      contact with the Assyrians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0036" id="linkDimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/417.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="417.jpg Ancient Flight of Steps and Gallery on the Face Of the Rock-citadel of Van. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The exact date at which this influence began to be exerted is not certain,
+      but we have records of immediate relations with Assyria in the second half
+      of the ninth century before Christ. The district inhabited by the Vannic
+      people was known to the Assyrians by the name of Urartu, and although the
+      inscriptions of the earlier Assyrian kings do not record expeditions
+      against that country, they frequently make mention of campaigns against
+      princes and petty rulers of the land of Na’iri. They must therefore for
+      long have exercised an indirect, if not a direct, influence on the peoples
+      and tribes which lay more to the north.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The earliest evidence of direct contact between the Assyrians and the land
+      of Urartu which we at present possess dates from the reign of
+      Ashur-nasir-pal, and in the reign of his son Shalmaneser II three
+      expeditions were undertaken against the people of Van. The name of the
+      king of Urartu at this time was Arame, and his capital city, Arzasku,
+      probably lay to the north of Lake Van. On all three occasions the
+      Assyrians were victorious, forcing Arame to abandon his capital and
+      capturing his cities as far as the sources of the Euphrates. Subsequently,
+      in the year 833 B.C., Shalmaneser II made another attack upon the country,
+      which at that time was under the sway of Sarduris I. Under this monarch
+      the citadel of Van became the great stronghold of the people of Urartu,
+      for he added to the natural strength of the position by the construction
+      of walls built between the rock of Van and the harbour. The massive blocks
+      of stone of which his fortifications were composed are standing at the
+      present day, and they bear eloquent testimony to the energy with which
+      this monarch devoted himself to the task of rendering his new citadel
+      impregnable. The fortification and strengthening of Van and its citadel
+      was carried on during the reigns of his direct successors and descendants,
+      Ispui-nis, Menuas, and Argistis I, so that when Tiglath-pile-ser III
+      brought fire and sword into the country and laid siege to Van in the reign
+      of Sarduris II, he could not capture the citadel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0037" id="linkDimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/419.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="419.jpg Part of the Ancient Fortifications Of The City Of Van, Between the Citadel and The Lake. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It was not difficult for the Assyrian king to assault and capture the city
+      itself, which lay at the foot of the citadel as it does at the present
+      day, but the latter, within the fortifications of which Sarduris and his
+      garrison withdrew, proved itself able to withstand the Assyrian attack.
+      The expedition of Tiglath-pileser III did not succeed in crushing the
+      Vannic empire, for Rusas I, the son and successor of Sarduris II, allied
+      himself to the neighbouring mountain races and gave considerable trouble
+      to Sargon, the Assyrian king, who was obliged to undertake an expedition
+      to check their aggressions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was probably Rusas I who erected the buildings on Toprak Kala, the hill
+      to the east of Van, traces of which remain to the present day. He built a
+      palace and a temple, and around them he constructed a new city with a
+      reservoir to supply it with water, possibly because the slopes of Toprak
+      Kala rendered it easier of defence than the city in the plain (beneath the
+      rock and citadel) which had fallen an easy prey to Tiglath-pileser III.
+      The site of the temple on Toprak Kala has been excavated by the trustees
+      of the British Museum, and our knowledge of Vannic art is derived from the
+      shields and helmets of bronze and small bronze figures and fittings which
+      were recovered from this building. One of the shields brought to the
+      British Museum from the Toprak Kala, where it originally hung with others
+      on the temple walls, bears the name of Argistis II, who was the son and
+      successor of Rusas I, and who attempted to give trouble to the Assyrians
+      by stirring the inhabitants of the land of Kummukh (Kommagene) to revolt
+      against Sargon. His son, Rusas II, was the contemporary of Esarhaddon, and
+      from some recently discovered rock-inscriptions we learn that he extended
+      the limits of his kingdom on the west and secured victories against Mushki
+      (Meshech) to the southeast of the Halys and against the Hittites in
+      Northern Syria. Rusas III rebuilt the temple on Toprak Kala, as we know
+      from an inscription of his on one of the shields from that place in the
+      British Museum. Both he and Sarduris III were on friendly terms with the
+      Assyrians, for we know that they both sent embassies to Ashur-bani-pal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By far the larger number of rock-inscriptions that have yet been found and
+      copied in the mountainous districts bordering on Assyria were engraved by
+      this ancient Vannic people, and Drs. Lehmann and Belck have done good
+      service by making careful copies and collations of all those which are at
+      present known. Work on other classes of rock-inscriptions has also been
+      carried on by other travellers. A new edition of the inscriptions of
+      Sennacherib in the gorge of the Gomel, near the village of Bavian, has
+      been made by Mr. King, who has also been fortunate enough to find a number
+      of hitherto unknown inscriptions in Kurdistan on the Judi Dagh and at the
+      sources of the Tigris. The inscriptions at the mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb,
+      “the Dog River,” in Syria, have been reexamined by Dr. Knudtzon, and the
+      long inscription which Nebuchadnezzar II cut on the rocks at Wadi Brissa
+      in the Lebanon, formerly published by M. Pognon, has been recopied by Dr.
+      Weissbach. Finally, the great trilingual inscription of Darius Hystaspes
+      on the rock at Bisutun in Persia, which was formerly copied by the late
+      Sir Henry Raw-linson and used by him for the successful decipherment of
+      the cuneiform inscriptions, was completely copied last year by Messrs.
+      King and Thompson.<a href="#fn8.3" name="fnref8.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn8.3"></a> <a href="#fnref8.3">[3]</a>
+     Messrs. King and Thompson are preparing a new edition of
+     this inscription.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The main facts of the history of Assyria under her later kings and of
+      Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods were many years
+      ago correctly ascertained, and recent excavation and research have done
+      little to add to our knowledge of the history of these periods. It was
+      hoped that the excavations conducted by Dr. Koldewey at Babylon would
+      result in the recovery of a wealth of inscriptions and records referring
+      to the later history of the country, but unfortunately comparatively few
+      tablets or inscriptions have been found, and those that have been
+      recovered consist mainly of building-inscriptions and votive texts. One
+      such building-inscription contains an interesting historical reference. It
+      occurs on a barrel-cylinder of clay inscribed with a text of Nabopolassar,
+      and it was found in the temple of Ninib and records the completion and
+      restoration of the temple by the king. In addition to recording the
+      building operations he had carried out in the temple, Nabopolassar boasts
+      of his opposition to the Assyrians. He says: “As for the Assyrians who had
+      ruled all peoples from distant days and had set the people of the land
+      under a heavy yoke, I, the weak and humble man who worshippeth the Lord of
+      Lords (i.e. the god Marduk), through the mighty power of Nabû and Marduk,
+      my lords, held back their feet from the land of Akkad and cast off their
+      yoke.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not yet certain whether the Babylonians under Nabopolassar actively
+      assisted Cyaxares and the Medes in the siege and in the subsequent capture
+      of Nineveh in 606 B.C. but this newly discovered reference to the
+      Assyrians by Nabopolassar may possibly be taken to imply that the
+      Babylonians were passive and not active allies of Cyaxares. If the
+      cylinder were inscribed after the fall of Nineveh we should have expected
+      Nabopolassar, had he taken an active part in the capture of the city, to
+      have boasted in more definite terms of his achievement. On his stele which
+      is preserved at Constantinople, Nabonidus, the last king of the
+      Neo-Babylonian empire, who himself suffered defeat at the hands of Cyrus,
+      King of Persia, ascribed the fall of Nineveh to the anger of Marduk and
+      the other gods of Babylon because of the destruction of their city and the
+      spoliation of their temples by Sennacherib in 689 B.C. We see the irony of
+      fate in the fact that Cyrus also ascribed the defeat and deposition of
+      Nabonidus and the fall of Babylon to Marduk’s intervention, whose anger he
+      alleges was aroused by the attempt of Nabonidus to concentrate the worship
+      of the local city-gods in Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it will be seen that recent excavation and research have not yet
+      supplied the data for filling in such gaps as still remain in our
+      knowledge of the later history of Assyria and Babylon. The closing years
+      of the Assyrian empire and the military achievements of the great
+      Neo-Babylonian rulers, Nabopolassar, Nerig-lissar, and Nebuchadnezzar II,
+      have not yet been found recorded in any published Assyrian or Babylonian
+      inscription, but it may be expected that at any moment some text will be
+      discovered that will throw light upon the problems connected with the
+      history of those periods which still await solution. Meanwhile, the
+      excavations at Babylon, although they have not added much to our knowledge
+      of the later history of the country, have been of immense service in
+      revealing the topography of the city during the Neo-Babylonian period, as
+      well as the positions, plans, and characters of the principal buildings
+      erected by the later Babylonian kings. The discovery of the palaces of
+      Nebuchadnezzar II on the mound of the Kasr, of the small but complete
+      temple E-makh, of the temple of the goddess Nin-makh to the northeast of
+      the palaces, and of the sacred road dividing them and passing through the
+      Great Gate of Ishtar (adorned with representations of lions, bulls, and
+      dragons in raised brick upon its walls) has enabled us to form some
+      conception of the splendour and magnificence of the city as it appeared
+      when rebuilt by its last native rulers. Moreover, the great temple
+      E-sagila, the famous shrine of the god Marduk, has been identified and
+      partly excavated beneath the huge mound of Tell Amran ibn-Ali, while a
+      smaller and less famous temple of Ninib has been discovered in the lower
+      mounds which lie to the eastward. Finally, the sacred way from E-sagila to
+      the palace mound has been traced and uncovered. We are thus enabled to
+      reconstitute the scene of the most solemn rite of the Babylonian festival
+      of the New Year, when the statue of the god Marduk was carried in solemn
+      procession along this road from the temple to the palace, and the
+      Babylonian king made his yearly obeisance to the national god, placing his
+      own hands within those of Marduk, in token of his submission to and
+      dependence on the divine will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0038" id="linkDimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/425.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="425.jpg Within the Shrine Op E-makh, The Temple Op The Goddess Nin-makh. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Though recent excavations have not led to any startling discoveries with
+      regard to the history of Western Asia during the last years of the
+      Babylonian empire, research among the tablets dating from the
+      Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods has lately added considerably to our
+      knowledge of Babylonian literature. These periods were marked by great
+      literary activity on the part of the priests at Babylon, Sippar, and
+      elsewhere, who, under the royal orders, scoured the country for all
+      remains of the early literature which was preserved in the ancient temples
+      and archives of the country, and made careful copies and collections of
+      all they found. Many of these tablets containing Neo-Babylonian copies of
+      earlier literary texts are preserved in the British Museum, and have been
+      recently published, and we have thus recovered some of the principal
+      grammatical, religious, and magical compositions of the earlier Babylonian
+      period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0039" id="linkDimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/426.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="426.jpg Trench in the Babylonian Plain " />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     Between The Mound Of The Kasr And Tell Amran Ibn-Ali,
+     Showing A Section Of The Paved Sacred Way.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Among the most interesting of such recent finds is a series of tablets
+      inscribed with the Babylonian legends concerning the creation of the world
+      and man, which present many new and striking parallels to the beliefs on
+      these subjects embodied in Hebrew literature. We have not space to treat
+      this subject at greater length in the present work, but we may here note
+      that discovery and research in its relation to the later empires that
+      ruled at Babylon have produced results of literary rather than of
+      historical importance. But we should exceed the space at our disposal if
+      we attempted even to skim this fascinating field of study in which so much
+      has recently been achieved. For it is time we turned once more to Egypt
+      and directed our inquiry towards ascertaining what recent research has to
+      tell us with regard to her inhabitants during the later periods of her
+      existence as a nation of the ancient world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkD2HCH0003" id="linkD2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Before we turned from Egypt to summarize the information, afforded by
+      recent discoveries, upon the history of Western Asia under the kings of
+      the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, we noted that the Asiatic empire
+      of Egypt was regained by the reactionary kings of the XIXth Dynasty, after
+      its temporary loss owing to the vagaries of Akhunaten. Palestine remained
+      Egyptian throughout the period of the judges until the foundation of the
+      kingdom of Judah. With the decline of military spirit in Egypt and the
+      increasing power of the priesthood, authority over Asia became less and
+      less a reality. Tribute was no longer paid, and the tribes wrangled
+      without a restraining hand, during the reigns of the successors of Ramses
+      III. By the time of the priest-kings of Thebes (the XXIst Dynasty) the
+      authority of the Pharaohs had ceased to be exercised in Syria. Egypt was
+      itself divided into two kingdoms, the one ruled by Northern descendants of
+      the Ramessids at Tanis, the other by the priestly monarchs at Thebes, who
+      reigned by right of inheritance as a result of the marriage of the
+      daughter of Ramses with the high priest Amenhetep, father of Herhor, the
+      first priest-king. The Thebans fortified Gebelên in the South and el-Hêbi
+      in the North against attack, and evidently their relations with the
+      Tanites were not always friendly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Syria nothing of the imperial power remained. The prestige of the god
+      Amen of Thebes, however, was still very great. We see this clearly from a
+      very interesting papyrus of the reign of Herhor, published in 1899 by Mr.
+      Golenischeff, which describes the adventures of Uenuamen, an envoy sent
+      (about 1050 B.C.) to Phoenicia to bring wood from the mountains of Lebanon
+      for the construction of a great festival bark of the god Amen at Thebes.
+      In the course of his mission he was very badly treated (We cannot well
+      imagine Thothmes III or Amenhetep III tolerating ill-treatment of their
+      envoy!) and eventually shipwrecked on the coast of the land of Alashiya or
+      Cyprus. He tells us in the papyrus, which seems to be the official report
+      of his mission, that, having been given letters of credence to the Prince
+      of Byblos from the King of Tanis, “to whom Amen had given charge of his
+      North-land,” he at length reached Phoenicia, and after much discussion and
+      argument was able to prevail upon the prince to have the wood which he
+      wanted brought down from Lebanon to the seashore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, however, a difficulty presented itself,&mdash;the harbour was filled
+      with the piratical ships of the Cretan Tjakaray, who refused to allow
+      Uenuamen to return to Egypt. They said, ‘Seize him; let no ship of his go
+      unto the land of Egypt!’ “Then,” says Uenuamen in the papyrus, “I sat down
+      and wept. The scribe of the prince came out unto me; he said unto me,
+      ‘What ail-eth thee?’ I replied, ‘Seest thou not the birds which fly, which
+      fly back unto Egypt? Look at them, they go unto the cool canal, and how
+      long do I remain abandoned here? Seest thou not those who would prevent my
+      return?’ He went away and spoke unto the prince, who began to weep at the
+      words which were told unto him and which were so sad. He sent his scribe
+      out unto me, who brought me two measures of wine and a deer. He sent me
+      Tentnuet, an Egyptian singing-girl who was with him, saying unto her,
+      ‘Sing unto him, that he may not grieve!’ He sent word unto me, ‘Eat,
+      drink, and grieve not! To-morrow shalt thou hear all that I shall say.’ On
+      the morrow he had the people of his harbour summoned, and he stood in the
+      midst of them, and he said unto the Tjakaray, ‘What aileth you?’ They
+      answered him, ‘We will pursue the piratical ships which thou sendest unto
+      Egypt with our unhappy companions.’ He said unto them, ‘I cannot seize the
+      ambassador of Amen in my land. Let me send him away and then do ye pursue
+      after him to seize him!’ He sent me on board, and he sent me away... to
+      the haven of the sea. The wind drove me upon the land of Alashiya. The
+      people of the city came out in order to slay me. I was dragged by them to
+      the place where Hatiba, the queen of the city, was. I met her as she was
+      going out of one of her houses into the other. I greeted her and said unto
+      the people who stood by her, ‘Is there not one among you who understandeth
+      the speech of Egypt?’ One of them replied, ‘I understand it.’ I said unto
+      him, ‘Say unto thy mistress: even as far as the city in which Amen
+      dwelleth (i. e. Thebes) have I heard the proverb, “In all cities is
+      injustice done; only in Alashiya is justice to be found,” and now is
+      injustice done here every day!’ She said, ‘What is it that thou sayest?’ I
+      said unto her, ‘Since the sea raged and the wind drove me upon the land in
+      which thou livest, therefore thou wilt not allow them to seize my body and
+      to kill me, for verily I am an ambassador of Amen. Remember that I am one
+      who will be sought for always. And if these men of the Prince of Byblos
+      whom they seek to kill (are killed), verily if their chief finds ten men
+      of thine, will he not kill them also?’ She summoned the men, and they were
+      brought before her. She said unto me, ‘Lie down and sleep...’”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point the papyrus breaks off, and we do not know how Uenuamen
+      returned to Egypt with his wood. The description of his casting-away and
+      landing on Alashiya is quite Homeric, and gives a vivid picture of the
+      manners of the time. The natural impulse of the islanders is to kill the
+      strange castaway, and only the fear of revenge and of the wrath of a
+      distant foreign deity restrains them. Alashiya is probably Cyprus, which
+      also bore the name Yantinay from the time of Thothmes III until the
+      seventh century, when it is called Yatnan by the Assyrians. A king of
+      Alashiya corresponded with Amenhetep III in cuneiform on terms of perfect
+      equality, three hundred years before: “Brother,” he writes, “should the
+      small amount of the copper which I have sent thee be displeasing unto thy
+      heart, it is because in my land the hand of Nergal my lord slew all the
+      men of my land (i.e. they died of the plague), and there was no working of
+      copper; and this was, my brother, not pleasing unto thy heart. Thy
+      messenger with my messenger swiftly will I send, and whatsoever amount of
+      copper thou hast asked for, O my brother, I, even I, will send it unto
+      thee.” The mention by Herhor’s envoy of Nesibinebdad (Smendes), the King
+      of Tanis, a powerful ruler who in reality constantly threatened the
+      existence of the priestly monarchy at Thebes, as “him to whom Amen has
+      committed the wardship of his North-land,” is distinctly amusing. The hard
+      fact of the independence of Lower Egypt had to be glozed somehow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The days of Theban power were coming to an end and only the prestige of
+      the god Amen remained strong for two hundred years more. But the alliance
+      of Amen and his priests with a band of predatory and destroying foreign
+      conquerors, the Ethiopians (whose rulers were the descendants of the
+      priest-kings, who retired to Napata on the succession of the powerful
+      Bubastite dynasty of Shishak to that of Tanis, abandoning Thebes to the
+      Northerners), did much to destroy the prestige of Amen and of everything
+      connected with him. An Ethiopian victory meant only an Assyrian
+      reconquest, and between them Ethiopians and Assyrians had well-nigh ruined
+      Egypt. In the Saïte period Thebes had declined greatly in power as well as
+      in influence, and all its traditions were anathema to the leading people
+      of the time, although not of course in Akhunaten’s sense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Saïte period we seem almost to have retraced our steps and to
+      have reentered the age of the Pyramid Builders. All the pomp and glory of
+      Thothmes, Amenhetep, and Ramses were gone. The days of imperial Egypt were
+      over, and the minds of men, sickened of foreign war, turned for peace and
+      quietness to the simpler ideals of the IVth and Vth Dynasties. We have
+      already seen that an archaistic revival of the styles of the early
+      dynasties is characteristic of this late period, and that men were buried
+      at Sakkâra and at Thebes in tombs which recall in form and decoration
+      those of the courtiers of the Pyramid Builders. Everywhere we see this
+      fashion of archaism. A Theban noble of this period named Aba was buried at
+      Thebes. Long ago, nearly three thousand years before, under the VIth
+      Dynasty, there had lived a great noble of the same name, who was buried in
+      a rock-tomb at Dêr el-Gebrâwî, in Middle Egypt. This tomb was open and
+      known in the days of the second Aba, who caused to be copied and
+      reproduced in his tomb in the Asasîf at Thebes most of the scenes from the
+      bas-relief with which it had been decorated. The tomb of the VIth Dynasty
+      Aba has lately been copied for the Archaeological Survey of Egypt (Egypt
+      Exploration Fund) by Mr. de Garis Davies, who has found the reliefs of the
+      XXVIth Dynasty Aba of considerable use to him in reconstituting destroyed
+      portions of their ancient originals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During late years important discoveries of objects of this era have been
+      few. One of the most noteworthy is that of a contemporary inscription
+      describing the battle of Momemphis, which is mentioned by Herodotus (ii,
+      163, 169). We now have the official account of this battle, and know that
+      it took place in the third year of the reign of Amasis&mdash;not before he
+      became king. This was the fight in which the unpatriotic king, Apries, who
+      had paid for his partiality for the Greeks of Nau-kratis with the loss of
+      his throne, was finally defeated. As we see from this inscription, he was
+      probably murdered by the country people during his flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following are the most important passages of the inscription: “His
+      Majesty (Amasis) was in the Festival-Hall, discussing plans for his whole
+      land, when one came to say unto him, ‘Hââ-ab-Râ (Apries) is rowing up; he
+      hath gone on board the ships which have crossed over. Haunebu (Greeks),
+      one knows not their number, are traversing the North-land, which is as if
+      it had no master to rule it; he (Apries) hath summoned them, they are
+      coming round him. It is he who hath arranged their settlement in the
+      Peh-ân (the An-dropolite name); they infest the whole breadth of Egypt,
+      those who are on thy waters fly before them!’... His Majesty mounted his
+      chariot, having taken lance and bow in his hand... (the enemy) reached
+      Andropolis; the soldiers sang with joy on the roads... they did their duty
+      in destroying the enemy. His Majesty fought like a lion; he made victims
+      among them, one knows not how many. The ships and their warriors were
+      overturned, they saw the depths as do the fishes. Like a flame he
+      extended, making a feast of fighting. His heart rejoiced.... The third
+      year, the 8th Athyr, one came to tell Majesty: ‘Let their vile-ness be
+      ended! They throng the roads, there are thousands there ravaging the land;
+      they fill every road. Those who are in ships bear thy terror in their
+      hearts. But it is not yet finished.’ Said his Majesty unto his soldiers:
+      ‘...Young men and old men, do this in the cities and nomes!’... Going upon
+      every road, let not a day pass without fighting their galleys!’... The
+      land was traversed as by the blast of a tempest, destroying their ships,
+      which were abandoned by the crews. The people accomplished their fate,
+      killing the prince (Apries) on his couch, when he had gone to repose in
+      his cabin. When he saw his friend overthrown... his Majesty himself buried
+      him (Apries), in order to establish him as a king possessing virtue, for
+      his Majesty decreed that the hatred of the gods should be removed from
+      him.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the event to which we have already referred in a preceding
+      chapter, as proving the great amelioration of Egyptian ideas with regard
+      to the treatment of a conquered enemy, as compared with those of other
+      ancient nations. Amasis refers to the deposed monarch as his “friend,” and
+      buries him in a manner befitting a king at the charges of Amasis himself.
+      This act warded off from the spirit of Apries the just anger of the gods
+      at his partiality for the “foreign devils,” and ensured his reception by
+      Osiris as a king neb menkh, “possessing virtues.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The town of Naukratis, where Apries established himself, had been granted
+      to the Greek traders by Psametik I a century or more before. Mr. D. G.
+      Hogarth’s recent exploration of the site has led to a considerable
+      modification of our first ideas of the place, which were obtained from
+      Prof. Petrie ‘s excavations. Prof. Petrie was the discoverer of Naukratis,
+      and his diggings told us what Naukratis was like in the first instance,
+      but Mr. Hogarth has shown that several of his identifications were
+      erroneous and that the map of the place must be redrawn. The chief error
+      was in the placing of the Hellenion (the great meeting-place of the
+      Greeks), which is now known to be in quite a different position from that
+      assigned to it by Prof. Petrie. The “Great Temenos” of Prof. Petrie has
+      now been shown to be non-existent. Mr. Hogarth has also pointed out that
+      an old Egyptian town existed at Nau-kratis long before the Greeks came
+      there. This town is mentioned on a very interesting stele of black basalt
+      (discovered at Tell Gaif, the site of Naukratis, and now in the Cairo
+      Museum), under the name of “Permerti, which is called Nukrate.” The first
+      is the old Egyptian name, the second the Greek name adapted to Egyptian
+      hieroglyphs. The stele was erected by Tekhtnebf, the last native king of
+      Egypt, to commemorate his gifts to the temples of Neïth on the occasion of
+      his accession at Sais. It is beautifully cut, and the inscription is
+      written in a curious manner, with alphabetic spellings instead of
+      ideographs, and ideographs instead of alphabetic spellings, which savours
+      fully of the affectation of the learned pedant who drafted it; for now, of
+      course, in the fourth century before Christ, nobody but a priestly
+      antiquarian could read hieroglyphics. Demotic was the only writing for
+      practical purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We see this fact well illustrated in the inscriptions of the Ptolemaïc
+      temples. The accession of the Ptolemies marked a great increase in the
+      material wealth of Egypt, and foreign conquest again came in fashion.
+      Ptolemy Euergetes marched into Asia in the grand style of a Ramses and
+      brought back the images of gods which had been carried off by Esarhaddon
+      or Nebuchadnezzar II centuries before. He was received on his return to
+      Egypt with acclamations as a true successor of the Pharaohs. The imperial
+      spirit was again in vogue, and the archaistic simplicity and independence
+      of the Saïtes gave place to an archaistic imperialism, the first-fruits of
+      which were the repair and building of temples in the great Pharaonic
+      style. On these we see the Ptolemies masquerading as Pharaohs, and the
+      climax of absurdity is reached when Ptolemy Auletes (the Piper) is seen
+      striking down Asiatic enemies in the manner of Amen-hetep or Ramses! This
+      scene is directly copied from a Ramesside temple, and we find imitations
+      of reliefs of Ramses II so slavish that the name of the earlier king is
+      actually copied, as well as the relief, and appears above the figure of a
+      Ptolemy. The names of the nations who were conquered by Thothmes III are
+      repeated on Ptolemaic sculptures to do duty for the conquered of
+      Euergetes, with all sorts of mistakes in spelling, naturally, and also
+      with later interpolations. Such an inscription is that in the temple of
+      Kom Ombo, which Prof. Say ce has held to contain the names of “Caphtor and
+      Casluhim” and to prove the knowledge of the latter name in the fourteenth
+      century before Christ. The name of Caphtor is the old Egyptian Keftiu
+      (Crete); that of Casluhim is unknown in real Old Egyptian inscriptions,
+      and in this Ptolemaic list at Kom Ombo it may be quite a late
+      interpolation in the lists, perhaps no older than the Persian period,
+      since we find the names of Parsa (Persia) and Susa, which were certainly
+      unknown to Thothmes III, included in it. We see generally from the
+      Ptolemaic inscriptions that nobody could read them but a few priests, who
+      often made mistakes. One of the most serious was the identification of
+      Keftiu with Phoenicia in the Stele of Canopus. This misled modern
+      archaeologists down to the time of Dr. Evans’s discoveries at Knossos,
+      though how these utterly un-Semitic looking Keftiu could have been
+      Phoenicians was a puzzle to everybody. We now know, of course, that they
+      were Mycenaean or Minoan Cretans, and that the Ptolemaic antiquaries made
+      a mistake in identifying the land of Keftiu with Phoenicia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must not, however, say too much in dispraise of the Ptolemaic Egyptians
+      and their works. We have to be grateful to them indeed for the building of
+      the temples of Edfu and Dendera, which, owing to their later date, are
+      still in good preservation, while the best preserved of the old Pharaonic
+      fanes, such as Medinet Habû, have suffered considerably from the ravages
+      of time. Eor these temples show us to-day what an old Egyptian temple,
+      when perfect, really looked like. They are, so to speak, perfect mummies
+      of temples, while of the old buildings we have nothing but the disjointed
+      and damaged skeletons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A good deal of repairing has been done to these buildings, especially to
+      that at Edfu, of late years. But the main archaeological interest of
+      Ptolemaic and Roman times has been found in the field of epigraphy and the
+      study of papyri, with which the names of Messrs. Kenyon, Grenfell, and
+      Hunt are chiefly connected. The treasures which have lately been obtained
+      by the British Museum in the shape of the manuscripts of Aristotle’s
+      “Constitution of Athens,” the lost poems of Bacchylides, and the Mimes of
+      Herondas, all of which have been published for the trustees of that
+      institution by Mr. Kenyon, are known to those who are interested in these
+      subjects. The long series of publications of Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt,
+      issued at the expense of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Graeco-Roman branch),
+      with the exception of the volume of discoveries at Teb-tunis, which was
+      issued by the University of California, is also well known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two places with which Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt’s work has been
+      chiefly connected are the Fayyûm and Behnesâ, the site of the ancient
+      Permje or Oxyr-rhynchus. The lake-province of the Fayyûm, which attained
+      such prominence in the days of the XIIth Dynasty, seems to have had little
+      or no history during the whole period of the New Empire, but in Ptolemaic
+      times it revived and again became one of the richest and most important
+      provinces of Egypt. The town of Arsinoë was founded at Crocodilopolis,
+      where are now the mounds of Kom el-Fâris (The Mound of the Horseman), near
+      Medinet el-Payyum, and became the capital of the province. At Illahûn,
+      just outside the entrance to the Fayyûm, was the great Nile harbour and
+      entrepôt of the lake-district, called Ptolemaïs Hormos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The explorations of Messrs. Hogarth, Grenfell, and Hunt in the years of
+      1895-6 and 1898-9 resulted in the identification of the sites of the
+      ancient cities of Karanis (Kom Ushîm), Bacchias (Omm el-’Atl), Euhemeria
+      (Kasr el-Banât), Theadelphia (Harît), and Philoteris (Wadfa). The work for
+      the University of California in 18991900 at Umm el-Baragat showed that
+      this place was Tebtunis. Dime, on the northern coast of the Birket Karûn,
+      the modern representative of the ancient Lake Moeris, is now known to be
+      the ancient Sokno-paiou Nesos (the Isle of Soknopaios), a local form of
+      Sebek, the crocodile-god of the Fayyûm. At Karanis this god was worshipped
+      under the name of Petesuchos (“He whom Sebek has given”), in conjunction
+      with Osiris Pnepherôs (P-nefer-ho, “the beautiful of face”); at Tebtunis
+      he became Seknebtunis., i.e. Sebek-neb-Teb-tunis (Sebek, lord of
+      Tebtunis). This is a typical example of the portmanteau pronunciations of
+      the latter-day Egyptians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many very interesting discoveries were made during the course of the
+      excavations of these places (besides Mr. Hogarth’s find of the temple of
+      Petesuchos and Pnepherôs at Karanis), consisting of Roman pottery of
+      varied form and Roman agricultural implements, including a perfect
+      plough.<a href="#fn9.1" name="fnref9.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> The main interest of all, however, lies, both here and at
+      Behnesâ, in the papyri. They consist of Greek and Latin documents of all
+      ages from the early Ptolemaic to the Christian. In fact, Messrs. Grenfell
+      and Hunt have been unearthing and sifting the contents of the waste-paper
+      baskets of the ancient Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptians, which had been
+      thrown out on to dust-heaps near the towns. Nothing perishes in,, the dry
+      climate and soil of Egypt, so the contents of the ancient dust-heaps have
+      been preserved intact until our own day, and have been found by Messrs.
+      Grenfell and Hunt, just as the contents of the houses of the ancient
+      Indian rulers of Chinese Turkestan, at Niya and Khotan, with their store
+      of Kha-roshthi documents, have been preserved intact in the dry Tibetan
+      desert climate and have been found by Dr. Stein.<a href="#fn9.2" name="fnref9.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> There is much analogy
+      between the discoveries of Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in Egypt and those of
+      Dr. Stein in Turkestan.
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn9.1"></a> <a href="#fnref9.1">[1]</a>
+     Illustrated on Plate IX of Fayûm Towns and Their Papyri.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn9.2"></a> <a href="#fnref9.2">[2]</a>
+See Dr. Stein’s Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, London, 1903.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The Græco-Egyptian documents are of all kinds, consisting of letters,
+      lists, deeds, notices, tax-assessments, receipts, accounts, and business
+      records of every sort and kind, besides new fragments of classical authors
+      and the important “Sayings of Jesus,” discovered at Behnesâ, which have
+      been published in a special popular form by the Egypt Exploration Fund.<a href="#fn9.3" name="fnref9.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+    </p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn9.3"></a> <a href="#fnref9.3">[3]</a>
+     * Aoyla ‘Itjffov, 1897, and <i>New Sayings of Jesus</i>, 1904.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      These last fragments of the oldest Christian literature, which are of such
+      great importance and interest to all Christians, cannot be described or
+      discussed here. The other documents are no less important to the student
+      of ancient literature, the historian, and the sociologist. The classical
+      fragments include many texts of lost authors, including Menander. We will
+      give a few specimens of the private letters and documents, which will show
+      how extremely modern the ancient Egyptians were, and how little difference
+      there actually is between our civilization and theirs, except in
+      the-matter of mechanical invention. They had no locomotives and
+      telephones; otherwise they were the same. We resemble them much more than
+      we resemble our mediaeval ancestors or even the Elizabethans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is a boy’s letter to his father, who would not take him up to town
+      with him to see the sights: “Theon to his father Theon, greeting. It was a
+      fine thing of you not to take me with you to the city! If you won’t take
+      me with you to Alexandria, I won’t write you a letter, or speak to you, or
+      say good-bye to you; and if you go to Alexandria I won’t take your hand or
+      ever greet you again. That is what will happen if you won’t take me.
+      Mother said to Archelaus, ‘It quite upsets him to be left behind.’ It was
+      good of you to send me presents on the 12th, the day you sailed. Send me a
+      lyre, I implore you. If you don’t, I won’t eat, I won’t drink: there
+      now!’” Is not this more like the letter of a spoiled child of to-day than
+      are the solemnly dutiful epistles of even our grandfathers and
+      grandmothers when young? The touch about “Mother said to Archelaus, ‘It
+      quite upsets him to be left behind’” is delightfully like the modern small
+      boy, and the final request and threat are also eminently characteristic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here is a letter asking somebody to redeem the writer’s property from the
+      pawnshop: “Now please redeem my property from Sarapion. It is pledged for
+      two minas. I have paid the interest up to the month Epeiph, at the rate of
+      a stater per mina. There is a casket of incense-wood, and another of onyx,
+      a tunic, a white veil with a real purple border, a handkerchief, a tunic
+      with a Laconian stripe, a garment of purple linen, two armlets, a
+      necklace, a coverlet, a figure of Aphrodite, a cup, a big tin flask, and a
+      wine-jar. From Onetor get the two bracelets. They have been pledged since
+      the month Tybi of last year for eight... at the rate of a stater per mina.
+      If the cash is insufficient owing to the carelessness of Theagenis, if, I
+      say, it is insufficient, sell the bracelets and make up the money.” Here
+      is an affectionate letter of invitation: “Greeting, my dear Serenia, from
+      Petosiris. Be sure, dear, to come up on the 20th for the birthday festival
+      of the god, and let me know whether you are coming by boat or by donkey,
+      that we may send for you accordingly. Take care not to forget.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here is an advertisement of a gymnastic display:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      “The assault-at-arms by the youths will take place to-morrow, the 24th.
+      Tradition, no less than the distinguished character of the festival,
+      requires that they should do their utmost in the gymnastic display. Two
+      performances.” Signed by Dioskourides, magistrate of Oxyrrhynchus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here is a report from a public physician to a magistrate: “To Claudianus,
+      the mayor, from Dionysos, public physician. I was to-day instructed by
+      you, through Herakleides your assistant, to inspect the body of a man who
+      had been found hanged, named Hierax, and to report to you my opinion of
+      it. I therefore inspected the body in the presence of the aforesaid
+      Herakleides at the house of Epagathus in the Broadway ward, and found it
+      hanged by a noose, which fact I accordingly report.” Dated in the twelfth
+      year of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 173).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The above translations are taken, slightly modified, from those in The
+      Oxyrrhynchus Papyri, vol. i. The next specimen, a quaint letter, is
+      translated from the text in Mr. Grenfell’s Greek Papyri (Oxford, 1896), p.
+      69: “To Noumen, police captain and mayor, from Pokas son of Onôs, unpaid
+      policeman. I have been maltreated by Peadius the priest of the temple of
+      Sebek in Crocodilopolis. On the first epagomenal day of the eleventh year,
+      after having abused me about... in the aforesaid temple, the person
+      complained against sprang upon me and in the presence of witnesses struck
+      me many blows with a stick which he had. And as part of my body was not
+      covered, he tore my shirt, and this fact I called upon the bystanders to
+      bear witness to. Wherefore I request that if it seems proper you will
+      write to Klearchos the headman to send him to you, in order that, if what
+      I have written is true, I may obtain justice at your hands.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A will of Hadrian’s reign, taken from the Oxyrrhynchus Papyri (i, p. 173),
+      may also be of interest: “This is the last will and testament, made in the
+      street (i.e. at a street notary’s stand), of Pekysis, son of Hermes and
+      Didyme, an inhabitant of Oxyrrhynchus, being sane and in his right mind.
+      So long as I live, I am to have powers over my property, to alter my will
+      as I please. But if I die with this will unchanged, I devise my daughter
+      Ammonous whose mother is Ptolema, if she survive me, but if not then her
+      children, heir to my shares in the common house, court, and rooms situate
+      in the Cretan ward. All the furniture, movables, and household stock and
+      other property whatever that I shall leave, I bequeath to the mother of my
+      children and my wife Ptolema, the freedwoman of Demetrius, son of
+      Hermippus, with the condition that she shall have for her lifetime the
+      right of using, dwelling in, and building in the said house, court, and
+      rooms. If Ammonous should die without children and intestate, the share of
+      the fixtures shall belong to her half-brother on the mother’s side,
+      Anatas, if he survive, but if not, to... No one shall violate the terms of
+      this my will under pain of paying to my daughter and heir Ammonous a fine
+      of 1,000 drachmae and to the treasury an equal sum.” Here follow the
+      signatures of testator and witnesses, who are described, as in a passport,
+      one of them as follows: “I, Dionysios, son of Dionysios of the same city,
+      witness the will of Pekysis. I am forty-six years of age, have a curl over
+      my right temple, and this is my seal of Dionysoplaton.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During the Roman period, which we have now reached in our survey, the
+      temple building of the Ptolemies was carried on with like energy. One of
+      the best-known temples of the Roman period is that at Philse, which is
+      known as the “Kiosk,” or “Pharaoh’s Bed.” Owing to the great
+      picturesqueness of its situation, this small temple, which was built in
+      the reign of Trajan, has been a favourite subject for the painters of the
+      last fifty years, and next to the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and Karnak, it is
+      probably the most widely known of all Egyptian buildings. Recently it has
+      come very much to the front for an additional reason. Like all the other
+      temples of Philse, it had been archæologically surveyed and cleared by
+      Col. H. Gr. Lyons and Dr. Borchardt, but further work of a far-reaching
+      character was rendered necessary by the building of the great Aswân dam,
+      below the island of Philse, one of the results of which has been the
+      partial submergence of the island and its temples, including the
+      picturesque Kiosk. The following account, taken from the new edition
+      (1906) of Murray’s <i>Guide to Egypt and the Sudan</i>, will suffice
+      better than any other description to explain what the dam is, how it has
+      affected Philse, and what work has been done to obviate the possibility of
+      serious damage to the Kiosk and other buildings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      “In 1898 the Egyptian government signed a contract with Messrs. John Aird
+      &amp; Co. for the construction of the great reservoir and dam at Shellâl,
+      which serves for the storage of water at the time of the flood Nile. The
+      river is ‘held up’ here sixty-five feet above its old normal level. A
+      great masonry dyke, 150 feet high in places, has been carried across the
+      Bab el-Kebir of the First Cataract, and a canal and four locks, two
+      hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, allow for the passage of traffic
+      up and down the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0040" id="linkDimage-0040">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/447.jpg"
+       alt="447.jpg the Great Dam of Asw.n " />
+
+<p class="caption">
+Showing Water Rushing Through The Sluices
+</p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The dam is 2,185 yards long and over ninety feet thick at the base; in
+      places it rises one hundred feet above the bed of the river. It is built
+      of the local red granite, and at each end the granite dam is built into
+      the granite hillside. Seven hundred and eight thousand cubic yards of
+      masonry were used. The sluices are 180 in number, and are arranged at four
+      different levels. The sight of the great volume of water pouring through
+      them is a very fine one. The Nile begins to rise in July, and at the end
+      of November it is necessary to begin closing the sluice-gates to hold up
+      the water. By the end of February the reservoir is usually filled and
+      Philæ partially submerged, so that boats can sail in and out of the
+      colonnades and Pharaoh’s Bed. By the beginning of July the water has been
+      distributed, and it then falls to its normal level.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      “It is of course regrettable that the engineers were unable to find
+      another site for the dam, as it seemed inevitable that some damage would
+      result to the temples of Philæ from their partial submergence. Korosko was
+      proposed as a site, but was rejected for cogent reasons, and apparently
+      Shellâl was the only possible place. Further, no serious person, who
+      places the greatest good of the greatest number above considerations of
+      the picturesque and the ‘interesting,’ will deny that if it is necessary
+      to sacrifice Philæ to the good of the people of Egypt, Philæ must go. ‘Let
+      the dead bury their dead.’ The concern of the rulers of Egypt must be with
+      the living people of Egypt rather than with the dead bones of the past;
+      and they would not be doing their duty did they for a moment allow
+      artistic and archaeological considerations to outweigh in their minds the
+      practical necessities of the country. This does not in the least imply
+      that they do not owe a lesser duty to the monuments of Egypt, which are
+      among the most precious relics of the past history of mankind. They do owe
+      this lesser duty, and with regard to Philæ it has been conscientiously
+      fulfilled. The whole temple, in order that its stability may be preserved
+      under the stress of submersion, has been braced up and underpinned, under
+      the superintendence of Mr. Ball, of the Survey Department, who has most
+      efficiently carried out this important work, at a cost of £22,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0041" id="linkDimage-0041">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/449.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="449.jpg the Kiosk at Philæ in Process of Underpinning And Restoration, January, 1902. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Steel girders have been fixed across the island from quay to quay, and
+      these have been surrounded by cement masonry, made water-tight by forcing
+      in cement grout. Pharaoh’s Bed and the colonnade have been firmly
+      underpinned in cement masonry, and there is little doubt that the actual
+      stability of Philæ is now more certain than that of any other temple in
+      Egypt. The only possible damage that can accrue to it is the partial
+      discolouration of the lower courses of the stonework of Pharaoh’s Bed,
+      etc., which already bear a distinct high-water mark. Some surface
+      disintegration from the formation of salt crystals is perhaps inevitable
+      here, but the effects of this can always be neutralized by careful
+      washing, which it should be an important charge of the Antiquities
+      Department to regularly carry out.”
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0042" id="linkDimage-0042">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/450.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="450.jpg the Ancient Quay Op Philæ, November, 1904" />
+    </div>
+
+<p class="caption">
+     This is entirely covered when the reservoir is full, and the
+     palm-trees are farther submerged.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      The photographs accompanying the present chapter show the dam, the Kiosk
+      in process of conservation and underpinning (1902), and the shores of the
+      island as they now appear in the month of November, with the water nearly
+      up to the level of the quays. A view is also given of the island of
+      Konosso, with its inscriptions, as it is now. The island is simply a huge
+      granite boulder of the kind characteristic of the neighbourhood of Shellâl
+      (Phila?) and Aswân.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the island of Elephantine, opposite Aswân, an interesting discovery has
+      lately been made by Mr. Howard Carter. This is a remarkable well, which
+      was supposed by the ancients to lie immediately on the tropic. It formed
+      the basis of Eratosthenes’ calculations of the measurement of the earth.
+      Important finds of documents written in Aramaic have also been made here;
+      they show that there was on the island in Ptolemaic times a regular colony
+      of Syrian merchants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      South of Aswân and Philse begins Nubia. The Nubian language, which is
+      quite different from Arabic, is spoken by everybody on the island of
+      Elephantine, and its various dialects are used as far south as Dongola,
+      where Arabic again is generally spoken till we reach the land of the
+      negroes, south of Khartum. In Ptolemaic and Roman days the Nubians were a
+      powerful people, and the whole of Nubia and the modern North Sudan formed
+      an independent kingdom, ruled by queens who bore the title or name of
+      Candace. It was the eunuch of a Candace who was converted to Christianity
+      as he was returning from a mission to Jerusalem to salute Jehovah. “Go and
+      join thyself unto his chariot” was the command to Philip, and when the
+      Ethiopian had heard the gospel from his lips he went on his way rejoicing.
+      The capital of this Candace was at Meroë, the modern Bagarawiya, near
+      Shendi. Here, and at Naga not far off, are the remains of the temples of
+      the Can-daces, great buildings of semi-barbaric Egyptian style. For the
+      civilization of the Nubians, such as it was, was of Egyptian origin. Ever
+      since Egyptian rule had been extended southwards to Jebel Barkal, beyond
+      Dongola, in the time of Amenhetep II, Egyptian culture had influenced the
+      Nubians. Amenhetep III built a temple to Amen at Napatà, the capital of
+      Nubia, which lay under the shadow of Mount Barkal; Akhunaten erected a
+      sanctuary of the Sun-Disk there; and Ramses II also built there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0043" id="linkDimage-0043">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/452.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="452.jpg the Rock of Konosso in January, 1902, Before The Building of the Dam and Formation Of The Reservoir. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The place in fact was a sort of appanage of the priests of Amen at Thebes,
+      and when the last priest-king evacuated Thebes, leaving it to the
+      Bubastites of the XXIId Dynasty, it was to distant Napata that he retired.
+      Here a priestly dynasty continued to reign until, two centuries later, the
+      troubles and misfortunes of Egypt seemed to afford an opportunity for the
+      reassertion of the exiled Theban power. Piankhi Mera-men returned to Egypt
+      in triumph as its rightful sovereign, but his successors, Shabak,
+      Shabatak, and Tirha-kah, had to contend constantly with the Assyrians.
+      Finally ITrdamaneh, Tirhakah’s successor, returned to Nubia, leaving
+      Egypt, in the decadence of the Assyrian might, free to lead a quiet
+      existence under Psametik I and the succeeding monarchs of the XXVIth
+      Dynasty. When Cambyses conquered Egypt he aspired to conquer Nubia also,
+      but his army was routed and destroyed by the Napatan king, who tells us in
+      an inscription how he defeated “the man Kambasauden,” who had attacked
+      him. At Napata the Nubian monarchs, one of the greatest of whom in
+      Ptolemaic times was Ergam-enes, a contemporary of Ptolemy Philopator,
+      continued to reign. But the first Roman governor of Egypt, Ælius Gallus,
+      destroyed Napata, and the Nubians removed their capital to Meroë, where
+      the Candaces reigned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The monuments of this Nubian kingdom, the temples of Jebel Barkal, the
+      pyramids of Nure close by, the pyramids of Bagarawiya, the temples of Wadi
+      Ben Naga, Mesawwarat en-Naga, and Mesawwarat es-Sufra (“Mesawwarat”
+       proper), were originally investigated by Cailliaud and afterwards by
+      Lepsius. During the last few years they and the pyramids excavated by Dr.
+      E. A. Wallis-Budge, of the British Museum, for the Sudan government, have
+      been again explored. As the results of his work are not yet fully
+      published, it is possible at present only to quote the following
+      description from Cook’s <i>Handbook for Egypt and the Sudan</i> (by Dr.
+      Budge), p. 6, of work on the pyramids of Jebel Barkal: “the writer
+      excavated the shafts of one of the pyramids here in 1897, and at the depth
+      of about twenty-five cubits found a group of three chambers, in one of
+      which were a number of bones of the sheep which was sacrificed there about
+      two thousand years ago, and also portions of a broken amphora which had
+      held Rho-dian wine. A second shaft, which led to the mummy-chamber, was
+      partly emptied, but at a further depth of twenty cubits water was found.
+      The high-water mark of the reservoir when full is &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+      and, as there were no visible means for pumping it out, the mummy-chamber
+      could not be entered.” With regard to the Bagarawîya pyramids, Dr. Budge
+      writes, on p. 700 of the same work, à propos of the story of the Italian
+      Ferlini that he found Roman jewelry in one of these pyramids: “In 1903 the
+      writer excavated a number of the pyramids of Meroë for the
+      Governor-General of the Sudan, Sir F. R. Wingate, and he is convinced that
+      the statements made by Ferlini are the result of misapprehension on his
+      part. The pyramids are solid throughout, and the bodies are buried under
+      them. When the details are complete the proofs for this will be
+      published.” Dr. Budge has also written upon the subject of the orientation
+      of the Jebel Barkal and Nure pyramids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkDimage-0044" id="linkDimage-0044">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/454.jpg"
+       alt="454.jpg the Isle of Konosso, With Its Inscriptions " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is very curious to find the pyramids reappearing in Egyptian
+      tomb-architecture in the very latest period of Egyptian history. We find
+      them when Egyptian civilization was just entering upon its vigorous
+      manhood, then they gradually disappear, only to revive in its decadent and
+      exiled old age. The Ethiopian pyramids are all of much more elongated form
+      than the old Egyptian ones. It is possible that they may be a survival of
+      the archaistic movement of the XXVIth Dynasty, to which we have already
+      referred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are not the latest Egyptian monuments in the Sudan, nor are the
+      temples of Naga and Mesawwarat the most ancient, though they belong to the
+      Roman period and are decidedly barbarian as to their style and,
+      especially, as to their decoration. The southernmost as well as latest
+      relic of Egypt in the Sudan is the Christian church of Soba, on the Blue
+      Mie, a few miles above Khartum. In it was found a stone ram, an emblem of
+      Amen-Râ, which had formerly stood in the temple of Naga and had been
+      brought to Soba perhaps under the impression that it was the Christian
+      Lamb. It was removed to the garden of the governor-general’s palace at
+      Khartum, where it now stands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The church at Soba is a relic of the Christian kingdom of Alua, which
+      succeeded the realm of the Candaces. One of its chief seats was at
+      Dongola, and all Nubia is covered with the ruins of its churches. It was,
+      of course, an offshoot of the Christianity of Egypt, but a late one, since
+      Isis was still worshipped at Philse in the sixth century, long after the
+      Edict of Theodosius had officially abolished paganism throughout the Roman
+      world, and the Nubians were at first zealous votaries of the goddess of
+      Philo. So also when Egypt fell beneath the sway of the Moslem in the
+      seventh century, Nubia remained an independent Christian state, and
+      continued so down to the twelfth century, when the soldiers of Islam
+      conquered the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of late pagan and early Christian Egypt very much that is new has been
+      discovered during the last few years. The period of the Lower Empire has
+      yielded much to the explorers of Oxyrrhynchus, and many papyri of interest
+      belonging to this period have been published by Mr. Kenyon in his <i>Catalogue
+      of the Greek Papyri in the British Museum</i>, especially the letters of
+      Flavius Abinæus, a military officer of the fourth century. The papyri of
+      this period are full of the high-flown titles and affected phraseology
+      which was so beloved of Byzantine scribes. “Glorious Dukes of the
+      Thebaïd,” “most magnificent counts and lieutenants,” “all-praiseworthy
+      secretaries,” and the like strut across the pages of the letters and
+      documents which begin “In the name of Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ,
+      the God and Saviour of us all, in the year x of the reign of the most
+      divine and praised, great, and beneficent Lord Flavius Heraclius (or
+      other) the eternal Augustus and Auto-krator, month x, year x of the In
+      diction.” It is an extraordinary period, this of the sixth and seventh
+      centuries, which we have now entered, with its bizarre combination of the
+      official titulary of the divine and eternal Cæsars Imperatores Augusti
+      with the initial invocation of Christ and the Trinity. It is the
+      transition from the ancient to the modern world, and as such has an
+      interest all its own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Egypt the struggle between the adherents of Chalcedon, the “Melkites”
+       or Imperialists of the orthodox Greek rite, and the Eutychians or
+      Mono-physites, the followers of the patriarch Dioskoros, who rejected
+      Chalcedon, was going on with unabated fury, and was hardly stopped even by
+      the invasion of the pagan Persians. The last effort of the party of
+      Constantinople to stamp out the Monophysite heresy was made when Cyril was
+      patriarch and governor of Egypt. According to an ingenious theory put
+      forward by Mr. Butler, in his <i>Arab Conquest of Egypt</i>, it is Cyril
+      the patriarch who was the mysterious Mukaukas, the [Greek word], or “Great
+      and Magnificent One,” who played so doubtful a part in the epoch-making
+      events of the Arab conquest by Amr in A.D. 639-41. Usually this Mukaukas
+      has been regarded as a “noble Copt,” and the Copts have generally been
+      credited with having assisted the Islamites against the power of
+      Constantinople. This was a very natural and probable conclusion, but Mr.
+      Butler will have it that the Copts resisted the Arabs valiantly, and that
+      the treacherous Mukaukas was none other than the Constantinopolitan
+      patriarch himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the papyri it is interesting to note the gradual increase of Arab names
+      after the conquest, more especially in those of the Archduke Rainer ‘s
+      collection from the Fayyûm, which was so near the new capital city,
+      Fustât. In Upper Egypt the change was not noticeable for a long time, and
+      in the great collection of Coptic <i>ostraka</i> (inscriptions on slips of
+      limestone and sherds of pottery, used as a substitute for paper or
+      parchment), found in the ruins of the Coptic monastery established, on the
+      temple site of Dêr el-Bahari, we find no Arab names. These documents, part
+      of which have been published by Mr. W. E. Crum for the Egypt Exploration
+      Fund, while another part will shortly be issued for the trustees of the
+      British Museum by Mr. Hall, date to the seventh and eighth centuries.
+      Their contents resemble those of the earlier papyri from Oxyrrhynchus,
+      though they are not of so varied a nature and are generally written by
+      persons of less intelligence, i.e. the monks and peasants of the
+      monasteries and villages of Tjême, or Western Thebes. During the late
+      excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple of Dêr el-Bahari, more of these <i>ostraka</i>
+      were found, which will be published for the Egypt Exploration Fund by
+      Messrs. Naville and Hall. Of actual buildings of the Coptic period the
+      most important excavations have been those of the French School of Cairo
+      at Bâwît, north of Asyût. This work, which was carried on by M. Jean
+      Clédat, has resulted in the discovery of very important frescoes and
+      funerary inscriptions, belonging to the monastery of a famous martyr, St.
+      Apollo. With these new discoveries of Christian Egypt our work reaches its
+      fitting close. The frontier which divides the ancient from the modern
+      world has almost been crossed. We look back from the monastery of Bâwît
+      down a long vista of new discoveries until, four thousand years before, we
+      see again the Great Heads coming to the Tomb of Den, Narmer inspecting the
+      bodies of the dead Northerners, and, far away in Babylonia, Narâm-Sin
+      crossing the mountains of the East to conquer Elam, or leading his allies
+      against the prince of Sinai.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END.
+    </p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***</div>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #17321 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17321)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chald�a, Syria,
+Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chald�a, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery
+
+Author: L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17321]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Spines]
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT
+
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+
+
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+
+
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+
+
+
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+
+
+Copyright 1906
+
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece1]
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece1-text]
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage1]
+
+[Illustration: Versa1]
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+
+It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations
+in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume
+have been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in
+those countries. The greater number of the photographs here published
+were taken by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest
+Leroux, of Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number
+of plates from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent
+discoveries in Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell & Co., of
+London, for kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs
+issued by them.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
+which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt
+and Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the
+publication of Prof. Maspero's _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
+l'Orient Classique_, and includes short descriptions of the excavations
+from which these results have been obtained. It is in no sense a
+connected and continuous history of these countries, for that has
+already been written by Prof. Maspero, but is rather intended as an
+appendix or addendum to his work, briefly recapitulating and describing
+the discoveries made since its appearance. On this account we
+have followed a geographical rather than a chronological system of
+arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has been made to suggest
+to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of events.
+
+At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and
+activity, both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and
+every season's work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends
+our knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were
+unknown to the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added
+to Egyptian history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the
+primitive Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing
+a hitherto totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization.
+Further than this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest
+historical kings of Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from
+material as yet unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties
+of Babylon. Important discoveries have also been made with regard to
+isolated points in the later historical periods. We have therefore
+attempted to include the most important of these in our survey of recent
+excavations and their results. We would again remind the reader that
+Prof. Maspero's great work must be consulted for the complete history of
+the period, the present volume being, not a connected history of Egypt
+and Western Asia, but a description and discussion of the manner in
+which recent discovery and research have added to and modified our
+conceptions of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. The Discovery of Prehistoric Egypt
+
+II. Abydos and the First Three Dynasties
+
+III. Memphis and the Pyramids
+
+IV. Recent Excavations in Western Asia and the Dawn of Chald�an History
+
+V. Elam and Babylon, the Country of the Sea and the Kassites
+
+VI. Early Babylonian Life and Customs
+
+VII. Temples and Tombs of Thebes
+
+VIII. The Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires in the Light of Recent
+Research
+
+IX. The Last Days of Ancient Egypt
+
+
+
+
+EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+
+_In the Light of Recent Excavation and Research_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+
+During the last ten years our conception of the beginnings of Egyptian
+antiquity has profoundly altered. When Prof. Maspero published the
+first volume of his great _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples des l'Orient
+Classique_, in 1895, Egyptian history, properly so called, still began
+with the Pyramid-builders, Sne-feru, Khufu, and Khafra (Cheops and
+Chephren), and the legendary lists of earlier kings preserved at Abydos
+and Sakkara were still quoted as the only source of knowledge of the
+time before the IVth Dynasty. Of a prehistoric Egypt nothing was known,
+beyond a few flint flakes gathered here and there upon the desert
+plateaus, which might or might not tell of an age when the ancestors
+of the Pyramid-builders knew only the stone tools and weapons of the
+primeval savage.
+
+Now, however, the veil which has hidden the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization from us has been lifted, and we see things, more or less,
+as they actually were, unobscured by the traditions of a later day.
+Until the last few years nothing of the real beginnings of history in
+either Egypt or Mesopotamia had been found; legend supplied the only
+material for the reconstruction of the earliest history of the oldest
+civilized nations of the globe. Nor was it seriously supposed that any
+relics of prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia ever would be found. The
+antiquity of the known history of these countries already appeared
+so great that nobody took into consideration the possibility of our
+discovering a prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia; the idea was too remote
+from practical work. And further, civilization in these countries had
+lasted so long that it seemed more than probable that all traces
+of their prehistoric age had long since been swept away. Yet the
+possibility, which seemed hardly worth a moment's consideration in 1895,
+is in 1905 an assured reality, at least as far as Egypt is concerned.
+Prehistoric Babylonia has yet to be discovered. It is true, for example,
+that at Mukay-yar, the site of ancient Ur of the Chaldees, burials
+in earthenware coffins, in which the skeletons lie in the doubled-up
+position characteristic of Neolithic interments, have been found; but
+there is no doubt whatever that these are burials of a much later date,
+belonging, quite possibly, to the Parthian period. Nothing that may
+rightfully be termed prehistoric has yet been found in the Euphrates
+valley, whereas in Egypt prehistoric antiquities are now almost as well
+known and as well represented in our museums as are the prehistoric
+antiquities of Europe and America.
+
+With the exception of a few palasoliths from the surface of the Syrian
+desert, near the Euphrates valley, not a single implement of the Age
+of Stone has yet been found in Southern Mesopotamia, whereas Egypt
+has yielded to us the most perfect examples of the flint-knapper's
+art known, flint tools and weapons more beautiful than the finest that
+Europe and America can show. The reason is not far to seek. Southern
+Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities, which
+doubtless mark the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are
+situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the
+Euphrates; so that all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country
+would seem to have disappeared, buried deep beneath city-mounds, clay
+and marsh. It is the same in the Egyptian Delta, a similar country; and
+here no traces of the prehistoric culture of Egypt have been found. The
+attempt to find them was made last year at Buto, which is known to be
+one of the most antique centres of civilization, and probably was one of
+the earliest settlements in Egypt, but without success. The infiltration
+of water had made excavation impossible and had no doubt destroyed
+everything belonging to the most ancient settlement. It is not going too
+far to predict that exactly the same thing will be found by any explorer
+who tries to discover a Neolithic stratum beneath a city-mound of
+Babylonia. There is little hope that prehistoric Chald�a will ever be
+known to us. But in Egypt the conditions are different. The Delta is
+like Babylonia, it is true; but in the Upper Nile valley the river flows
+down with but a thin border of alluvial land on either side, through the
+rocky and hilly desert, the dry Sahara, where rain falls but once in two
+or three years. Antiquities buried in this soil in the most remote
+ages are preserved intact as they were first interred, until the modern
+investigator comes along to look for them. And it is on the desert
+margin of the valley that the remains of prehistoric Egypt have been
+found. That is the reason for their perfect preservation till our own
+day, and why we know prehistoric Egypt so well.
+
+The chief work of Egyptian civilization was the proper irrigation of
+the alluvial soil, the turning of marsh into cultivated fields, and the
+reclamation of land from the desert for the purposes of agriculture.
+Owing to the rainless character of the country, the only means
+of obtaining water for the crops is by irrigation, and where the
+fertilizing Nile water cannot be taken by means of canals, there
+cultivation ends and the desert begins. Before Egyptian civilization,
+properly so called, began, the valley was a great marsh through which
+the Nile found its way north to the sea. The half-savage, stone-using
+ancestors of the civilized Egyptians hunted wild fowl, crocodiles,
+and hippopotami in the marshy valley; but except in a few isolated
+settlements on convenient mounds here and there (the forerunners of the
+later villages), they did not live there. Their settlements were on
+the dry desert margin, and it was here, upon low tongues of desert hill
+jutting out into the plain, that they buried their dead. Their simple
+shallow graves were safe from the flood, and, but for the depredations
+of jackals and hyenas, here they have remained intact till our own
+day, and have yielded up to us the facts from which we have derived our
+knowledge of prehistoric Egypt. Thus it is that we know so much of the
+Egyptians of the Stone Age, while of their contemporaries in Mesopotamia
+we know nothing, nor is anything further likely to be discovered.
+
+But these desert cemeteries, with their crowds of oval shallow graves,
+covered by only a few inches of surface soil, in which the Neolithic
+Egyptians lie crouched up with their flint implements and polished
+pottery beside them, are but monuments of the later age of prehistoric
+Egypt. Long before the Neolithic Egyptian hunted his game in the
+marshes, and here and there essayed the work of reclamation for the
+purposes of an incipient agriculture, a far older race inhabited the
+valley of the Nile. The written records of Egyptian civilization go back
+four thousand years before Christ, or earlier, and the Neolithic Age of
+Egypt must go back to a period several thousand years before that. But
+we can now go back much further still, to the Palaeolithic Age of Egypt.
+At a time when Europe was still covered by the ice and snows of the
+Glacial Period, and man fought as an equal, hardly yet as a superior,
+with cave-bear and mammoth, the Palaeolithic Egyptians lived on the
+banks of the Nile. Their habitat was doubtless the desert slopes, often,
+too, the plateaus themselves; but that they lived entirely upon the
+plateaus, high up above the Nile marsh, is improbable. There, it is
+true, we find their flint implements, the great pear-shaped weapons of
+the types of Chelles, St. Acheul, and Le Moustier, types well known
+to all who are acquainted with the flint implements of the "Drift" in
+Europe. And it is there that the theory, generally accepted hitherto,
+has placed the habitat of the makers and users of these implements.
+
+The idea was that in Palaeolithic days, contemporary with the Glacial
+Age of Northern Europe and America, the climate of Egypt was entirely
+different from that of later times and of to-day. Instead of dry desert,
+the mountain plateaus bordering the Nile valley were supposed to have
+been then covered with forest, through which flowed countless streams
+to feed the river below. It was suggested that remains of these streams
+were to be seen in the side ravines, or wadis, of the Nile valley, which
+run up from the low desert on the river level into the hills on either
+hand. These wadis undoubtedly show extensive traces of strong water
+action; they curve and twist as the streams found their easiest way
+to the level through the softer strata, they are heaped up with great
+water-worn boulders, they are hollowed out where waterfalls once fell.
+They have the appearance of dry watercourses, exactly what any mountain
+burns would be were the water-supply suddenly cut off for ever, the
+climate altered from rainy to eternal sun-glare, and every plant and
+tree blasted, never to grow again. Acting on the supposition that this
+idea was a correct one, most observers have concluded that the climate
+of Egypt in remote periods was very different from the dry, rainless one
+now obtaining. To provide the water for the wadi streams, heavy
+rainfall and forests are desiderated. They were easily supplied, on the
+hypothesis. Forests clothed the mountain plateaus, heavy rains fell, and
+the water rushed down to the Nile, carving out the great watercourses
+which remain to this day, bearing testimony to the truth. And the
+flints, which the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the plateau-forests made
+and used, still lie on the now treeless and sun-baked desert surface.
+
+[Illustration: 007.jpg THE BED OF AN ANCIENT WATERCOURSE IN THE WADIY�N,
+THEBES.]
+
+This is certainly a very weak conclusion. In fact, it seriously damages
+the whole argument, the water-courses to the contrary notwithstanding.
+The pal�oliths are there. They can be picked up by any visitor. There
+they lie, great flints of the Drift types, just like those found in the
+gravel-beds of England and Belgium, on the desert surface where they
+were made. Undoubtedly where they were made, for the places where
+they lie are the actual ancient flint workshops, where the flints were
+chipped. Everywhere around are innumerable flint chips and perfect
+weapons, burnt black and patinated by ages of sunlight. We are taking
+one particular spot in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but
+there are plenty of others, such as the Wadi esh-Sh�kh on the right bank
+of the Nile opposite Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought
+back specimens of flint tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the
+Neolithic periods.
+
+The Pal�olithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited of
+late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof. Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen Sturge,
+and Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall. The
+weapons illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton, and are
+now preserved in the British Museum. Among these flints shown we notice
+two fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St. Acheul, with curious
+adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left and right. Below, to
+the right, is a very primitive instrument of Chellean type, being merely
+a sharpened pebble. Above, to left and right, are two specimens of the
+curious half-moon-shaped instruments which are characteristic of
+the Theban flint field and are hardly known elsewhere. All have the
+beautiful brown patina, which only ages of sunburn can give. The
+"poignard" type to the left, at the bottom of the plate, is broken off
+short.
+
+[Illustration: 008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.
+From the desert plateau and slopes west of Thebes.]
+
+In the smaller illustration we see some remarkable types: two scrapers
+or knives with strongly marked "bulb of percussion" (the spot where the
+flint-knapper struck and from which the flakes flew off), a very regular
+_coup-de-poing_ which looks almost like a large arrowhead, and on the
+right a much weathered and patinated scraper which must be of immemorial
+age.
+
+[Illustration: 009.jpg (right): PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS. From Man,
+March, 1905.]
+
+This came from the top plateau, not from the slopes (or subsidiary
+plateaus at the head of the _wadis_), as did the great St. Acheulian
+weapons. The circular object is very remarkable: it is the half of the
+ring of a "morpholith "(a round flinty accretion often found in the
+Theban limestone) which has been split, and the split (flat) side
+carefully bevelled. Several of these interesting objects have been
+found in conjunction with Pal�olithic implements at Thebes. No doubt the
+flints lie on the actual surface where they were made. No later water
+action has swept them away and covered them with gravel, no later human
+habitation has hidden them with successive deposits of soil, no gradual
+deposit of dust and rubbish has buried them deep. They lie as they were
+left in the far-away Pal�olithic Age, and they have lain there till
+taken away by the modern explorer.
+
+But this is not the case with all the Pal�olithic flints of Thebes. In
+the year 1882 Maj.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers discovered Pal�olithic flints in the
+deposit of diluvial detritus which lies between the cultivation and the
+mountains on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor. Many of these are
+of the same type as those found on the surface of the mountain plateau
+which lies at the head of the great _wadi_ of the Tombs of the Kings,
+while the diluvial deposit is at its mouth. The stuff of which the
+detritus is composed evidently came originally from the high plateau,
+and was washed down, with the flints, in ancient times.
+
+This is quite conceivable, but how is it that the flints left behind
+on the plateau remain on the original ancient surface? How is it
+conceivable that if (on the old theory) these plateaus were in
+Pal�olithic days clothed with forest, the Pal�olithic flints could even
+in a single instance remain undisturbed from Pal�olithic times to the
+present day, when the forest in which they were made and the forest soil
+on which they reposed have entirely disappeared? If there were woods and
+forests On the heights, it would seem impossible that we should find,
+as we do, Pal�olithic implements lying in situ on the desert surface,
+around the actual manufactories where they were made. Yet if the
+constant rainfall and the vegetation of the Libyan desert area in
+Pal�olithic days is all a myth (as it most probably is), how came the
+embedded palaeoliths, found by Gen. Pitt-Rivers, in the bed of diluvial
+detritus which is apparently _d�bris_ from the plateau brought down by
+the Pal�olithic _wadi_ streams?
+
+Water erosion has certainly formed the Theban _wadis_. But this water
+erosion was probably not that which would be the result of perennial
+streams flowing down from wooded heights, but of torrents like those
+of to-day, which fill the _wadis_ once in three years or so after heavy
+rain, but repeated at much closer intervals. We may in fact suppose
+just so much difference in meteorological conditions as would make it
+possible for sudden rain-storms to occur over the desert at far more
+frequent intervals than at present. That would account for the detritus
+bed at the mouth of the _wadi_, and its embedded flints, and at the
+same time maintain the general probability of the idea that the desert
+plateaus were desert in Pal�olithic days as now, and that early man only
+knapped his flints up there because he found the flint there. He himself
+lived on the slopes and nearer the marsh.
+
+This new view seems to be much sounder and more probable than the old
+one, maintained by Flinders Petrie and Blanckenhorn, according to which
+the high plateau was the home of man in Pal�olithic times, when the
+rainfall, as shown by the valley erosion and waterfalls, must have
+caused an abundant vegetation on the plateau, where man could live and
+hunt his game. [*Petrie, Nagada and Ballas, p. 49.] Were this so, it
+is patent that the Pal�olithic flints could not have been found on the
+desert surface as they are. Mr. H. J. L. Beadnell, of the Geological
+Survey of Egypt, to whom we are indebted for the promulgation of the
+more modern and probable view, says: "Is it certain that the high
+plateau was then clothed with forests? What evidence is there to show
+that it differed in any important respect from its present aspect? And
+if, as I suggest, desert conditions obtained then as now, and man merely
+worked his flints along the edges of the plateaus overlooking the
+Nile valley, I see no reason why flint implements, dating even from
+Pal�olithic times should not in favourable cases still be found in
+the spots where they were left, surrounded by the flakes struck off in
+manufacture. On the flat plateaus the occasional rains which fall--once
+in three or four years--can effect but little transport of material, and
+merely lower the general level by dissolving the underlying limestone,
+so that the plateau surface is left with a coating of nodules and blocks
+of insoluble flint and chert. Flint implements might thus be expected
+to remain in many localities for indefinite periods, but they would
+certainly become more or less 'patinated,' pitted on the surface, and
+rounded at the angles after long exposure to heat, cold, and blown
+sand." This is exactly the case of the Pal�olithic flint tools from the
+desert plateau.
+
+[Illustration: 012.jpg UPPER DESERT PLATEAU, WHERE PALEOLITHIC
+IMPLEMENTS ARE FOUND, Thebes: 1,400 leet above the Nile.]
+
+We do not know whether Pal�olithic man in Egypt was contemporary with
+the cave-man of Europe. We have no means of gauging the age of the
+Pal�olithic Egyptian weapons, as we have for the Neolithic period.
+The historical (dynastic) period of Egyptian annals began with the
+unification of the kingdom under one head somewhere about 4500 B.C. At
+that time copper as well as stone weapons were used, so that we may say
+that at the beginning of the historical age the Egyptians were living
+in the "Chalcolithic" period. We can trace the use of copper back for
+a considerable period anterior to the beginning of the Ist Dynasty,
+so that we shall probably not be far wrong if we do not bring down the
+close of the purely Neolithic Age in Egypt--the close of the Age of
+Stone, properly so called--later than +5000 B.C. How far back in the
+remote ages the transition period between the Pal�olithic and Neolithic
+Ages should be placed, it is utterly impossible to say. The use of stone
+for weapons and implements continued in Egypt as late as the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty, about 2500-2000 B.C. But these XIIth Dynasty stone
+implements show by their forms how late they are in the history of the
+Stone Age. The axe heads, for instance, are in form imitations of
+the copper and bronze axe heads usual at that period; they are stone
+imitations of metal, instead of the originals on whose model the metal
+weapons were formed. The flint implements of the XIIth Dynasty were
+a curious survival from long past ages. After the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty stone was no longer used for tools or weapons, except for the
+sacred rite of making the first incision in the dead bodies before
+beginning the operations of embalming; for this purpose, as Herodotus
+tells us, an "Ethiopian stone" was used. This was no doubt a knife of
+flint or chert, like those of the Neolithic ancestors of the Egyptians,
+and the continued use of a stone knife for this one purpose only is a
+very interesting instance of a ceremonial survival. We may compare the
+wigs of British judges.
+
+[Illustration: 014.jpg FLINT KNIFE]
+
+We have no specimen of a flint knife which can definitely be asserted to
+have belonged to an embalmer, but of the archaistic flint weapons of the
+XIIth Dynasty we have several specimens. They were found by Prof. Petrie
+at the place named by him "Kahun," the site of a XIIth Dynasty town
+built near the pyramid of King Usertsen (or Senusret) II at Illahun,
+at the mouth of the canal leading from the Nile valley into the
+oasis-province of the Payyum. These Kahun flints, and others of probably
+the same period found by Mr. Seton-Karr at the very ancient flint
+works in the Wadi esh-Sh�kh, are of very coarse and poor workmanship
+as compared with the stone-knapping triumphs of the late Neolithic and
+early Chalcolithic periods. The delicacy of the art had all been lost.
+But the best flint knives of the early period--dating to just a little
+before the time of the Ist Dynasty, when flint-working had attained its
+apogee, and copper had just begun to be used--are undoubtedly the most
+remarkable stone weapons ever made in the world. The grace and utility
+of the form, the delicacy of the fluted chipping on the side, and
+the minute care with which the tiny serrations of the cutting edge,
+serrations so small that often they can hardly be seen with the naked
+eye, are made, can certainly not be parallelled elsewhere. The art
+of flint-knapping reached its zenith in Ancient Egypt. The specimen
+illustrated has a handle covered with gold decorated with incised
+designs representing animals.
+
+The prehistoric Egyptians may also fairly be said to have attained
+greater perfection than other peoples in the Neolithic stage of culture,
+in other arts besides the making of stone tools and weapons. Their
+pottery is of remarkable perfection. Now that the sites of the Egyptian
+prehistoric settlements have been so thoroughly explored by competent
+arch�ologists (and, unhappily, as thoroughly pillaged by incompetent
+natives), this prehistoric Egyptian pottery has become extremely well
+known. In fact, it is so common that good specimens may be bought
+anywhere in Egypt for a few piastres. Most museums possess sets of this
+pottery, of which great quantities have been brought back from Egypt
+by Prof. Petrie and other explorers. It is of very great interest,
+artistically as well as historically. The potter's wheel was not yet
+invented, and all the vases, even those of the most perfect shape, were
+built up by hand. The perfection of form attained without the aid of the
+wheel is truly marvellous.
+
+The commonest type of this pottery is a red polished ware vase with
+black top, due to its having been baked mouth downward in a fire, the
+ashes of which, according to Prof. Petrie, deoxidized the h�matite
+burnishing, and so turned the red colour to black. "In good examples
+the h�matite has not only been reduced to black magnetic oxide, but
+the black has the highest polish, as seen on fine Greek vases. This is
+probably due to the formation of carbonyl gas in the smothered fire.
+This gas acts as a solvent of magnetic oxide, and hence allows it to
+assume a new surface, like the glassy surface of some marbles subjected
+to solution in water." This black and red ware appears to be the most
+ancient prehistoric Egyptian pottery known. Later in date are a red
+ware and a black ware with rude geometrical incised designs, imitating
+basketwork, and with the incised lines filled in with white. Later again
+is a buff ware, either plain or decorated with wavy lines, concentric
+circles, and elaborate drawings of boats sailing on the Nile, ostriches,
+fish, men and women, and so on.
+
+[Illustration: 017.jpg (right) BUFF WARE VASE, Predynastic period,
+before 4000 B.C.]
+
+These designs are in deep red. With this elaborate pottery the Neolithic
+ceramic art of Egypt reached its highest point; in the succeeding period
+(the beginning of the historic age) there was a decline in workmanship,
+exhibiting clumsy forms and bad colour, and it is not until the time of
+the IVth Dynasty that good pottery (a fine polished red) is once more
+found. Meanwhile the invention of glazed pottery, which was unknown to
+the prehistoric Egyptians, had been made (before the beginning of the
+Ist Dynasty). The unglazed ware of the first three dynasties was bad,
+but the new invention of light blue glazed faience (not porcelain
+properly so called) seems to have made great progress, and we possess
+fine specimens at the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The prehistoric
+Egyptians were also proficient in other arts. They carved ivory and they
+worked gold, which is known to have been almost the first metal worked
+by man; certainly in Egypt it was utilized for ornament even before
+copper was used for work. We may refer to the illustration of a flint
+knife with gold handle, already given. [* See illustration.]
+
+The date of the actual introduction of copper for tools and weapons into
+Egypt is uncertain, but it seems probable that copper was occasionally
+used at a very early period. Copper weapons have been found in
+pre-dynastic graves beside the finest buff pottery with elaborate red
+designs, so that we may say that when the flint-working and pottery of
+the Neolithic Egyptians had reached its zenith, the use of copper was
+already known, and copper weapons were occasionally employed. We can
+thus speak of the "Chalcolithic" period in Egypt as having already begun
+at that time, no doubt several centuries before the beginning of the
+historical or dynastic age. Strictly speaking, the Egyptians remained
+in the "Chalcolithic" period till the end of the XIIth Dynasty, but in
+practice it is best to speak of this period, when the word is used, as
+extending from the time of the finest flint weapons and pottery of the
+prehistoric age (when the "Neolithic" period may be said to close) till
+about the IId or IIId Dynasty. By that time the "Bronze," or, rather,
+"Copper," Age of Egypt had well begun, and already stone was not in
+common use.
+
+The prehistoric pottery is of the greatest value to the arch�ologist,
+for with its help some idea may be obtained of the succession of periods
+within the late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Age. The enormous number of
+prehistoric graves which have been examined enables us to make an
+exhaustive comparison of the different kinds of pottery found in
+them, so that we can arrange them in order according to pottery they
+contained. By this means we obtain an idea of the development of
+different types of pottery, and the sequence of the types. Thus it is
+that we can say with some degree of confidence that the black and red
+ware is the most ancient form, and that the buff with red designs is one
+of the latest forms of prehistoric pottery. Other objects found in the
+graves can be classified as they occur with different pottery types.
+
+With the help of the pottery we can thus gain a more or less reliable
+conspectus of the development of the late "Neolithic" culture of Egypt.
+This system of "sequence-dating" was introduced by Prof. Petrie, and is
+certainly very useful. It must not, however, be pressed too far or be
+regarded as an iron-bound system, with which all subsequent discoveries
+must be made to fit in by force. It is not to be supposed that all
+prehistoric pottery developed its series of types in an absolutely
+orderly manner without deviations or throws-back. The work of man's
+hands is variable and eccentric, and does not develop or evolve in an
+undeviating course as the work of nature does. It is a mistake, very
+often made by anthropologists and arch�ologists, who forget this
+elementary fact, to assume "curves of development," and so forth, or
+semi-savage culture, on absolutely even and regular lines. Human culture
+has not developed either evenly or regularly, as a matter of fact.
+Therefore we cannot always be sure that, because the Egyptian black and
+red pottery does not occur in graves with buff and red, it is for
+this reason absolutely earlier in date than the latter. Some of the
+development-sequences may in reality be contemporary with others instead
+of earlier, and allowance must always be made for aberrations and
+reversions to earlier types.
+
+This caveat having been entered, however, we may provisionally
+accept Prof. Petrie's system of sequence-dating as giving the best
+classification of the prehistoric antiquities according to development.
+So it may fairly be said that, as far as we know, the black and red
+pottery ("sequence-date 30--") is the most ancient Neolithic Egyptian
+ware known; that the buff and red did not begin to be used till about
+"sequence-date 45;" that bone and ivory carvings were commonest in the
+earlier period ("sequence-dates 30-50"); that copper was almost unknown
+till "sequence-date 50," and so on. The arbitrary numbers used range
+from 30 to 80, in order to allow for possible earlier and later
+additions, which may be rendered necessary by the progress of discovery.
+The numbers are of course as purely arbitrary and relative as those
+of the different thermometrical systems, but they afford a convenient
+system of arrangement. The products of the prehistoric Egyptians are, so
+to speak, distributed on a conventional plan over a scale numbered from
+30 to 80, 30 representing the beginning and 80 the close of the term,
+so far as its close has as yet been ascertained. It is probable that
+"sequence-date 80" more or less accurately marks the beginning of the
+dynastic or historical period.
+
+This hypothetically chronological classification is, as has been said,
+due to Prof. Petrie, and has been adopted by Mr. Randall-Maclver and
+other students of prehistoric Egypt in their work. [*_El Amra and
+Abydos_, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902.] To Prof. Petrie then is due the
+credit of systematizing the study of Egyptian prehistoric antiquities;
+but the further credit of having _discovered_ these antiquities
+themselves and settled their date belongs not to him but to the
+distinguished French arch�ologist, M. J. de Morgan, who was for several
+years director of the museum at Giza, and is now chief of the French
+arch�ological delegation in Persia, which has made of late years so many
+important discoveries. The proof of the prehistoric date of this class
+of antiquities was given, not by Prof. Petrie after his excavations at
+Dendera in 1897-8, but by M. de Morgan in his volume, _Recherches sur
+les Origines de l'�gypte: l'�ge de la Pierre et les M�taux_, published
+in 1895-6. In this book the true chronological position of the
+prehistoric antiquities was pointed out, and the existence of an
+Egyptian Stone Age finally decided. M. de Morgan's work was based on
+careful study of the results of excavations carried on for several years
+by the Egyptian government in various parts of Egypt, in the course
+of which a large number of cemeteries of the primitive type had been
+discovered. It was soon evident to M. de Morgan that these primitive
+graves, with their unusual pottery and flint implements, could be
+nothing less than the tombs of the prehistoric Egyptians, the Egyptians
+of the Stone Age.
+
+Objects of the prehistoric period had been known to the museums for many
+years previously, but owing to the uncertainty of their provenance and
+the absence of knowledge of the existence of the primitive cemeteries,
+no scientific conclusions had been arrived at with regard to them; and
+it was not till the publication of M. de Morgan's book that they were
+recognized and classified as prehistoric. The necropoles investigated
+by M. de Morgan and his assistants extended from Kaw�mil in the north,
+about twenty miles north of Abydos, to Edfu in the south. The chief
+cemeteries between these two points were those of B�t Allam, Saghel
+el-Baglieh, el-'Amra, Nak�da, T�kh, and Gebel�n. All the burials were
+of simple type, analogous to those of the Neolithic races in the rest
+of the world. In a shallow, oval grave, excavated often but a few inches
+below the surface of the soil, lay the body, cramped up with the knees
+to the chin, sometimes in a rough box of pottery, more often with only
+a mat to cover it. Ready to the hand of the dead man were his flint
+weapons and tools, and the usual red and black, or buff and red, pots
+lay beside him; originally, no doubt, they had been filled with the
+funeral meats, to sustain the ghost in the next world. Occasionally a
+simple copper weapon was found. With the body were also buried slate
+palettes for grinding the green eye-paint which the Egyptians loved even
+at this early period. These are often carved to suggest the forms of
+animals, such as birds, bats, tortoises, goats, etc.; on others are
+fantastic creatures with two heads. Combs of bone, too, are found,
+ornamented in a similar way with birds' or goats' heads, often double.
+And most interesting of all are the small bone and ivory figures of men
+and women which are also found. These usually have little blue beads for
+eyes, and are of the quaintest and naivest appearance conceivable. Here
+we have an elderly man with a long pointed beard, there two women with
+inane smiles upon their countenances, here another woman, of better work
+this time, with a child slung across her shoulder. This figure, which
+is in the British Museum, must be very late, as prehistoric Egyptian
+antiquities go. It is almost as good in style as the early Ist Dynasty
+objects. Such were the objects which the simple piety of the early
+Egyptian prompted him to bury with the bodies of his dead, in order that
+they might find solace and contentment in the other world.
+
+All the prehistoric cemeteries are of this type, with the graves pressed
+closely together, so that they often impinge upon one another. The
+nearness of the graves to the surface is due to the exposed positions,
+at the entrances to _wadis_, in which the primitive cemeteries are
+usually found. The result is that they are always swept by the winds,
+which prevent the desert sand from accumulating over them, and so have
+preserved the original level of the ground. From their proximity to
+the surface they are often found disturbed, more often by the agency of
+jackals than that of man.
+
+Contemporaneously with M. de Morgan's explorations, Prof. Flinders
+Petrie and Mr. J. Quibell had, in the winter of 1894-5, excavated in
+the districts of Tukh and Nakada, on the west bank of the Nile opposite
+Koptos, a series of extensive cemeteries of the primitive type, from
+which they obtained a large number of antiquities, published in their
+volume Nagada and Dallas. The plates giving representations of the
+antiquities found were of the highest interest, but the scientific value
+of the letter-press is vitiated by the fact that the true historical
+position of the antiquities was not perceived by their discoverers, who
+came to the conclusion that these remains were those of a "New Pace" of
+Libyan invaders. This race, they supposed, had entered Egypt after the
+close of the flourishing period of the "Old Kingdom" at the end of the
+VIth Dynasty, and had occupied part of the Nile valley from that time
+till the period of the Xth Dynasty.
+
+This conclusion was proved erroneous by M. de Morgan almost as soon
+as made, and the French arch�ologist's identification of the primitive
+remains as pre-dynastic was at once generally accepted. It was obvious
+that a hypothesis of the settlement of a stone-using barbaric race in
+the midst of Egypt at so late a date as the period immediately preceding
+the XIIth Dynasty, a race which mixed in no way with the native
+Egyptians themselves, and left no trace of their influence upon the
+later Egyptians, was one which demanded greater faith than the simple
+explanation of M. de Morgan.
+
+The error of the British explorers was at once admitted by Mr. Quibell,
+in his volume on the excavations of 1897 at el-Kab, published in 1898.*
+Mr. Quibell at once found full and adequate confirmation of M. de
+Morgan's discovery in his diggings at el-Kab. Prof. Petrie admitted
+the correctness of M. de Morgan's views in the preface to his volume
+Diospolis Parva, published three years later in 1901.** The preface to
+the first volume of M. de Morgan's book contained a generous recognition
+of the method and general accuracy of Prof. Petrie's excavations, which
+contrasted favourably, according to M. de Morgan, with the excavations
+of others, generally carried on without scientific control, and with
+the sole aim of obtaining antiquities or literary texts.*** That M. de
+Morgan's own work was carried out as scientifically and as carefully
+is evident from the fact that his conclusions as to the chronological
+position of the prehistoric antiquities have been shown to be correct.
+To describe M. de Morgan's discovery as a "happy guess," as has been
+done, is therefore beside the mark.
+
+     * El-Kab. Egyptian Research Account, 1897, p. 11.
+
+     ** Diospolis Parva. Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901, p. 2.
+
+     *** Recherches: Age de la Pierre, p. xiii.
+
+Another most important British excavation was that carried on by
+Messrs. Randall-Maclver and Wilkin at el-'Amra. The imposing lion-headed
+promontory of el-'Amra stands out into the plain on the west bank of the
+Nile about five miles south of Abydos. At the foot of this hill M. de
+Morgan found a very extensive prehistoric necropolis, which he examined,
+but did not excavate to any great extent, and the work of thoroughly
+excavating it was performed by Messrs. Randall-MacIver and Wilkin for
+the Egypt Exploration Fund. The results have thrown very great light
+upon the prehistoric culture of Egypt, and burials of all prehistoric
+types, some of them previously unobserved, were found. Among the most
+interesting are burials in pots, which have also been found by Mr.
+Garstang in a predynastic necropolis at Ragagna, north of Abydos. One
+of the more remarkable observations made at el-'Amra was the progressive
+development of the tombs from the simplest pot-burial to a small brick
+chamber, the embryo of the brick tombs of the Ist Dynasty. Among the
+objects recovered from this site may be mentioned a pottery model of
+oxen, a box in the shape of a model hut, and a slate "palette" with what
+is perhaps the oldest Egyptian hieroglyph known, a representation of the
+fetish-sign of the god Min, in relief. All these are preserved in the
+British Museum. The skulls of the bodies found were carefully preserved
+for craniometric examination.
+
+In 1901 an extensive prehistoric cemetery was being excavated by Messrs.
+Reisner and Lythgoe at Nag'ed-D�r, opposite Girga, and at el-Ahaiwa,
+further north, another prehistoric necropolis has been excavated by
+these gentlemen, working for the University of California.
+
+[Illustration: 027.jpg CAMP OF THE EXPEDITION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
+CALIFORNIA AT NAG' ED-D�R, 1901.]
+
+The cemetery of Nag'ed-D�r is of the usual prehistoric type, with its
+multitudes of small oval graves, excavated just a little way below the
+surface. Graves of this kind are the most primitive of all. Those at
+el-'Amra are usually more developed, often, as has been noted, rising to
+the height of regular brick tombs. They are evidently later, nearer to
+the time of the Ist Dynasty. The position of the Nag'ed-D�r cemetery is
+also characteristic. It lies on the usual low ridge at the entrance to a
+desert _wadi_, which is itself one of the most picturesque in this
+part of Egypt, with its chaos of great boulders and fallen rocks. An
+illustration of the camp of Mr. Reisner's expedition at Nag'ed-D�r is
+given above. The excavations of the University of California are carried
+out with the greatest possible care and are financed with the greatest
+possible liberality. Mr. Reisner has therefore been able to keep an
+absolutely complete photographic record of everything, even down to
+the successive stages in the opening of a tomb, which will be of the
+greatest use to science when published.
+
+For a detailed study of the antiquities of the prehistoric period the
+publications of Prof. Petrie, Mr. Quibell, and Mr. Randall-Maclver are
+more useful than that of M. de Morgan, who does not give enough details.
+Every atom of evidence is given in the publications of the British
+explorers, whereas it is a characteristic of French work to give
+brilliant conclusions, beautifully illustrated, without much of the
+evidence on which the conclusions are based. This kind of work does not
+appeal to the Anglo-Saxon mind, which takes nothing on trust, even
+from the most renowned experts, and always wants to know the why and
+wherefore. The complete publication of evidence which marks the British
+work will no doubt be met with, if possible in even more complete
+detail, in the American work of Messrs. Reisner, Lythgoe, and Mace (the
+last-named is an Englishman) for the University of California, when
+published. The question of speedy versus delayed publication is a very
+vexing one. Prof. Petrie prefers to publish as speedily as possible; six
+months after the season's work in Egypt is done, the full publication
+with photographs of everything appears. Mr. Reisner and the French
+explorers prefer to publish nothing until they have exhaustively studied
+the whole of the evidence, and can extract nothing more from it. This
+would be admirable if the French published their discoveries fully, but
+they do not. Even M. de Morgan has not approached the fulness of
+detail which characterizes British work and which will characterize Mr.
+Reisner's publication when it appears. The only drawback to this method
+is that general interest in the particular excavations described tends
+to pass away before the full description appears.
+
+Prof. Petrie has explored other prehistoric sites at Abadiya, and Mr.
+Quibell at el-Kab. M. de Morgan and his assistants have examined a large
+number of sites, ranging from the Delta to el-Kab. Further research has
+shown that some of the sites identified by M. de Morgan as prehistoric
+are in reality of much later date, for example, Kahun, where the late
+flints of XIIth Dynasty date were found. He notes that "large numbers
+of Neolithic flint weapons are found in the desert on the borders of
+the Fayyum, and at Helwan, south of Cairo," and that all the important
+necropoles and kitchen-middens of the predynastic people are to be found
+in the districts of Abydos and Thebes, from el-Kawamil in the North to
+el-Kab in the South. It is of course too soon to assert with confidence
+that there are no prehistoric remains in any other part of Egypt,
+especially in the long tract between the Fayy�m and the district of
+Abydos, but up to the present time none have been found in this region.
+
+This geographical distribution of the prehistoric remains fits in
+curiously with the ancient legend concerning the origin of the ancestors
+of the Egyptians in Upper Egypt, and supports the much discussed theory
+that they came originally to the Nile valley from the shores of the Red
+Sea by way of the Wadi Hammamat, which debouches on to the Nile in the
+vicinity of Koptos and Kus, opposite Ballas and T�kh. The supposition
+seems a very probable one, and it may well be that the earliest
+Egyptians entered the valley of the Nile by the route suggested and
+then spread northwards and southwards in the valley. The fact that their
+remains are not found north of el-Kaw�mil nor south of el-Kab might
+perhaps be explained by the supposition that, when they had extended
+thus far north and south from their original place of arrival, they
+passed from the primitive Neolithic condition to the more highly
+developed copper-using culture of the period which immediately preceded
+the establishment of the monarchy. The Neolithic weapons of the Fayy�m
+and Hel-w�n would then be the remains of a different people, which
+inhabited the Delta and Middle Egypt in very early times. This people
+may have been of Mediterranean stock, akin to the primitive inhabitants
+of Palestine, Greece, Italy, and Spain; and they no doubt were identical
+with the inhabitants of Lower Egypt who were overthrown and conquered by
+Kha-sekhem and the other Southern founders of the monarchy (who belonged
+to the race which had come from the Red Sea by the Wadi Hammamat), and
+so were the ancestors of the later natives of Lower Egypt. Whether the
+Southerners, whose primitive remains we find from el-Kaw�mil to el-Kab,
+were of the same race as the Northerners whom they conquered, cannot
+be decided. The skull-form of the Southerners agrees with that of the
+Mediterranean races. But we have no n�cropoles of the Northerners to
+tell us much of their peculiarities. We have nothing but their flint
+arrowheads.
+
+But it should be observed that, in spite of the present absence of all
+primitive remains (whether mere flints, or actual graves with bodies and
+relics) of the primeval population between the Fayy�m and el-Kaw�mil,
+there is no proof that the primitive race of Upper Egypt was not
+coterminous and identical with that of the lower country. It
+might therefore be urged that the whole Neolithic population was
+"Mediterranean" by its skull-form and body-structure, and specifically
+"Nilotic" (indigenous Egyptian) in its culture-type. This is quite
+possible, but we have again to account for the legends of distant origin
+on the Red Sea coast, the probability that one element of the Egyptian
+population was of extraneous origin and came from the east into the Nile
+valley near Koptos, and finally the historical fact of an advance of the
+early dynastic Egyptians from the South to the conquest of the North.
+The latter fact might of course be explained as a civil war analogous
+to that between Thebes and Asy�t in the time of the IXth Dynasty, but
+against this explanation is to be set the fact that the contemporary
+monuments of the Southerners exhibit the men of the North as of foreign
+and non-Egyptian ethnic type, resembling Libyans. It is possible that
+they were akin to the Libyans; and this would square very well with the
+first theory, but it may also be made to fit in with a development of
+the second, which has been generally accepted.
+
+According to this view, the whole primitive Neolithic population of
+North and South was Miotic, indigenous in origin, and akin to the
+"Mediterraneans "of Prof. Sergi and the other ethnologists. It was not
+this population, the stone-users whose n�cropoles have been found by
+Messrs. de Morgan, P�trie, and Maclver, that entered the Nile valley by
+the Wadi Hammamat. This was another race of different ethnic origin,
+which came from the Red Sea toward the end of the Neolithic period,
+and, being of higher civilization than the native Nilotes, assumed the
+lordship over them, gave a great impetus to the development of their
+culture, and started at once the institution of monarchy, the knowledge
+of letters, and the use of metals. The chiefs of this superior tribe
+founded the monarchy, conquered the North, unified the kingdom, and
+began Egyptian history. From many indications it would seem probable
+that these conquerors were of Babylonian origin, or that the culture
+they brought with them (possibly from Arabia) was ultimately of
+Babylonian origin. They themselves would seem to have been Semites,
+or rather proto-Semites, who came from Arabia to Africa by way of
+the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and proceeded up the coast to about the
+neighbourhood of Kus�r, whence the Wadi Hammamat offered them an open
+road to the valley of the Nile. By this route they may have entered
+Egypt, bringing with them a civilization, which, like that of the other
+Semites, had been profoundly influenced and modified by that of the
+Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia. This Semitic-Sumerian culture,
+mingling with that of the Nilotes themselves, produced the civilization
+of Ancient Egypt as we know it.
+
+This is a very plausible hypothesis, and has a great deal of evidence in
+its favour. It seems certain that in the early dynastic period two
+races lived in Egypt, which differed considerably in type, and also,
+apparently, in burial customs. The later Egyptians always buried the
+dead lying on their backs, extended at full length. During the period of
+the Middle Kingdom (XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) the head was usually turned
+over on to the left side, in order that the dead man might look through
+the two great eyes painted on that side of the coffin. Afterward the
+rigidly extended position was always adopted. The Neolithic Egyptians,
+however, buried the dead lying wholly on the left side and in a
+contracted position, with the knees drawn up to the chin. The bodies
+were not embalmed, and the extended position and mummification were
+never used. Under the IVth Dynasty we find in the necropolis of M�d�m
+(north of the Payy�m) the two positions used simultaneously, and the
+extended bodies are mummified. The contracted bodies are skeletons, as
+in the case of most of the predynastic bodies. When these are found with
+flesh, skin, and hair intact, their preservation is due to the dryness
+of the soil and the preservative salts it contains, not to intentional
+embalming, which was evidently introduced by those who employed the
+extended position in burial. The contracted position is found as late as
+the Vth Dynasty at Dashasha, south of the Eayy�m, but after that date it
+is no longer found.
+
+The conclusion is obvious that the contracted position without
+mummification, which the Neolithic people used, was supplanted in the
+early dynastic period by the extended position with mummification, and
+by the time of the VIth Dynasty it was entirely superseded. This points
+to the supersession of the burial customs of the indigenous Neolithic
+race by those of another race which conquered and dominated the
+indigenes. And, since the extended burials of the IVth Dynasty are
+evidently those of the higher nobles, while the contracted ones are
+those of inferior people, it is probable that the customs of extended
+burial and embalming were introduced by a foreign race which founded the
+Egyptian monarchical state, with its hierarchy of nobles and officials,
+and in fact started Egyptian civilization on its way. The conquerors of
+the North were thus not the descendants of the Neolithic people of the
+South, but their conquerors; in fact, they dominated the indigenes both
+of North and South, who will then appear (since we find the custom of
+contracted burial in the North at Dashasha and M�d�m) to have originally
+belonged to the same race.
+
+The conquering race is that which is supposed to have been of Semitic or
+proto-Semitic origin, and to have brought elements of Sumerian culture
+to savage Egypt. The reasons advanced for this supposition are the
+following:--
+
+(1) Just as the Egyptian race was evidently compounded of two elements,
+of conquered "Mediterraneans" and conquering x, so the Egyptian language
+is evidently compounded of two elements, the one Nilotic, perhaps
+related in some degree to the Berber dialects of North Africa, the other
+not x, but evidently Semitic.
+
+(2) Certain elements of the early dynastic civilization, which do not
+appear in that of the earlier pre-dynastic period, resemble well-known
+elements of the civilization of Babylonia. We may instance the use of
+the cylinder-seal, which died out in Egypt in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty, but was always used in Babylonia from the earliest to the
+latest times. The early Egyptian mace-head is of exactly the same
+type as the early Babylonian one. In the British Museum is an Egyptian
+mace-head of red breccia, which is identical in shape and size with
+one from Babylonia (also in the museum) bearing the name of
+Shargani-shar-ali (i.e. Sargon, King of Agade), one of the earliest
+Chald�an monarchs, who must have lived about the same time as the
+Egyptian kings of the IId-IIId Dynasties, to which period the Egyptian
+mace-head may also be approximately assigned. The Egyptian art of the
+earliest dynasties bears again a remarkable resemblance to that of early
+Babylonia. It is not till the time of the IId Dynasty that Egyptian art
+begins to take upon itself the regular form which we know so well, and
+not till that of the IVth that this form was finally crystallized. Under
+the 1st Dynasty we find the figure of man or, to take other instances,
+that of a lion, or a hawk, or a snake, often treated in a style very
+different from that in which we are accustomed to see a man, a lion, a
+hawk, or a snake depicted in works of the later period. And the striking
+thing is that these early representations, which differ so much from
+what we find in later Egyptian art, curiously resemble the works of
+early Babylonian art, of the time of the patesis of Shirpurla or the
+Kings Shargani-shar-ali and Nar�m-Sin. One of the best known relics
+of the early art of Babylonia is the famous "Stele of Vultures" now in
+Paris. On this we see the enemies of Eannadu, one of the early rulers
+of Shirpurla, cast out to be devoured by the vultures. On an Egyptian
+relief of slate, evidently originally dedicated in a temple record of
+some historical event, and dating from the beginning of the Ist Dynasty
+(practically contemporary, according to our latest knowledge, with
+Eannadu), we have an almost exactly similar scene of captives being cast
+out into the desert, and devoured by lions and vultures. The two reliefs
+are curiously alike in their clumsy, na�ve style of art. A further
+point is that the official represented on the stele, who appears to be
+thrusting one of the bound captives out to die, wears a long fringed
+garment of Babylonish cut, quite different from the clothes of the later
+Egyptians.
+
+(3) There are evidently two distinct and different main strata in the
+fabric of Egyptian religion. On the one hand we find a mass of myth and
+religious belief of very primitive, almost savage, cast, combining
+a worship of the actual dead in their tombs--which were supposed
+to communicate and thus form a veritable "underworld," or, rather,
+"under-Egypt"--with veneration of magic animals, such as jackals, cats,
+hawks, and crocodiles. On the other hand, we have a sun and sky worship
+of a more elevated nature, which does not seem to have amalgamated with
+the earlier fetishism and corpse-worship until a comparatively late
+period. The main seats of the sun-worship were at Heliopolis in the
+Delta and at Edfu in Upper Egypt. Heliopolis seems always to have been
+a centre of light and leading in Egypt, and it is, as is well known,
+the On of the Bible, at whose university the Jewish lawgiver Moses is
+related to have been educated "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." The
+philosophical theories of the priests of the Sun-gods, R�-Harmachis and
+Turn, at Heliopolis seem to have been the source from which sprang the
+monotheistic heresy of the Disk-Worshippers (in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty), who, under the guidance of the reforming King Akhunaten,
+worshipped only the disk of the sun as the source of all life, the door
+in heaven, so to speak, through which the hidden One Deity poured
+forth heat and light, the origin of life upon the earth. Very early
+in Egyptian history the Heliopolitans gained the upper hand, and the
+R�-worship (under the Vth Dynasty, the apogee of the Old Kingdom) came
+to the front, and for the first time the kings took the afterwards
+time-honoured royal title of "Son of the Sun." It appears then as a
+more or less foreign importation into the Nile valley, and bears most
+undoubtedly a Semitic impress. Its two chief seats were situated, the
+one, Heliopolis, in the North on the eastern edge of the Delta,--just
+where an early Semitic settlement from over the desert might be expected
+to be found,--the other, Edfu, in the Upper Egyptian territory south
+of the Theba�d, Koptos, and the Wadi Ham-mamat, and close to the chief
+settlement of the earliest kings and the most ancient capital of Upper
+Egypt.
+
+(4) The custom of burying at full length was evidently introduced into
+Egypt by the second, or x race. The Neolithic Egyptians buried in the
+cramped position. The early Babylonians buried at full length, as far
+as we know. On the same "Stele of Vultures," which has already been
+mentioned, we see the burying at full length of dead warriors. [* See
+illustration.] There is no trace of any _early_ burial in Babylonia in
+the cramped position. The tombs at Warka (Erech) with cramped bodies
+in pottery coffins are of very late date. A further point arises with
+regard to embalming. The Neolithic Egyptians did not embalm the dead.
+Usually their cramped bodies are found as skeletons. When they are
+mummified, it is merely owing to the preservative action of the salt
+in the soil, not to any process of embalming. The second, or x race,
+however, evidently introduced the custom of embalming as well as that
+of burial at full length and the use of coffins. The Neolithic Egyptian
+used no box or coffin, the nearest approach to this being a pot, which
+was inverted over the coiled up body. Usually only a mat was put over
+the body.
+
+[Illustration: 038.jpg Portion of the "Stele of Vultures" Found at
+Telloh]
+
+[Illustration: 038-text.jpg]
+
+Now it is evident that Babylonians and Assyrians, who buried the dead at
+full length in chests, had some knowledge of embalming. An Assyrian king
+tells us how he buried his royal father:--
+
+     "Within the grave, the secret place,
+     In kingly oil, I gently laid him.
+     The grave-stone marketh his resting-place.
+     With mighty bronze I sealed its entrance,
+     And I protected it with an incantation."
+
+The "kingly oil" was evidently used with the idea of preserving the body
+from decay. Salt also was used to preserve the dead, and Herodotus
+says that the Babylonians buried in honey, which was also used by the
+Egyptians. No doubt the Babylonian method was less perfect than the
+Egyptian, but the comparison is an interesting one, when taken in
+connection with the other points of resemblance mentioned above.
+
+We find, then, that an analysis of the Egyptian language reveals a
+Semitic element in it; that the early dynastic culture had certain
+characteristics which were unknown to the Neolithic Egyptians but are
+closely parallelled in early Babylonia; that there were two elements in
+the Egyptian religion, one of which seems to have originally belonged to
+the Neolithic people, while the other has a Semitic appearance; and that
+there were two sets of burial customs in early Egypt, one, that of the
+Neolithic people, the other evidently that of a conquering race, which
+eventually prevailed over the former; these later rites were analogous
+to those of the Babylonians and Assyrians, though differing from them
+in points of detail. The conclusion is that the x or conquering race
+was Semitic and brought to Egypt the Semitic elements in the Egyptian
+religion and a culture originally derived from that of the Sumerian
+inhabitants of Babylonia, the non-Semitic parent of all Semitic
+civilizations.
+
+The question now arises, how did this Semitic people reach Egypt? We
+have the choice of two points of entry: First, Heliopolis in the North,
+where the Semitic sun-worship took root, and, second, the Wadi Hamma-mat
+in the South, north of Edfu, the southern centre of sun-worship, and
+Hierakonpolis (Nekheb-Nekhen), the capital of the Upper Egyptian kingdom
+which existed before the foundation of the monarchy. The legends which
+seem to bring the ancestors of the Egyptians from the Red Sea coast have
+already been mentioned. They are closely connected with the worship
+of the Sky and Sun god Horus of Edfu. Hathor, his nurse, the "House of
+Horus," the centre of whose worship was at Dendera, immediately opposite
+the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat, was said to have come from Ta-neter,
+"The Holy Land," i.e. Abyssinia or the Red Sea coast, with the company
+or _paut_ of the gods. Now the Egyptians always seem to have had some
+idea that they were connected racially with the inhabitants of the Land
+of Punt or Puenet, the modern Abyssinia and Somaliland. In the time of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty they depicted the inhabitants of Punt as greatly
+resembling themselves in form, feature, and dress, and as wearing the
+little turned-up beard which was worn by the Egyptians of the earliest
+times, but even as early as the IVth Dynasty was reserved for the
+gods. Further, the word _Punt_ is always written without the hieroglyph
+determinative of a foreign country, thus showing that the Egyptians did
+not regard the Punites as foreigners. This certainly looks as if the
+Punites were a portion of the great migration from Arabia, left behind
+on the African shore when the rest of the wandering people pressed on
+northwards to the Wadi Hammamat and the Nile. It may be that the modern
+Gallas and Abyssinians are descendants of these Punites.
+
+Now the Sky-god of Edfu is in legend a conquering hero who advances down
+the Nile valley, with his _Mesniu_, or "Smiths," to overthrow the people
+of the North, whom he defeats in a great battle near Dendera. This may
+be a reminiscence of the first fights of the invaders with the Neolithic
+inhabitants. The other form of Horus, "Horus, son of Isis," has also a
+body of retainers, the _Shemsu-Heru_, or "Followers of Horns," who are
+spoken of in late texts as the rulers of Egypt before the monarchy. They
+evidently correspond to the dynasties of _Manes_,
+
+[Illustration: 041greek.jpg]
+
+or "Ghosts," of Manetho, and are probably intended for the early kings
+of Hierakonpolis.
+
+The mention of the Followers of Horus as "Smiths" is very interesting,
+for it would appear to show that the Semitic conquerors were notable
+as metal-users, that, in fact, their conquest was that old story in the
+dawn of the world's history, the utter overthrow and subjection of the
+stone-users by the metal-users, the primeval tragedy of the supersession
+of flint by copper. This may be, but if the "Smiths" were the Semitic
+conquerors who founded the kingdom, it would appear that the use of
+copper was known in Egypt to some extent before their arrival, for we
+find it in the graves of the late Neolithic Egyptians, very sparsely
+from "sequence-date 30" to "45," but afterwards more commonly. It was
+evidently becoming known. The supposition, however, that the "Smiths"
+were the Semitic conquerors, and that they won their way by the aid of
+their superior weapons of metal, may be provisionally accepted.
+
+In favour of the view which would bring the conquerors by way of the
+Wadi Hammamat, an interesting discovery may be quoted. Immediately
+opposite Den-dera, where, according to the legend, the battle between
+the _Mesniu_ and the aborigines took place, lies Koptos, at the mouth of
+the Wadi Hammamat. Here, in 1894, underneath the pavement of the ancient
+temple, Prof. Petrie found remains which he then diagnosed as belonging
+to the most ancient epoch of Egyptian history. Among them were some
+extremely archaic statues of the god Min, on which were curious
+scratched drawings of bears, _crioceras-shells_, elephants walking over
+hills, etc., of the most primitive description. With them were lions'
+heads and birds of a style then unknown, but which we now know to belong
+to the period of the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. But the statues of
+Min are older. The _crioceras-shells_ belong to the Red Sea. Are we to
+see in these statues the holy images of the conquerors from the Red Sea
+who reached the Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, and set up the
+first memorials of their presence at Koptos? It may be so, or the Min
+statues may be older than the conquerors, and belong to the Neolithic
+race, since Min and his fetish (which we find on the slate palette from
+el-'Amra, already mentioned) seem to belong to the indigenous Nilotes.
+In any case we have in these statues, two of which are in the Ashmolean
+Museum at Oxford, probably the most ancient cult-images in the world:
+
+This theory, which would make all the Neolithic inhabitants of Egypt
+one people, who were conquered by a Semitic race, bringing a culture of
+Sumerian origin to Egypt by way of the Wadi Hammamat, is that generally
+accepted at the present time. It may, however, eventually prove
+necessary to modify it. For reasons given above, it may well be that the
+Neolithic population was itself not indigenous, and that it reached the
+Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, spreading north and south
+from the mouth of the _wadi_. It may also be considered probable that
+a Semitic wave invaded Egypt by way of the Isthmus of Suez, where
+the early sun-cultus of Heliopolis probably marks a primeval Semitic
+settlement. In that case it would seem that the _Mesniu_ or "Smiths,"
+who introduced the use of metal, would have to be referred to the
+originally Neolithic pre-Semitic people, who certainly were acquainted
+with the use of copper, though not to any great extent. But this is not
+a necessary supposition. The _Mesniu_ are closely connected with the
+Sky-god Horus, who was possibly of Semitic origin, and another Semitic
+wave, quite distinct from that which entered Egypt by way of the
+Isthmus, may very well also have reached Egypt by the Wadi Hammamat, or,
+equally possibly, from the far south, coming down to the Nile from the
+Abyssinian mountains. The legend of the coming of Hathor from Ta-neter
+may refer to some such wandering, and we know that the Egyptians of the
+Old Kingdom communicated with the Land of Punt, not by way of the Red
+Sea coast as Hatshepsut did, but by way of the Upper Nile. This would
+tally well with the march of the _Mesniu_ northwards from Edfu to their
+battle with the forces of Set at Dendera.
+
+In any case, at the dawn of connected Egyptian history, we find two main
+centres of civilization in Egypt, Heliopolis and Buto in the Delta
+in the North, and Edfu and Hierakonpolis in the South. Here were
+established at the beginning of the Chalcolithic stage of culture, we
+may say, two kingdoms, of Lower and Upper Egypt, which were eventually
+united by the superior arms of the kings of Upper Egypt, who imposed
+their rule upon the North but at the same time removed their capital
+thither. The dualism of Buto and Hierakonpolis really lasted throughout
+Egyptian history. The king was always called "Lord of the Two Lands,"
+and wore the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt; the snakes of Buto and
+Nekhebet (the goddess of Nekheb, opposite Nekhen or Hierakonpolis)
+always typified the united kingdom. This dualism of course often led to
+actual division and reversion to the predynastic order of things, as,
+for instance, in the time of the XXIst Dynasty.
+
+It might well seem that both the impulses to culture development in the
+North and South came from Semitic inspiration, and that it was to
+the Semitic invaders in North and South that the founding of the two
+kingdoms was due. This may be true to some extent, but it is at the same
+time very probable that the first development of political culture at
+Hierakonpolis was really of pre-Semitic origin. The kingdom of Buto,
+since its capital is situated so near to the seacoast, may have owed
+its origin to oversea Mediterranean connections. There is much in
+the political constitution of later Egypt which seems to have been of
+indigenous and pre-Semitic origin. Especially does this seem to be so in
+the case of the division and organization of the country into nomes. It
+is obvious that so soon as agriculture began to be practised on a large
+scale, boundaries would be formed, and in the unique conditions of
+Egypt, where all boundaries disappear beneath the inundation every
+year, it is evident that the fixing of division-lines as permanently as
+possible by means of landmarks was early essayed. We can therefore with
+confidence assign the formation of the nomes to very early times. Now
+the names of the nomes and the symbols or emblems by which they were
+distinguished are of very great interest in this connection. They are
+nearly all figures of the magic animals of the primitive religion, and
+fetish-emblems of the older deities. The names are, in fact, those of
+the territories of the Neolithic Egyptian tribes, and their emblems are
+those of the protecting tribal demons. The political divisions of the
+country seem, then, to be of extremely ancient origin, and if the nomes
+go back to a time before the Semitic invasions, so may also the kingdoms
+of the South and North.
+
+Of these predynastic kingdoms we know very little, except from legendary
+sources. The Northerners who were conquered by Aha, Narmer, and
+Kh�sekhehiui do not look very much like Egyptians, but rather resemble
+Semites or Libyans. On the "Stele of Palermo," a chronicle of early
+kings inscribed in the period of the Vth Dynasty, we have a list of
+early kings of the North,--Seka, Desau, Tiu, Tesh, Nihab, Uatj�ntj,
+Mekhe. The names are primitive in form. We know nothing more about them.
+Last year Mr. C. T. Currelly attempted to excavate at Buto, in order to
+find traces of the predynastic kingdom, but owing to the infiltration of
+water his efforts were unsuccessful. It is improbable that anything is
+now left of the most ancient period at that site, as the conditions in
+the Delta are so very different from those obtaining in Upper Egypt.
+There, at Hierakonpolis, and at el-Kab on the opposite bank of the Nile,
+the sites of the ancient cities Nekhen and Nekheb, the excavators have
+been very successful. The work was carried out by Messrs. Quibell and
+Green, in the years 1891-9. Prehistoric burials were found on the hills
+near by, but the larger portion of the antiquities were recovered from
+the temple-ruins, and date back to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty,
+exactly the time when the kings of Hierakonpolis first conquered the
+kingdom of Buto and founded the united Egyptian monarchy.
+
+The ancient temple, which was probably one of the earliest seats of
+Egyptian civilization, was situated on a mound, now known as _el-Kom
+el-ahmar_, "the Red Hill," from its colour. The chief feature of the
+most ancient temple seems to have been a circular mound, revetted by a
+wall of sandstone blocks, which was apparently erected about the end of
+the predynastic period. Upon this a shrine was probably erected. This
+was the ancient shrine of Nekhen, the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy.
+Close by it were found some of the most valuable relics of the earliest
+Pharaonic age, the great ceremonial mace-heads and vases of Narmer and
+"the Scorpion," the shields or "palettes" of the same Narmer, the vases
+and stelas of Kh�sekhemui, and, of later date, the splendid copper
+colossal group of King Pepi I and his son, which is now at Cairo. Most
+of the 1st Dynasty objects are preserved in the Ashmo-lean Museum at
+Oxford, which is one of the best centres for the study of early Egyptian
+antiquities. Narmer and Kh�sekhemui are, as we shall see, two of the
+first monarchs of all Egypt. These sculptured and inscribed mace-heads,
+shields, etc., are monuments dedicated by them in the ancestral shrine
+at Hierakonpolis as records of their deeds. Both kings seem to have
+waged war against the Northerners, the _Anu_ of Heliopolis and the
+Delta, and on these votive monuments from Hierakonpolis we find
+hieroglyphed records of the defeat of the _Anu_, who have very
+definitely Semitic physiognomies.
+
+On one shield or palette we see Narmer clubbing a man of Semitic
+appearance, who is called the "Only One of the Marsh" (Delta), while
+below two other Semites fly, seeking "fortress-protection." Above is a
+figure of a hawk, symbolizing the Upper Egyptian king, holding a rope
+which is passed through the nose of a Semitic head, while behind is a
+sign which may be read as "the North," so that the whole symbolizes the
+leading away of the North into captivity by the king of the South. It
+is significant, in view of what has been said above with regard to the
+probable Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan Northerners, to find the
+people typical of the North-land represented by the Southerners as
+Semites. Equally Semitic is the overthrown Northerner on the other
+side of this well-known monument which we are describing; he is being
+trampled under the hoofs and gored by the horns of a bull, who, like the
+hawk, symbolizes the king. The royal bull has broken down the wall of a
+fortified enclosure, in which is the hut or tent of the Semite, and the
+bricks lie about promiscuously.
+
+In connection with the Semitic origin of the Northerners, the form of
+the fortified enclosures on both sides of this monument (that to whose
+protection the two Semites on one side fly, and that out of which the
+kingly bull has dragged the chief on the other) is noticeable. As usual
+in Egyptian writing, the hieroglyph of these buildings takes the form of
+a plan. The plan shows a crenelated enclosure, resembling the walls of
+a great Babylonian palace or temple, such as have been found at Telloh,
+Warka, or Mukayyar. The same design is found in Egypt at the Shuret
+ez-Zebib, an Old Kingdom fortress at Abydos, in the tomb of King Aha at
+Nak�da, and in many walls of mastaba-tombs of the early time. This is
+another argument in favour of an early connection between Egypt and
+Babylonia. We illustrate a fragment of another votive shield or palette
+of the same kind, now in the museum of the Louvre, which probably came
+originally from Hierakonpolis. It is of exactly similar workmanship to
+that of Narmer, and is no doubt a fragment of another monument of that
+king. On it we see the same subject of the overthrowing of a Northerner
+(of Semitic aspect) by the royal bull. On one side, below, is a
+fortified enclosure with crenelated walls of the type we have described,
+and within it a lion and a vase; below this another fort, and a bird
+within it. These signs may express the names of the two forts, but,
+owing to the fact that at this early period Egyptian orthography was
+not yet fixed, we cannot read them. On the other side we see a row of
+animated nome-standards of Upper Egypt, with the symbols of the god Min
+of Koptos, the hawk of Horus of Edfu, the ibis of Thot of Eshmun�n, and
+the jackals of Anubis of Abydos, which drag a rope; had we the rest
+of the monument, we should see, bound at the end of the rope, some
+prisoner, king, or animal symbolic of the North. On another slate
+shield, which we also reproduce, we see a symbolical representation of
+the capture of seven Northern cities, whose names seem to mean the "Two
+Men," the "Heron," the "Owl," the "Palm," and the "Ghost" Cities.
+
+"Ghost City" is attacked by a lion, "Owl City" by a hawk, "Palm City" by
+two hawk nome-standards, and another, whose name we cannot guess at, is
+being opened up by a scorpion.
+
+[Illustration: 050.jpg (left) OBVERSE OF A SLATE RELIEF.]
+
+The operating animals evidently represent nomes and tribes of the Upper
+Egyptians. Here again we see the same crenelated walls of the Northern
+towns, and there is no doubt that this slate fragment also, which is
+preserved in the Cairo Museum, is a monument of the conquests of Narmer.
+It is executed in the same archaic style as those from Hierakonpolis.
+The animals on the other side no doubt represent part of the spoil of
+the North.
+
+Returning to the great shield or palette found by Mr. Quibell, we see
+the king coming out, followed by his sandal-bearer, the _Hen-neter_ or
+"God's Servant,"* to view the dead bodies of the slain Northerners which
+lie arranged in rows, decapitated, and with their heads between their
+feet. The king is preceded by a procession of nome-standards.
+
+[Illustration: 051.jpg (right)]
+
+Above the dead men are symbolic representations of a hawk perched on a
+harpoon over a boat, and a hawk and a door, which doubtless again refer
+to the fights of the royal hawk of Upper Egypt on the Nile and at the
+gate of the North. The designs on the mace-heads refer to the same
+conquest of the North.
+
+     * In his commentary (Hierakonpolis, i. p. 9) on this scene,
+     Prof. Petrie supposes that the seven-pointed star sign means
+     "king," and compares the eight-pointed star "used for king
+     in Babylonia." The eight-pointed star of the cuneiform
+     script does not mean "king," but "god." The star then ought
+     to mean "god," and the title "servant of a god," and this
+     supposition may be correct. _Hen-neter_, "god's servant,"
+     was the appellation of a peculiar kind of priest in later
+     days, and was then spelt with the ordinary sign for a god,
+     the picture of an axe. But in the archaic period, with which
+     we are dealing, a star like the Babylonian sign may very
+     well have been used for "god," and the title of Narmer's
+     sandal-bearer may read _Hen-neter_. He was the slave of the
+     living god Narmer. All Egyptian kings were regarded as
+     deities, more or less.
+
+The monuments Kh�sekhemui, a king, show us that he conquered the North
+also and slew 47,209 "Northern Enemies." The contorted attitudes of the
+dead Northerners were greatly admired and sketched at the time, and were
+reproduced on the pedestal of the king's statue found by Mr. Quibell,
+which is now at Oxford. It was an age of cheerful savage energy, like
+most times when kingdoms and peoples are in the making. About 4000 B.C.
+is the date of these various monuments.
+
+[Illustration: 052.jpg OBVERSE OP A SLATE RELIEF.]
+
+Kh�sekhemui probably lived later than Narmer, and we may suppose that
+his conquest was in reality a re-conquest. He may have lived as late
+as the time of the IId Dynasty, whereas Narmer must be placed at the
+beginning of the Ist, and his conquest was probably that which first
+united the two kingdoms of the South and North. As we shall see in
+the next chapter, he is probably one of the originals of the legendary
+"Mena," who was regarded from the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty onwards
+as the founder of the kingdom, and was first made known to Europe by
+Herodotus, under the name of "Men�s."
+
+[Illustration: 053.jpg REVERSE OF A SLATE RELIEF, REPRESENTING ANIMALS.]
+
+Narmer is therefore the last of the ancient kings of Hierakonpolis, the
+last of Manetho's "Spirits." We may possibly have recovered the names of
+one or two of the kings anterior to Narmer in the excavations at Abydos
+(see Chapter II), but this is uncertain. To all intents and purposes we
+have only legendary knowledge of the Southern kingdom until its close,
+when Narmer the mighty went forth to strike down the Anu of the North,
+an exploit which he recorded in votive monuments at Hierakonpolis, and
+which was commemorated henceforward throughout Egyptian history in the
+yearly "Feast of the Smiting of the Anu." Then was Egypt for the first
+time united, and the fortress of the "White Wall," the "Good Abode" of
+Memphis, was built to dominate the lower country. The Ist Dynasty was
+founded and Egyptian history began.
+
+[Illustration: 054.jpg ]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+
+
+Until the recent discoveries had been made, which have thrown so much
+light upon the early history of Egypt, the traditional order and names
+of the kings of the first three Egyptian dynasties were, in default of
+more accurate information, retained by all writers on the history of the
+period. The names were taken from the official lists of kings at Abydos
+and elsewhere, and were divided into dynasties according to the system
+of Manetho, whose names agree more or less with those of the lists and
+were evidently derived from them ultimately. With regard to the fourth
+and later dynasties it was clear that the king-lists were correct, as
+their evidence agreed entirely with that of the contemporary monuments.
+But no means existed of checking the lists of the first three dynasties,
+as no contemporary monuments other than a IVth Dynasty mention of a IId
+Dynasty king, Send, had been found. The lists dated from the time of
+the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, so that it was very possible that with
+regard to the earliest dynasties they might not be very correct. This
+conclusion gained additional weight from the fact that no monuments of
+these earliest kings were ever discovered; it therefore seemed probable
+that they were purely legendary figures, in whose time (if they ever did
+exist) Egypt was still a semi-barbarous nation. The jejune stories told
+about them by Manetho seemed to confirm this idea. Mena, the reputed
+founder of the monarchy, was generally regarded as a historical figure,
+owing to the persistence of his name in all ancient literary accounts
+of the beginnings of Egyptian history; for it was but natural to suppose
+that the name of the man who unified Egypt and founded Memphis would
+endure in the mouths of the people. But with regard to his successors
+no such supposition seemed probable, until the time of Sneferu and the
+pyramid-builders.
+
+This was the critical view. Another school of historians accepted all
+the kings of the lists as historical _en bloc_, simply because the
+Egyptians had registered their names as kings. To them Teta, Ateth, and
+Ata were as historical as Mena.
+
+Modern discovery has altered our view, and truth is seen to lie between
+the opposing schools, as usual. The kings after Mena do not seem to be
+such entirely unhistorical figures as the extreme critics thought;
+the names of several of them, e.g. Merpeba, of the Ist Dynasty, are
+correctly given in the later lists, and those of others were simply
+misread, e. g. that of Semti of the same dynasty, misread "Hesepti" by
+the list-makers. On the other hand, Mena himself has become a somewhat
+doubtful quantity. The real names of most of the early monarchs of Egypt
+have been recovered for us by the latest excavations, and we can now see
+when the list-makers of the XIXth Dynasty were right and when they were
+wrong, and can distinguish what is legendary in their work from what is
+really historical. It is true that they very often appear to have been
+wrong, but, on the other hand, they were sometimes unexpectedly near
+the mark, and the general number and arrangement of their kings
+seems correct; so that we can still go to them for assistance in the
+arrangement of the names which are communicated to us by the newly
+discovered monuments. Manetho's help, too, need never be despised
+because he was a copyist of copyists; we can still use him to direct our
+investigations, and his arrangement of dynasties must still remain the
+framework of our chronological scheme, though he does not seem to have
+been always correct as to the places in which the dynasties originated.
+
+More than the names of the kings have the new discoveries communicated
+to us. They have shed a flood of light on the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization and art, supplementing the recently ascertained facts
+concerning the prehistoric age which have been described in the
+preceding chapter. The impulse to these discoveries was given by the
+work of M. de Morgan, who excavated sites of the early dynastic as
+well as of the predynastic age. Among these was a great mastaba-tomb at
+Nak�da, which proved to be that of a very early king who bore the name
+of Aha, "the Fighter." The walls of this tomb are crenelated like
+those of the early Babylonian palaces and the forts of the Northerners,
+already referred to. M. de Morgan early perceived the difference between
+the Neolithic antiquities and those of the later archaic period of
+Egyptian civilization, to which the tomb at Nak�da belonged. In the
+second volume of his great work on the primitive antiquities of Egypt
+_(L'Age des M�taux et l� Tombeau Royale de N�gadeh)_, he described
+the antiquities of the Ist Dynasty which had been found at the time he
+wrote. Antiquities of the same primitive period and even of an earlier
+date had been discovered by Prof. Flinders Petrie, as has already been
+said, at Koptos, at the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat. But though Prof.
+Petrie correctly diagnosed the age of the great statues of the god
+Min which he found, he was led, by his misdating of the "New Race"
+antiquities from Ballas and T�kh, also to misdate several of the
+primitive antiquities,--the lions and hawks, for instance, found at
+Koptos, he placed in the period between the VIIth and Xth Dynasties;
+whereas they can now, in the light of further discoveries at Abydos, be
+seen to date to the earlier part of the Ist Dynasty, the time of Narmer
+and Aha.
+
+It is these discoveries at Abydos, coupled with those (already
+described) of Mr. Quibell at Hierakonpolis, which have told us most of
+what we know with regard to the history of the first three dynasties.
+At Abydos Prof. Petrie was not himself the first in the field, the site
+having already been partially explored by a French Egyptologist, M.
+Am�lineau. The excavations of M. Am�lineau were, however, perhaps
+not conducted strictly on scientific lines, and his results have been
+insufficiently published with very few photographs, so that with the
+best will in the world we are unable to give M. Am�lineau the full
+credit which is, no doubt, due to him for his work. The system of Prof.
+Petrie's publications has been often, and with justice, criticized, but
+he at least tells us every year what he has been doing, and gives us
+photographs of everything he has found. For this reason the epoch-making
+discoveries at Abydos have been coupled chiefly with the name of Prof.
+Petrie, while that of M. Am�lineau is rarely heard in connection with
+them. As a matter of fact, however, M. Am�lineau first excavated the
+necropolis of the early kings at Abydos, and discovered most of the
+tombs afterwards worked over by Prof. Petrie and Mr. Mace. Yet most of
+the important scientific results are due to the later explorers, who
+were the first to attempt a classification of them, though we must
+add that this classification has not been entirely accepted by the
+scientific world.
+
+The necropolis of the earliest kings of Egypt is situated in the great
+bay in the hills which lies behind Abydos, to the southwest of the main
+necropolis. Here, at holy Abydos, where every pious Egyptian wished to
+rest after death, the bodies of the most ancient kings were buried. It
+is said by Manetho that the original seat of their dominion was This,
+a town in the vicinity of Abydos, now represented by the modern Gr�rga,
+which lies a few miles distant from its site (el-Birba). This may be a
+fact, but we have as yet obtained no confirmation of it. It may well be
+that the attribution of a Thinite origin to the Ist and IId Dynasties
+was due simply to the fact that the kings of these dynasties were buried
+at Abydos, which lay within the Thinite nome. Manetho knew that they
+were buried at Abydos, and so jumped to the conclusion that they lived
+there also, and called them "Thinites."
+
+[Illustration: 060.jpg PROF. PETRIE'S CAMP AT ABYDOS, 1901.]
+
+Their real place of origin must have been Hierakonpolis, where the
+pre-dynastic kingdom of the South had its seat. The Hid Dynasty was no
+doubt of Memphite origin, as Manetho says. It is certain that the
+seat of the government of the IVth Dynasty was at Memphis, where the
+pyramid-building kings were buried, and we know that the sepulchres
+of two Hid Dynasty kings, at least, were situated in the necropolis of
+Memphis (Sakk�ra-M�d�m). So that probably the seat of government was
+transferred from Hierakonpolis to Memphis by the first king of the Hid
+Dynasty. Thenceforward the kings were buried in the Memphite necropolis.
+
+The two great n�cropoles of Memphis and Abydos were originally the
+seats of the worship of the two Egyptian gods of the dead, Seker and
+Khentamenti, both of whom were afterwards identified with the Busirite
+god Osiris. Abydos was also the centre of the worship of Anubis, an
+animal-deity of the dead, the jackal who prowls round the tombs at
+night. Anubis and Osiris-Khentamenti, "He who is in the West," were
+associated in the minds of the Egyptians as the protecting deities of
+Abydos. The worship of these gods as the chief Southern deities of the
+dead, and the preeminence of the necropolis of Abydos in the South, no
+doubt date back before the time of the Ist Dynasty, so that it would
+not surprise us were burials of kings of the predynastic Hierakonpolite
+kingdom discovered at Abydos. Prof. Petrie indeed claims to have
+discovered actual royal relics of that period at Abydos, but this seems
+to be one of the least certain of his conclusions. We cannot definitely
+state that the names "Ro," "Ka," and "Sma" (if they are names at all,
+which is doubtful) belong to early kings of Hierakonpolis who were
+buried at Abydos. It may be so, but further confirmation is desirable
+before we accept it as a fact; and as yet such confirmation has not been
+forthcoming. The oldest kings, who were certainly buried at Abydos, seem
+to have been the first rulers of the united kingdom of the North and
+South, Aha and his successors. N'armer is not represented. It may
+be that he was not buried at Abydos, but in the necropolis of
+Hierakonpolis. This would point to the kings of the South not having
+been buried at Abydos until after the unification of the kingdom.
+
+That Aha possessed a tomb at Abydos as well as another at Nak�da seems
+peculiar, but it is a phenomenon not unknown in Egypt. Several kings,
+whose bodies were actually buried elsewhere, had second tombs at Abydos,
+in order that they might _possess_ last resting-places near the tomb
+of Osiris, although they might not prefer to _use_ them. Usertsen (or
+Senusret) III is a case in point. He was really buried in a pyramid at
+Illahun, up in the North, but he had a great rock tomb cut for him in
+the cliffs at Abydos, which he never occupied, and probably had never
+intended to occupy. We find exactly the same thing far back at the
+beginning of Egyptian history, when Aha possessed not only a great
+mastaba-tomb at Nak�da, but also a tomb-chamber in the great necropolis
+of Abydos. It may be that other kings of the earliest period also had
+second sepulchres elsewhere. It is noteworthy that in none of the early
+tombs at Abydos were found any bodies which might be considered those
+of the kings themselves. M. Am�lineau discovered bodies of attendants
+or slaves (who were in all probability purposely strangled and buried
+around the royal chamber in order that they should attend the king
+in the next world), but no royalties. Prof. Petrie found the arm of a
+female mummy, who may have been of royal blood, though there is nothing
+to show that she was. And the quaint plait and fringe of false hair,
+which were also found, need not have belonged to a royal mummy. It is
+therefore quite possible that these tombs at Abydos were not the actual
+last resting-places of the earliest kings, who may really have been
+buried at Hierakonpolis or elsewhere, as Aha was. Messrs. Newberry
+and Gtarstang, in their _Short History of Egypt_, suppose that Aha was
+actually buried at Abydos, and that the great tomb with objects bearing
+his name, found by M. de Morgan at Nak�da, is really not his, but
+belonged to a royal princess named Neit-hetep, whose name is found in
+conjunction with his at Abydos and Nak�da. But the argument is equally
+valid turned round the other way: the Nak�da tomb might just as well be
+Aha's and the Abydos one Neit-hetep's. Neit-hetep, who is supposed by
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang to have been Narmer's daughter and Aha's
+wife, was evidently closely connected with Aha, and she may have been
+buried with him at Nak�da and commemorated with him at Abydos.* It is
+probable that the XIXth Dynasty list-makers and Manetho considered the
+Abydos tombs to have been the real graves of the kings, but it is by no
+means impossible that they were wrong.
+
+     * A princess named Bener-ab ("Sweet-heart"), who may have
+     been Aha's daughter, was actually buried beside his tomb at
+     Abydos.
+
+This view of the royal tombs at Abydos tallies to a great extent with
+that of M. Naville, who has energetically maintained the view that M.
+Am�lineau and Prof. Petrie have not discovered the real tombs of the
+early kings, but only their contemporary commemorative "tombs" at
+Abydos. The only real tomb of the Ist Dynasty, therefore, as yet
+discovered is that of Aha at Nak�da, found by M. de Morgan. The fact
+that attendant slaves were buried around the Abydos tombs is no bar to
+the view that the tombs were only the monuments, not the real graves,
+of the kings. The royal ghosts would naturally visit their commemorative
+chambers at Abydos, in order to be in the company of the great Osiris,
+and ghostly servants would be as necessary to their Majesties at Abydos
+as elsewhere.
+
+It must not be thought that this revised opinion of the Abydos tombs
+detracts in the slightest degree from the importance of the discovery of
+M. Am�lineau and its subsequent and more detailed investigation by Prof.
+Petrie. These monuments are as valuable for historical purposes as
+the real tombs themselves. The actual bodies of these primeval kings
+themselves we are never likely to find. The tomb of Aha at Nak�da had
+been completely rifled in ancient times.
+
+The commemorative tombs of the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties at
+Abydos lie southwest of the great necropolis, far within the bay in the
+hills. Their present aspect is that of a wilderness of sand hillocks,
+covered with masses of fragments of red pottery, from which the site has
+obtained the modern Arab name of _Umm el-Ga'ab_, "Mother of Pots." It
+is impossible to move a step in any direction without crushing some
+of these potsherds under the heel. They are chiefly the remains of the
+countless little vases of rough red pottery, which were dedicated here
+as _ex-votos_ by the pious, between the XIXth and XXVIth Dynasties, to
+the memory of the ancient kings and of the great god Osiris, whose tomb,
+as we shall see, was supposed to have been situated here also.
+
+[Illustration: 065.jpg (right) THE TOMB OF KING DEN AT ABYDOS. About
+4000 B.C.]
+
+Intermingled with these later fragments are pieces of the original
+Ist Dynasty vases, which were filled with wine and provisions and were
+placed in the tombs, for the refreshment and delectation of the royal
+ghosts when they should visit their houses at Abydos. These were thrown
+out and broken when the tombs were violated. Here and there one sees a
+dip in the sand, out of which rise four walls of great bricks, forming
+a rectangular chamber, half-filled with sand. This is one of the royal
+tomb-chambers of the Ist Dynasty. That of King Den is illustrated above.
+A straight staircase descends into it from the ground-level above. In
+several of the tombs the original flooring of wooden beams is still
+preserved. Den's is the most magnificent of all, for it has a floor of
+granite blocks; we know of no other instance of stone being used for
+building in this early age. Almost every tomb has been burnt at some
+period unknown. The brick walls are burnt red, and many of the alabaster
+vases are almost calcined. This was probably the work of some unknown
+enemy.
+
+The wide complicated tombs have around the main chamber a series of
+smaller rooms, which were used to store what was considered necessary
+for the use of the royal ghost. Of these necessaries the most
+interesting to us are the slaves, who were, as there is little reason to
+doubt, purposely killed and buried round the royal chamber so that their
+spirits should be on the spot when the dead king came to Abydos; thus
+they would be always ready to serve him with the food and other things
+which had been stored in the tomb with them and placed under their
+charge. There were stacks of great vases of wine, corn, and other food;
+these were covered up with masses of fat to preserve the contents,
+and they were corked with a pottery stopper, which was protected by
+a conical clay sealing, stamped with the impress of the royal
+cylinder-seal. There were bins of corn, joints of oxen, pottery dishes,
+copper pans, and other things which might be useful for the ghostly
+cuisine of the tomb. There were numberless small objects, used, no
+doubt, by the dead monarch during life, which he would be pleased to see
+again in the next world,--carved ivory boxes, little slabs for grinding
+eye-paint, golden buttons, model tools, model vases with gold tops,
+ivory and pottery figurines, and other _objets d'art_; the golden royal
+seal of judgment of King Den in its ivory casket, and so forth. There
+were memorials of the royal victories in peace and war, little ivory
+plaques with inscriptions commemorating the founding of new buildings,
+the institution of new religious festivals in honour of the gods, the
+bringing of the captives of the royal bow and spear to the palace, the
+discomfiture of the peoples of the North-land.
+
+[Illustration: 067.jpg CONICAL VASE-STOPPERS. From Abydos. 1st Dynasty:
+about 4000 B.C.]
+
+All these things, which have done so much to reconstitute for us the
+history of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy, were placed
+under the care of the dead slaves whose bodies were buried round the
+empty tomb-chamber of their royal master in Abydos.
+
+The killing and entombment of the royal servants is of the highest
+anthropological interest, for it throws a vivid light upon the manners
+of the time. It shows the primeval Egyptians as a semi-barbaric people
+of childishly simple ways of thought. The king was dead. For all his
+kingship he was a man, and no man was immortal in this world. But yet
+how could one really die? Shadows, dreams, all kinds of phenomena which
+the primitive mind could not explain, induced the belief that, though
+the outer man might rot, there was an inner man which could not die
+and still lived on. The idea of total death was unthinkable. And where
+should this inner man still live on but in the tomb to which the outer
+man was consigned? And here, doubtless it was believed, in the house to
+which the body was consigned, the ghost lived on. And as each ghost had
+his house with the body, so no doubt all ghosts could communicate with
+one another from tomb to tomb; and so there grew up the belief in a
+tomb-world, a subterranean Egypt of tombs, in which the dead Egyptians
+still lived and had their being. Later on the boat of the sun, in which
+the god of light crossed the heavens by day, was thought to pass through
+this dead world between his setting and his rising, accompanied by the
+souls of the righteous. But of this belief we find no trace yet in the
+ideas of the Ist Dynasty. All we can see is that the _sahus_, or bodies
+of the dead, were supposed to reside in awful majesty in the tomb,
+while the ghosts could pass from tomb to tomb through the mazes of
+the underworld. Over this dread realm of dead men presided a dead god,
+Osiris of Abydos; and so the necropolis of Abydos was the necropolis of
+the underworld, to which all ghosts who were not its rightful citizens
+would come from afar to pay their court to their ruler. Thus the man
+of substance would have a monumental tablet put up to himself in this
+necropolis as a sort of _pied-�-terre_, even if he could not be buried
+there; for the king, who, for reasons chiefly connected with local
+patriotism, was buried near the city of his earthly abode, a second tomb
+would be erected, a stately mansion in the city of Osiris, in which his
+ghost could reside when it pleased him to come to Abydos.
+
+Now none could live without food, and men living under the earth needed
+it as much as men living on the earth. The royal tomb was thus provided
+with an enormous amount of earthly food for the use of the royal ghost,
+and with other things as well, as we have seen. The same provision had
+also to be made for the royal resting-place at Abydos. And in both cases
+royal slaves were needed to take care of all this provision, and to
+serve the ghost of the king, whether in his real tomb at Nak�da, or
+elsewhere, or in his second tomb at Abydos. Ghosts only could serve
+ghosts, so that of the slaves ghosts had to be made. That was easily
+done; they died when their master died and followed him to the tomb.
+No doubt it seemed perfectly natural to all concerned, to the slaves as
+much as to anybody else. But it shows the child's idea of the value of
+life. An animate thing was hardly distinguished at this period from an
+inanimate thing. The most ancient Egyptians buried slaves with their
+kings as naturally as they buried jars of wine and bins of corn with
+them. Both were buried with a definite object. The slaves had to die
+before they were buried, but then so had the king himself. They all had
+to die sometime or other. And the actual killing of them was no worse
+than killing a dog, no worse even than "killing" golden buttons and
+ivory boxes. For, when the buttons and boxes were buried with the king,
+they were just as much dead as the slaves. Of the sanctity of _human_
+life as distinct from other life, there was probably no idea at all. The
+royal ghost needed ghostly servants, and they were provided as a matter
+of course.
+
+But as civilization progressed, the ideas of the Egyptians changed
+on these points, and in the later ages of the ancient world they were
+probably the most humane of the peoples, far more so than the Greeks,
+in fact. The cultured Hellenes murdered their prisoners of war without
+hesitation. Who has not been troubled in mind by the execution of Mkias
+and Demosthenes after the surrender of the Athenian army at Syracuse?
+When we compare this with Grant's refusal even to take Lee's sword
+at Appomattox, we see how we have progressed in these matters; while
+Gylippus and the Syracusans were as much children as the Ist Dynasty
+Egyptians. But the Egyptians of Gylippus's time had probably advanced
+much further than the Greeks in the direction of rational manhood. When
+Amasis had his rival Apries in his power, he did not put him to death,
+but kept him as his coadjutor on the throne. Apries fled from him,
+allied himself with Greek pirates, and advanced against his generous
+rival. After his defeat and murder at Momemphis, Amasis gave him a
+splendid burial. When we compare this generosity to a beaten foe with
+the savagery of the Assyrians, for instance, we see how far the later
+Egyptians had progressed in the paths of humanity.
+
+The ancient custom of killing slaves was first discontinued at the death
+of the lesser chieftains, but we find a possible survival of it in the
+case of a king, even as late as the time of the XIth Dynasty; for at
+Thebes, in the precinct of the funerary temple of King Neb-hapet-R�
+Mentuhetep and round the central pyramid which commemorated his memory,
+were buried a number of the ladies of his _har�m_. They were all buried
+at one and the same time, and there can be little doubt that they were
+all killed and buried round the king, in order to be with him in the
+next world. Now with each of these ladies, who had been turned into
+ghosts, was buried a little waxen human figure placed in a little model
+coffin. This was to replace her own slave. She who went to accompany
+the king in the next world had to have her own attendant also. But, not
+being royal, a real slave was not killed for her; she only took with her
+a waxen figure, which by means of charms and incantations would, when
+she called upon it, turn into a real slave, and say, "Here am I," and do
+whatever work might be required of her. The actual killing and burial
+of the slaves had in all cases except that of the king been long
+"commuted," so to speak, into a burial with the dead person of
+_ushabtis_, or "Answerers," little figures like those described above,
+made more usually of stone, and inscribed with the name of the deceased.
+They were called "Answerers" because they answered the call of their
+dead master or mistress, and by magic power became ghostly servants.
+Later on they were made of wood and glazed _fa�ence_, as well as stone.
+By this means the greater humanity of a later age sought a relief from
+the primitive disregard of the death of others.
+
+Anthropologically interesting as are the results of the excavations at
+Umm el-Gra'ab, they are no less historically important. There is no need
+here to weary the reader with the details of scientific controversy; it
+will suffice to set before him as succinctly and clearly as possible the
+net results of the work which has been done.
+
+Messrs. Am�lineau and Petrie have found the secondary tombs and have
+identified the names of the following primeval kings of Egypt. We
+arrange them in their apparent historical order.
+
+1. Aha Men (?).
+
+2. Narmer (or Betjumer) Sma (?).
+
+3. Tjer (or Khent). Besh.
+
+4. Tja Ati.
+
+5. Den Semti.
+
+6. Atjab Merpeba.
+
+7. Semerkha Nekht.
+
+8. Q� Sen.
+
+9. Kh�sekhem (Kh�sekhemui)
+
+10. Hetepsekhemui.
+
+11. R�neb.
+
+12. Neneter.
+
+13. Sekhemab Perabsen.
+
+
+Two or three other names are ascribed by Prof. Petrie to the
+Hierakonpolite dynasty of Upper Egypt, which, as it occurs before the
+time of Mena and the Ist Dynasty, he calls "Dynasty 0." Dynasty 0,
+however, is no dynasty, and in any case we should prefer to call the
+"predynastic" dynasty "Dynasty I." The names of "Dynasty minus One,"
+however, remain problematical, and for the present it would seem safer
+to suspend judgment as to the place of the supposed royal names "Ro" and
+"Ka"(Men-kaf), which Prof. Petrie supposes to have been those of two
+of the kings of Upper Egypt who reigned before Mena. The king
+"Sma"("Uniter") is possibly identical with Aha or Narmer, more
+probably the latter. It is not necessary to detail the process by which
+Egyptologists have sought to identify these thirteen kings with the
+successors of Mena in the lists of kings and the Ist and IId Dynasties
+of Manetho. The work has been very successful, though not perhaps quite
+so completely accomplished as Prof. Petrie himself inclines to believe.
+The first identification was made by Prof. Sethe, of Gottingen, who
+pointed out that the names Semti and Merpeba on a vase-fragment found
+by M. Am�lineau were in reality those of the kings Hesepti and Merbap
+of the lists, the Ousapha�s and Miebis of Manetho. The perfectly certain
+identifications are these:--
+
+5. Den Semti = Hesepti, _Ousapha�s_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+6. Atjab Merpeba = Merbap, _Miebis_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+7. Semerkha Nekht= Shemsu or Semsem (?), _Semempres_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+8. Q� Sen = Qebh, _Bienehhes_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+9. Kh�sekhemui Besh = Betju-mer (?), _Boethos_, IId Dynasty.
+
+10. Neneter = Bineneter, _Binothris_, IId Dynasty.
+
+
+Six of the Abydos kings have thus been identified with names in the
+lists and in Manetho; that is to say, we now know the real names of six
+of the earliest Egyptian monarchs, whose appellations are given us
+under mutilated forms by the later list-makers. Prof. Petrie further
+identifies (4) Tja Ati with Ateth, (3) Tjer with Teta, and (1) Aha with
+Mena. Mena, Teta, Ateth, Ata, Hesepti, Merbap, Shemsu (?), and Qebh are
+the names of the 1st Dynasty as given in the lists. The equivalent of
+Ata Prof. Petrie finds in the name "Merneit," which is found at Umm
+el-Ga'ab. But there is no proof whatever that Merneit was a king; he
+was much more probably a prince or other great personage of the reign
+of Den, who was buried with the kings. Prof. Petrie accepts the
+identification of the personal name of Aha as "Men," and so makes him
+the only equivalent of Mena. But this reading of the name is still
+doubtful. Arguing that Aha must be Mena, and having all the rest of the
+kings of the Ist Dynasty identified with the names in the lists, Prof.
+Petrie is compelled to exclude Narmer from the dynasty, and to relegate
+him to "Dynasty 0," before the time of Mena. It is quite possible,
+however, that Narmer was the successor, not the predecessor, of Mena.
+He was certainly either the one or the other, as the style of art in his
+time was exactly the same as that in the time of Aha. The "Scorpion,"
+too, whose name is found at Hierakonpolis, certainly dates to the same
+time as Narmer and Aha, for the style of his work is the same. And it
+may well be that he is not to be counted as a separate king, belonging
+to "Dynasty 0 "(or "Dynasty -I") at all, but as identical with Narmer,
+just as "Sma" may also be. We thus find that the two kings who left the
+most developed remains at Hierakonpolis are the two whose monuments at
+Abydos are the oldest of all on that site. That is to say, the kings
+whose monuments record the conquest of the North belong to the period
+of transition from the old Hierakonpolite dominion of Upper Egypt to the
+new kingdom of all Egypt. They, in fact, represent the "Mena" or Men�s
+of tradition. It may be that Aha bore the personal name of _Men_, which
+would thus be the original of Mena, but this is uncertain. In any case
+both Aha and Narmer must be assigned to the Ist Dynasty, with the result
+that we know of more kings belonging to the dynasty than appear in the
+lists.
+
+Nor is this improbable. Manetho's list is evidently based upon old
+Egyptian lists derived from the authorities upon which the king-lists of
+Abydos and Sakk�ra were based. These old lists were made under the
+XIXth Dynasty, when an interest in the oldest kings seems to have been
+awakened, and the ruling monarchs erected temples at Abydos in their
+honour. This phenomenon can only have been due to a discovery of Umm
+el-Ga'ab and its treasures, the tombs of which were recognized as
+the burial-places (real or secondary) of the kings before the
+pyramid-builders. Seti I. and his son Ramses then worshipped the kings
+of Umm el-Ga'ab, with their names set before them in the order, number,
+and spelling in which the scribes considered they ought to be inscribed.
+It is highly probable that the number known at that time was not quite
+correct. We know that the spelling of the names was very much garbled
+(to take one example only, the signs for _Sen_ were read as one sign
+_Qebh_), so that one or two kings may have been omitted or displaced.
+This may be the case with Narmer, or, as his name ought possibly to be
+read, _Betjumer_. His monuments show by their style that he belongs to
+the very beginning of the Ist Dynasty. No name in the Ist Dynasty list
+corresponds to his. But one of the lists gives for the first king of the
+IId Dynasty (the successor of "Qebh" = Sen) a name which may also be read
+Betjumer, spelt syllabically this time, not ideographically. On this
+account Prof. Naville wishes to regard the Hierakonpolite monuments of
+Narmer as belonging to the IId Dynasty, but, as we have seen, they are
+among the most archaic known, and certainly must belong to the beginning
+of the Ist Dynasty. It is therefore probable that Khasekhemui Besh
+and Narmer (Betjumer?) were confused by this list-maker, and the
+name Betjumer was given to the first king of the IId Dynasty, who was
+probably in reality Khasekhemui. The resemblance of _Betju_ to _Besh_
+may have contributed to this confusion.
+
+So Narmer (or Betjumer) found his way out of his proper place at the
+beginning of the 1st Dynasty. Whether Aha was also called "Men" or not,
+it seems evident that he and Narmer were jointly the originals of the
+legendary Mena. Narmer, who possibly also bore the name of Sma, "the
+Uniter," conquered the North. Aha, "the Fighter," also ruled both South
+and North at the same period. Khasekhemui, too, conquered the North, but
+the style of his monuments shows such an advance upon that of the days
+of Aha and Narmer that it seems best to make him the successor of Sen
+(or "Qebh "), and, explaining the transference of the name Betjumer
+to the beginning of the IId Dynasty as due to a confusion with
+Khasekhemui's personal name Besh, to make Khasekhemui the founder of the
+IId Dynasty. The beginning of a new dynasty may well have been marked
+by a reassertion of the new royal power over Lower Egypt, which may have
+lapsed somewhat under the rule of the later kings of the Ist Dynasty.
+
+Semti is certainly the "Hesepti" of the lists, and Tja Ati is probably
+"Ateth." "Ata" is thus unidentified. Prof. Petrie makes him = Merneit,
+but, as has already been said, there is no proof that the tomb of
+Merneit is that of a king. "Teta" may be Tjer or Khent, but of this
+there is no proof. It is most probable that the names "Teta," "Ateth,"
+and "Ata" are all founded on Ati, the personal name of Tja. The king
+Tjer is then not represented in the lists, and "Mena" is a compound of
+the two oldest Abydos kings, Narmer (Betjumer) Sma (?) and Aha Men (?).
+
+These are the bare historical results that have been attained with
+regard to the names, identity, and order of the kings. The smaller
+memorials that have been found with them, especially the ivory plaques,
+have told us of events that took place during their reigns; but, with
+the exception of the constantly recurring references to the conquest of
+the North, there is little that can be considered of historical interest
+or importance. We will take one as an example. This is the tablet No.
+32,650 of the British Museum, illustrated by Prof. Petrie, _Royal Tombs_
+i (Egypt Exploration Fund), pi. xi, 14, xv, 16. This is the record of
+a single year, the first in the reign of Semti, King of Upper and Lower
+Egypt. On it we see a picture of a king performing a religious dance
+before the god Osiris, who is seated in a shrine placed on a dais. This
+religious dance was performed by all the kings in later times. Below we
+find hieroglyphic (ideographic) records of a river expedition to fight
+the Northerners and of the capture of a fortified town called An. The
+capture of the town is indicated by a broken line of fortification,
+half-encircling the name, and the hoe with which the emblematic hawks
+on the slate reliefs already described are armed; this signifies the
+opening and breaking down of the wall.
+
+On the other half of the tablet we find the viceroy of Lower Egypt,
+Hemaka, mentioned; also "the Hawk (i. e. the king) seizes the seat of
+the Libyans," and some unintelligible record of a jeweller of the palace
+and a king's carpenter. On a similar tablet (of Sen) we find the words
+"the king's carpenter made this record." All these little tablets are
+then the records of single years of a king's life, and others like them,
+preserved no doubt in royal archives, formed the base of regular annals,
+which were occasionally carved upon stone. We have an example of one of
+these in the "Stele of Palermo," a fragment of black granite, inscribed
+with the annals of the kings up to the time of the Vth Dynasty, when
+the monument itself was made. It is a matter for intense regret that the
+greater portion of this priceless historical monument has disappeared,
+leaving us but a piece out of the centre, with part of the records
+of only six kings before Snefru. Of these six the name of only one,
+Neneter, of the lid Dynasty, whose name is also found at Abydos, is
+mentioned. The only important historical event of Neneter's reign seems
+to have occurred in his thirteenth year, when the towns or palaces of
+_Ha_ ("North") and Shem-R� ("The Sun proceeds") were founded. Nothing
+but the institution and celebration of religious festivals is recorded
+in the sixteen yearly entries preserved to us out of a reign of
+thirty-five years. The annual height of the Nile is given, and the
+occasions of numbering the people are recorded (every second year):
+nothing else. Manetho tells us that in the reign of Binothris, who
+is Neneter, it was decreed that women could hold royal honours and
+privileges. This first concession of women's rights is not mentioned on
+the strictly official "Palermo Stele."
+
+More regrettable than aught else is the absence from the "Palermo Stele"
+of that part of the original monument which gave the annals of the
+earliest kings. At any rate, in the lines of annals which still exist
+above that which contains the chronicle of the reign of Neneter no
+entry can be definitely identified as belonging to the reigns of Aha
+or Narmer. In a line below there is a mention of the "birth of
+Kh�sekhemui," apparently a festival in honour of the birth of that king
+celebrated in the same way as the reputed birthday of a god. This shows
+the great honour in which Kh�sekhemui was held, and perhaps it was he
+who really finally settled the question of the unification of North and
+South and consolidated the work of the earlier kings.
+
+As far as we can tell, then, Aha and Narmer were the first conquerors
+of the North, the unifiers of the kingdom, and the originals of the
+legendary Mena. In their time the kingdom's centre of gravity was still
+in the South, and Narmer (who is probably identical with "the Scorpion")
+dedicated the memorials of his deeds in the temple of Hierakonpolis. It
+may be that the legend of the founding of Memphis in the time of "Men�s"
+is nearly correct (as we shall see, historically, the foundation may
+have been due to Merpeba), but we have the authority of Manetho for
+the fact that the first two dynasties were "Thinite" (that is, Upper
+Egyptian), and that Memphis did not become the capital till the time of
+the Hid Dynasty. With this statement the evidence of the monuments fully
+agrees. The earliest royal tombs in the pyramid-field of Memphis date
+from the time of the Hid Dynasty, so that it is evident that the kings
+had then taken up their abode in the Northern capital. We find that soon
+after the time of Kh�sekhemui the king Perabsen was especially connected
+with Lower Egypt. His personal name is unknown to us (though he may
+be the "Uatjnes" of the lists), but we do know that he had two
+banner-names, Sekhem-ab and Perabsen. The first is his hawk or
+Horus-name, the second his Set-name; that is to say, while he bore the
+first name as King of Upper Egypt under the special patronage of Horus,
+the hawk-god of the Upper Country, he bore the second as King of Lower
+Egypt, under the patronage of Set, the deity of the Delta, whose fetish
+animal appears above this name instead of the hawk. This shows how
+definitely Perabsen wished to appear as legitimate King of Lower as well
+as Upper Egypt. In later times the Theban kings of the XIIth Dynasty,
+when they devoted themselves to winning the allegiance of the
+Northerners by living near Memphis rather than at Thebes, seem to have
+been imitating the successors of Kh�sekhemui.
+
+Moreover, we now find various evidences of increasing connection with
+the North. A princess named Ne-maat-hap, who seems to have been the
+mother of Sa-nekht, the first king of the Hid Dynasty, bears the name of
+the sacred Apis of Memphis, her name signifying "Possessing the right of
+Apis." According to Manetho, the kings of the Hid Dynasty are the first
+Memphites, and this seems to be quite correct. With Ne-maat-hap the
+royal right seems to have been transferred to a Memphite house. But the
+Memphites still had associations with Upper Egypt: two of them, Tjeser
+Khet-neter and Sa-nekht, were buried near Abydos, in the desert at B�t
+Khall�f, where their tombs were discovered and excavated by Mr. Garstang
+in 1900. The tomb of Tjeser is a great brick-built mastaba, forty feet
+high and measuring 300 feet by 150 feet. The actual tomb-chambers are
+excavated in the rock, twenty feet below the ground-level and sixty feet
+below the top of the mastaba. They had been violated in ancient times,
+but a number of clay jar-sealings, alabaster vases, and bowls belonging
+to the tomb furniture were found by the discoverer. Sa-nekht's tomb is
+similar. In it was found the preserved skeleton of its owner, who was a
+giant seven feet high.
+
+[Illustration: 082.jpg THE TOMB OF KING TJESER AT B�T KHALL�F. About
+3700 B.C.]
+
+It is remarkable that Manetho chronicles among the kings of the early
+period a king named Sesokhris, who was five cubits high. This may have
+been Sa-nekht.
+
+Tjeser had two tombs, one, the above-mentioned, near Abydos, the
+other at Sakk�ra, in the Memphite pyramid-field. This is the famous
+Step-Pyramid. Since Sa-nekht seems really to have been buried at B�t
+Khal-laf, probably Tjeser was, too, and the Step-Pyramid may have been
+his secondary or sham tomb, erected in the necropolis of Memphis as a
+compliment to Seker, the Northern god of the dead, just as Aha had his
+secondary tomb at Abydos in compliment to Khentamenti. Sne-feru, also,
+the last king of the Hid Dynasty, seems to have had two tombs. One of
+these was the great Pyramid of M�d�m, which was explored by Prof. Petrie
+in 1891, the other was at Dash�r. Near by was the interesting necropolis
+already mentioned, in which was discovered evidence of the continuance
+of the cramped position of burial and of the absence of mummification
+among a certain section of the population even as late as the time of
+the IVth Dynasty. This has been taken to imply that the fusion of the
+primitive Neolithic and invading sub-Semitic races had not been effected
+at that time.
+
+With the IVth Dynasty the connection of the royal house with the South
+seems to have finally ceased. The governmental centre of gravity was
+finally transferred to Memphis, and the kings were thenceforth for
+several centuries buried in the great pyramids which still stand in
+serried order along the western desert border of Egypt, from the Delta
+to the province of the Fayyum. With the latest discoveries in this
+Memphite pyramid-field we shall deal in the next chapter.
+
+The transference of the royal power to Memphis under the Hid Dynasty
+naturally led to a great increase of Egyptian activity in the Northern
+lands. We read in Manetho of a great Libyan war in the reign of
+Neche-rophes, and both Sa-nekht and Tjeser seem to have finally
+established Egyptian authority in the Sinaitic peninsula, where their
+rock-inscriptions have been found.
+
+In 1904 Prof. Petrie was despatched to Sinai by the Egypt Exploration
+Fund, in order finally to record the inscriptions of the early kings
+in the Wadi Maghara, which had been lately very much damaged by the
+operations of the turquoise-miners. It seems almost incredible that
+ignorance and vandalism should still be so rampant in the twentieth
+century that the most important historical monuments are not safe from
+desecration in order to obtain a few turquoises, but it is so. Prof.
+Petrie's expedition did not start a day too soon, and at the suggestion
+of Sir William Garstin, the adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, the
+majority of the inscriptions have been removed to the Cairo Museum for
+safety and preservation. Among the new inscriptions discovered is one of
+Sa-nekht, which is now in the British Museum. Tjeser and Sa-nekht were
+not the first Egyptian kings to visit Sinai. Already, in the days of the
+1st Dynasty, Semerkha had entered that land and inscribed his name upon
+the rocks. But the regular annexation, so to speak, of Sinai to Egypt
+took place under the Memphites of the Hid Dynasty.
+
+With the Hid Dynasty we have reached the age of the pyramid-builders.
+The most typical pyramids are those of the three great kings of the IVth
+Dynasty, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, at Giza near Cairo. But, as
+we have seen, the last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, also had one
+pyramid, if not two; and the most ancient of these buildings known to
+us, the Step-Pyramid of Sakk�ra, was erected by Tjeser at the beginning
+of that dynasty. The evolution of the royal tombs from the time of the
+1st Dynasty to that of the IVth is very interesting to trace. At the
+period of transition from the predynastic to the dynastic age we have
+the great mastaba of Aha at Nak�da, and the simplest chamber-tombs
+at Abydos. All these were of brick; no stone was used in their
+construction. Then we find the chamber-tomb of Den Semti at Abydos
+with a granite floor, the walls being still of brick. Above each of the
+Abydos tombs was probably a low mound, and in front a small chapel, from
+which a flight of steps descended into the simple chamber. On one of the
+little plaques already mentioned, which were found in these tombs, we
+have an archaic inscription, entirely written in ideographs, which
+seems to read, "The Big-Heads (i. e. the chiefs) come to the tomb." The
+ideograph for "tomb" seems to be a rude picture of the funerary chapel,
+but from it we can derive little information as to its construction.
+Towards the end of the Ist Dynasty, and during the lid, the royal tombs
+became much more complicated, being surrounded with numerous chambers
+for the dead slaves, etc. Kh�sekhemui's tomb has thirty-three such
+chambers, and there is one large chamber of stone. We know of no other
+instance of the use of stone work for building at this period except in
+the royal tombs. No doubt the mason's art was still so difficult that it
+was reserved for royal use only.
+
+Under the Hid Dynasty we find the last brick mastabas built for royalty,
+at B�t Khall�f, and the first pyramids, in the Memphite necropolis.
+In the mastaba of Tjeser at B�t Khall�f stone was used for the great
+portcullises which were intended to bar the way to possible plunderers
+through the passages of the tomb. The Step-Pyramid at Sakk�ra is, so to
+speak, a series of mastabas of stone, imposed one above the other; it
+never had the continuous casing of stone which is the mark of a true
+pyramid. The pyramid of Snefru at M�d�m is more developed. It also
+originated in a mastaba, enlarged, and with another mastaba-like
+erection on the top of it; but it was given a continuous sloping casing
+of fine limestone from bottom to top, and so is a true pyramid. A
+discussion of recent theories as to the building of the later pyramids
+of the IVth Dynasty will be found in the next chapter.
+
+In the time of the Ist Dynasty the royal tomb was known by the name of
+"Protection-around-the-Hawk, i.e. the king"(_Sa-ha-heru_); but under
+the Hid and IVth Dynasties regular names, such as "the Firm," "the
+Glorious," "the Appearing," etc., were given to each pyramid.
+
+[Illustration: 086.jpg FALSE DOOR OF THE TOMB OF TETA, about 3600 B.C.]
+
+We must not omit to note an interesting point in connection with the
+royal tombs at Abydos, In that of King Khent or Tjer (the reading of
+the ideograph is doubtful) M. Am�lineau found a large bed or bier of
+granite, with a figure of the god Osiris lying in state sculptured in
+high relief upon it. This led him to jump to the conclusion that he
+had found the tomb of the god Osiris himself, and that a skull he found
+close by was the veritable cranium of the primeval folk-hero, who,
+according to the euhemerist theory, was the deified original of the god.
+The true explanation is given by Dr. Wallis Budge in his _History of
+Egypt_, i, p. 19. It is a fact that the tomb of Tjer was regarded by
+the Egyptians of the XIXth Dynasty as the veritable tomb of Osiris.
+They thought they had discovered it, just as M. Am�lineau did. When the
+ancient royal tombs of Umm el-Ga'ab were rediscovered and identified at
+the beginning of the XIXth Dynasty, and Seti I built the great temple of
+Abydos to the divine ancestors in honour of the discovery, embellishing
+it with a relief of himself and his son Ramses making offerings to the
+names of his predecessors (the "Tablet of Abydos "), the name of King
+Khent or Tjer (which is perhaps the really correct original form) was
+read by the royal scribes as "Khent" and hastily identified with the
+first part of the name of the god _Khent-amenti_ Osiris, the lord of
+Abydos. The tomb was thus regarded as the tomb of Osiris himself, and
+it was furnished with a great stone figure of the god lying on his bier,
+attended by the two hawks of Isis and Nephthys; ever after the site was
+visited by crowds of pilgrims, who left at Umm el-Ga'ab the thousands of
+little votive vases whose fragments have given the place its name of the
+"Mother of Pots." This is the explanation of the discovery of the "Tomb
+of Osiris." We have not found what M. Am�lineau seems rather naively to
+have thought possible, a confirmation of the ancient view that Osiris
+was originally a man who ruled over Egypt and was deified after his
+death; but we have found that the Egyptians themselves were more or less
+euhemerists, and did think so.
+
+It may seem remarkable that all this new knowledge of ancient Egypt is
+derived from tombs and has to do with the resting-places of the kings
+when dead, rather than with their palaces or temples when living. Of
+temples at this early period we have no trace. The oldest temple in
+Egypt is perhaps the little chapel in front of the pyramid of Snefru at
+M�d�m. We first hear of temples to the gods under the IVth Dynasty, but
+of the actual buildings of that period we have recovered nothing but one
+or two inscribed blocks of stone. Prof. Petrie has traced out the plan
+of the oldest temple of Osiris at Abydos, which may be of the time of
+Khufu, from scanty evidences which give us but little information. It is
+certain, however, that this temple, which is clearly one of the oldest
+in Egypt, goes back at least to his time. Its site is the mound
+called Kom es-Sultan, "The Mound of the King," close to the village of
+el-Kherba, and on the borders of the cultivation northeast of the royal
+tombs at Umm el-Oa'ab.
+
+Of royal palaces we have more definite information. North of the Kom
+es-Sultan are two great fortress-enclosures of brick: the one is known
+as _S�net es-Zeb�b_, "the Storehouse of Dried Orapes;" the other is
+occupied by the Coptic monastery of D�r Anba Mus�s. Both are certainly
+fortress-palaces of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy. We
+know from the small record-plaques of this period that the kings were
+constantly founding or repairing places of this kind, which were always
+great rectangular enclosures with crenelated brick walls like those of
+early Babylonian buildings.
+
+We have seen that the Northern Egyptian possessed similar
+fortress-cities which were captured by Narmer. These were the seats of
+the royal residence in various parts of the country. Behind their walls
+was the king's house, and no doubt also a town of nobles and retainers,
+while the peasants lived on the arable land without.
+
+[Illustration: 089.jpg THE SHUNET EZ-ZEBIB: THE FORTRESS-TOWN, About
+3900 B.C.]
+
+The Sh�net ez-Zeb�b and its companion fortress were evidently the royal
+cities of the 1st and IId Dynasties at Abydos. The former has been
+excavated by Mr. E. R. Ayrton for the Egypt Exploration Fund, under the
+supervision of Prof. Petrie. He found jar-sealings of Kh�sekhemui and
+Perabsen. In later times the place was utilized as a burial-place for
+ibis-mummies (it had already been abandoned as a city before the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty), and from this fact it received the name of _Shenet
+deb-hib_, or "Storehouse of Ibis Burials." The Arab invaders adapted
+this name to their own language in the nearest form which would have
+any meaning, as _Sh�net ez-Zeb�b_, "the Storehouse of Dried Grapes."
+The Arab word _sh�na_ ("Barn" or "Storehouse") was, it should be noted,
+taken over from the Coptic _sheune,_ which is the old-Egyptian _shenet_.
+The identity of _sheune_ or _sh�na_ with the German "Scheune" is a
+quaint and curious coincidence. In the illustration of the Sh�net
+ez-Zebib the curved line of crenelated wall, following the contour of
+the hill, should be noted, as it is a remarkable example of the building
+of this early period.
+
+It will have been seen from the foregoing description of what
+far-reaching importance the discoveries at Abydos have been. A new
+chapter of the history of the human race has been opened, which contains
+information previously undreamt of, information which Egyptologists
+had never dared to hope would be recovered. The sand of Egypt indeed
+conceals inexhaustible treasures, and no one knows what the morrow's
+work may bring forth.
+
+_Ex Africa semper aliquid novi!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+
+
+Memphis, the "beautiful abode," the "City of the White Wall," is said
+to have been founded by the legendary Men�s, who in order to build it
+diverted the stream of the Nile by means of a great dyke constructed
+near the modern village of Kosh�sh, south of the village of Mitrah�na,
+which marks the central point of the ancient metropolis of Northern
+Egypt. It may be that the city was founded by Aha or Narmer, the
+historical originals of Mena or Men�s; but we have another theory with
+regard to its foundation, that it was originally built by King Merpeba
+Atjab, whose tomb was also discovered at Abydos near those of Aha and
+Narmer. Merpeba is the oldest king whose name is absolutely identified
+with one occurring in the XIXth Dynasty king-lists and in Manetho. He
+is certainly the "Merbap" or "Merbepa" ("Merbapen") of the lists and the
+_Miebis_ of Manetho. In both the lists and in Manetho he stands fifth in
+order from Mena, and he was therefore the sixth king of the Ist Dynasty.
+The lists, Manetho, and the small monuments in his own tomb agree in
+making him the immediate successor of Semti Den (Ousapha�s), and from
+the style of these latter it is evident that he comes after Tja, Tjer,
+Narmer, and Aha. That is to say, the contemporary evidence makes him the
+fifth king from Aha, the first original of "Men�s."
+
+Now after the piety of Seti I had led him to erect a great temple at
+Abydos in memory of the ancient kings, whose sepulchres had probably
+been brought to light shortly before, and to compile and set up in the
+temple a list of his predecessors, a certain pious snobbery or snobbish
+piety impelled a worthy named Tunure, who lived at Memphis, to put up in
+his own tomb at Sakk�ra a tablet of kings like the royal one at Abydos.
+If Osiris-Khentamenti at Abydos had his tablet of kings, so should
+Osiris-Seker at Sakk�ra. But Tunure does not begin his list with Mena;
+his initial king is Merpeba. For him Merpeba was the first monarch to be
+commemorated at Sakk�ra. Does not this look very much as if the strictly
+historical Merpeba, not the rather legendary and confused Mena, was
+regarded as the first Memphite king? It may well be that it was in
+the reign of Merpeba, not in that of Aha or Narmer, that Memphis was
+founded.
+
+The XIXth Dynasty lists of course say nothing about Mena or Merpeba
+having founded Memphis; they only give the names of the kings, nothing
+more. The earliest authority for the ascription of Memphis to "Men�s",
+is Herodotus, who was followed in this ascription, as in many other
+matters, by Manetho; but it must be remembered that Manetho was writing
+for the edification of a Greek king (Ptolemy Philadelphus) and his Greek
+court at Alexandria, and had therefore to evince a respect for the great
+Greek classic which he may not always have really felt. Herodotus is
+not, of course, accused of any wilful misstatement in this or in any
+other matter in which his accuracy is suspected. He merely wrote
+down what he was told by the Egyptians themselves, and Merpeba was
+sufficiently near in time to Aha to be easily confounded with him by
+the scribes of the Persian period, who no doubt ascribed everything
+to "Mena" that was done by the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties.
+Therefore it may be considered quite probable that the "Men�s" who
+founded Memphis was Merpeba, the fifth or sixth king of the Ist Dynasty,
+whom Tunure, a thousand years before the time of Herodotus and his
+informants, placed at the head of the Memphite "List of Sakk�ra."
+
+The reconquest of the North by Kh�sekhemui doubtless led to a further
+strengthening of Memphis; and it is quite possible that the deeds of
+this king also contributed to make up the sum total of those ascribed to
+the Herodotean and Manethonian Men�s.
+
+It may be that a town of the Northerners existed here before the time of
+the Southern Conquest, for Phtah, the local god of Memphis, has a very
+marked character of his own, quite different from that of Khen-tamenti,
+the Osiris of Abydos. He is always represented as a little bow-legged
+hydrocephalous dwarf very like the Phoenician _Kabeiroi_. It may be
+that here is another connection between the Northern Egyptians and the
+Semites. The name "Phtah," the "Opener," is definitely Semitic. We may
+then regard the dwarf Phtah as originally a non-Egyptian god of the
+Northerners, probably Semitic in origin, and his town also as antedating
+the conquest. But it evidently was to the Southerners that Memphis owed
+its importance and its eventual promotion to the position of capital of
+the united kingdom. Then the dwarf Phtah saw himself rivalled by another
+Phtah of Southern Egyptian origin, who had been installed at Memphis by
+the Southerners. This Phtah was a sort of modified edition of Osiris, in
+mummy-form and holding crook and whip, but with a refined edition of
+the Kabeiric head of the indigenous Phtah. The actual god of "the White
+Wall" was undoubtedly confused vith the dead god of the necropolis,
+whose name was Seker or Sekri (Sokari), "the Coffined." The original
+form of this deity was a mummied hawk upon a coffin, and it is very
+probable that he was imported from the South, like the second Phtah, at
+the time of the conquest, when the great Northern necropolis began
+to grow up as a duplicate of that at Abydos. Later on we find Seker
+confused with the ancient dwarf-god, and it is the latter who was
+afterwards chiefly revered as Phtah-Socharis-Osiris, the protector of
+the necropolis, the mummied Phtah being the generally recognized ruler
+of the City of the White Wall.
+
+It is from the name of Seker that the modern Sak-k�ra takes its title.
+Sakk�ra marks the central point of the great Memphite necropolis, as it
+is the nearest point of the western desert to Memphis. Northwards the
+necropolis extended to Griza and Abu Ro�sh, southwards, to Daslmr;
+even the n�cropoles of Lisht and M�d�m may be regarded as appanages of
+Sakk�ra. At Sakk�ra itself Tjeser of the IIId Dynasty had a pyramid,
+which, as we have seen, was probably not his real tomb (which was
+the great mastaba at B�t Khall�f), but a secondary or sham tomb
+corresponding to the "tombs" of the earliest kings at Umm el-Ga'ab in
+the necropolis of Abydos. Many later kings, however, especially of the
+Vith Dynasty, were actually buried at Sakk�ra. Their tombs have all been
+thoroughly described by their discoverer, Prof. Maspero, in his history.
+The last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, was buried away down south at
+M�d�m, in splendid isolation, but he may also have had a second pyramid
+at Sakk�ra or Abu Roash.
+
+The kings of the IVth Dynasty were the greatest of the pyramid builders,
+and to them belong the huge edifices of Griza. The Vth Dynasty favoured
+Abus�r, between C�za and Sakk�ra; the Vith, as we have said, preferred
+Sakk�ra itself. With them the end of the Old Kingdom and of Memphite
+dominion was reached; the sceptre fell from the hands of the Memphite
+kings and was taken up by the princes of Herakleopolis (Ahnasyet
+el-Medina, near B�ni Su�f, south of the Eayy�m) and Thebes. Where the
+Herakleopolite kings were buried we do not know; probably somewhere in
+the local necropolis of the Gebel es-Sedment, between Ahnasya and the
+Fayy�m. The first Thebans (the XIth Dynasty) were certainly buried at
+Thebes, but when the Herakleopolites had finally disappeared, and all
+Egypt was again united under one strong sceptre, the Theban kings seem
+to have been drawn northwards. They removed to the seat of the dominion
+of those whom they had supplanted, and they settled in the neighbourhood
+of Herakleopolis, near the fertile province of the Fayy�m, and between
+it and Memphis. Here, in the royal fortress-palace of Itht-taui,
+"Controlling the Two Lands," the kings of the XIIth Dynasty lived,
+and they were buried in the n�cropoles of Dash�r, Lisht, and Illahun
+(Hawara), in pyramids like those of the old Memphite kings. These facts,
+of the situation of Itht-taui, of their burial in the southern an ex of
+the old necropolis of Memphis, and of the fori of their tombs (the
+true Upper Egyptian and Thebian form was a rock-cut gallery and chamber
+driven deep into the hill), show how solicitous were the Amenemhats
+and Senusrets of the suffrages of Lower Egypt, how anxious they were to
+conciliate the ancient royal pride of Memphis.
+
+Where the kings of the XIIIth Dynasty and the Hyksos or "Shepherds" were
+buried, we do not know. The kings of the restored Theban empire were
+all interred at Thebes. There are, in fact, no known royal sepulchres
+between the Fayy�m and Abydos. The great kings were mostly buried in
+the neighbourhood of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. The sepulchres of the
+"Middle Empire"--the XIth to XIIIth Dynasties--in the neighbourhood
+of the Fayy�m may fairly be grouped with those of the same period at
+Dash�r, which belongs to the necropolis of Memphis, since it is only a
+mile or two south of Sakk�ra.
+
+It is chiefly with regard to the sepulchres of the kings that the most
+momentous discoveries of recent years have been made at Thebes, and at
+Sakk�ra, Abus�r, Dash�r, and Lisht, as at Abydos. For this reason we
+deal in succession with the finds in the n�cropoles of Abydos, Memphis,
+and Thebes respectively. And with the sepulchres of the "Old Kingdom,"
+in the Memphite necropolis proper, we have naturally grouped those of
+the "Middle Kingdom" at Dash�r, Lisht, Illahun, and Hawara.
+
+Some of these modern discoveries have been commented on and illustrated
+by Prof. Maspero in his great history. But the discoveries that have
+been made since this publication have been very important,--those at
+Abus�r, indeed, of first-rate importance, though not so momentous as
+those of the tombs of the Ist and IId Dynasties at Abydos, already
+described. At Abu Roash and at G�za, at the northern end of the Memphite
+necropolis, several expeditions have had considerable success, notably
+those of the American Dr. Reisner, assisted by Mr. Mace, who excavated
+the royal tombs at Umm el-Ga'ab for Prof. Petrie, those of the
+German Drs. Steindorff and Borchardt,--the latter working for the
+_Beutsch-Orient Gesellschaft_,--and those of other American excavators.
+Until the full publication of the results of these excavations appears,
+very little can be said about them. Many mastaba-tombs have, it is
+understood, been found, with interesting remains. Nothing of great
+historical importance seems to have been discovered, however. It is
+otherwise when we come to the discoveries of Messrs. Borchardt and
+Sch�fer at Abus�r, south of G�za and north of Sakk�ra. At this place
+results of first-rate historical importance have been attained.
+
+The main group of pyramids at Abusir consists of the tombs of the kings
+Sahur�, Neferarikar�, and Ne-user-R�, of the Vth Dynasty. The pyramids
+themselves are smaller than those of G�za, but larger than those of
+Sakk�ra. In general appearance and effect they resemble those of G�za,
+but they are not so imposing, as the desert here is low. Those of G�za,
+Sakk�ra, and Dash�r owe much of their impressiveness to the fact that
+they are placed at some height above the cultivated land. The excavation
+and planning of these pyramids were carried out by Messrs. Borchardt and
+Sch�fer at the expense of Baron von Bissing, the well-known Egyptologist
+of Munich, and of the _Deutsch-Orient Gesell-schaft_ of Berlin. The
+antiquities found have been divided between the museums of Berlin and
+Cairo.
+
+One of the most noteworthy discoveries was that of the funerary temple
+of Ne-user-R�, which stood at the base of his pyramid. The plan is
+interesting, and the granite lotus-bud columns found are the most
+ancient yet discovered in Egypt. Much of the paving and the wainscoting
+of the walls was of fine black marble, beautifully polished. An
+interesting find was a basin and drain with lion's-head mouth, to
+carry away the blood of the sacrifices. Some sculptures in relief were
+discovered, including a gigantic representation of the king and the
+goddess Isis, which shows that in the early days of the Vth Dynasty the
+king and the gods were already depicted in exactly the same costume as
+they wore in the days of the Ramses and the Ptolemies. The hieratic art
+of Egypt had, in fact, now taken on itself the final outward appearance
+which it retained to the very end. There is no more of the archaism
+and absence of conventionality, which marks the art of the earliest
+dynasties.
+
+We can trace by successive steps the swift development of Egyptian art
+from the rude archaism of the Ist Dynasty to its final consummation
+under the Vth, when the conventions became fixed. In the time of
+Kh�sekhemui, at the beginning of the IId Dynasty, the archaic character
+of the art has already begun to wear off. Under the same dynasty we
+still have styles of unconventional na�vet�, such as the famous Statue
+"No. 1" of the Cairo Museum, bearing the names of Kings Hetepahaui,
+Neb-r�, and Neneter. But with the IVth Dynasty we no longer look for
+unconventionality. Prof. Petrie discovered at Abydos a small ivory
+statuette of Khufu or Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid of G�za.
+The portrait is a good one and carefully executed. It was not till
+the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, indeed, that the Egyptians ceased
+to portray their kings as they really were, and gave them a purely
+conventional type of face. This convention, against which the heretical
+King Amenhetep IV (Akhunaten) rebelled, in order to have himself
+portrayed in all his real ungainliness and ugliness, did not exist till
+long after the time of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+
+[Illustration: 100.jpg STATUE NO. 1 OF THE CAIRO MUSEUM, About 3900
+B.C.]
+
+The kings of the XIIth Dynasty especially were most careful that their
+statues should be accurate portraits; indeed, the portraits of Usertsen
+(Senusret) III vary from a young face to an old one, showing that the
+king was faithfully depicted at different periods of his life.
+
+But the general conventions of dress and deportment were finally fixed
+under the Vth Dynasty. After this time we no longer have such absolutely
+faithful and original presentments as the other little ivory statuette
+found by Prof. Petrie at Abydos (now in the British Museum), which shows
+us an aged monarch of the Ist Dynasty. It is obvious that the features
+are absolutely true to life, and the figure wears an unconventionally
+party-coloured and bordered robe of a kind which kings of a later day
+may have worn in actual life, but which they would assuredly never be
+depicted as wearing by the artists of their day. To the end of Egyptian
+history, the kings, even the Roman emperors, were represented on the
+monuments clothed in the official costume of their ancestors of the IVth
+and Vth Dynasties, in the same manner as we see Khufu wearing his robe
+in the little figure from Abydos, and Ne-user-R� on the great
+relief from Abus�r. There are one or two exceptions, such as the
+representations of the original genius Akhunaten at Tell el-Amarna and
+the beautiful statue of Ramses II at Turin, in which we see these kings
+wearing the real costume of their time, but such exceptions are very
+rare.
+
+The art of Abus�r is therefore of great interest, since it marks the end
+of the development of the priestly art. Secular art might develop as it
+liked, though the crystallizing influence of the ecclesiastical canon is
+always evident here also. But henceforward it was an impiety, which only
+an Akhunaten could commit, to depict a king or a god on the walls of a
+temple otherwise (except so far as, the portrait was concerned) than as
+he had been depicted in the time of the Vth Dynasty.
+
+Other buildings have been excavated by the Germans at Abus�r, notably
+the usual town of mastaba-tombs belonging to the chief dignitaries of
+the reign, which is always found at the foot of a royal pyramid of this
+period. Another building of the highest interest, belonging to the same
+age, was also excavated, and its true character was determined. This is
+a building at a place called er-R�gha or Ab� Ghuraib, "Father of Crows,"
+between Abus�r and G�za. It was formerly supposed to be a pyramid, but
+the German excavations have shown that it is really a temple of the
+Sun-god R� of Heliopolis, specially venerated by the kings of the Vth
+Dynasty, who were of Heliopolitan origin. The great pyramid-builders of
+the IVth Dynasty seem to have been the last true Memphites. At the end
+of the reign of Shepseskaf, the last monarch of the dynasty, the sceptre
+passed to a Heliopolitan family. The following VIth Dynasty may again
+have been Memphite, but this is uncertain. The capital continued to be
+Memphis, and from the beginning of the Hid Dynasty to the end of the Old
+Kingdom and the rise of Herakle-opolis and Thebes, Memphis remained the
+chief city of Egypt.
+
+The Heliopolitans were naturally the servants of the Sun-god above all
+other gods, and they were the first to call themselves "Sons of the
+Sun," a title retained by the Pharaohs throughout all subsequent
+history. It was Ne-user-R� who built the Sun-temple of Abu Ghuraib,
+on the edge of the desert, north of his pyramid and those of his two
+immediate predecessors at Abusir. As now laid bare by the excavations of
+1900, it is seen to consist of an artificial mound, with a great court
+in front to the eastward. On the mound was erected a truncated obelisk,
+the stone emblem of the Sun-god. The worshippers in the court below
+looked towards the Sun's stone erected upon its mound in the west,
+the quarter of the sun's setting; for the Sun-god of Heliopolis was
+primarily the setting sun, Tum-R�, not R� Harmachis, the rising sun,
+whose emblem is the Great Sphinx at G�za, which looks towards the east.
+The sacred emblem of the Heliopolitan Sun-god reminds us forcibly of the
+Semitic _bethels_ or _baetyli_, the sacred stones of Palestine, and may
+give yet another hint of the Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan cult.
+In the court of the temple is a huge circular altar of fine alabaster,
+several feet across, on which slain oxen were offered to the Sun, and
+behind this, at the eastern end of the court, are six great basins of
+the same stone, over which the beasts were slain, with drains running
+out of them by which their blood was carried away. This temple is a most
+interesting monument of the civilization of the "Old Kingdom" at the time
+of the Vth Dynasty.
+
+At Sakk�ra itself, which lies a short distance south of Abusir, no new
+royal tombs have, as has been said, been discovered of late years. But a
+great deal of work has been done among the private mastaba-tombs by the
+officers of the _Service des Antiquit�s_, which reserves to itself the
+right of excavation here and at Dash�r. The mastaba of the sage and
+writer Kagernna (or rather Gemnika, "I-have-found-a-ghost," which
+sounds very like an American Indian appellation) is very fine.
+"I-have-found-a-ghost" lived in the reign of the king Tatkar� Assa, the
+"Tancheres" of Manetho, and he wrote maxims like his great contemporary
+Phtahhetep ("Offered to Phtah"), who was also buried at Sakk�ra. The
+officials of the _Service des Antiquit�s_ who cleaned the tomb unluckily
+misread his name Ka-bi-n (an impossible form which could only mean,
+literally translated, "Ghost-soul-of" or "Ghost-soul-to-me"), and they
+have placed it in this form over the entrance to his tomb. This mastaba,
+like those, already known, of Mereruka (sometimes misnamed "Mera")
+and the famous Ti, both also at Sakk�ra, contains a large number of
+chambers, ornamented with reliefs. In the vicinity M. Gr�baut, then
+Director of the Service of Antiquities, discovered a very interesting
+Street of Tombs, a regular Via Sacra, with rows of tombs of the
+dignitaries of the VIth Dynasty on either side of it. They are generally
+very much like one another; the workmanship of the reliefs is fine, and
+the portrait of the owner of the tomb is always in evidence.
+
+Several of the smaller mastabas have lately been disposed of to the
+various museums, as they are liable to damage if they remain where they
+stand; moreover, they are not of great value to the Museum of Cairo,
+but are of considerable value to various museums which do not already
+possess complete specimens of this class of tombs. A fine one, belonging
+to the chief Uerarina, is now exhibited in the Assyrian Basement of the
+British Museum; another is in the Museum of Leyden; a third at Berlin,
+and so on. Most of these are simple tombs of one chamber. In the centre
+of the rear wall we always see the _stele_ or gravestone proper,
+built into the fabric of the tomb. Before this stood the low table
+of offerings with a bowl for oblations, and on either side a tall
+incense-altar. From the altar the divine smoke (_senetr_) arose when
+the _hen-ka_, or priest of the ghost (literally, "Ghost's Servant"),
+performed his duty of venerating the spirits of the deceased, while the
+_Kher-heb_, or cantor, enveloped in the mystic folds of the leopard-skin
+and with bronze incense-burner in hand, sang the holy litanies and
+spells which should propitiate the ghost and enable him to win his way
+to ultimate perfection in the next world.
+
+The stele is always in the form of a door with pyloni-form cornice. On
+either side is a figure of the deceased, and at the sides are carved
+prayers to Anubis, and at a later date to Osiris, who are implored to
+give the funerary meats and "everything good and pure on which the god
+there (as the dead man in the tomb has been constituted) lives;" often
+we find that the biography and list of honorary titles and dignities of
+the deceased have been added.
+
+Sakk�ra was used as a place of burial in the latest as well as in the
+earliest time. The Egyptians of the XXVIth Dynasty, wearied of the long
+decadence and devastating wars which had followed the glorious epoch of
+the conquering Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, turned for
+a new and refreshing inspiration to the works of the most ancient kings,
+when Egypt was a simple self-contained country, holding no intercourse
+with outside lands, bearing no outside burdens for the sake of pomp and
+glory, and knowing nothing of the decay and decadence which follows in
+the train of earthly power and grandeur. They deliberately turned their
+backs on the worn-out and discredited imperial trappings of the Thothmes
+and Ramses, and they took the supposed primitive simplicity of the
+Snefrus, the Khufus, and the Ne-user-R�s for a model and ensampler to
+their lives. It was an age of conscious and intended archaism, and in
+pursuit of the archaistic ideal the Mem-phites of the Sa�te age had
+themselves buried in the ancient necropolis of Sakk�ra, side by side
+with their ancestors of the time of the Vth and VIth Dynasties. Several
+of these tombs have lately been discovered and opened, and fitted with
+modern improvements. One or two of them, of the Persian period, have
+wells (leading to the sepulchral chamber) of enormous depth, down which
+the modern tourist is enabled to descend by a spiral iron staircase. The
+Serapeum itself is lit with electricity, and in the Tombs of the Kings
+at Thebes nothing disturbs the silence but the steady thumping pulsation
+of the dynamo-engine which lights the ancient sepulchres of the
+Pharaohs. Thus do modern ideas and inventions help us to see and so to
+understand better the works of ancient Egypt. But it is perhaps a little
+too much like the Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. The interiors of
+the later tombs are often decorated with reliefs which imitate those of
+the early period, but with a kind of delicate grace which at once marks
+them for what they are, so that it is impossible to confound them with
+the genuine ancient originals from which they were adapted.
+
+Riding from Sakk�ra southwards to Dash�r, we pass on the way the
+gigantic stone mastaba known as the _Mastabat el-Fara'�n_, "Pharaoh's
+Bench." This was considered to be the tomb of the Vth Dynasty king,
+Unas, until his pyramid was found by Prof. Maspero at Sakk�ra. From its
+form it might be thought to belong to a monarch of the Hid Dynasty, but
+the great size of the stone blocks of which it is built seems to point
+rather to the XIIth. All attempts to penetrate its secret by actual
+excavation have been unavailing.
+
+Further south across the desert we see from the Mastabat el-Fara'�n
+four distinct pyramids, symmetrically arranged in two lines, two in each
+line. The two to the right are great stone erections of the usual
+type, like those of G�za and Abus�r, and the southernmost of them has a
+peculiar broken-backed appearance, due to the alteration of the angle
+of inclination of its sides during construction. Further, it is covered
+almost to the ground by the original casing of polished white limestone
+blocks, so that it gives a very good idea of the original appearance
+of the other pyramids, which have lost their casing. These two
+pyramids very probably belong to kings of the Hid Dynasty, as does the
+Step-Pyramid of Sakk�ra. They strongly resemble the G�za type, and
+the northernmost of the two looks very like an understudy of the Great
+Pyramid. It seems to mark the step in the development of the royal
+pyramid which was immediately followed by the Great Pyramid. But no
+excavations have yet proved the accuracy of this view. Both pyramids
+have been entered, but nothing has been found in them. It is very
+probable that one of them is the second pyramid of Snefru.
+
+The other two pyramids, those nearest the cultivation, are of very
+different appearance. They are half-ruined, they are black in colour,
+and their whole effect is quite different from that of the stone
+pyramids. For they are built of brick, not of stone. They are pyramids,
+it is true, but of a different material and of a different date from
+those which we have been describing. They are built above the sepulchres
+of kings of the XIIth Dynasty, the Theban house which transferred
+its residence northwards to the neighbourhood of the ancient Northern
+capital. We have, in fact, reached the end of the Old Kingdom at
+Sakk�ra; at Dash�r begin the sepulchres of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramids
+are still built, but they are not always of stone; brick is used,
+usually with stone in the interior. The general effect of these brick
+pyramids, when new, must have been indistinguishable from that of the
+stone ones, and even now, when it has become half-ruined, such a great
+brick pyramid as that of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Dash�r is not
+without impressiveness. After all, there is no reason why a brick
+building should be less admirable than a stone one. And in its own way
+the construction of such colossal masses of bricks as the two eastern
+pyramids of Dash�r must have been as arduous, even as difficult, as that
+of building a moderate-sized stone pyramid. The photograph of the brick
+pyramids of Dash�r on this page shows well the great size of these
+masses of brickwork, which are as impressive as any of the great brick
+structures of Babylonia and Assyria.
+
+[Illustration: 109.jpg EXTERIOR OF THE SOUTHERN BRICK PYRAMID OF DASHUR]
+
+     XIITH DYNASTY. Excavated by M. de Morgan, 1895. This is the
+     secondary tomb of Amenemhat III; about 2200 B.C.
+
+The XIIth Dynasty use of brick for the royal tombs was a return to the
+custom of earlier days, for from the time of Aha to that Tjeser, from
+the 1st Dynasty to the Hid, brick had been used for the building of the
+royal mastaba-tombs, out of which the pyramids had developed.
+
+At this point, where we take leave of the great pyramids of the Old
+Kingdom, we may notice the latest theory as to the building of these
+monuments, which has of late years been enunciated by Dr. Borchardt, and
+is now generally accepted. The great Prussian explorer Lepsius, when he
+examined the pyramids in the 'forties, came to the conclusion that each
+king, when he ascended the throne, planned a small pyramid for himself.
+This was built in a few years' time, and if his reign were short, or if
+he were unable to enlarge the pyramid for other reasons, it sufficed for
+his tomb. If, however, his reign seemed likely to be one of some length,
+after the first plan was completed he enlarged his pyramid by building
+another and a larger one around it and over it. Then again, when this
+addition was finished, and the king still reigned and was in possession
+of great resources, yet another coating, so to speak, was put on to the
+pyramid, and so on till colossal structures like the First and Second
+Pyramid of Giza, which, we know, belonged to kings who were unusually
+long-lived, were completed. And finally the aged monarch died, and was
+buried in the huge tomb which his long life and his great power had
+enabled him to erect. This view appeared eminently reasonable at the
+time, and it seemed almost as though we ought to be able to tell whether
+a king had reigned long or not by the size of his pyramid, and even
+to obtain a rough idea of the length of his reign by counting the
+successive coats or accretions which it had received, much as we tell
+the age of a tree by the rings in its bole. A pyramid seemed to have
+been constructed something after the manner of an onion or a Chinese
+puzzle-box.
+
+Prof. P�trie, however, who examined the Griza pyramids in 1881, and
+carefully measured them all up and finally settled their trigonometrical
+relation, came to the conclusion that Lepsius's theory was entirely
+erroneous, and that every pyramid was built and now stands as it was
+originally planned. Dr.
+
+[Illustration: 111.jpg THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA DURING THE INUNDATION.]
+
+Borchardt, however, who is an architect by profession, has examined
+the pyramids again, and has come to the conclusion that Prof. P�trie's
+statement is not correct, and that there is an element of truth in
+Lepsius's hypothesis. He has shown that several of the pyramids, notably
+the First and Second at Giza, show unmistakable signs of a modified,
+altered, and enlarged plan; in fact, long-lived kings like Khufu seem
+to have added considerably to their pyramids and even to have entirely
+remodelled them on a larger scale. This has certainly been the case with
+the Great Pyramid. We can, then, accept Lepsius's theory as modified by
+Dr. Borchardt.
+
+Another interesting point has arisen in connection with the Great
+Pyramid. Considerable difference of opinion has always existed between
+Egyptologists and the professors of European archaeology with regard
+to the antiquity of the knowledge of iron in Egypt. The majority of
+the Egyptologists have always maintained, on the authority of the
+inscriptions, that iron was known to the ancient Egyptians from the
+earliest period. They argued that the word for a certain metal in old
+Egyptian was the same as the Coptic word for "iron." They stated that in
+the most ancient religious texts the Egyptians spoke of the firmament
+of heaven as made of this metal, and they came to the conclusion that it
+was because this metal was blue in colour, the hue of iron or steel; and
+they further pointed out that some of the weapons in the tomb-paintings
+were painted blue and others red, some being of iron, that is to
+say, others of copper or bronze. Finally they brought forward as
+incontrovertible evidence an actual fragment of worked iron, which had
+been found between two of the inner blocks, down one of the air-shafts,
+in the Great Pyramid. Here was an actual piece of iron of the time of
+the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C.
+
+This conclusion was never accepted by the students of the development of
+the use of metal in prehistoric Europe, when they came to know of it.
+No doubt their incredulity was partly due to want of appreciation of the
+Egyptological evidence, partly to disinclination to accept a conclusion
+which did not at all agree with the knowledge they had derived from
+their own study of prehistoric Europe. In Southern Europe it was quite
+certain that iron did not come into use till about 1000 B.C.; in Central
+Europe, where the discoveries at Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut exhibit
+the transition from the Age of Bronze to that of Iron, about 800 B.C.
+The exclusively Iron Age culture of La T�ne cannot be dated earlier than
+the eighth century, if as early as that. How then was it possible that,
+if iron had been known to the Egyptians as early as 3500 B.C., its
+knowledge should not have been communicated to the Europeans until over
+two thousand years later? No; iron could not have been really known to
+the Egyptians much before 1000 B.C. and the Egyptological evidence was
+all wrong. This line of argument was taken by the distinguished
+Swedish archaeologist, Prof. Oscar Montelius, of Upsala, whose previous
+experience in dealing with the antiquities of Northern Europe, great as
+it was, was hardly sufficient to enable him to pronounce with authority
+on a point affecting far-away African Egypt. And when dealing with Greek
+prehistoric antiquities Prof. Montelius's views have hardly met with
+that ready agreement which all acknowledge to be his due when he is
+giving us the results of his ripe knowledge of Northern antiquities. He
+has, in fact, forgotten, as most "prehistoric" archaeologists do forget,
+that the antiquities of Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, the Semites,
+the bronze-workers of Benin, the miners of Zimbabwe, and the Ohio
+mound-builders are not to be treated all together as a whole, and that
+hard and fast lines of development cannot be laid down for them, based
+on the experience of Scandinavia.
+
+We may perhaps trace this misleading habit of thought to the influence
+of the professors of natural science over the students of Stone Age and
+Bronze Age antiquities. Because nature moves by steady progression and
+develops on even lines--_nihil facit per sal-tum_--it seems to have been
+assumed that the works of man's hands have developed in the same way,
+in a regular and even scheme all over the world. On this supposition it
+would be impossible for the great discovery of the use of iron to have
+been known in Egypt as early as 3500 B.C. for this knowledge to have
+remained dormant there for two thousand years, and then to have
+been suddenly communicated about 1000 B.C. to Greece, spreading with
+lightning-like rapidity over Europe and displacing the use of bronze
+everywhere. Yet, as a matter of fact, the work of man does develop
+in exactly this haphazard way, by fits and starts and sudden leaps of
+progress after millennia of stagnation. Throwsback to barbarism are just
+as frequent. The analogy of natural evolution is completely inapplicable
+and misleading.
+
+Prof. Montelius, however, following the "evolutionary" line of thought,
+believed that because iron was not known in Europe till about 1000 B.C.
+it could not have been known in Egypt much earlier; and in an important
+article which appeared in the Swedish ethnological journal _Ymer_ in
+1883, entitled _Bronsaldrn i Egypten_ ("The Bronze Age in Egypt"), he
+essayed to prove the contrary arguments of the Egyptologists wrong. His
+main points were that the colour of the weapons in the frescoes was of
+no importance, as it was purely conventional and arbitrary, and that the
+evidence of the piece of iron from the Great Pyramid was insufficiently
+authenticated, and therefore valueless, in the absence of other definite
+archaeological evidence in the shape of iron of supposed early date. To
+this article the Swedish Egyptologist, Dr. Piehl, replied in the same
+periodical, in an article entitled _Bronsaldem i Egypten_, in which he
+traversed Prof. Montelius's conclusions from the Egyptological point of
+view, and adduced other instances of the use of iron in Egypt, all,
+it is true, later than the time of the IVth Dynasty. But this protest
+received little notice, owing to the fact that it remained buried in
+a Swedish periodical, while Prof. Montelius's original article was
+translated into French, and so became well-known.
+
+For the time Prof. Montelius's conclusions were generally accepted, and
+when the discoveries of the prehistoric antiquities were made by M. de
+Morgan, it seemed more probable than ever that Egypt had gone through a
+regular progressive development from the Age of Stone through those of
+copper and bronze to that of iron, which was reached about 1100 or 1000
+B.C. The evidence of the iron fragment from the Great Pyramid was put on
+one side, in spite of the circumstantial account of its discovery
+which had been given by its finders. Even Prof. P�trie, who in 1881
+had accepted the pyramid fragment as undoubtedly contemporary with that
+building, and had gone so far as to adduce additional evidence for its
+authenticity, gave way, and accepted Montelius's view, which held its
+own until in 1902 it was directly controverted by a discovery of Prof.
+P�trie at Abydos. This discovery consisted of an undoubted fragment of
+iron found in conjunction with bronze tools of VIth Dynasty date; and it
+settled the matter.* The VIth Dynasty date of this piece of iron, which
+was more probably worked than not (since it was buried with tools), was
+held to be undoubted by its discoverer and by everybody else, and, if
+this were undoubted, the IVth Dynasty date of the Great Pyramid fragment
+was also fully established. The discoverers of the earlier fragment had
+no doubt whatever as to its being contemporary with the pyramid, and
+were supported in this by Prof. P�trie in 1881. Therefore it is now
+known to be the fact that iron was used by the Egyptians as early as
+3500 B.C.**
+
+     * See H. R. Hall's note on "The Early Use of Iron in Egypt,"
+     in _Man_ (the organ of the Anthropological Society of
+     London), iii (1903), No. 86.
+
+     ** Prof. Montelius objected to these conclusions in a review
+     of the British Museum "Guide to the Antiquities of the
+     Bronze Age," which was published in Man, 1005 (Jan.), No 7.
+     For an answer to these objections, see Hall, ibid., No. 40.
+
+It would thus appear that though the Egyptians cannot be said to have
+used iron generally and so to have entered the "Iron Age" before about
+1300 B.C. (reign of Ramses II), yet iron was well known to them and had
+been used more than occasionally by them for tools and building purposes
+as early as the time of the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C. Certainly
+dated examples of its use occur under the IVth, VIth, and XIIIth
+Dynasties. Why this knowledge was not communicated to Europe before
+about 1000 B.C. we cannot say, nor are Egyptologists called upon to find
+the reason. So the Great Pyramid has played an interesting part in the
+settlement of a very important question.
+
+It was supposed by Prof. P�trie that the piece of iron from the Great
+Pyramid had been part of some arrangement employed for raising the
+stones into position. Herodotus speaks of the machines, which were used
+to raise the stones, as made of little pieces of wood. The generally
+accepted explanation of his meaning used to be that a small crane or
+similar wooden machine was used for hoisting the stone by means
+of pulley and rope; but M. Legrain, the director of the works of
+restoration in the Great Temple of Karnak, has explained it differently.
+Among the "foundation deposits" of the XVIIIth Dynasty at D�r el-Bahari
+and elsewhere, beside the little plaques with the king's name and the
+model hoes and vases, was usually found an enigmatic wooden object like
+a small cradle, with two sides made of semicircular pieces of wood,
+joined along the curved portion by round wooden bars. M. Legrain has now
+explained this as a model of the machine used to raise heavy stones from
+tier to tier of a pyramid or other building, and illustrations of
+the method of its use may be found in Choisy's _Art de B�tir chez les
+anciens Egyptiens_. There is little doubt that this primitive machine
+is that to which Herodotus refers as having been used in the erection of
+the pyramids.
+
+The later historian, Diodorus, also tells us that great mounds or ramps
+of earth were used as well, and that the stones were dragged up these
+to the requisite height. There is no doubt that this statement also is
+correct. We know that the Egyptians did build in this very way, and
+the system has been revived by M. Legrain for his work at Karnak, where
+still exist the remains of the actual mounds and ramps by which the
+great western pylon was erected in Ptolema�c times. Work carried on
+in this way is slow and expensive, but it is eminently suited to the
+country and understood by the people. If they wish to put a great stone
+architrave weighing many tons across the top of two columns, they do not
+hoist it up into position; they rear a great ramp or embankment of earth
+against the two pillars, half-burying them in the process, then drag
+the architrave up the ramp by means of ropes and men, and put it into
+position. Then the ramp is cleared away. This is the ancient system
+which is now followed at Karnak, and it is the system by which, with the
+further aid of the wooden machines, the Great Pyramid and its compeers
+were erected in the days of the IVth Dynasty. _Plus cela change, plus
+c'est la m�me chose_.
+
+The brick pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty were erected in the same way,
+for the Egyptians had no knowledge of the modern combination of wooden
+scaffolding and ladders. There was originally a small stone pyramid of
+the same dynasty at Dash�r, half-way between the two brick ones, but
+this has now almost disappeared. It belonged to the king Amenemhat II,
+while the others belonged, the northern to Usertsen (Sen-usret) III, the
+southern to Amenemhat III. Both these latter monarchs had other tombs
+elsewhere, Usertsen a great rock-cut gallery and chamber in the cliff at
+Abydos, Amenemhat a pyramid not very far to the south, at Hawara, close
+to the Fayy�m. It is uncertain whether the Hawara pyramid or that of
+Dash�r was the real burial-place of the king, as at neither place is his
+name found alone. At Hawara it is found in conjunction with that of his
+daughter, the queen-regnant Se-bekneferur� (Skemiophris), at Dash�r with
+that of a king Auabr� Hor, who was buried in a small tomb near that of
+the king, and adjoining the tombs of the king's children. Who King Hor
+was we do not quite know. His name is not given in the lists, and was
+unknown until M. de Morgan's discoveries at Dash�r. It is most probable
+that he was a prince who was given royal honours during the lifetime of
+Amenemhat III, whom he predeceased.* In the beautiful wooden statue
+of him found in his tomb, which is now in the Cairo Museum, he is
+represented as quite a youth. Amenemhat III was certainly succeeded by
+Amenemhat IV, and it is impossible to intercalate Hor between them.
+
+     * See below, p. 121. Possibly he was a son of Amenemhat III.
+
+The identification of the owners of the three western pyramids of Dash�r
+is due to M. de Morgan and his assistants, Messrs. Legrain and J�quier,
+who excavated them from 1894 till 1896. The northern pyramid, that of
+Usertsen (Senusret) III, is not so well preserved as the southern. It is
+more worn away, and does not present so imposing an appearance. In
+both pyramids the outer casing of white stone has entirely disappeared,
+leaving only the bare black bricks. Each stood in the midst of a great
+necropolis of dignitaries of the period, as was usually the case.
+Many of the mastabas were excavated by M. de Morgan. Some are of older
+periods than the XIIth Dynasty, one belonging to a priest of King
+Snefru, Aha-f-ka ("Ghost-fighter"), who bore the additional titles of
+"director of prophets and general of infantry." There were pluralists
+even in those days. And the distinction between the privy councillor
+(Geheimrat) and real privy councillor (Wirk-licher-Greheimrat) was quite
+familiar; for we find it actually made, many an old Egyptian officially
+priding himself in his tomb on having been a real privy councillor! The
+Egyptian bureaucracy was already ancient and had its survivals and its
+anomalies even as early as the time of the pyramid-builders.
+
+In front of the pyramid of Usertsen (Senusret) III at one time stood the
+usual funerary temple, but it has been totally destroyed. By the side of
+the pyramid were buried some of the princesses of the royal family, in
+a series of tombs opening out of a subterranean gallery, and in this
+gallery were found the wonderful jewels of the princesses Sit-hathor and
+Merit, which are among the greatest treasures of the Cairo Museum. Those
+who have not seen them can obtain a perfect idea of their appearance
+from the beautiful water-colour paintings of them by M. Legrain, which
+are published in M. de Morgan's work on the "Fouilles � Dahchour"
+(Vienna, 1895). Altogether one hundred and seven objects were recovered,
+consisting of all kinds of jewelry in gold and coloured stones. Among
+the most beautiful are the great "pectorals," or breast-ornaments, in
+the shape of pylons, with the names of Usertsen II, Usertsen III, and
+Amenemhat III; the names are surrounded by hawks standing on the sign
+for gold, gryphons, figures of the king striking down enemies, etc., all
+in _cloisonn�_ work, with beautiful stones such as lapis lazuli, green
+felspar, and carnelian taking the place of coloured enamels. The massive
+chains of golden beads and cowries are also very remarkable. These
+treasures had been buried in boxes in the floor of the subterranean
+gallery, and had luckily escaped the notice of plunderers, and so by a
+fortunate chance have survived to tell us what the Egyptian jewellers
+could do in the days of the XIIth Dynasty. Here also were found two
+great Nile barges, full-sized boats, with their oars and other gear
+complete. They also may be seen in the Museum of Cairo. It can only be
+supposed that they had served as the biers of the royal mummies, and had
+been brought up in state on sledges. The actual royal chamber was not
+found, although a subterranean gallery was driven beneath the centre of
+the pyramid.
+
+The southern brick pyramid was constructed in the same way as the
+northern one. At the side of it were also found the tombs of members of
+the royal house, including that of the king Hor, already mentioned, with
+its interesting contents. The remains of the mummy of this ephemeral
+monarch, known only from his tomb, were also found. The entrails of the
+king were placed in the usual "canopic jars," which were sealed with the
+seal of Amenemhat III; it is thus that we know that Hor died before him.
+In many of the inscriptions of this king, on his coffin and stelo, a
+peculiarly affected manner of writing the hieroglyphs is found,--the
+birds are without their legs, the snake has no tail, the bee no head.
+Birds are found without their legs in other inscriptions of this period;
+it was a temporary fashion and soon discarded.
+
+In the tomb of a princess named Nubhetep, near at hand, were found more
+jewels of the same style as those of Sit-hathor and Merit. The pyramid
+itself contained the usual passages and chambers, which were reached
+with much difficulty and considerable tunnelling by M. de Morgan. In
+fact, the search for the royal death-chambers lasted from December 5,
+1894, till March 17, 1895, when the excavators' gallery finally struck
+one of the ancient passages, which were found to be unusually extensive,
+contrasting in this respect with the northern pyramid. The royal
+tomb-chamber had, of course, been emptied of what it contained. It must
+be remembered that, in any case, it is probable that the king was not
+actually buried here, but in the pyramid of Hawara.
+
+The pyramid of Amenemhat II, which lies between the two brick pyramids,
+was built entirely of stone. Nothing of it remains above ground, but the
+investigation of the subterranean portions showed that it was remarkable
+for the massiveness of its stones and the care with which the masonry
+was executed. The same characteristics are found in the dependent tombs
+of the princesses Ha and Khnumet, in which more jewelry was found. This
+splendid stonework is characteristic of the Middle Kingdom; we find it
+also in the temple of Mentuhetep III at Thebes.
+
+Some distance south of Dash�r is M�d�m, where the pyramid of Sneferu
+reigns in solitude, and beyond this again is Lisht, where in the
+years 1894-6 MM. Gautier and J�quier excavated the pyramid of Usertsen
+(Sen-usret) I. The most remarkable find was a cache of the seated
+statues of the king in white limestone, in absolutely perfect condition.
+They were found lying on their sides, just as they had been hidden. Six
+figures of the king in the form of Osiris, with the face painted red,
+were also found. Such figures seem to have been regularly set up in
+front of a royal sepulchre; several were found in front of the funerary
+temple of Mentu-hetep III, Thebes, which we shall describe later. A
+fine altar of gray granite, with representations in relief of the nomes
+bringing offerings, was also recovered. The pyramid of Lisht itself is
+not built of bricks, like those of Dash�r, but of stone. It was not,
+however, erected in so solid a fashion as those of earlier days at G�za
+or Abus�r, and nothing is left of it now but a heap of d�bris. The XIIth
+Dynasty architects built walls of magnificent masonry, as we have
+seen, and there is no doubt that the stone casing of their pyramids
+was originally very fine, but the interior is of brick or rubble; the
+wonderful system of building employed by kings of the IVth Dynasty at
+Giza was not practised.
+
+South of Lisht is Illahun, and at the entrance to the province of the
+Fayy�m, and west of this, nearer the Fayy�m, is Hawara, where Prof.
+Petrie excavated the pyramids of Usertsen (Senusret) II and Amenem-hat
+III. His discoveries have already been described by Prof. Maspero in his
+history, so that it will suffice here merely to compare them with the
+results of M. de Morgan's later work at Dash�r and that of MM. Gautier
+and J�quier at Lisht, to note recent conclusions in connection with
+them, and to describe the newest discoveries in the same region.
+
+Both pyramids are of brick, lined with stone, like those of Dash�r, with
+some differences of internal construction, since stone walls exist in
+the interior. The central chambers and passages leading to them were
+discovered; and in both cases the passages are peculiarly complex, with
+dumb chambers, great stone portcullises, etc., in order to mislead
+and block the way to possible plunderers. The extraordinary sepulchral
+chamber of the Hawara pyramid, which, though it is over twenty-two feet
+long by ten feet wide over all, is hewn out of one solid block of hard
+yellow quartzite, gives some idea of the remarkable facility of dealing
+with huge stones and the love of utilizing them which is especially
+characteristic of the XIIth Dynasty. The pyramid of Hawara was provided
+with a funerary temple the like of which had never been known in Egypt
+before and was never known afterwards. It was a huge building far larger
+than the pyramid itself, and built of fine limestone and crystalline
+white quartzite, in a style eminently characteristic of the XIIth
+Dynasty. In actual superficies this temple covered an extent of ground
+within which the temples of Karnak, Luxor, and the Ramesseum, at Thebes,
+could have stood, but has now almost entirely disappeared, having been
+used as a quarry for two thousand years. In Roman times this destroying
+process had already begun, but even then the building was still
+magnificent, and had been noted with wonder by all the Greek visitors to
+Egypt from the time of Herodotus downwards. Even before his day it
+had received the name of the "Labyrinth," on account of its supposed
+resemblance to the original labyrinth in Crete.
+
+That the Hawara temple was the Egyptian labyrinth was pointed out by
+Lepsius in the 'forties of the last century. Within the last two or
+three years attention has again been drawn to it by Mr. Arthur Evans's
+discovery of the Cretan labyrinth itself in the shape of the Minoan
+or early Mycen�an palace of Knossos, near Candia in Crete. It is
+impossible to enter here into all the arguments by which it has been
+proved that the Knossian palace is the veritable labyrinth of the
+Minotaur legend, nor would it be strictly germane to our subject were we
+to do so; but it may suffice to say here that the word
+
+[Illustration: 125.jpg (Greek word)]
+
+has been proved to be of Greek-or rather of pre-Hellenic-origin, and
+would mean in Karian "Place of the Double-Axe," like La-braunda in
+Karia, where Zeus was depicted with a double axe (labrys) in his hand.
+The non-Aryan, "Asianic," group of languages, to which certainly Lycian
+and probably Karian belong, has been shown by the German philologer
+Kretschmer to have spread over Greece into Italy in the period before
+the Aryan Greeks entered Hellas, and to have left undoubted traces of
+its presence in Greek place-names and in the Greek language itself.
+Before the true Hellenes reached Crete, an Asianic dialect must have
+been spoken there, and to this language the word "labyrinth" must
+originally have belonged. The classical labyrinth was "in the Knossian
+territory." The palace of Knossos was emphatically the chief seat of the
+worship of a god whose emblem was the double-axe; it was the Knossian
+"Place of the Double-Axe," the Cretan "Labyrinth."
+
+It used to be supposed that the Cretan labyrinth had taken its name from
+the Egyptian one, and the, word itself was supposed to be of Egyptian
+origin. An Egyptian etymology was found for it as "_Ro-pi-ro-henet_,"
+"Temple-mouth-canal," which might be interpreted, with some violence to
+Egyptian construction, as "The temple at the mouth of the canal," i.e.
+the Bahr Yusuf, which enters the Fayy�m at Hawara. But unluckily this
+word would have been pronounced by the natives of the vicinity as
+"Elphilahune," which is not very much like
+
+[Illustration: 126.jpg (Greek word)]
+
+"_Ro-pi-ro-henet_" is, in fact, a mere figment of the philological
+imagination, and cannot be proved ever to have existed. The element
+_Ro-henet_, "canal-mouth" (according to the local pronunciation of the
+Fayy�m and Middle Egypt, called _La-hun�_), is genuine; it is the
+origin of the modern Illahun (_el-Lahun_), which is situated at the
+"canal-mouth." However, now that we know that the word labyrinth can be
+explained satisfactorily with the help of Karian, as evidently of Greek
+(pre-Aryan) origin, and as evidently the original name of the Knossian
+labyrinth, it is obvious that there is no need to seek a far-fetched
+explanation of the word in Egypt, and to suppose that the Greeks called
+the Cretan labyrinth after the Egyptian one.
+
+The contrary is evidently the case. Greek visitors to Egypt found a
+resemblance between the great Egyptian building, with its numerous halls
+and corridors, vast in extent, and the Knossian palace. Even if very
+little of the latter was visible in the classical period, as seems
+possible, yet the site seems always to have been kept holy and free from
+later building till Roman times, and we know that the tradition of the
+mazy halls and corridors of the labyrinth was always clear, and was
+evidently based on a vivid reminiscence. Actually, one of the most
+prominent characteristics of the Knossian palace is its mazy and
+labyrinthine system of passages and chambers. The parallel between the
+two buildings, which originally caused the Greek visitors to give the
+pyramid-temple of Hawara the name of "labyrinth," has been traced still
+further. The white limestone walls and the shining portals of "Parian
+marble," described by Strabo as characteristic of the Egyptian
+labyrinth, have been compared with the shining white selenite or gypsum
+used at Knossos, and certain general resemblances between the Greek
+architecture of the Minoan age and the almost contemporary Egyptian
+architecture of the XIIth Dynasty have been pointed out.* Such
+resemblances may go to swell the amount of evidence already known, which
+tells us that there was a close connection between Egyptian and Minoan
+art and civilization, established at least as early as 2500 B.C.
+
+     * See H. R. Hall, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1905 (Pt.
+     ii). The Temple of the Sphinx at G�za may also be compared
+     with those of Hawara and Knossos. It seems most probable
+     that the Temple of the Sphinx is a XIIth Dynasty building.
+
+For it must be remembered that within the last few years we have learned
+from the excavations in Crete a new chapter of ancient history, which,
+it might almost seem, shows us Greece and Egypt in regular communication
+from nearly the beginnings of Egyptian history. As the excavations which
+have told us this were carried on in Crete, not in Egypt, to describe
+them does not lie within the scope of this book, though a short sketch
+of their results, so far as they affect Egyptian history in later days,
+is given in Chapter VII. Here it may suffice to say that, as far as
+the early period is concerned, Egypt and Crete were certainly in
+communication in the time of the XIIth Dynasty, and quite possibly in
+that of the VIth or still earlier. We have IIId Dynasty Egyptian vases
+from Knossos, which were certainly not imported in later days, for no
+ancient nation had antiquarian tastes till the time of the Sa�tes in
+Egypt and of the Romans still later. In fact, this communication seems
+to go so far back in time that we are gradually being led to perceive
+the possibility that the Minoan culture of Greece was in its origin an
+offshoot from that of primeval Egypt, probably in early Neolithic times.
+That is to say, the Neolithic Greeks and Neolithic Egyptians were both
+members of the same "Mediterranean" stock, which quite possibly may have
+had its origin in Africa, and a portion of which may have crossed the
+sea to Europe in very early times, taking with it the seeds of culture
+which in Egypt developed in the Egyptian way, in Greece in the Greek
+way. Actual communication and connection may not have been maintained
+at first, and probably they were not. Prof. Petrie thinks otherwise, and
+would see in the boats painted on the predynastic Egyptian vases (see
+Chapter I) the identical galleys by which, in late Neolithic
+times, commerce between Crete and Egypt was carried on across the
+Mediterranean. It is certain, however, that these boats are ordinary
+little river craft, the usual Nile _fel�kas_ and _gyassas_ of the time;
+they are depicted together with emblems of the desert and cultivated
+land,-ostriches, antelopes, hills, and palm-trees,-and the thoroughly
+inland and Upper Egyptian character of the whole design springs to the
+eye. There can be no doubt whatever that the predynastic boats were not
+seagoing galleys.
+
+It was probably not till the time of the pyramid-builders that
+connection between the Greek Mediterraneans and the Nilotes was
+re-established. Thence-forward it increased, and in the time of the
+XIIth Dynasty, when the labyrinth of Amenemhat III was built, there
+seems to have been some kind of more or less regular communication
+between the two countries.
+
+It is certain that artistic ideas were exchanged between them at this
+period. How communication was carried on we do not know, but it was
+probably rather by way of Cyprus and the Syrian coast than directly
+across the open sea. We shall revert to this point when we come to
+describe the connection between Crete and Egypt in the time of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, when Cretan ambassadors visited the Egyptian court and
+were depicted in tomb paintings at Thebes. Between the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty and that of the XVIIIth this connection seems to have been very
+considerably strengthened; for at Knossos have been found an Egyptian
+statuette of an Egyptian named Abnub, who from his name must have lived
+about the end of the XIIIth Dynasty, and the top of an alabastron with
+the royal name of Khian, one of the Hyksos kings.
+
+Quite close to Hawara, at Illahun, in the ruins of the town which was
+built by Usertsen's workmen when they were building his pyramid, Prof.
+Petrie found fragments of pottery of types which we now know well from
+excavations in Crete and Cyprus, though they were then unknown. They are
+fragments of the polychrome Cretan ware called, after the name of the
+place where it was first found in Crete, Kamares ware, and of a black
+ware ornamented with small punctures, which are often filled up with
+white. This latter ware has been found elsewhere associated with XIIIth
+Dynasty antiquities. The former is known to belong in Crete to the
+"early Minoan" period, long anterior to the "late Minoan" or "Palace"
+period, which was contemporary with the Egyptian XVIIIth Dynasty.
+We have here another interesting proof of a connection between XIIth
+Dynasty Egypt and early Minoan Crete. The later connection, under the
+XVIIIth and following dynasties, is also illustrated in the same reign
+by Prof. Petrie's finds of late Mycenaean objects and foreign graves at
+Medinet Gurob.*
+
+     * One man who was buried here bore the name An-Tursha,
+     "Pillar of the Tursha." The Tursha were a people of the
+     Mediterranean, possibly Tylissians of Crete.
+
+These excavations at Hawara, Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob were carried out
+in the years 1887-9. Since then Prof. Petrie and his co-workers have
+revisited the same district, and Gurob has been re-examined (in 1904)
+by Messrs. Loat and Ayrton, who discovered there a shrine devoted to
+the worship of fish. This work was carried on at the same time as Prof.
+Petrie's main excavation for the Egypt Exploration Fund at Annas, or
+Ahnas-yet el-Medina, the site of the ancient Henensu, the Herakleopolis
+of the Greeks. Prof. Naville had excavated there for the Egypt
+Exploration Fund in 1892, but had not completely cleared the temple.
+This work was now taken up by Prof. Petrie, who laid the whole building
+bare. It is dedicated to Hershefi, the local deity of Herakleopolis.
+This god, who was called Ar-saphes by the Greeks, and identified with
+Herakles, was in fact a form of Horus with the head of a ram; his name
+means "Terrible-Face." The greater part of the temple dates to the time
+of the XIXth Dynasty, and nothing of the early period is left. We know,
+however, that the Middle Kingdom was the flourishing period of the
+city of Hershefi. For a comparatively brief period, between the age of
+Memphite hegemony and that of Theban dominion, Herakleopolis was the
+capital city of Egypt. The kings of the IXth and Xth Dynasties were
+Herakleopolites, though we know little of them. One, Kheti, is said to
+have been a great tyrant. Another, Nebkaur�, is known only as a figure
+in the "Legend of the Eloquent Peasant," a classical story much in vogue
+in later days. Another, Merikar�, is a more real personage, for we have
+contemporary records of his days in the inscriptions of the tombs at
+Asy�t, from which we see that the princes of Thebes were already wearing
+down the Northerners, in spite of the resistance of the adherents of
+Herakleopolis, among whom the most valiant were the chiefs of Asy�t. The
+civil war eventuated in favour of Thebes, and the Theban XIth Dynasty
+assumed the double crown. The sceptre passed from Memphis and the North,
+and Thebes enters upon the scene of Egyptian history.
+
+With this event the Nile-land also entered upon a new era of
+development. The metropolis of the kingdom was once more shifted to the
+South, and, although the kings of the XIIth Dynasty actually resided
+in the North, their Theban origin was never forgotten, and Thebes
+was regarded as the chief city of the country. The XIth Dynasty kings
+actually reigned at Thebes, and there the later kings of the XIIIth
+Dynasty retired after the conquest of the Hyksos. The fact that with
+Thebes were associated all the heroic traditions of the struggle against
+the Hyksos ensured the final stability of the capital there when the
+hated Semites were finally driven out, and the national kingdom
+was re-established in its full extent from north to south. But for
+occasional intervals, as when Akhunaten held his court at Tell el-Amarna
+and Ramses II at Tanis, Thebes remained the national capital for six
+hundred years, till the time of the XXIId Dynasty.
+
+Another great change which differentiates the Middle Kingdom
+(XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) from the Old Kingdom was caused by Egypt's
+coming into contact with other outside nations at this period. During
+the whole history of the Old Kingdom, Egyptian relations with the outer
+world had been nil. We have some inkling of occasional connection
+with the Mediterranean peoples, the _Ha-nebu_ or Northerners; we have
+accounts of wars with the people of Sinai and other Bedawin and negroes;
+and expeditions were also sent to the land of Punt (Somaliland) by way
+of the Upper Nile. But we have not the slightest hint of any connection
+with, or even knowledge of, the great nations of the Euphrates valley
+or the peoples of Palestine. The Babylonian king Nar�m-Sin invaded the
+Sinaitic peninsula (the land of Magan) as early as 3750 b. c, about
+the time of the IIId Egyptian Dynasty. The great King Tjeser, of that
+dynasty, also invaded Sinai, and so did Snefru, the last king of the
+dynasty. But we have no hint of any collision between Babylonians and
+Egyptians at that time, nor do either of them betray the slightest
+knowledge of one another's existence. It can hardly be that the two
+civilized peoples of the world in those days were really absolutely
+ignorant of each other, but we have no trace of any connection between
+them, other than the possible one before the founding of the Egyptian
+monarchy.
+
+This early connection, however, is very problematical. We have seen that
+there seems to be in early Egyptian civilization an element ultimately
+of Babylonian origin, and that there are two theories as to how it
+reached Egypt. One supposes that it was brought by a Semitic people of
+Arab affinities (represented by the modern Grallas), who crossed the
+Straits of Bab el-Man-deb and reached Egypt either by way of the Wadi
+Hammamat or by the Upper Nile. The other would bring it across the
+Isthmus of Suez to the Delta, where, at Heliopolis, there certainly
+seems to have been a settlement of a Semitic type of very ancient
+culture. In both cases we should have Semites bringing Babylonian
+culture to Egypt. This, as we may remind the reader, was not itself of
+Semitic origin, but was a development due to a non-Semitic people,
+the Sumerians as they are called, who, so far as we know, were the
+aboriginal inhabitants of Babylonia. The Sumerian language was of
+agglutinative type, radically distinct both from the pure Semitic idioms
+and from Egyptian. The Babylonian elements of culture which the early
+Semitic invaders brought with them to Egypt were, then, ultimately of
+Sumerian origin. Sumerian civilization had profoundly influenced the
+Semitic tribes for centuries before the Semitic conquest of Babylonia,
+and when the Sumerians became more and more a conquered race, finally
+amalgamating with their conquerors and losing their racial and
+linguistic individuality, they were conquered by an alien race but not
+by an alien culture. For the culture of the Semites was Sumerian, the
+Semitic races owing their civilization to the Sumerians. That is as
+much as to say that a great deal of what we call Semitic culture is
+fundamentally non-Semitic.
+
+In the earliest days, then, Egypt received elements of Sumerian culture
+through a Semitic medium, which introduced Semitic elements into the
+language of the people, and a Semitic racial strain. It is possible.
+that both theories as to the routes of these primeval conquerors are
+true, and that two waves of Semites entered the Nile valley towards
+the close of the Neolithic period, one by way of the Upper Nile or Wadi
+Hammamat, the other by way of Heliopolis.
+
+After the reconsolidation of the Egyptian people, with perhaps an
+autocratic class of Semitic origin and a populace of indigenous Nilotic
+race, we have no trace of further connection with the far-away centre of
+Semitic culture in Babylonia till the time of the Theban hegemony.
+Under the XIIth Dynasty we see Egyptians in friendly relations with the
+Bedawin of Idumsea and Southern Palestine. Thus Sanehat, the younger son
+of Amenemhat I, when the death of his royal father was announced, fled
+from the new king Usertsen (Senusret) into Palestine, and there married
+the daughter of the chief Ammuanshi and became a Syrian chief himself,
+only finally returning to Egypt as an old man on the assurance of the
+royal pardon and favour. We have in the reign of Usertsen (Senusret) II
+the famous visit of the Arab chief Abisha (Ab�shu') with his following
+to the court of Khnumhetep, the prince of the Oryx nome in Middle Egypt,
+as we see it depicted on the walls of Khnumhetep's tomb at Beni Hasan.
+We see Usertsen (Senusret) III invading Palestine to chastise the land
+of Sekmem and the vile Syrians.*
+
+     * We know of this campaign from the interesting historical
+     stele of the general Sebek-khu (who took part in it), which
+     was found during Mr. Garstang's excavations at Abydos, not
+     previously referred to above. They were carried out in 1900,
+     and resulted in the complete clearance of a part of the
+     great cemetery which had been created during the XIIth
+     Dynasty. The group of objects from the tombs of this
+     cemetery, and those of XVIIIth Dynasty tombs also found, is
+     especially valuable as showing the styles of objects in use
+     at these two periods (see Garstang, el-Ardbah, 1901).
+
+The arm of Egypt was growing longer, and its weight was being felt in
+regions where it had previously been entirely unknown. Eventually the
+collision came. Egypt collided with an Asiatic power, and got the worst
+of the encounter. So much the worse that the Theban monarchy of the
+Middle Kingdom was overthrown, and Northern Egypt was actually conquered
+by the Asiatic foreigners and ruled by a foreign house for several
+centuries. Who these conquering Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were no
+recent discovery has told us. An old idea was that they were Mongols. It
+was supposed that the remarkable faces of the sphinxes of Tanis, now
+in the Cairo Museum, which bore the names of Hyksos kings, were of
+Mongolian type, as also those of two colossal royal heads discovered
+by M. Naville at Bubastis. But M. Gol�nischeff has now shown that these
+heads are really those of XIIth Dynasty kings, and not of Hyksos at all.
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang have lately endeavoured to show that this
+type was foreign, and probably connected with that of the Kheta, or
+Hittites, of Northern Syria, who came into prominence as enemies of
+Egypt at a later period. They think that the type was introduced into
+the Egyptian royal family by Nefret, the queen of Usertsen (Senusret)
+II, whom they suppose to have been a Hittite princess. At the same time
+they think it probable that the type was also that of the Hyksos, whom
+they consider to have been practically Hittites. They therefore revive
+the theory of de Cara, which connects the Hyksos with the Hittites and
+these with the Pelasgi and Tyrseni.
+
+This is a very interesting theory, which, when carried out to its
+logical conclusion, would connect the Hyksos and Hittites racially with
+the pre-Hellenic "Minoan" Mycenseans of Greece, as well as with the
+Etruscans of Italy. But there is little of certainty in it. It is by no
+means impossible that we may eventually come to know that the Hittites
+(_Kheta_, the _Khatte_ of the Assyrians) and other tribes of Asia
+Minor were racially akin to the "Minoans" of Greece, but the connection
+between the Hyksos and the Hittites is to seek. The countenances of the
+Kheta on the Egyptian monuments of Ramses II's time have an angular
+cast, and so have those of the Tanis sphinxes, of Queen Nefret, of
+the Bubastis statues, and the statues of Usertsen (Senusret) III
+and Amenemhat III. We might then suppose, with Messrs. Newberry and
+Garstang, that Nefret was a Kheta princess, who gave her peculiar racial
+traits to her son Usertsen (Senusret) III and his son Amenem-hat, were
+it not far more probable that the resemblance between this peculiar
+XIIth Dynasty type and the Kheta face is purely fortuitous.
+
+There is really no reason to suppose that the type of face presented by
+Nefret, Usertsen, and Amenemhat is not purely Egyptian. It may be seen
+in many a modern fellah, and the truth probably is that the sculptors
+have in the case of these rulers very faithfully and carefully depicted
+their portraits, and that their faces happen to have been of a rather
+hard and forbidding type. But, if we grant the contention of Messrs.
+Newberry and Garstang for the moment, where is the connection between
+these XIIth Dynasty kings and the Hyksos? All the Tanite monuments with
+this peculiar facial type which would be considered Hyksos are certainly
+of the XIIth Dynasty. The only statue of a Hyksos king, which was
+undoubtedly originally made for him and is not one of the XIIth Dynasty
+usurped, is the small one of Khian at Cairo, discovered by M. Naville at
+Bubastis, and this has no head. So that we have not the slightest idea
+of what a Hyksos looked like. Moreover, the evidence of the Hyksos names
+which are known to us points in quite a different direction. The Kheta,
+or Hittites, were certainly not Semites, yet the Hyksos names are
+definitely Semitic. In fact it is most probable that the Hyksos, or
+Shepherd Kings, were, as the classical authorities say they were, and as
+their name (_hiku-semut_ or _hihu-shasu_,) "princes of the deserts" or
+("princes of the Bedaw�n") also testifies, purely and simply Arabs.
+
+Now it is not a little curious that almost at the same time that a nomad
+Arab race conquered Lower Egypt and settled in it as rulers (just as
+'Amr and the followers of Islam did over two thousand years later),
+another Arab race may have imposed its rule upon Babylonia. Yet this
+may have been the case; for the First Dynasty of Babylon, to which the
+famous Hammurabi belonged, was very probably of Arab origin, to judge by
+the forms of some of the royal names. It is by no means impossible that
+there was some connection between these two conquests, and that both
+Babylonia and Egypt fell, in the period before the year 2000 B.C. before
+some great migratory movement from Arabia, which overran Babylonia,
+Palestine, and even the Egyptian Delta.
+
+In this manner Egypt and Babylonia may have been brought together
+in common subjection to the Arab. We do not know whether any regular
+communication between Egypt, under Semitic rule, and Babylonia was now
+established; but we do know that during the Hyksos period there were
+considerable relations between Egypt and over-sea Crete, and relations
+with Mesopotamia may possibly have been established. At any rate, when
+the war of liberation, which was directed by the princes of Thebes, was
+finally brought to a successful conclusion and the Arabs were expelled,
+we find the Egyptians a much changed nation. They had adopted for war
+the use of horse and chariot, which they learnt from their Semitic
+conquerors, whose victory was in all probability largely gained by their
+use, and, generally speaking, they had become much more like the Western
+Asiatic nations. Egypt was no longer isolated, for she had been forcibly
+brought into contact with the foreign world, and had learned much.
+She was no longer self-contained within her own borders. If the Semites
+could conquer her, so could she conquer the Semites. Armed with horse
+and chariot, the Egyptians went forth to battle, and their revenge was
+complete. All Palestine and Syria were Egyptian domains for five hundred
+years after the conquest by Thothmes I and III, and Ashur and Babel sent
+tribute to the Pharaoh of Egypt.
+
+The reaction came, and Egypt was thrown prostrate beneath the feet of
+Assyria; but her claim to dominion over the Western Asiatics was never
+abandoned, and was revived in all its pomp by Ptolemy Euergetes, who
+brought back in triumph to Egypt the images of the gods which had been
+removed by Assyrians and Babylonians centuries before. This claim was
+never allowed by the Asiatics, it is true, and their kings wrote to the
+proudest Pharaoh as to an absolute equal. Even the King of Cyprus calls
+the King of Egypt his brother. But Palestine was admitted to be
+an Egyptian possession, and the Phoenicians were always energetic
+supporters of the Egyptian r�gime against the lawless Bedaw�n tribes,
+who were constantly intriguing with the Kheta or Hittite power to the
+north against Egypt.
+
+The existence of this extra-Egyptian imperial possession meant that the
+eyes of the Egyptians were now permanently turned in the direction of
+Western Asia, with which they were henceforth in constant and intimate
+communication. The first Theban period and the Hyksos invasion,
+therefore, mark a turning-point in Egyptian history, at which we may
+fitly leave it for a time in order to turn our attention to those
+peoples of Western Asia with whom the Egyptians had now come into
+permanent contact.
+
+Just as new discoveries have been made in Egypt, which have modified our
+previous conception of her history, so also have the excavators of
+the ancient sites in the Mesopotamian valley made, during the last few
+years, far-reaching discoveries, which have enabled us to add to and
+revise much of our knowledge of the history of Babylonia and Assyria. In
+Palestine and the Sinaitic peninsula also the spade has been used with
+effect, but a detailed account of work in Sinai and Palestine falls
+within the limits of a description of Biblical discoveries rather than
+of this book. The following chapters will therefore deal chiefly with
+modern discoveries which have told us new facts with regard to the
+history of the ancient Sumerians themselves, and of the Babylonians,
+Elamites, Kassites, and Assyrians, the inheritors of the ancient
+Sumerian civilization, which was older than that of Egypt, and which, as
+we have seen, probably contributed somewhat to its formation. These
+were the two primal civilizations of the ancient world. For two thousand
+years each marched upon a solitary road, without meeting the other.
+Eventually the two roads converged. We have hitherto dealt with the road
+of the Egyptians; we now describe that of the Mesopotamians, up to the
+point of convergence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA AND THE DAWN OF CHALD�AN HISTORY
+
+
+In the preceding pages it has been shown how recent excavations in Egypt
+have revealed an entirely new chapter in the history of that country,
+and how, in consequence, our theories with regard to the origin of
+Egyptian civilization have been entirely remodelled. Excavations have
+been and are being carried out in Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries
+with no less enthusiasm and energy than in Egypt itself, and, although
+it cannot be said that they have resulted in any sweeping modification
+of our conceptions with regard to the origin and kinship of the early
+races of Western Asia, yet they have lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of the ancient history of the countries in that region of the
+world. This is particularly the case in respect of the Sumerians, who,
+so far as we know at present, were the earliest inhabitants of the
+fertile plains of Mesopotamia. The beginnings of this ancient people
+stretch back into the remote past, and their origin is still shrouded in
+the mists of antiquity. When first we come across them they have already
+attained a high level of civilization. They have built temples and
+palaces and houses of burnt and unburnt brick, and they have reduced
+their system of agriculture to a science, intersecting their country
+with canals for purposes of irrigation and to ensure a good supply of
+water to their cities. Their sculpture and pottery furnish abundant
+evidence that they have already attained a comparatively high level in
+the practice of the arts, and finally they have evolved a complicated
+system of writing which originally had its origin in picture-characters,
+but afterwards had been developed along phonetic lines. To have attained
+to this pitch of culture argues long periods of previous development,
+and we must conclude that they had been settled in Southern Babylonia
+many centuries before the period to which we must assign the earliest of
+their remains at present discovered.
+
+That this people were not indigenous to Babylonia is highly probable,
+but we have little data by which to determine the region from which
+they originally came. Prom the fact that they built their ziggurats, or
+temple towers, of huge masses of unburnt brick which rose high above
+the surrounding plain, and that their ideal was to make each "like a
+mountain," it has been argued that they were a mountain race, and the
+home from which they sprang has been sought in Central Asia. Other
+scholars have detected signs of their origin in their language and
+system of writing, and, from the fact that they spoke an agglutinative
+tongue and at the earliest period arranged the characters of their
+script in vertical lines like the Chinese, it has been urged that
+they were of Mongol extraction. Though a case may be made out for this
+hypothesis, it would be rash to dogmatize for or against it, and it is
+wiser to await the discovery of further material on which a more certain
+decision may be based. But whatever their origin, it is certain that the
+Sumerians exercised an extraordinary influence on all races with
+which, either directly or indirectly, they came in contact. The ancient
+inhabitants of Elam at a very early period adopted in principle
+their method of writing, and afterwards, living in isolation in the
+mountainous districts of Persia, developed it on lines of their own. [*
+See Chap. V, and note.] On their invasion of Babylonia the Semites
+fell absolutely under Sumerian influence, and, although they eventually
+conquered and absorbed the Sumerians, their civilization remained
+Sumerian to the core. Moreover, by means of the Semitic inhabitants of
+Babylonia Sumerian culture continued to exert its influence on other
+and more distant races. We have already seen how a Babylonian element
+probably enters into Egyptian civilization through Semitic infiltration
+across the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb or by way of the Isthmus of Suez,
+and it was Sumerian culture which these Semites brought with them.
+In like manner, through the Semitic Babylonians, the Assyrians, the
+Kassites, and the inhabitants of Palestine and Syria, and of some
+parts of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan, all in turn experienced
+indirectly the influence of Sumerian civilization and continued in a
+greater or less degree to reproduce elements of this early culture.
+
+It will be seen that the influence of the Sumerians furnishes us with
+a key to much that would otherwise prove puzzling in the history of the
+early races of Western Asia. It is therefore all the more striking to
+recall the fact that but a few years ago the very existence of this
+ancient people was called in question. At that time the excavations in
+Mesopotamia had not revealed many traces of the race itself, and its
+previous existence had been mainly inferred from a number of Sumerian
+compositions inscribed upon Assyrian tablets found in the library
+of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh. These compositions were furnished with
+Assyrian translations upon the tablets on which they were inscribed,
+and it was correctly argued by the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, the late M.
+Oppert, Prof. Schrader, Prof. Sayce, and other scholars that they were
+written in the language of the earlier inhabitants of the country whom
+the Semitic Babylonians had displaced. But M. Hal�vy started a theory to
+the effect that Sumerian was not a language at all, in the proper sense
+of the term, but was a cabalistic method of writing invented by the
+Semitic Babylonian priests.
+
+[Illustration: 147.jpg LIST OF ARCHAIC CUNEIFORM SIGNS.
+
+     Drawn up by an Assyrian scribe to assist him in his studies
+     of early texts. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The argument on which the upholders of this theory mainly relied was
+that many of the phonetic values of the Sumerian signs were obviously
+derived from Semitic equivalents, and they hastily jumped to the
+conclusion that the whole language was similarly derived from Semitic
+Babylonian, and was, in fact, a purely arbitrary invention of the
+Babylonian priests. This theory ignored all questions of inherent
+probability, and did not attempt to explain why the Babylonian priests
+should have troubled themselves to make such an invention and afterwards
+have stultified themselves by carefully appending Assyrian translations
+to the majority of the Sumerian compositions which they copied out.
+Moreover, the nature of these compositions is not such as we should
+expect to find recorded in a cabalistic method of writing. They contain
+no secret lore of the Babylonian priests, but are merely hymns and
+prayers and religious compositions similar to those employed by the
+Babylonians and Assyrians themselves.
+
+But in spite of its inherent improbabilities, M. Hal�vy succeeded in
+making many converts to his theory, including Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch
+and a number of the younger school of German Assyriologists. More
+conservative scholars, such as Sir Henry Rawlinson, M. Oppert, and Prof.
+Schrader, stoutly opposed the theory, maintaining that Sumerian was a
+real language and had been spoken by an earlier race whom the Semitic
+Babylonians had conquered; and they explained the resemblance of some of
+the Sumerian values to Semitic roots by supposing that Sumerian had
+not been suddenly superseded by the language of the Semitic invaders
+of Babylonia, but that the two tongues had been spoken for long periods
+side by side and that each had been strongly influenced by the other.
+This very probable and sane explanation has been fully corroborated
+by subsequent excavations, particularly those that were carried out at
+Telloh in Southern Babylonia by the late M. de Sarzec. In these mounds,
+which mark the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, were
+found thousands of clay tablets inscribed in archaic characters and in
+the Sumerian language, proving that it had actually been the language of
+the early inhabitants of Babylonia; while the examples of their art and
+the representations of their form and features, which were also afforded
+by the diggings at Telloh, proved once for all that the Sumerians were
+a race of strongly marked characteristics and could not be ascribed to a
+Semitic stock.
+
+The system of writing invented by the ancient Sumerians was adopted by
+the Semitic Babylonians, who modified it to suit their own language.
+Moreover, the archaic forms of the characters, many of which under the
+Sumerians still retained resemblances to the pictures of objects from
+which they were descended, were considerably changed. The lines, of
+which they were originally composed, gave way to wedges, and the number
+of the wedges of which each sign consisted was gradually diminished, so
+that in the time of the Assyrians and the later Babylonians many of the
+characters bore small resemblance to the ancient Sumerian forms
+from which they had been derived. The reading of Sumerian and early
+Babylonian inscriptions by the late Assyrian scribes was therefore an
+accomplishment only to be acquired as the result of long study, and it
+is interesting to note that as an assistance to the reading of these
+early texts the scribes compiled lists of archaic signs. Sometimes
+opposite each archaic character they drew a picture of the object from
+which they imagined it was derived. This fact is significant as proving
+that the Assyrian scribes recognized the pictorial origin of cuneiform
+writing, but the pictures they drew opposite the signs are rather
+fanciful, and it cannot be said that their guesses were very successful.
+That we are able to criticize the theories of the Assyrians as to the
+origin and forms of the early characters is in the main due to M. de
+Sarzec's labours, from whose excavations many thousands of inscriptions
+of the Sumerians have been recovered.
+
+The main results of M. de Sarzec's diggings at Telloh have already been
+described by M. Maspero in his history, and therefore we need not go
+over them again, but will here confine ourselves to the results which
+have been obtained from recent excavations at Telloh and at other sites
+in Western Asia. With the death of M. de Sarzec, which occurred in his
+sixty-fifth year, on May 31, 1901, the wonderfully successful series of
+excavations which he had carried out at Telloh was brought to an end. In
+consequence it was feared at the time that the French diggings on this
+site might be interrupted for a considerable period. Such an event would
+have been regretted by all those who are interested in the early history
+of the East, for, in spite of the treasures found by M. de Sarzec in the
+course of his various campaigns, it was obvious that the site was far
+from being exhausted, and that the tells as yet unexplored contained
+inscriptions and antiquities extending back to the very earliest periods
+of Sumerian history.
+
+[Illustration: 150.jpg FRAGMENT OF A LIST OF ARCHAIC CUNEIFORM SIGNS.]
+
+     Opposite each the scribe has drawn a picture of the object
+     from which he imagined it was derived. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell & Co.
+
+The announcement which was made in 1902, that the French government had
+appointed Capt. Gaston Cros as the late M. de Sarzec's successor, was
+therefore received with general satisfaction. The fact that Capt. Cros
+had already successfully carried out several difficult topographical
+missions in the region of the Sahara was a sufficient guarantee that the
+new diggings would be conducted on a systematic and exhaustive scale.
+
+The new director of the French mission in Chald�a arrived at Telloh in
+January, 1903, and one of his first acts was to shift the site of the
+mission's settlement from the bank of the Shatt el-Hai, where it had
+always been established in the time of M. de Sarzec, to the mounds where
+the actual digging took place. The Shatt el-Hai had been previously
+chosen as the site of the settlement to ensure a constant supply of
+water, and as it was more easily protected against attack by night.
+But the fact that it was an hour's ride from the diggings caused an
+unnecessary loss of time, and rendered the strict supervision of the
+diggers a matter of considerable difficulty. During the first season's
+work rough huts of reeds, surrounded by a wall of earth and a ditch,
+served the new expedition for its encampment among the mounds of Telloh,
+but last year these makeshift arrangements were superseded by a regular
+house built out of the burnt bricks which are found in abundance on the
+site. A reservoir has also been built, and caravans of asses bring water
+in skins from the Shatt el-Hai to keep it filled with a constant supply
+of water, while the excellent relations which Capt. Cros has established
+with the Karagul Arabs, who occupy Telloh and its neighbourhood, have
+proved to be the best kind of protection for the mission engaged in
+scientific work upon the site.
+
+The group of mounds and hillocks, known as Telloh, which marks the site
+of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, is easily distinguished from
+the flat surrounding desert. The mounds extend in a rough oval formation
+running north and south, about two and a half miles long and one and a
+quarter broad. In the early spring, when the desert is covered with a
+light green verdure, the ruins are clearly marked out as a yellow spot
+in the surrounding green, for vegetation does not grow upon them. In the
+centre of this oval, which approximately marks the limits of the ancient
+city and its suburbs, are four large tells or mounds running, roughly,
+north and south, their sides descending steeply on the east, but with
+their western slopes rising by easier undulations from the plain. These
+four principal tells are known as the "Palace Tell," the "Tell of the
+Fruit-house," the "Tell of the Tablets," and the "Great Tell," and,
+rising as they do in the centre of the site, they mark the position of
+the temples and the other principal buildings of the city.
+
+An indication of the richness of the site in antiquities was afforded
+to the new mission before it had started regular excavation and while
+it was yet engaged in levelling its encampment and surrounding it with a
+wall and ditch. The spot selected for the camp was a small mound to the
+south of the site of Telloh, and here, in the course of preparing the
+site for the encampment and digging the ditch, objects were found at
+a depth of less than a foot beneath the surface of the soil. These
+included daggers, copper vases, seal-cylinders, rings of lapis and
+cornelian, and pottery. M. de Sarzec had carried out his latest
+diggings in the Tell of the Tablets, and here Capt. Cros continued
+the excavations and came upon the remains of buildings and recovered
+numerous objects, dating principally from the period of Gudea and
+the kings of Ur. The finds included small terra-cotta figures, a
+boundary-stone of Gamil-Sin, and a new statue of Gudea, to which we will
+refer again presently.
+
+In the Tell of the Fruit-house M. de Sarzec had already discovered
+numbers of monuments dating from the earlier periods of Sumerian history
+before the conquest and consolidation of Babylonia under Sargon of
+Agade, and had excavated a primitive terrace built by the early king
+Ur-Nin�. Both on and around this large mound Capt. Cros cut an extensive
+series of trenches, and in digging to the north of the mound he found a
+number of objects, including an alabaster tablet of Ente-mena which had
+been blackened by fire. At the foot of the tell he found a copper helmet
+like those represented on the famous Stele of Vultures discovered by
+M. de Sarzec, and among the tablets here recovered was one with an
+inscription of the time of Urukagina, which records the complete
+destruction of the city of Shirpurla during his reign, and will be
+described in greater detail later on in this chapter. On the mound
+itself a considerable area was uncovered with remains of buildings
+still in place, the use of which appears to have been of an industrial
+character. They included flights of steps, canals with raised banks,
+and basins for storing water. Not far off are the previously discovered
+wells of Bannadu, so that it is legitimate to suppose that Capt. Cros
+has here come upon part of the works which were erected at a very early
+period of Sumerian history for the distribution of water to this portion
+of the city.
+
+[Illustration: 154.jpg Obelisk of Manishtusu.]
+
+     An early Semitic king of the city of Kish in Babylonia. The
+     photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's Delegation en Perse,
+     M'em., t. i, pi. ix.
+
+In the Palace Tell Capt. Cros has sunk a series of deep shafts to
+determine precisely the relations which the buildings of Ur-Bau and
+Gudea, found already on this part of the site, bear to each other, and
+to the building of Adad-nadin-akh�, which had been erected there at
+a much later period. Prom this slight sketch of the work carried out
+during the last two years at Telloh it will have been seen that the
+Prench mission in Chald�a is at present engaged in excavations of a
+most important character, which are being conducted in a regular and
+scientific manner. As the area of the excavations marks the site of the
+chief city of the Sumerians, the diggings there have yielded and
+are yielding material of the greatest interest and value for the
+reconstruction of the early history of Chald�a. After briefly describing
+the character and results of other recent excavations in Mesopotamia and
+the neighbouring lands, we will return to the discoveries at Telloh and
+sketch the new information they supply on the history of the earliest
+inhabitants of the country.
+
+Another French mission that is carrying out work of the very greatest
+interest to the student of early Babylonian history is that which is
+excavating at Susa in Persia, under the direction of M. J. de Morgan,
+whose work on the prehistoric and early dynastic sites in Egypt has
+already been described. M. de Morgan's first season's digging at Susa
+was carried out in the years 1897-8, and the success with which he met
+from the very first, when cutting trenches in the mound which marks
+the acropolis of the ancient city, has led him to concentrate his main
+efforts in this part of the ruins ever since. Provisional trenches cut
+in the part of the ruins called "the Royal City," and in others of the
+mounds at Susa, indicate that many remains may eventually be found there
+dating from the period of the Ach�menian Kings of Persia. But it is in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa that M. de Morgan has found monuments
+of the greatest historical interest and value, not only in the history
+of ancient Elam, but also in that of the earliest rulers of Chald�a.
+
+In the diggings carried out during the first season's work on the site,
+an obelisk was found inscribed on four sides with a long text of some
+sixty-nine columns, written in Semitic Babylonian by the orders
+of Manishtusu, a very early Semitic king of the city of Kish in
+Babylonia.[* See illustration.] The text records the purchase by the
+King of Kish of immense tracts of land situated at Kish and in
+its neighbourhood, and its length is explained by the fact that it
+enumerates full details of the size and position of each estate, and the
+numbers and some of the names of the dwellers on the estates who were
+engaged in their cultivation. After details have been given of a number
+of estates situated in the same neighbourhood, a summary is appended
+referring to the whole neighbourhood, and the fact is recorded that the
+district dealt with in the preceding catalogue and summary had been duly
+acquired by purchase by Manishtusu, King of Kish. The long text upon
+the obelisk is entirely taken up with details of the purchase of the
+territory, and therefore its subject has not any great historical value.
+Mention is made in it of two personages, one of whom may possibly
+be identified with a Babylonian ruler whose name is known from other
+sources. If the proposed identification t should prove to be correct,
+it would enable us to assign a more precise date to Manishtusu than has
+hitherto been possible. One of the personages in question was a certain
+Urukagina, the son of Engilsa, patesi of Shirpurla, and it has been
+suggested that he is the same Urukagina who is known to have occupied
+the throne of Shirpurla, though this identification would bring
+Manishtusu down somewhat later than is probable from the general
+character of his inscriptions. The other personage mentioned in the text
+is the son of Manishtusu, named Mesalim, and there is more to be said
+for the identification of this prince with Mesilim, the early King of
+Kish, who reigned at a period anterior to that of Eannadu, patesi of
+Shirpurla.
+
+The mere fact of so large and important an obelisk, inscribed with a
+Semitic text by an early Babylonian king, being found at Susa was
+an indication that other monuments of even greater interest might be
+forthcoming from the same spot; and this impression was intensified when
+a stele of victory was found bearing an inscription of Naram-Sin, the
+early Semitic King of Agade, who reigned about 3750 B.C. One face of
+this stele is sculptured with a representation of the king conquering
+his enemies in a mountainous country. [* See illustration.] The king
+himself wears a helmet adorned with the horns of a bull, and he carries
+his battle-axe and his bow and an arrow. He is nearly at the summit of
+a high mountain, and up its steep sides, along paths through the
+trees which clothe the mountain, climb his allies and warriors bearing
+standards and weapons. The king's enemies are represented suing for
+mercy as they turn to fly before him. One grasps a broken spear, while
+another, crouching before the king, has been smitten in the throat by an
+arrow from the king's bow. On the plain surface of the stele above the
+king's head may be seen traces of an inscription of Nar�m-Sin engraved
+in three columns in the archaic characters of his period. From the few
+signs of the text that remain, we gather that Nar�m-Sin had conducted
+a campaign with the assistance of certain allied princes, including the
+Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and Lulubi, and it is not improbable that
+they are to be identified with the warriors represented on the stele as
+climbing the mountain behind Nar�m-Sin.
+
+In reference to this most interesting stele of Nar�m-Sin we may here
+mention another inscription of this king, found quite recently at
+Susa and published only this year, which throws additional light on
+Nar�m-Sin's allies and on the empire which he and his father Sargon
+founded. The new inscription was engraved on the base of a diorite
+statue, which had been broken to pieces so that only the base with
+a portion of the text remained. From this inscription we learn that
+Nar�m-Sin was the head of a confederation of nine chief allies, or
+vassal princes, and waged war on his enemies with their assistance.
+Among these nine allies of course the Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and
+Lulubi are to be included. The new text further records that Nar�m-Sin
+made an expedition against Magan (the Sinaitic peninsula), and defeated
+Manium, the lord of that region, and that he cut blocks of stone in the
+mountains there and transported them to his city of Agade, where
+from one of them he made the statue on the base of which the text was
+inscribed. It was already known from the so-called "Omens of Sargon
+and Nar�m-Sin" (a text inscribed on a clay tablet from Ashur-bani-pal's
+library at Nineveh which associates the deeds of these two early rulers
+with certain augural phenomena) that Nar�m-Sin had made an expedition
+to Sinai in the course of his reign and had conquered the king of the
+country. The new text gives contemporary confirmation of this assertion
+and furnishes us with additional information with regard to the name of
+the conquered ruler of Sinai and other details of the campaign.
+
+That monuments of such great interest to the early history of Chald�a
+should have been found at Susa in Persia was sufficiently startling,
+but an easy explanation was at first forthcoming from the fact that
+Nar�m-Sin's stele of victory had been used by the later Elamite king,
+Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, for an inscription of his own; this he had engraved
+in seven long lines along the great cone in front of Nar�m-Sin, which is
+probably intended to represent the peak of the mountain. From the fact
+that it had been used in this way by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, it seemed
+permissible to infer that it had been captured in the course of a
+campaign and brought to Susa as a trophy of war. But we shall see later
+on that the existence of early Babylonian inscriptions and monuments in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa is not to be explained in this way,
+but was due to the wide extension of both Sumerian and Semitic influence
+throughout Western Asia from the very earliest periods. This subject
+will be treated more fully in the chapter dealing with the early history
+of Blam.
+
+The upper surface of the tell of the acropolis at Susa for a depth of
+nearly two metres contains remains of the buildings and antiquities
+of the Ach�menian kings and others of both later and earlier dates.
+In these upper strata of the mound are found remains of the
+Arab, Sassanian, Parthian, Seleucian, and Persian periods, mixed
+indiscriminately with one another and with Elamite objects and materials
+of all ages, from that of the earliest patesis down to that of the
+Susian kings of the seventh century B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 160.jpg BABIL.]
+
+     The most northern of the mounds which now mark the site of
+     the ancient city of Babylon; used for centuries as a quarry
+     for building materials.
+
+The reason of this mixture of the remains of many races and periods is
+that the later builders on the mound made use of the earlier building
+materials which they found preserved within it. Along the skirts of the
+mound may still be seen the foundations of the wall which formed the
+principal defence of the acropolis in the time of Xerxes, and in many
+places not only are the foundations preserved but large pieces of the
+wall itself still rise above the surface of the soil.
+
+[Illustration: 160a.jpg "STELE OF VICTORY"]
+
+[Illustration: 160a-text.jpg TEXT FOR "STELE OF VICTORY"]
+
+     Stele of Nar�m-Sin, an early Semitic King of Agade in
+     Babylonia, who reigned about B. C. 3750. From the photograph
+     by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The plan of the wall is quite irregular, following the contours of the
+mound, and, though it is probable that the wall was strengthened and
+defended at intervals by towers, no trace of these now remains. The
+wall is very thick and built of unburnt bricks, and the system of
+fortification seems to have been extremely simple at this period.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: 161.jpg ROUGHLY HEWN SCULPTURE OF A LION STANDING OVER A
+FALLEN MAN, FOUND AT BABYLON.]
+
+     The group probably represents Babylon or the Babylonian king
+     triumphing over the country's enemies. The Arabs regard the
+     figure as an evil spirit, and it is pitted with the marks of
+     bullets shot at it. They also smear it with filth when they
+     can do so unobserved; in the photograph some newly smeared
+     filth may be seen adhering to the side of the lion.
+
+The earlier citadel or fortress of the city of Susa was built at the top
+of the mound and must have been a more formidable stronghold than that
+of the Ach�menian kings, for, besides its walls, it had the additional
+protection of the steep slopes of the mound.
+
+Below the depth of two metres from the surface of the mound are found
+strata in which Elamite objects and materials are, no longer mixed with
+the remains of later ages, but here the latest Elamite remains are found
+mingled with objects and materials dating from the earliest periods of
+Elam's history. The use of un-burnt bricks as the principal material
+for buildings erected on the mound in all ages has been another cause
+of this mixture of materials, for it has little power of resistance to
+water, and a considerable rain-storm will wash away large portions
+of the surface and cause the remains of different strata to be mixed
+indiscriminately with one another. In proportion as the trenches were
+cut deeper into the mound the strata which were laid bare showed remains
+of earlier ages than those in the upper layers, though here also remains
+of different periods are considerably mixed. The only building that has
+hitherto been discovered at Susa by M. de Morgan, the ground plan of
+which was in a comparatively good state of preservation, was a small
+temple of the god Shu-shinak, and this owed its preservation to the
+fact that it was not built of unburnt brick, but was largely composed of
+burnt brick and plaques and tiles of enamelled terra-cotta.
+
+But although the diggings of M. de Morgan at Susa have so far afforded
+little information on the subject of Elamite architecture, the separate
+objects found have enabled us to gain considerable knowledge of the
+artistic achievements of the race during the different periods of
+its existence. Moreover, the stel� and stone records that have been
+recovered present a wealth of material for the study of the long history
+of Elam and of the kings who ruled in Babylonia during the earliest
+ages.
+
+[Illustration: 163.jpg GENERAL VIEW OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE KASR AT
+BABYLON.]
+
+     Showing the depth in the mound to which the diggings are
+     carried.
+
+The most famous of M. de Morgan's recent finds is the long code of
+laws drawn up by Hammurabi, the greatest king of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon.* This was engraved upon a huge block of black diorite, and
+was found in the tell of the acropolis in the winter of 1901-2. This
+document in itself has entirely revolutionized current theories as to
+the growth and origin of the principal ancient legal codes. It proves
+that Babylonia was the fountainhead from which many later races borrowed
+portions of their legislative systems. Moreover, the subjects dealt
+with in this code of laws embrace most of the different classes of the
+Babylonian people, and it regulates their duties and their relations
+to one another in their ordinary occupations and pursuits. It therefore
+throws much light upon early Babylonian life and customs, and we shall
+return to it in the chapter dealing with these subjects.
+
+     * It will be noted that the Babylonian dynasties are
+     referred to throughout this volume as "First Dynasty,"
+     "Second Dynasty," "Third Dynasty," etc. They are thus
+     distinguished from the Egyptian dynasties, the order of
+     which is indicated by Roman numerals, e.g. "Ist Dynasty,"
+     "IId Dynasty," "IIId Dynasty."
+
+The American excavators at Nippur, under the direction of Mr. Haynes,
+have done much in the past to increase our knowledge of Sumerian and
+early Babylonian history, but the work has not been continued in
+recent years, and, unfortunately, little progress has been made in the
+publication of the material already accumulated. In fact, the leadership
+in American excavation has passed from the University of Pennsylvania to
+that of Chicago. This progressive university has sent out an expedition,
+under the general direction of Prof. R. F. Harper (with Dr. E. J. Banks
+as director of excavations), which is doing excellent work at Bismya,
+and, although it is too early yet to expect detailed accounts of their
+achievements, it is clear that they have already met with considerable
+success. One of their recent finds consists of a white marble statue of
+an early Sumerian king named Daudu, which was set up in the temple of
+E-shar in the city of Udnun, of which he was ruler. From its archaic
+style of workmanship it may be placed in the earliest period of Sumerian
+history, and may be regarded as an earnest of what may be expected to
+follow from the future labours of Prof. Harper's expedition.
+
+[Illustration: 165.jpg WITHIN THE PALACE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR II.]
+
+At F�ra and at Ab� Hatab in Babylonia, the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft,
+under Dr. Koldewey's direction, has excavated Sumerian and Babylonian
+remains of the early period. At the former site they unearthed the
+remains of many private houses and found some Sumerian tablets of
+accounts and commercial documents, but little of historical interest;
+and an inscription, which seems to have come from Abu Hatab, probably
+proves that the Sumerian name of the city whose site it marks was
+Kishurra. But the main centre of German activity in Babylonia is the
+city of Babylon itself, where for the last seven years Dr. Koldewey has
+conducted excavations, unearthing the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on
+the mound termed the Kasr, identifying the temple of E-sagila under the
+mound called Tell Amran ibn-Ali, tracing the course of the sacred way
+between E-sagila and the palace-mound, and excavating temples dedicated
+to the goddess Ninmakh and the god Ninib.
+
+[Illustration: 166.jpg EXCAVATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OP NINIB AT BABYLON.]
+
+     In the middle distance may be seen the metal trucks running
+     on light rails which are employed on the work for the
+     removal of the d�bris from the diggings.
+
+Dr. Andrae, Dr. Koldewey's assistant, has also completed the excavation
+of the temple dedicated to Nab� at Birs Nimrud. On the principal mound
+at this spot, which marks the site of the ancient city of Borsippa,
+traces of the ziggurat, or temple tower, may still be seen rising from
+the soil, the temple of Nab� lying at a lower level below the steep
+slope of the mound, which is mainly made up of d�bris from the
+ziggurat. Dr. Andrae has recently left Babylonia for Assyria, where
+his excavations at Sher-ghat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of
+Ashur, are confidently expected to throw considerable light on the early
+history of that country and the customs of the people, and already he
+has made numerous finds of considerable interest.
+
+[Illustration: 167.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND OF BIRS NIMRUD, WHICH MARKS
+THE SITE OP THE ANCIENT CITY OP BORSIPPA.]
+
+Since the early spring of 1903 excavations have been conducted at
+Kuyunjik, the site of the city of Nineveh, by Messrs. L. W. King and R.
+C. Thompson on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, and have
+resulted in the discovery of many early remains in the lower strata of
+the mound, in addition to the finding of new portions of the two palaces
+already known and partly excavated, the identification of a third
+palace, and the finding of an ancient temple dedicated to Nab�, whose
+existence had already been inferred from a study of the Assyrian
+inscriptions.* All these diggings at Babylon, at Ashur, and at Nineveh
+throw more light upon the history of the country during the Assyrian and
+Neo-Babylonian periods, and will be referred to later in the volume.
+
+     * It may be noted that excavations are also being actively
+     carried on in Palestine at the present time. Mr. Macalister
+     has for some years been working for the Palestine
+     Exploration Fund at Gezer; Dr. Schumacher is digging at
+     Megiddo for the German Palestine Society; and Prof. Sellin
+     is at present excavating at Taanach (Ta'annak) and will
+     shortly start work at Dothan. Good work on remains of later
+     historical periods is also being carried on under the
+     auspices of the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft at Ba'albek and
+     in Galilee. It would be tempting to include here a summary
+     of the very interesting results that have recently been
+     achieved in this fruitful field of archaeological research,
+     for it is true that these excavations may strictly be said
+     to bear on the history of a portion of Western Asia. But the
+     problems which they raise would more naturally be discussed
+     in a work dealing with recent excavation and research in
+     relation to the Bible, and to have summarized them
+     adequately would have increased the size of the present
+     volume considerably beyond its natural limits. They have
+     therefore not been included within the scope of the present
+     work.
+
+[Illustration: 168.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND AT SHEKGHAT, WHICH MARKS THE
+SITE OF ASHUK, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE ASSYRIANS.]
+
+Meanwhile, we will return to the diggings described at the beginning
+of this chapter, as affording new information concerning the earliest
+periods of Chald�an history.
+
+A most interesting inscription has recently been discovered by Capt.
+Cros at Telloh, which throws considerable light on the rivalry which
+existed between the cities of Shirpurla and Gishkhu, and at the same
+time furnishes valuable material for settling the chronology of the
+earliest rulers whose inscriptions have been found at Mppur and their
+relations to contemporary rulers in Shirpurla.
+
+[Illustration: 169.jpg THE MOUND OF KUYUNJIK, WHICH FORMED ONE OF THE
+PALACE MOUNDS OF THE ANCIENT ASSYRIAN CITY OF NINEVEH.]
+
+The cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla were probably situated not far from
+one another, and their rivalry is typical of the history of the early
+city-states of Babylonia. The site of the latter city, as has already
+been said, is marked by the mounds of Telloh on the east bank of the
+Shatt el-Hai, the natural stream joining the Tigris and Euphrates, which
+has been improved and canalized by the dwellers in Southern Babylonia
+from the earliest period.
+
+[Illustration: 170.jpg WINGED BULL IN THE PALACE OF SENNACHERIB ON
+KUYUNJIK, THE PRINCIPAL MOUND MARKING THE SITE OF NINEVEH.]
+
+The site of Gishkhu may be set with considerable probability not far to
+the north of Telloh on the opposite bank of the Shatt el-Hai. These
+two cities, situated so close to one another, exercised considerable
+political influence, and though less is known of Gishkhu than of
+the more famous Babylonian cities such as Ur, Brech, and Larsam, her
+proximity to Shirpurla gave her an importance which she might not
+otherwise have possessed. The earliest knowledge we possess of the
+relations existing between Gishkhu and Shirpurla refers to the reign of
+Mesilim, King of Kish, the period of whose rule may be provisionally set
+before that of Sargon of Agade, i.e, about 4000 B.C.
+
+At this period there was rivalry between the two cities, in consequence
+of which Mesilim, King of Kish, was called in as arbitrator. A record of
+the treaty of delimitation that was drawn up on this occasion has been
+preserved upon the recently discovered cone of Entemena. This document
+tells us that at the command of the god Enlil, described as "the king
+of the countries," Ningirsu, the chief god of Shirpurla, and the god of
+Gishkhu decided to draw up a line of division between their respective
+territories, and that Mesilim, King of Kish, acting under the direction
+of his own god Kadi, marked out the frontier and set up a stele between
+the two territories to commemorate the fixing of the boundary.
+
+This policy of fixing the boundary by arbitration seems to have been
+successful, and to have secured peace between Shirpurla and Gishkhu
+for some generations. But after a period which cannot be accurately
+determined a certain patesi of Gishkhu, named Ush, was filled with
+ambition to extend his territory at the expense of Shirpurla. He
+therefore removed the stele which Mesilim had set up, and, invading the
+plain of Shirpurla, succeeded in conquering and holding a district named
+Gu-edin. But Ush's successful raid was not of any permanent benefit to
+his city, for he was in his turn defeated by the forces of Shirpurla,
+and his successor upon the throne, a patesi named Enakalli, abandoned a
+policy of aggression, and concluded with Eannadu, patesi of Shirpurla, a
+solemn treaty concerning the boundary between their realms, the text of
+which has been preserved to us upon the famous Stele of Vultures in the
+Louvre.*
+
+     * A fragment of this stele is also preserved in the British
+     Museum. It is published in Cuneiform Texts in the British
+     Museum, Pt. vii.
+
+According to this treaty Gu-edin was restored to Shirpurla, and a deep
+ditch was dug between the two territories which should permanently
+indicate the line of demarcation. The stele of Mesilim was restored to
+its place, and a second stele was inscribed and set up as a memorial
+of the new treaty. Enakalli did not negotiate the treaty on equal terms
+with Eannadu, for he only secured its ratification by consenting to pay
+heavy tribute in grain for the supply of the great temples of Nin-girsu
+and Nin� in Shirpurla. It would appear that under Eannadu the power
+and influence of Shirpurla were extended over the whole of Southern
+Babylonia, and reached even to the borders of Elam. At any rate, it is
+clear that during his lifetime the city of Gishkhu was content to remain
+in a state of subjection to its more powerful neighbour. But it was
+always ready to seize any opportunity of asserting itself and of
+attempting to regain its independence.
+
+[Illustration: 172.jpg CLAY MEMORIAL-TABLET OF EANNADU.]
+
+     The characters of the inscription well illustrate the
+     pictorial origin of the Sumerian system of writing.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+Accordingly, after Eannadu's death the men of Gishkhu again took the
+offensive. At this time Urlumma, the son and successor of Enakalli, was
+on the throne of Gishkhu, and he organized the forces of the city
+and led them out to battle. His first act was to destroy the frontier
+ditches named after Ningirsu and Nin�, the principal god and goddess of
+Shirpurla, which Eannadu, the powerful foe of Gishkhu, had caused to be
+dug. He then tore down the stele on which the terms of Eannadu's treaty
+had been engraved and broke it into pieces by casting it into the fire,
+and the shrines which Eannadu had built near the frontier, and had
+consecrated to the gods of Shirpurla, he razed to the ground. But
+again Shirpurla in the end proved too strong for Gishkhu. The ruler
+in Shirpurla at this time was Enannadu, who had succeeded his brother
+Eannadu upon the throne. He marched out to meet the invading forces
+of the men of Gishkhu, and a battle was fought in the territory of
+Shirpurla. According to one account, the forces of Shirpurla were
+victorious, while on the cone of Ente-mena no mention is made of
+the issue of the combat. The result may not have been decisive, but
+Enannadu's action at least checked Urlumma's encroachments for the time.
+
+It would appear that the death of the reigning patesi in Shirpurla was
+always the signal for an attack upon that city by the men of Gishkhu.
+They may have hoped that the new ruler would prove a less successful
+leader than the last, or that the accession of a new monarch might give
+rise to internal dissensions in the city which would weaken Shirpurla's
+power of resisting a sudden attack. As Eannadu's death had encouraged
+Urlumma to lead out the men of Gishkhu, so the death of Enannadu seemed
+to him a good opportunity to make another bid for victory. But this time
+the result of the battle was not indecisive. Entemena had succeeded his
+father Enannadu, and he led out to victory the forces of Shir-purla. The
+battle was fought near the canal Lumma-girnun-ta, and when the men of
+Gishkhu were put to flight they left sixty of their fellows lying dead
+upon the banks of the canal. Entemena tells us that the bones of these
+warriors were left to bleach in the open plain, but he seems to have
+buried those of the men of Gishkhu who fell in the pursuit, for he
+records that in five separate places he piled up burial-mounds in which
+the bodies of the slain were interred. Entemena was not content with
+merely inflicting a defeat upon the army of Gishkhu and driving it back
+within its own borders, for he followed up his initial advantage and
+captured the capital itself. He deposed and imprisoned Urlumma, and
+chose one of his own adherents to rule as patesi of Gishkhu in his
+stead. The man he appointed for this high office was named Hi, and he
+had up to that time been priest in Nin�b. Entemena summoned him to his
+presence, and, after marching in a triumphal procession from Girsu
+in the neighbourhood of Shirpurla to the conquered city, proceeded to
+invest him with the office of patesi of Gishkhu.
+
+Entemena also repaired the frontier ditches named after Ningirsu and
+Nin�, which had been employed for purposes of irrigation as well as for
+marking the frontier; and he gave instructions to Hi to employ the men
+dwelling in the district of Karkar on this work, as a punishment for
+the active part they had taken in the recent raid into the territory of
+Shirpurla. Entemena also restored and extended the system of canals
+in the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates, lining one of the
+principal channels with stone.
+
+[Illustration: 175.jpg MARBLE GATE]
+
+     Socket Bearing An Inscription Of Entemena, A Powerful
+     Patesi, Or Viceroy, Of Shirpurla. In the photograph the
+     gate-socket is resting on its side so as to show the
+     inscription, but when in use it was set flat upon the ground
+     and partly buried below the level of the pavement of the
+     building in which it was used. It was fixed at the side of a
+     gateway and the pivot of the heavy gate revolved in the
+     shallow hole or depression in its centre. As stone is not
+     found in the alluvial soil of Babylonia, the blocks for
+     gate-sockets had to be brought from great distances and they
+     were consequently highly prized. The kings and patesis who
+     used them in their buildings generally had their names and
+     titles engraved upon them, and they thus form a valuable
+     class of inscriptions for the study of the early history.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Man-sell & Co.
+
+He thus added greatly to the wealth of Shirpurla by increasing the area
+of territory under cultivation, and he continued to exercise authority
+in Gishkhu by means of officers appointed by himself. A record of his
+victory over Gishkhu was inscribed by Entemena upon a number of clay
+cones, that the fame of it might be preserved in future days to the
+honour of Ningirsu and the goddess Nin�. He ends this record with a
+prayer for the preservation of the frontier. If ever in time to come the
+men of Gishkhu should break out across the frontier-ditch of Ningirsu,
+or the frontier-ditch of Nin�, in order to seize or lay waste the lands
+of Shirpurla, whether they be men of the city of Gishkhu itself or men
+of the mountains, he prays that Enlil may destroy them and that Ningirsu
+may lay his curse upon them; and if ever the warriors of his own city
+should be called upon to defend it, he prays that they may be full of
+courage and ardour for their task.
+
+The greater part of this information with regard to the struggles
+between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, between the period of Mesilim, King of
+Kish, and that of Entemena, is supplied by the inscription of the latter
+ruler which has been found written around a small cone of clay. There is
+little doubt that the text was also engraved by the orders of Entemena
+upon a stone stele which was set up, like those of Mesilim and Eannadu,
+upon the frontier. Other copies of the inscription were probably
+engraved and erected in the cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla, and to
+ensure the preservation of the record Entemena probably had numerous
+copies of it made upon small cones of clay which were preserved and
+possibly buried in the structure of the temples of Shirpurla. Entemena's
+foresight in this matter has been justified by results, for, while his
+great memorials of stone have perished, the preservation of one of his
+small cones has sufficed to make known to later ages his own and his
+forefathers' prowess in their continual contests with their ancient rival
+Gishkhu.
+
+After the reign of Entemena we have little information with regard to
+the relations between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, though it is probable that
+the effects of his decisive victory continued to exercise a moderating
+influence on Gishkhu's desire for expansion and secured a period
+of peaceful development for Shirpurla without the continual fear of
+encroachments on the part of her turbulent neighbour. We may assume that
+this period of tranquillity continued during the reigns of Enannadu II,
+Enlitarzi, and Lugal-anda, but, when in the reign of Urukagina the men
+of Gishkhu once more emerge from their temporary obscurity, they appear
+as the authors of deeds of rapine and bloodshed committed on a scale
+that was rare even in that primitive age.
+
+In the earlier stages of their rivalry Gishkhu had always been defeated,
+or at any rate checked, in her actual conflicts with Shirpurla. When
+taking the aggressive the men of Gishkhu seem generally to have confined
+themselves to the seizure of territory, such as the district of Gu-edin,
+which was situated on the western bank of the Shaft el-Hai and divided
+from their own lands only by the frontier-ditch. If they ever actually
+crossed the Shaft el-Hai and raided the lands on its eastern bank, they
+never ventured to attack the city of Shirpurla itself. And, although
+their raids were attended with some success in their initial stages, the
+ruling patesis of Shirpurla were always strong enough to check them; and
+on most occasions they carried the war into the territory of Gishkhu,
+with the result that they readjusted the boundary on their own terms.
+But it would appear that all these primitive Chal�an cities were subject
+to alternate periods of expansion and defeat, and Shirpurla was not an
+exception to the rule. It was probably not due so much to Urukagina's
+personal qualities or defects as a leader that Shirpurla suffered
+the greatest reverse in her history during his reign, but rather to
+Gishkhu's gradual increase in power at a time when Shirpurla herself
+remained inactive, possibly lulled into a false sense of security by the
+memory of her victories in the past. Whatever may have been the cause of
+Gishkhu's final triumph, it is certain that it took place in Urukagina's
+reign, and that for many years afterwards the hegemony of Southern
+Babylonia remained in her hands, while Shirpurla for a long period
+passed completely out of existence as an independent or semi-independent
+state.
+
+The evidence of the catastrophe that befell Shirpurla at this period is
+furnished by a small clay tablet recently found at Telloh during Captain
+Cros's excavations on that site. The document on which the facts in
+question are recorded had no official character, and in all probability
+it had not been stored in any library or record chamber. The actual spot
+at Telloh where it was found was to the north of the mound in which
+the most ancient buildings have been recovered, and at the depth of two
+metres below the surface. No other tablets appear to have been found
+near it, but that fact in itself would not be sufficient evidence on
+which to base any theory as to its not having originally formed part of
+the archives of the city. Its unofficial character is attested by the
+form of the tablet and the manner in which the information upon it is
+arranged. In shape there is little to distinguish the document from the
+tablets of accounts inscribed in the reign of Urukagina, great numbers
+of which have been found recently at Telloh. Roughly square in shape,
+its edges are slightly convex, and the text is inscribed in a series of
+narrow columns upon both the obverse and the reverse. The text itself
+is not a carefully arranged composition, such as are the votive and
+historical inscriptions of early Sumerian rulers. It consists of a
+series of short sentences enumerating briefly and without detail the
+separate deeds of violence and sacrilege performed by the men of Gishkhu
+after their capture of the city. It is little more than a catalogue or
+list of the shrines and temples destroyed during the sack of the city,
+or defiled by the blood of the men of Shirpurla who were slain therein.
+No mention is made in the list of the palace of the Urukagina, or of any
+secular building, or of the dwellings of the citizens themselves. There
+is little doubt that these also were despoiled and destroyed by the
+victorious enemy, but the writer of the tablet is not concerned for the
+moment with the fate of his city or his fellow citizens. He appears to
+be overcome with the thought of the deeds of sacrilege committed against
+his gods; his mind is entirely taken up with the magnitude of the
+insult offered to the god Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla. His bare
+enumeration of the deeds of sacrilege and violence loses little by its
+brevity, and, when he has ended the list of his accusations against the
+men of Gishkhu, he curses the goddess to whose influence he attributes
+their success.
+
+No composition at all like this document has yet been recovered, and as
+it is not very long we may here give a translation of the text. It will
+be seen that the writer plunges at once into the subject of his
+charges against the men of Gishkhu. No historical _r�sum�_ prefaces
+his accusations, and he gives no hint of the circumstances that have
+rendered their delivery possible. The temples of his city have been
+profaned and destroyed, and his indignation finds vent in a mere
+enumeration of their titles. To his mind the facts need no comment,
+for to him it is barely conceivable that such sacred places of ancient
+worship should have been defiled. He launches his indictment against
+Gishkhu in the following terms: "The men of Gishkhu have set fire to the
+temple of E-ki [... ], they have set fire to Antashura, and they have
+carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have
+shed blood in the palace of Tirash, they have shed blood in Abzubanda,
+they have shed blood in the shrine of Enlil and in the shrine of the
+Sun-god, they have shed blood in Akhush, and they have carried away the
+silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood in the
+Gikana of the sacred grove of the goddess Ninmakh, and they have carried
+away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood
+in Baga, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have shed blood in Abzu-ega, they have set fire to
+the temple of Gatumdug, and they have carried away the silver and the
+precious stones therefrom, and have destroyed her statue! They have set
+fire to the.... of the temple E-anna of the goddess Ninni, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom, and have
+destroyed her statue! They have shed blood in Shapada, and they have
+carried away the silver and precious stones therefrom! They have....
+in Khenda, they have shed blood in the temple of Nindar in the town
+of Kiab, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Dumuzi-abzu in the town
+of Kinunir, and they have carried away the silver and the precious
+stones therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Lugaluru, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in E-engura, the temple of the goddess Nin�, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in Sag..., the temple of Amageshtin, and the silver
+and the precious stones of Amageshtin have they carried away! They have
+removed the grain from Ginarbaniru, the field of the god Ningirsu,
+so much of it as was under cultivation! The men of Gishkhu, by the
+despoiling of Shirpurla, have committed a transgression against the god
+Ningirsu! The power that is come unto them, from them shall be taken
+away! Of transgression on the part of Urukagina, King of Girsu, there
+is none. As for Lugalzaggisi, patesi of Gishkhu, may his goddess Ni-daba
+bear on her head (the weight of) this transgression!"
+
+Such is the account, which has come down to us from the rough tablet of
+some unknown scribe, of the greatest misfortune experienced by Shirpurla
+during the long course of her history. Many of the great temples
+mentioned in the text as among those which were burnt down and despoiled
+of their treasures are referred to more than once in the votive and
+historical inscriptions of earlier rulers of Shirpurla, who occupied the
+throne before the ill-fated Urukagina. The names of some of them, too,
+are to be found in the texts of the later pate-sis of that city, so
+that it may be concluded that in course of time they were rebuilt and
+restored to their former splendour. But there is no doubt that the
+despoiling and partial destruction of Shirpurla in the reign of
+Urukagina had a lasting effect upon the fortunes of that city, and
+effectively curtailed her influence among the greater cities of Southern
+Babylonia.
+
+We may now turn our attention to the leader of the men of Gishkhu, under
+whose direction they achieved their final triumph over their ancient,
+and for long years more powerful, rival Shirpurla. The writer of our
+tablet mentions his name in the closing words of his text when he curses
+him and his goddess for the destruction and sacrilege that they have
+wrought. "As for Lugalzaggisi," he says, "patesi of Gishkhu, may his
+goddess Nidaba bear on her head (the weight of ) this transgression!"
+Now the name of Lugalzaggisi has been found upon a number of fragments
+of vases made of white calcite stalagmite which were discovered by Mr.
+Haynes during his excavations at Nippur. All the vases were engraved
+with the same inscription, so that it was possible by piecing the
+fragments of text together to obtain a more or less complete copy of
+the records which were originally engraved upon each of them. From
+these records we learned for the first time, not only the name of
+Lugalzaggisi, but the fact that he founded a powerful coalition of
+cities in Babylonia at what was obviously a very early period in the
+history of the country. In the text he describes himself as "King of
+Erech, king of the world, the priest of Ana, the hero of Nidaba, the
+son of Ukush, patesi of Gishkhu, the hero of Nidaba, the man who was
+favourably regarded by the sure eye of the King of the Lands (i.e.
+the god Enlil), the great patesi of Enlil, unto whom understanding was
+granted by Enki, the chosen of the Sun-god, the exalted minister of
+Enzu, endowed with strength by the Sun-god, the worshipper of Ninni, the
+son who was conceived by Nidaba, who was nourished by Ninkharsag with
+the milk of life, the attendant of Umu, priestess of Erech, the servant
+who was trained by Nin�gidkhadu, the mistress of Erech, the great
+minister of the gods." Lugalzaggisi then goes on to describe the extent
+of his dominion, and he says: "When the god Enlil, the lord of the
+countries, bestowed upon Lugalzaggisi the kingdom of the world, and
+granted unto him success in the sight of the world, when he filled the
+lands with his power, and conquered them from the rising of the sun unto
+the setting of the same, at that time he made straight his path from the
+Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates unto the Upper Sea, and he granted
+him dominion over all from the rising of the sun unto the setting of the
+same, so that he caused the lands to dwell in peace."
+
+Now when first the text of this inscription was published there existed
+only vague indications of the date to be assigned to Lugalzaggisi and
+the kingdom that he founded. It was clear from the titles which he bore,
+that, though Gishkhu was his native place, he had extended his authority
+far beyond that city and had chosen Erech as his capital. Moreover,
+he claimed an empire extending from "the Lower Sea of the Tigris and
+Euphrates unto the Upper Sea." There is no doubt that the Lower Sea here
+mentioned is the Persian Gulf, and it has been suggested that the Upper
+Sea may be taken to be the Mediterranean, though it may possibly have
+been Lake Van or Lake Urmi. But whichever of these views might be
+adopted, it was clear that Lugalzaggisi was a great conqueror, and had
+achieved the right to assume the high-sounding title of lugal halama,
+"king of the world." In these circumstances it was of the first
+importance for the study of primitive Chald�an history and chronology
+to ascertain approximately the period at which Lugalzaggisi reigned.
+
+The evidence on which such a question could be provisionally settled was
+of the vaguest and most uncertain character, but such as it was it
+had to suffice, in the absence of more reliable data. In settling all
+problems connected with early Chald�an chronology, the starting-point
+was, and in fact still is, the period of Sargon I, King of Agade,
+inasmuch as the date of his reign is settled, according to the reckoning
+of the scribes of Nabonidus, as about 3800 B.C. It is true that this
+date has been called in question, and ingenious suggestions for amending
+it have been made by some writers, while others have rejected it
+altogether, holding that it merely represented a guess on the part of
+the late Babylonians and could be safely ignored in the chronological
+schemes which they brought forward. But nearly every fresh discovery
+made in the last few years has tended to confirm some point in the
+traditions current among the later Babylonians with regard to the
+earlier history of their country. Consequently, reliance may be placed
+with increased confidence on the truth of such traditions as a
+whole, and we may continue to accept those statements which yet await
+confirmation from documents more nearly contemporary with the early
+period to which they refer. It is true that such a date as that assigned
+by Nabonidus to Sargon is not to be regarded as absolutely fixed, for
+Nabonidus is obviously speaking in round numbers, and we may allow for
+some minor inaccuracies in the calculations of his scribes. But it is
+certain that the later Babylonian priests and scribes had a wealth of
+historical material at their disposal which has not come down to us. We
+may therefore accept the date given by Nabonidus for Sargon of Agade
+and his son Nar�m-Sin as approximately accurate, and this is also the
+opinion of the majority of writers on early Babylonian history.
+
+The diggings at Nippur furnished indications that certain inscriptions
+found on that site and written in a very archaic form of script were
+to be assigned to a period earlier than that of Sargon. One class of
+evidence was obtained from a careful study of the different levels at
+which the inscriptions and the remains of buildings were found. At a
+comparatively deep level in the mound inscriptions of Sargon himself
+were recovered, along with bricks stamped with the name of Nar�m-Sin,
+his son. It was, therefore, a reasonable conclusion roughly to date the
+particular stratum in which these objects were found to the period of
+the empire established by Sargon, with its centre at Agade. Later on
+excavations were carried to a lower level, and remains of buildings
+were discovered which appeared to belong to a still earlier period
+of civilization. An altar was found standing in a small enclosure
+surrounded by a kind of curb. Near by were two immense clay vases which
+appeared to have been placed on a ramp or inclined plane leading up to
+the altar, and remains were also found of a massive brick building in
+which was an arch of brick. No inscriptions were actually found at this
+level, but in the upper level assigned to Sargon were a number of texts
+which might very probably be assigned to the pre-Sargonic period. None
+of these were complete, and they had the appearance of having been
+intentionally broken into small fragments. There was therefore something
+to be said for the theory that they might have been inscribed by the
+builders of the construction in the lowest levels of the mound, and that
+they were destroyed and scattered by some conqueror who had laid their
+city in ruins.
+
+But all such evidence derived from noting the levels at which
+inscriptions are found is in its nature extremely uncertain and liable
+to many different interpretations, especially if the strata show signs
+of having been disturbed. Where a pavement or building is still intact,
+with the inscribed bricks of the builder remaining in their original
+positions, conclusions may be confidently drawn with regard to the age
+of the building and its relative antiquity to the strata above and below
+it. But the strata in the lowest levels at Nippur, as we have seen, were
+not in this condition, and such evidence as they furnished could only be
+accepted if confirmed by independent data. Such confirmation was to be
+found by examination of the early inscriptions themselves.
+
+It has been remarked that most of them were broken into small pieces,
+as though by some invader of the country; but this was not the case with
+certain gate-sockets and great blocks of diorite which were too hard
+and big to be easily broken. Moreover, any conqueror of a city would be
+unlikely to spend time and labour in destroying materials which might
+be usefully employed in the construction of other buildings which he
+himself might erect. Stone could not be obtained in the alluvial plains
+of Babylonia and had to be quarried in the mountains and brought great
+distances.
+
+[Illustration: 188.jpg STONE GATE]
+
+     Socket Bearing An Inscription of Uk-Engur, An Early King
+     of The City Of Ur. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+From any building of his predecessors which he razed to the ground, an
+invader would therefore remove the gate-sockets and blocks of stone for
+his own use, supposing he contemplated building on the site. If he left
+the city in ruins and returned to his own country, some subsequent king,
+when clearing the ruined site for building operations, might come across
+the stones, and he would not leave them buried, but would use them for
+his own construction. And this is what actually did happen in the case
+of some of the building materials of one of these early kings, from the
+lower strata of Nippur. Certain of the blocks which bore the name of
+Lugalkigubnidudu had been used again by Sargon, King of Agade, who
+engraved his own name upon them without obliterating the name of the
+former king.
+
+It followed that Lugalkigubnidudu belonged to the pre-Sargonic period,
+and, although the same conclusive evidence was not forthcoming in the
+case of Lugalzag-gisi, he also without much hesitation was set in
+this early period, mainly on the strength of the archaic forms of the
+characters employed in his inscriptions. In fact, they were held to be
+so archaic that, not only was he said to have reigned before Sargon of
+Agade, but he was set in the very earliest period of Chald�an history,
+and his empire was supposed to have been contemporaneous with the very
+earliest rulers of Shirpurla. The new inscription found by Captain
+Cros will cause this opinion to be considerably modified. While it
+corroborates the view that Lugalzaggisi is to be set in the pre-Sargonic
+period, it proves that he lived and reigned very shortly before him. As
+we have already seen, he was the contemporary of Urukagina, who belongs
+to the middle period of the history of Shirpurla. Lugalzaggisi's capture
+and sack of the city of Shirpurla was only one of a number of conquests
+which he achieved. His father Ukush had been merely patesi of the city
+of Gish-khu, but he himself was not content with the restricted sphere
+of authority which such a position implied, and he eventually succeeded
+in enforcing his authority over the greater part of Babylonia. From
+the fact that he styles himself King of Erech, we may conclude that
+he removed his capital from Ukush to that city, after having probably
+secured its submission by force of arms. In fact, his title of "king of
+the world" can only have been won as the result of many victories, and
+Captain Cros's tablet gives us a glimpse of the methods by which he
+managed to secure himself against the competition of any rival. The
+capture of Shirpurla must have been one of his earliest achievements,
+for its proximity to Gish-khu rendered its reduction a necessary
+prelude to any more extensive plan of conquest. But the kingdom which
+Lugalzaggisi founded cannot have endured long.
+
+Under Sargon of Agade, the Semites gained the upper hand in Babylonia,
+and Erech, Grishkhu, and Shirpurla, as well as the other ancient cities
+in the land, fell in turn under his domination and formed part of the
+extensive empire which he ruled.
+
+Concerning the later rulers of city-states of Babylonia which succeeded
+the disruption of the empire founded by Sargon of Agade and consolidated
+by Nar�m-Sin, his son, the excavations have little to tell us which has
+not already been made use of by Prof. Maspero in his history of this
+period.*
+
+     * The tablets found at Telloh by the late M. de Sarzec, and
+     published during his lifetime, fall into two main classes,
+     which date from different periods in early Chald�an
+     history. The great majority belong to the period when the
+     city of Ur held pre-eminence among the cities of Southern
+     Babylonia, and they are dated in the reigns of Dungi, Bur-
+     Sin, Gamil-Sin, and Ine-Sin. The other and smaller
+     collection belongs to the earlier period of Sargon and
+     Nar�m-Sin; while many of the tablets found in M. de Sarzec's
+     last diggings, which were published after his death, are to
+     be set in the great gap between these two periods. Some of
+     those recently discovered, which belong to the period of
+     Dungi, contain memoranda concerning the supply of food for
+     the maintenance of officials stopping at Shirpurla in the
+     course of journeys in Babylonia and Elam, and they throw an
+     interesting light on the close and constant communication
+     which took place at this time between the great cities of
+     Mesopotamia and the neighbouring countries.
+
+[Illustration: 190.jpg STATUE OF GUDEA.]
+
+     The most famous of the later patesis, or viceroys, of
+     Shirpurla, the Sumerian city in Southern Babylonia now
+     marked by the mounds of Telloh. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell & Co.
+
+Ur, Isin, and,Larsam succeeded one another in the position of leading
+city in Babylonia, holding Mppur, Eridu, Erech, Shirpurla, and the other
+chief cities in a condition of semi-dependence upon themselves. We may
+note that the true reading of the name of the founder of the dynasty
+of Ur has now been ascertained from a syllabary to be Ur-Engur; and an
+unpublished chronicle in the British Museum relates that his son Dungi
+cared greatly for the city of Eridu, but sacked Babylon and carried off
+its spoil, together with the treasures from E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk. Such episodes must have been common at this period when each
+city was striving for hegemony. Meanwhile, Shirpurla remained the centre
+of Sumerian influence in Babylonia, and her patesis were content to owe
+allegiance to so powerful a ruler as Dungi, King of Ur, while at all
+times exercising complete authority within their own jurisdiction.
+
+During the most recent diggings that have been carried out at Telloh a
+find of considerable value to the history of Sumerian art has been
+made. The find is also of great general interest, since it enables us
+to identify a portrait of Gudea, the most famous of the later Sumerian
+patesis. In the course of excavating the Tell of Tablets Captain Cros
+found a little seated statue made of diorite. It was not found in place,
+but upside down, and appeared to have been thrown with other d�bris
+scattered in that portion of the mound. On lifting it from the trench it
+was seen that the head of the statue was broken off, as is the case
+with all the other statues of Gudea found at Telloh. The statue bore an
+inscription of Gudea, carefully executed and well preserved, but it
+was smaller than other statues of the same ruler that had been
+already recovered, and the absence of the head thus robbed it of any
+extraordinary interest. On its arrival at the Louvre, M. L�on Heuzey was
+struck by its general resemblance to a Sumerian head of diorite formerly
+discovered by M. de Sarzec at Telloh, which has been preserved in the
+Louvre for many years. On applying the head to the newly found statue,
+it was found to fit it exactly, and to complete the monument, and we
+are thus enabled to identify the features of Gudea. Prom a photographic
+reproduction of this statue, it is seen that the head is larger than
+it should be, in proportion to the body, a characteristic which is also
+apparent in a small Sumerian statue preserved in the British Museum.
+
+[Illustration: 192.jpg TABLET INSCRIBED IN SUMERIAN WITH DETAILS OF A
+SURVEY OF CERTAIN PROPERTY.]
+
+     Probably situated in the neighbourhood of Telloh. The
+     circular shape is very unusual, and appears to have been
+     used only for survey-tablets. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     & Co.
+
+Gudea caused many statues of himself to be made out of the hard diorite
+which he brought for that purpose from the Sinaitic peninsula, and from
+the inscriptions preserved upon them it is possible to ascertain the
+buildings in which they were originally placed. Thus one of the statues
+previously found was set up in the temple of Ninkharsag, two others in
+E-ninn�, the temple of the god Ningirsu, three more in the temple of the
+goddess Bau, one in E-anna, the temple of the goddess Ninni, and another
+in the temple of Gatumdug. The newly found statue of the king was made
+to be set up in the temple erected by Gudea at Girsu in honour of the
+god Ningishzida, as is recorded in the inscription engraved on the front
+of the king's robe, which reads as follows:
+
+"In the day when the god Ningirsu, the strong warrior of Enlil, granted
+unto the god Ningishzida, the son of Nin�zu, the beloved of the gods,
+(the guardianship of) the foundation of the city and of the hills and
+valleys, on that day Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla, the just man who
+loveth his god, who for his master Ningirsu hath constructed his temple
+E-ninnu, called the shining Imgig, and his temple E-pa, the temple
+of-the seven zones of heaven, and for the goddess Nin�, the queen, his
+lady, hath constructed the temple Sirara-shum, which riseth higher than
+(all) the temples in the world, and hath constructed their temples for
+the great gods of Lagash, built for his god Ningishzida his temple in
+Girsu. Whosoever shall proclaim the god Ningirsu as his god, even as
+I proclaim him, may he do no harm unto the temple of my god! May he
+proclaim the name of this temple! May that man be my friend, and may he
+proclaim my name! Gudea hath made the statue, and 'Unto - Gudea - the
+- builder - of - the - temple - hath life-been-given hath he called its
+name, and he hath brought it into the temple."
+
+The long name which Gudea gave to the statue, "Unto - Gudea - the -
+builder - of - the - temple - hath - life-been-given," is characteristic
+of the practice of the Sumerian patesis, who always gave long and
+symbolical names to statues, stelae, and sacred objects dedicated and
+set up in their temples. The occasion on which the temple was built, and
+this statue erected within it, seems to have been the investiture of
+the god Ningishzida with special and peculiar powers, and it possibly
+inaugurated his introduction into the pantheon of Shirpurla. Ningishzida
+is called in the inscription the son of Ninazu, who was the husband of
+the Queen of the Underworld.
+
+In one of his aspects he was therefore probably a god of the underworld
+himself, and it is in this character that he was appointed by Ningirsu
+as guardian of the city's foundations. But "the hills and valleys"
+(i.e. the open country) were also put under his jurisdiction, so that
+in another aspect he was a god of vegetation. It is therefore not
+improbable that, like the god Dumuzi, or Tammuz, he was supposed to
+descend into the underworld in winter, ascending to the surface of the
+earth with the earliest green shoots of vegetation in the spring.*
+
+     * Cf. Thureau-Dangin, Rev. d'Assyr., vol. vi. (1904), p. 24.
+
+A most valuable contribution has recently been made to our knowledge of
+Sumerian religion and of the light in which these early rulers regarded
+the cult and worship of their gods, by the complete interpretation of
+the long texts inscribed upon the famous cylinders of Gudea, the patesi
+of Shirpurla, which have been preserved for many years in the Louvre.
+These two great cylinders of baked clay were discovered by the late M.
+de Sarzec so long ago as the year 1877, during the first period of his
+diggings at Telloh, and, although the general nature of their contents
+has long been recognized, no complete translation of the texts inscribed
+upon them had been published until a few months ago. M. Thureau-Dangin,
+who has made the early Sumerian texts his special study, has devoted
+himself to their interpretation for some years past, and he has just
+issued the first part of his monograph upon them. In view of the
+importance of the texts and of the light they throw upon the religious
+beliefs and practices of the early Sumerians, a somewhat detailed
+account of their contents may here be given.
+
+The occasion on which the cylinders were made was the rebuilding by
+Gudea of E-ninn�, the great temple of the god Ningirsu, in the city of
+Shirpurla. The two cylinders supplement one another, one of them having
+been inscribed while the work of construction was still in progress, the
+other after the completion of the temple, when the god Ningirsu had been
+installed within his shrine with due pomp and ceremony. It would appear
+that Southern Babylonia had been suffering from a prolonged drought, and
+that the water in the rivers and canals had fallen, so that the crops
+had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. Gudea was at a
+loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country,
+when one night he had a dream, and it was in consequence of this dream
+that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of
+Sumerian temples. By this means he secured the return of Ningirsu's
+favour and that of the other gods, and his country once more enjoyed the
+blessings of peace and prosperity.
+
+In the opening words of the first of his cylinders Gudea describes how
+the great gods themselves took counsel and decreed that he should build
+the temple of E-ninn� and thereby restore to his city the supply of
+water it had formerly enjoyed. He records that on the day on which the
+destinies were fixed in heaven and upon earth, Enlil, the chief of the
+gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla, held converse. And Enlil,
+turning to Ningirsu, said: "In my city that which is fitting is not
+done. The stream doth not rise. The stream of Enlil doth not rise. The
+high waters shine not, neither do they show their splendour. The stream
+of Enlil bringeth not good water like the Tigris. Let the King (i.e.
+Ningirsu) therefore proclaim the temple. Let the decrees of the temple
+E-ninn� be made illustrious in heaven and upon earth!" The great gods
+did not communicate their orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed their
+wishes to him by means of a dream. And while the patesi slept a vision
+of the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great
+that it equalled the heavens and the earth. And by the crown he wore
+upon his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. And by his side
+was the divine eagle, the emblem of Shirpurla, and his feet rested upon
+the whirlwind, and a lion was crouching upon his right hand and upon his
+left. And the figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the
+meaning of the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the sun rose from
+the earth and he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she
+carried also a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed
+to take counsel with herself. And while Gudea was gazing he seemed to
+see a second man who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis
+lazuli and on it he drew out the plan of a temple. And before the patesi
+himself it seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion
+was set a mould, and within the mould was a brick, the brick of destiny.
+And on the right hand the patesi beheld an ass which lay upon the
+ground.
+
+Such was the dream which Gudea beheld in a vision of the night, and he
+was troubled because he could not interpret it. So he decided to go
+to the goddess Nin�, who could divine all mysteries of the gods, and
+beseech her to tell him the meaning of the vision. But before applying
+to the goddess for her help, he thought it best to secure the mediation
+of the god Ningirsu and the goddess Gatumdug, in order that they should
+use their influence with Nin� to induce her to reveal the interpretation
+of the dream. So the patesi set out to the temple of Ningirsu, and,
+having offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water, he prayed to the
+god that his sister, Nin�, the child of Eridu, might be prevailed upon
+to give him help. And the god hearkened to his prayer. Then Gudea made
+offerings, and before the sleeping-chamber of the goddess Gatumdug he
+offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water. And he prayed to the
+goddess, calling her his queen and the child of the pure heaven, who
+gave life to the countries and befriended and preserved the people or
+the man on whom she looked with favour.
+
+"I have no mother," cried Gudea, "but thou art my mother! I have no
+father, but thou art a father to me!" And the goddess Gatumdug gave
+ear to the patesi's prayer. Thus encouraged by her favour and that of
+Ningirsu, Gudea set out for the temple of the goddess Nin�.
+
+On his arrival at the temple, the patesi offered a sacrifice and poured
+out fresh water, as he had already done when approaching the presence of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug. And he prayed to Nin�, as the goddess who divines
+the secrets of the gods, beseeching her to interpret the vision that had
+been sent to him; and he then recounted to her the details of his dream.
+When the patesi had finished his story, the goddess addressed him and
+told him that she would explain the meaning of his dream to him. And
+this was the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so
+great that it equalled the heavens and the earth, whose head was that
+of a god, at whose side was the divine eagle, whose feet rested on the
+whirlwind, while a lion couched on his right hand and on his left, was
+her brother, the god Ningirsu. And the words which he uttered were an
+order to the patesi that he should build the temple E-ninn�. And the sun
+which rose from the earth before the patesi was the god Ningishzida,
+for like the sun he goes forth from the earth. And the maiden who held
+a pure reed in her hand, and carried the tablet with the star, was her
+sister, the goddess Nidaba: the star was the pure star of the temple's
+construction, which she proclaimed. And the second man, who was like a
+warrior and carried the slab of lapis lazuli, was the god Nindub, and the
+plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of E-ninn�. And the brick
+which rested in its mould upon the cushion was the sacred brick of
+E-ninn�. And as for the ass which lay upon the ground, that, the goddess
+said, was the patesi himself.
+
+Having interpreted the meaning of the dream, the goddess Nin� proceeded
+to give Gudea instruction as to how he should go to work to build the
+temple. She told him first of all to go to his treasure-house and bring
+forth his treasures from their sealed cases, and out of these to make
+certain offerings which he was to place near the god Ningirsu, in the
+temple in which he was dwelling at that time. The offerings were to
+consist of a chariot, adorned with pure metal and precious stones;
+bright arrows in a quiver; the weapon of the god, his sacred emblem, on
+which Gudea was to inscribe his own name; and finally a lyre, the music
+of which was wont to soothe the god when he took counsel with himself.
+Nin� added that if the patesi carried out her instructions and made the
+offerings she had specified, Ningirsu would reveal to him the plan on
+which the temple was to be built, and would also bless him. Gudea bowed
+himself down in token of his submission to the commands of the goddess,
+and proceeded to execute them forthwith. He brought out his treasures,
+and from the precious woods and metals which he possessed his craftsmen
+fashioned the objects he was to present, and he set them in Ningirsu's
+temple near to the god. He worked day and night, and, having prepared a
+suitable spot in the precincts of the temple at the place of judgment,
+he spread out upon it as offerings a fat sheep and a kid and the skin of
+a young female kid. Then he built a fire of cypress and cedar and other
+aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour, and, entering the inner chamber
+of the temple, he offered a prayer to Ningirsu. He said that he wished
+to build the temple, but he had received no sign that this was the will
+of the god, and he prayed for a sign.
+
+While he prayed the patesi was stretched out upon the ground, and the
+god, standing near his head, then answered him. He said that he who
+should build his temple was none other than Gudea, and that he would
+give him the sign for which he asked. But first he described the plan
+on which the temple was to be built, naming its various shrines and
+chambers and describing the manner in which they were to be fashioned
+and adorned. And the god promised that when Gudea should build the
+temple, the land would once more enjoy abundance, for Ningirsu would
+send a wind which should proclaim to the heavens the return of the
+waters. And on that day the waters would fall from the heavens, the
+water in the ditches and canals would rise, and water would gush out
+from the dry clefts in the ground. And the great fields would once
+more produce their crops, and oil would be poured out plenteously in
+Sumer[sp.] and wool would again be weighed in great abundance. In that
+day the god would go to the mountain where dwelt the whirlwind, and he
+would himself direct the wind which should give the land the breath of
+life. Gudea must therefore work day and night at the task of building
+the temple. One company of men was to relieve another at its toil, and
+during the night the men were to kindle lights so that the plain should
+be as bright as day. Thus the builders would build continuously. Men
+were also to be sent to the mountains to cut down cedars and pines and
+other trees and bring their trunks to the city, while masons were to go
+to the mountains and were to cut and transport huge blocks of stone to
+be used in the construction of the temple. Finally the god gave Gudea
+the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side
+touched as by a flame, and thereby he should know that he was the man
+chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands.
+
+Gudea bowed his head in submission, and his first act was to consult the
+omens, and the omens were favourable. He then proceeded to purify the
+city by special rites, so that the mother when angered did not chide her
+son, and the master did not strike his servant's head, and the mistress,
+though provoked by her handmaid, did not smite her face. And Gudea drove
+all the evil wizards and sorcerers from the city, and he purified and
+sanctified the city completely. Then he kindled a great fire of cedar
+and other aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour for the gods, and
+prayers were offered day and night; and the patesi addressed a prayer
+to the Anun-naki, or Spirits of the Earth, who dwelt in Shirpurla,
+and assigned a place to them in the temple. Then, having completed
+his purification of the city itself, he consecrated its immediate
+surroundings. Thus he consecrated the district of Gu-edin, whence the
+revenues of Ningirsu were derived, and the lands of the goddess Nin�
+with their populous villages. And he consecrated the wild and savage
+bulls which no man could turn aside, and the cedars which were sacred
+to Ningirsu, and the cattle of the plains. And he consecrated the armed
+men, and the famous warriors, and the warriors of the Sun-god. And the
+emblems of the god Ningirsu, and of the two great goddesses, Nin� and
+Ninni, he installed before them in their shrines.
+
+Then Gudea sent far and wide to fetch materials for the construction of
+the temple. And the Elamite came from Elani, and men of Susa came from
+Susa, and men brought wood from the mountains of Sinai and Melukh-kha.
+And into the mountain of cedars, where no man before had penetrated,
+the patesi cut a road, and he brought cedars and beams of other precious
+woods in great quantities to the city. And he also made a road into the
+mountain where stone was quarried, into places where no man before had
+penetrated. And he carried great blocks of stone down from the mountain
+and loaded them into barges and brought them to the city. And the barges
+brought bitumen and plaster, and they were loaded as though they were
+carrying grain, and all manner of great things were brought to the
+city. Copper ore was brought from the mountain of copper in the land of
+Kimash, and gold was brought in powder from the mountains, and silver
+was brought from the mountains and porphyry from the land of Melukhkha,
+and marble from the mountain of marble. And the patesi installed
+goldsmiths and silversmiths, who wrought in these precious metals, for
+the adornment of the temple; and he brought smiths who worked in copper
+and lead, who were priests of Nin-tu-kalama. In his search for fitting
+materials for the building of the temple, Gudea journeyed from the lower
+country to the upper country, and from the upper country to the lower
+country he returned.
+
+The only other materials now wanting for the construction of the temple
+were the sun-dried bricks of clay, of which the temple platform and
+the structure of the temple itself were in the main composed. Their
+manufacture was now inaugurated by a symbolical ceremony carried out by
+the patesi in person. At dawn he performed an ablution with the fitting
+rites that accompanied it, and when the day was more advanced he slew
+a bull and a kid as sacrifices, and he then entered the temple of
+Ningirsu, where he prostrated himself. And he took the sacred mould
+and the fair cushion on which it rested in the temple, and he poured a
+libation into the mould. Afterwards, having made offerings of honey and
+butter, and having burnt incense, he placed the cushion and the mould
+upon his head and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed
+clay in the mould, shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its
+mould within the temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood
+around.
+
+The next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
+And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And
+Gudea took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he
+carried the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
+manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick
+which he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks
+to be used in its construction. He then marked out the plan of the
+temple, and the text states that he devoted himself to the building of
+the temple like a young man who has begun building a house and allows
+no pleasure to interfere with his task. And he chose out skilled workmen
+and employed them on the building, and he was filled with joy. The gods,
+too, are stated to have helped with the building, for Enki fixed the
+temennu of the temple, and the goddess Nin� looked after its oracles,
+and Gatumdug, the mother of Shir-purla, fashioned bricks for it morning
+and evening, while the goddess Bau sprinkled aromatic oil of cedar-wood.
+Gudea himself laid its foundations, and as he did so he blessed the
+temple seven times, comparing it to the sacred brick, to the holy
+libation-vase, to the divine eagle of Shirpurla, to a terrible couching
+panther, to the beautiful heavens, to the day of offerings, and to the
+morning light which brightens the land. He caused the temple to rise
+towards heaven like a mountain, or like a cedar growing in the desert.
+He built it of bricks of Sumer, and the timbers which he set in place
+were as strong as the dragon of the deep.
+
+While he was engaged on the building Gudea took counsel of the god Enki,
+and he built a fountain for the gods, where they might drink. With the
+great stones which he had brought and fashioned he built a reservoir
+and a basin for the temple. And seven of the great stones he set up as
+stel�, and he gave them favourable names. The text then recounts
+the various parts and shrines of the temple, and it describes their
+splendours in similes drawn from the heavens and the earth and the
+abyss, or deep, beneath the earth. The temple itself is described as,
+being like the crescent of the new moon, or like the sun in the midst
+of the stars, or like a mountain of lapis lazuli, or like a mountain of
+shining marble. Parts of it are said to have been terrible and strong as
+a savage bull, or a lion, or the antelope of the abyss, or the monster
+Lakhamu who dwells in the abyss, or the sacred leopard that inspires
+terror. One of the doors of the temple was guarded by a figure of the
+hero who slew the monster with six heads, and at another door was a good
+dragon, and at another a lion; opposite the city were set figures of
+the seven heroes, and facing the rising sun was fixed the emblem of the
+Sun-god. Figures of other heroes and favourable monsters were set up as
+guardians of other portions of the temple. The fastenings of the main
+entrance were decorated with dragons shooting out their tongues, and the
+bolt of the great door was fashioned like a raging hound.
+
+After this description of the construction and adornment of the
+temple the text goes on to narrate how Gudea arranged for its material
+endowment. He stalled oxen and sheep, for sacrifice and feasting, in the
+outhouses and pens within the temple precincts, and he heaped up grain
+in its granaries. Its storehouses he filled with spices so that
+they were like the Tigris when its waters are in flood, and in its
+treasure-chambers he piled up precious stones, and silver, and lead in
+abundance. Within the temple precincts he planted a sacred garden which
+was like a mountain covered with vines; and on the terrace he built
+a great reservoir, or tank, lined with lead, in addition to the great
+stone reservoir within the temple itself. He constructed a special
+dwelling-place for the sacred doves, and among the flowers of the temple
+garden and under the shade of the great trees the birds of heaven flew
+about unmolested.
+
+The first of the two great cylinders of Gudea ends at this point in the
+description of the temple, and it is evident that its text was composed
+while the work of building was still in progress. Moreover, the writing
+of the cylinder was finished before the actual work of building the
+temple was completed, for the last column of the text concludes with a
+prayer to Ningirsu to make it glorious during the progress of the work,
+the prayer ending with the words, "O Ningirsu, glorify it! Glorify the
+temple of Ningirsu during its construction!" The text of the second of
+the two great cylinders is shorter than that of the first, consisting
+of twenty-four instead of thirty columns of writing, and it was composed
+and written after the temple was completed. Like the first of the
+cylinders, it concludes with a prayer to Ningirsu on behalf of the
+temple, ending with the similar refrain, "O Ningirsu, glorify it!
+Glorify the temple of Ningirsu after its construction!" The first
+cylinder, as we have seen, records how it came about that Gudea decided
+to rebuild the temple E-ninn� in honour of Ningirsu. It describes how,
+when the land was suffering from drought and famine, Gudea had a dream,
+how Nin� interpreted the dream to mean that he must rebuild the temple,
+and how Ningirsu himself promised that this act of piety would restore
+abundance and prosperity to the land. Its text ends with the long
+description of the sumptuous manner in which the patesi carried out the
+work, the most striking points of which we have just summarized. The
+narrative of the second cylinder begins at the moment when the building
+of the temple was finished, and when all was ready for the great god
+Nin-girsu to be installed therein, and its text is taken up with a
+description of the ceremonies and rites with which this solemn function
+was carried out. It presents us with a picture, drawn from life, of the
+worship and cult of the ancient Sumerians in actual operation. In view
+of its importance from the point of view of the study and comparison of
+the Sumerian and Babylonian religious systems, its contents also may be
+summarized. We will afterwards discuss briefly the information furnished
+by both the cylinders on the Sumerian origin of many of the religious
+beliefs and practices which were current among the later Semitic
+inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria.
+
+When Gudea had finished building the new temple of E-ninn�, and had
+completed the decoration and adornment of its shrines, and had planted
+its gardens and stocked its treasure-chambers and storehouses, he
+applied himself to the preliminary ceremonies and religious preparations
+which necessarily preceded the actual function of transferring the
+statue of the god Ningirsu from his old temple to his new one. Gudea's
+first act was to install the Anunnaki, or Spirits of the Earth, in the
+new temple, and when he had done this, and had supplied additional
+sheep for their sacrifices and food in abundance for their offerings, he
+prayed to them to give him their assistance and to pronounce a prayer at
+his side when he should lead Ningirsu into his new dwelling-place.
+The text then describes how Gudea went to the old temple of Ningirsu,
+accompanied by his protecting spirits who walked before him and behind
+him. Into the old temple he carried sumptuous offerings, and when he
+had set them before the god, he addressed him in prayer and said: "O
+my King, Ningirsu! O Lord, who curbest the raging waters! O Lord, whose
+word surpasseth all others! O Son of Enlil, O warrior, what commands
+shall I faithfully carry out? O Ningirsu, I have built thy temple, and
+with joy would I lead thee therein, and my goddess Bau would install at
+thy side." We are told that the god accepted Gudea's prayer, and thereby
+he gave his consent to be removed from the old temple of E-ninn� to his
+new one which bore the same name.
+
+But the ceremony of the god's removal was not carried out at once, for
+the due time had not arrived. The year ended, and the new year came,
+and then "the month of the temple" began. The third day of the month
+was that appointed for the installation of Ningirsu. Gudea meanwhile had
+sprinkled the ground with oil, and set out offerings of honey and butter
+and wine, and grain mixed with milk, and dates, and food untouched
+by fire, to serve as food for the gods; and the gods themselves had
+assisted in the preparations for the reception of Ningirsu. The god
+Asaru made ready the temple itself, and Ninmada performed the ceremony
+of purification. The god Enki issued oracles, and the god Nindub, the
+supreme priest of Eridu, brought incense. Nin� performed chants within
+the temple, and brought black sheep and holy cows to its folds and
+stalls. This record of the help given by the other gods we may interpret
+as meaning that the priests attached to the other great Sumerian
+temples took part in the preparation of the new temple, and added their
+offerings to the temple stores. To many of the gods, also, special
+shrines within the temple were assigned.
+
+When the purification of E-ninn� was completed and the way between
+the old temple and the new made ready, all the inhabitants of the city
+prostrated themselves on the ground. "The city," says Gudea, "was like
+the mother of a sick man who prepareth a potion for him, or like the
+cattle of the plain which lie down together, or like the fierce lion,
+the master of the plain, when he coucheth." During the day and the night
+before the ceremony of removal, prayers and supplications were uttered,
+and at the first light of dawn on the appointed day the god Ningirsu
+went into his new temple "like a whirlwind," the goddess Bau entering
+at his side "like the sun rising over Shirpurla." She entered beside his
+couch, like a faithful wife, whose cares are for her own household, and
+she dwelt beside his ear and bestowed abundance upon Shirpurla.
+
+As the day began to brighten and the sun rose, Gudea set out as
+offerings in the temple a fat ox and a fat sheep, and he brought a vase
+of lead and filled it with wine, which he poured out as a libation, and
+he performed incantations. Then, having duly established Ningirsu and
+Bau in the chief shrine, he turned his attention to the lesser gods and
+installed them in their appointed places in the temple, where they would
+be always ready to assist Ningirsu in the temple ceremonies and in the
+issue of his decrees for the welfare of the city and its inhabitants.
+Thus he established the god Galalim, the son of Ningirsu, in a chosen
+spot in the great court in front of the temple, where, under the orders
+of his father, he should direct the just and curb the evil-doer; he
+would also by his presence strengthen and preserve the temple, while
+his special duty was to guard the throne of destiny and, on behalf of
+Ningirsu, to place the sceptre in the hands of the reigning patesi.
+Near to Ningirsu and under his orders Gudea also established the god
+Dunshaga, whose function it was to sanctify the temple and to look after
+its libations and offerings, and to see to the due performance of the
+ceremonies of ablution. This god would offer water to Ningirsu with a
+pure hand, he would pour out libations of wine and strong drink, and
+would tend the oxen, sheep, kids, and other offerings which were brought
+to the temple night and day. To the god Lugalkurdub, who was also
+installed in the temple, was assigned the privilege of holding in his
+hand the mace with the seven heads, and it was his duty to open the door
+of the Gate of Combat. He guarded the sacred weapons of Ningirsu and
+destroyed the countries of his enemies. He was Ningirsu's chief leader
+in battle, and another god with lesser powers was associated with him as
+his second leader.
+
+Ningirsu's counsellor was the god Lugalsisa, and he also had his
+appointed place in E-ninn�. It was his duty to receive the prayers
+of Shirpurla and render them propitious; he superintended and blessed
+Ningirsu's journey when he visited Eridu or returned from that city,
+and he made special intercessions for the life of Gudea. The minister of
+Ningirsu's har�m was the god Shakanshabar, and he was installed near to
+Nin-girsu that he might issue his commands, both great and small. The
+keeper of the har�m was the god Urizu, and it was his duty to purify the
+water and sanctify the grain, and he tended Ningirsu's sleeping-chamber
+and saw that all was arranged therein as was fitting. The driver of
+Ningirsu's chariot was the god Ensignun; it was his duty to keep the
+sacred chariot as bright as the stars of heaven, and morning and evening
+to tend and feed Ningirsu's sacred ass, called Ug-kash, and the ass
+of Eridu. The shepherd of Ningirsu's kids was the god Enlulim, and he
+tended the sacred she-goat who suckled the kids, and he guarded her so
+that the serpent should not steal her milk. This god also looked
+after the oil and the strong drink of E-ninn�, and saw that its store
+increased.
+
+Ningirsu's beloved musician was the god Ushum-gabkalama, and he was
+installed in E-ninn� that he might take his flute and fill the temple
+court with joy. It was his privilege to play to Ningirsu as he listened
+in his har�m, and to render the life of the god pleasant in E-ninn�.
+Ningirsu's singer was the god Lugaligi-khusham, and he had his appointed
+place in E-ninn�, for he could appease the heart and soften anger; he
+could stop the tears which flowed from weeping eyes, and could lessen
+sorrow in the sighing heart. Gudea also installed in E-ninn� the seven
+twin-daughters of the goddess Bau, all virgins, whom Ningirsu had
+begotten. Their names were Zarzaru, Impa�, Urenunta�a, Khegir-nuna,
+Kheshaga, Gurmu, and Zarmu. Gudea installed them near their father that
+they might offer favourable prayers.
+
+The cultivator of the district of Gu-edin was the god Gishbare, and he
+was installed in the temple that he might cause the great fields to be
+fertile, and might make the wheat glisten in Gu-edin, the plain assigned
+to Ningirsu for his revenues. It was this god's duty also to tend the
+machines for irrigation, and to raise the water into the canals and
+ditches of Shirpurla, and thus to keep the city's granaries well filled.
+The god Kal was the guardian of the fishing in Gu-edin, and his chief
+duty was to place fish in the sacred pools. The steward of Gu-edin was
+the god Dimgalabzu, whose duty it was to keep the plain in good order,
+so that the birds might abound there and the beasts might raise their
+young in peace; he also guarded the special privilege, which the plain
+enjoyed, of freedom from any tax levied upon the increase of the
+cattle pastured there. Last of all Gudea installed in E-ninn� the god
+Lugalenurua-zagakam, who looked after the construction of houses in the
+city and the building of fortresses upon the city wall; in the temple it
+was his privilege to raise on high a battle-axe made of cedar.
+
+All these lesser deities, having close relations to the god Ningirsu,
+were installed by Gudea in his temple in close proximity to him, that
+they might be always ready to perform their special functions. But the
+greater deities also had their share in the inauguration of the temple,
+and of these Gudea specially mentions Ana, Enlil, Ninkharsag, Enki, and
+Enzu, who all assisted in rendering the temple's lot propitious. For at
+least three of the greater gods (Ana, Enlil, and the goddess Nin-makh)
+Gudea erected shrines near one another and probably within the temple's
+precincts, and, as the passage which records this fact is broken, it is
+possible that the missing portion of the text recorded the building of
+shrines to other deities. In any case, it is clear that the composer
+of the text represents all the great gods as beholding the erection and
+inauguration of Ningirsu's new temple with favour.
+
+After the account of the installation of Ningirsu, and his spouse Bau,
+and his attendant deities, the text records the sumptuous offerings
+which Gudea placed within Ningirsu's shrine. These included another
+chariot drawn by an ass, a seven-headed battle-axe, a sword with nine
+emblems, a bow with terrible arrows and a quiver decorated with wild
+beasts and dragons shooting out their tongues, and a bed which was
+set within the god's sleeping-chamber. On the couch in the shrine the
+goddess Bau reclined beside her lord Ningirsu, and ate of the great
+victims which were sacrificed in their honour.
+
+When the ceremony of installation had been successfully performed, Gudea
+rested, and for seven days he feasted with his people. During this time
+the maid was the equal of her mistress, and master and servant consorted
+together as friends. The powerful and the humble man lay down side by
+side, and in place of evil speech only propitious words were heard. The
+rich man did not wrong the orphan and the strong man did not oppress the
+widow. The laws of Nin� and Ningirsu were observed, justice was bright
+in the sunlight, and the Sun-god trampled iniquity under foot. The
+building of the temple also restored material prosperity to the land,
+for the canals became full of water and fish swarmed in the pools, the
+granaries were filled with grain and the flocks and herds brought forth
+their increase. The city of Shirpurla was satiated with abundance.
+
+Such is a summary of the account which Gudea has left us of his
+rebuilding of the temple E-ninn�, of the reasons which led him to
+undertake the work, and of the results which followed its completion. It
+has often been said that the inscriptions of the ancient Sumerians are
+without much intrinsic value, that they mainly consist of dull votive
+formul�, and that for general interest the best of them cannot be
+compared with the later inscriptions of the Semitic inhabitants
+of Mesopotamia. This reproach, for which until recently there was
+considerable justification, has been finally removed by the working
+out of the texts upon Gudea's cylinders. For picturesque narrative, for
+wealth of detail, and for striking similes, it would be hard to find
+their superior in Babylonian and Assyrian literature. They are, in fact,
+very remarkable compositions, and in themselves justify the claim that
+the Sumerians were possessed of a literature in the proper sense of the
+term.
+
+But that is not their only value, for they give a vivid picture of
+ancient Sumerian life and of the ideals and aims which actuated the
+people and their rulers. The Sumerians were essentially an unmilitary
+race. That they could maintain a stubborn fight for their territory is
+proved by the prolonged struggle maintained by Shirpurla against her
+rival Gishkhu, but neither ruler nor people was inflamed by love of
+conquest for its own sake. They were settled in a rich and fertile
+country, which supplied their own wants in abundance, and they were
+content to lead a peaceful life therein, engaged in agricultural and
+industrial pursuits, and devoted wholly to the worship of their gods.
+Gudea's inscriptions enable us to realize with what fervour they carried
+out the rebuilding of a temple, and how the whole resources of the
+nation were devoted to the successful completion of the work. It is true
+that the rebuilding of E-ninn� was undertaken in a critical period when
+the land was threatened with famine, and the peculiar magnificence with
+which the work was carried out may be partly explained as due to the
+belief that such devotion would ensure a return of material prosperity.
+But the existence of such a belief is in itself an index to the people's
+character, and we may take it that the record faithfully represents the
+relations of the Sumerians to their gods, and the important place which
+worship and ritual occupied in the national life.
+
+Moreover, the inscriptions of Gudea furnish much valuable information
+with regard to the details of Sumerian worship and the elaborate
+organization of the temples. From them we can reconstruct a picture of
+one of these immense buildings, with its numerous shrines and courts,
+surrounded by sacred gardens and raising its ziggurat, or temple tower,
+high above the surrounding city. Within its dark chambers were the
+mysterious figures of the gods, and what little light could enter would
+have been reflected in the tanks of sacred water sunk to the level of
+the pavement. The air within the shrines must have been heavy with the
+smell of incense and of aromatic woods, while the deep silence would
+have been broken only by the chanting of the priests and the feet of
+those that bore offerings. Outside in the sunlight cedars and other rare
+trees cast a pleasant shade, and birds flew about among the flowers and
+bushes in the outer courts and on the garden terraces. The area covered
+by the temple buildings must have been enormous, for they included the
+dwellings of the priests, stables and pens for the cattle, sheep, and
+kids employed for sacrifice, and treasure-chambers and storehouses and
+granaries for the produce from the temple lands.
+
+We also get much information with regard to the nature of the offerings
+and the character of the ceremonies which were performed. We may mention
+as of peculiar interest Gudea's symbolical rite which preceded the
+making of the sun-dried bricks, and the ceremony of the installation of
+Ningirsu in the presence of the prostrate city. The texts also throw
+an interesting light on the truly Oriental manner in which, when
+approaching one deity for help, the cooperation and assistance of other
+deities were first secured. Thus Gudea solicited the intercession of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug before applying to the goddess Nin� to interpret
+his dream. The extremely human character of the gods themselves is also
+well illustrated. Thus we gather from the texts that Ningirsu's temple
+was arranged like the palace of a Sumerian ruler and that he was
+surrounded by gods who took the place of the attendants and ministers
+of his human counterpart. His son was installed in a place of honour and
+shared with him the responsibility of government. Another god was his
+personal attendant and cupbearer, who offered him fair water and looked
+after the ablutions. Two more were his generals, who secured his country
+against the attacks of foes. Another was his counsellor, who received
+and presented petitions from his subjects and superintended his
+journeys. Another was the head of his har�m, a position of great
+trust and responsibility, while a keeper of the har�m looked after the
+practical details. Another god was the driver of his chariot, and it
+is interesting to note that the chariot was drawn by an ass, for horses
+were not introduced into Western Asia until a much later period. Other
+gods performed the functions of head shepherd, chief musician, chief
+singer, head cultivator and inspector of irrigation, inspector of the
+fishing, land steward, and architect. His household also included his
+wife and his seven virgin daughters. In addition to the account of the
+various functions performed by these lesser deities, the texts also
+furnish valuable facts with regard to the characters and attributes
+of the greater gods and goddesses, such as the attributes of Ningirsu
+himself, and the character of Nin� as the goddess who divined and
+interpreted the secrets of the gods.
+
+But perhaps the most interesting conclusions to be drawn from the texts
+relate to the influence exerted by the ancient Sumerians upon Semitic
+beliefs and practices. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
+later Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria drew most of their
+culture from the Sumerians, whom they displaced and absorbed. Their
+system of writing, the general structure of their temples, the ritual of
+their worship, the majority of their religious compositions, and many of
+their gods themselves are to be traced to a Sumerian origin, and much of
+the information obtained from the cylinders of Gudea merely confirms
+or illustrates the conclusions already deduced from other sources. As
+instances we may mention the belief in spirits, which is illustrated by
+the importance attached to the placating of the Anunnaki, or Spirits of
+the Earth, to whom a special place and special offerings were assigned
+in E-ninn�. The Sumerian origin of ceremonies of purification is
+confirmed by Gudea's purification of the city before beginning the
+building of the temple, and again before the transference of the god
+from his old temple to the new one. The consultation of omens, which was
+so marked a feature of Babylonian and Assyrian life, is seen in actual
+operation under the Sumerians; for, even after Gudea had received direct
+instructions from Ningirsu to begin building his temple, he did not
+proceed to carry them out until he had consulted the omens and found
+that they were favourable. Moreover, the references to mythological
+beings, such as the seven heroes, the dragon of the deep, and the god
+who slew the dragon, confirm the opinion that the creation legends and
+other mythological compositions of the Babylonians were derived by them
+from Sumerian sources. But there are two incidents in the narrative
+which are on a rather different plane and are more startling in their
+novelty. One is the story of Gudea's dream, and the other the sign
+which he sought from his god. The former is distinctly apocalyptic in
+character, and both may be parallelled in what is regarded as purely
+Semitic literature. That such conceptions existed among the Sumerians is
+a most interesting fact, and although the theory of independent origin
+is possible, their existence may well have influenced later Semitic
+beliefs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--ELAM AND BABYLON, THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE KASSITES
+
+
+Up to five years ago our knowledge of Elam and of the part she played in
+the ancient world was derived, in the main, from a few allusions to the
+country to be found in the records of Babylonian and Assyrian kings. It
+is true that a few inscriptions of the native rulers had been found in
+Persia, but they belonged to the late periods of her history, and the
+majority consisted of short dedicatory formulae and did not supply us
+with much historical information. But the excavations carried on since
+then by M. de Morgan at Susa have revealed an entirely new chapter of
+ancient Oriental history, and have thrown a flood of light upon the
+position occupied by Elam among the early races of the East.
+
+Lying to the north of the Persian Gulf and to the east of the Tigris,
+and rising from the broad plains nearer the coast to the mountainous
+districts within its borders on the east and north, Elam was one of the
+nearest neighbours of Chald�a. A few facts concerning her relations with
+Babylonia during certain periods of her history have long been known,
+and her struggles with the later kings of Assyria are known in some
+detail; but for her history during the earliest periods we have had to
+trust mainly to conjecture. That in the earlier as in the later periods
+she should have been in constant antagonism with Babylonia might
+legitimately be suspected, and it is not surprising that we should find
+an echo of her early struggles with Chald�a in the legends which were
+current in the later periods of Babylonian history. In the fourth and
+fifth tablets, or sections, of the great Babylonian epic which describes
+the exploits of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, a story is told of an
+expedition undertaken by Gilgamesh and his friend Ba-bani against an
+Elamite despot named Khum-baba. It is related in the poem that Khumbaba
+was feared by all who dwelt near him, for his roaring was like the
+storm, and any man perished who was rash enough to enter the cedar-wood
+in which he dwelt. But Gilgamesh, encouraged by a dream sent him by
+Sha-mash, the Sun-god, pressed on with his friend, and, having entered
+the wood, succeeded in slaying Khumbaba and in cutting off his head.
+This legend is doubtless based on episodes in early Babylonian and
+Elamite history. Khumbaba may not have been an actual historical ruler,
+but at least he represents or personifies the power of Elam, and the
+success of Gilgamesh no doubt reflects the aspirations with which many a
+Babylonian expedition set out for the Elamite frontier.
+
+Incidentally it may be noted that the legend possibly had a still closer
+historical parallel, for the name of Khumbaba occurs as a component in
+a proper name upon one of the Elamite contracts found recently by M. de
+Morgan at Mai-Amir. The name in question is written _Khumbaba-arad-ili_,
+"Khumbaba, the servant of God," and it proves that at the date at which
+the contract was written (about 1300-1000 B.C.) the name of Khumbaba was
+still held in remembrance, possibly as that of an early historical ruler
+of the country.
+
+In her struggles with Chald�a, Elam was not successful during the
+earliest historical period of which we have obtained information; and,
+so far as we can tell at present, her princes long continued to own
+allegiance to the Semitic rulers whose influence was predominant from
+time to time in the plains of Lower Mesopotamia. Tradition relates that
+two of the earliest Semitic rulers whose names are known to us, Sargon
+and Nar�m-Sin, kings of Agade, held sway in Elam, for in the "Omens"
+which were current in a later period concerning them, the former is
+credited with the conquest of the whole country, while of the latter it
+is related that he conquered Apirak, an Elamite district, and captured
+its king. Some doubts were formerly cast upon these traditions inasmuch
+as they were found in a text containing omens or forecasts, but these
+doubts were removed by the discovery of contemporary documents by which
+the later traditions were confirmed. Sargon's conquest of Elam, for
+instance, was proved to be historical by a reference to the event in a
+date-formula upon tablets belonging to his reign. Moreover, the event
+has received further confirmation from an unpublished tablet in the
+British Museum, containing a copy of the original chronicle from which
+the historical extracts in the "Omens" were derived. The portion of
+the composition inscribed upon this tablet does not contain the lines
+referring to Sargon's conquest of Elam, for these occurred in an earlier
+section of the composition; but the recovery of the tablet puts beyond
+a doubt the historical character of the traditions preserved upon the
+omen-tablet as a whole, and the conquest of Elam is thus confirmed
+by inference. The new text does recount the expedition undertaken by
+Nar�m-Sin, the son of Sargon, against Apirak, and so furnishes a direct
+confirmation of this event.
+
+Another early conqueror of Elam, who was probably of Semitic origin,
+was Alu-usharshid, king of the city of Kish, for, from a number of his
+inscriptions found near those of Sargon at Nippur in Babylonia, we learn
+that he subdued Elam and Para'se, the district in which the city of Susa
+was probably situated. From a small mace-head preserved in the British
+Museum we know of another conquest of Elam by a Semitic ruler of this
+early period. The mace-head was made and engraved by the orders of
+Mutabil, an early governor of the city of D�r-ilu, to commemorate his
+own valour as the man "who smote the head of the hosts" of Elam. Mutabil
+was not himself an independent ruler, and his conquest of Elam must have
+been undertaken on behalf of the suzerain to whom he owed allegiance,
+and thus his victory cannot be classed in the same category as those of
+his predecessors. A similar remark applies to the success against
+the city of Anshan in Elam, achieved by Grudea, the Sumerian ruler
+of Shirpurla, inasmuch as he was a patesi, or viceroy, and not an
+independent king. Of greater duration was the influence exercised over
+Elam by the kings of Ur, for bricks and contract-tablets have been found
+at Susa proving that Dungi, one of the most powerful kings of Ur, and
+Bur-Sin, Ine-Sin, and Oamil-Sin, kings of the second dynasty in that
+city, all in turn included Elam within the limits of their empire.
+
+Such are the main facts which until recently had been ascertained
+with regard to the influence of early Babylonian rulers in Elam. The
+information is obtained mainly from Babylonian sources, and until
+recently we have been unable to fill in any details of the picture
+from the Elamite side. But this inability has now been removed by M.
+de Morgan's discoveries. From the inscribed bricks, cones, stel�, and
+statues that have been brought to light in the course of his excavations
+at Susa, we have recovered the name of a succession of native Elamite
+rulers. All those who are to be assigned to this early period, during
+which Elam owed allegiance to the kings of Babylonia, ascribe to
+themselves the title of _patesi_, or viceroy, of Susa, in acknowledgment
+of their dependence. Their records consist principally of building
+inscriptions and foundation memorials, and they commemorate the
+construction or repair of temples, the cutting of canals, and the like.
+They do not, therefore, throw much light upon the problems connected
+with the external history of Elam during this early period, but we
+obtain from them a glimpse of the internal administration of the
+country. We see a nation without ambition to extend its boundaries, and
+content, at any rate for the time, to owe allegiance to foreign rulers,
+while the energies of its native princes are devoted exclusively to the
+cultivation of the worship of the gods and to the amelioration of the
+conditions of the life of the people in their charge.
+
+A difficult but interesting problem presents itself for solution at the
+outset of our inquiry into the history of this people as revealed by
+their lately recovered inscriptions,--the problem of their race and
+origin. Found at Susa in Elam, and inscribed by princes bearing purely
+Elamite names, we should expect these votive and memorial texts to be
+written entirely in the Elamite language. But such is not the case,
+for many of them are written in good Semitic Babylonian. While some
+are entirely composed in the tongue which we term Elamite or Anzanite,
+others, so far as their language and style is concerned, might have been
+written by any early Semitic king ruling in Babylonia. Why did early
+princes of Susa make this use of the Babylonian tongue?
+
+At first sight it might seem possible to trace a parallel in the use of
+the Babylonian language by kings and officials in Egypt and Syria
+during the fifteenth century B.C., as revealed in the letters from
+Tell el-Amarna. But a moment's thought will show that the cases are not
+similar. The Egyptian or Syrian scribe employed Babylonian as a medium
+for his official foreign correspondence because Babylonian at that
+period was the _lingua franca_ of the East. But the object of the
+early Elamite rulers was totally different. Their inscribed bricks and
+memorial stel� were not intended for the eyes of foreigners, but for
+those of their own descendants. Built into the structure of a temple,
+or buried beneath the edifice, one of their principal objects was to
+preserve the name and deeds of the writer from oblivion. Like similar
+documents found on the sites of Assyrian and Babylonian cities, they
+sometimes include curses upon any impious man, who, on finding the
+inscription after the temple shall have fallen into ruins, should in
+any way injure the inscription or deface the writer's name. It will be
+obvious that the writers of these inscriptions intended that they should
+be intelligible to those who might come across them in the future. If,
+therefore, they employed the Babylonian as well as the Elamite language,
+it is clear that they expected that their future readers might be either
+Babylonian or Elamite; and this belief can only be explained on the
+supposition that their own subjects were of mixed race.
+
+It is therefore certain that at this early period of Elamite history
+Semitic Babylonians and Elamites dwelt side by side in Susa and retained
+their separate languages. The problem therefore resolves itself into the
+inquiry: which of these two peoples occupied the country first? Were the
+Semites at first in sole possession, which was afterwards disputed by
+the incursion of Elamite tribes from the north and east? Or were the
+Elamites the original inhabitants of the land, into which the Semites
+subsequently pressed from Babylonia?
+
+A similar mixture of races is met with in Babylonia itself in the
+early period of the history of that country. There the early Sumerian
+inhabitants were gradually dispossessed by the invading Semite, who
+adopted the civilization of the conquered race, and took over the system
+of cuneiform writing, which he modified to suit his own language. In
+Babylonia the Semites eventually predominated and the Sumerians as a
+race disappeared, but during the process of absorption the two languages
+were employed indiscriminately. The kings of the First Babylonian
+Dynasty wrote their votive inscriptions sometimes in Sumerian, sometimes
+in Semitic Babylonian; at other times they employed both languages
+for the same text, writing the record first in Sumerian and afterwards
+appending a Semitic translation by the side; and in the legal and
+commercial documents of the period the old Sumerian legal forms and
+phrases were retained intact. In Elam we may suppose that the use of the
+Sumerian and Semitic languages was the same.
+
+It may be surmised, however, that the first Semitic incursions into Elam
+took place at a much later period than those into Babylonia, and under
+very different conditions. When overrunning the plains and cities of the
+Sumerians, the Semites were comparatively uncivilized, and, so far as we
+know, without a system of writing of their own. The incursions into
+Elam must have taken place under the great Semitic conquerors, such as
+Sar-gon and Nar�m-Sin and Alu-usharshid. At this period they had fully
+adopted and modified the Sumerian characters to express their own
+Semitic tongue, and on their invasion of Elam they brought their system
+of writing with them. The native princes of Elam, whom they conquered,
+adopted it in turn for many of their votive texts and inscribed
+monuments when they wished to write them in the Babylonian language.
+
+Such is the most probable explanation of the occurrence in Elam of
+inscriptions in the Old Babylonian language, written by native princes
+concerning purely domestic matters. But a further question now suggests
+itself. Assuming that this was the order in which events took place,
+are we to suppose that the first Semitic invaders of Elam found there a
+native population in a totally undeveloped stage of civilization? Or did
+they find a population enjoying a comparatively high state of culture,
+different from their own, which they proceeded to modify and transform!
+Luckily, we have not to fall back on conjecture for an answer to these
+questions, for a recent discovery at Susa has furnished material from
+which it is possible to reconstruct in outline the state of culture of
+these early Elamites.
+
+This interesting discovery consists of a number of clay tablets
+inscribed in the proto-Elamite system of writing, a system which was
+probably the only one in use in the country during the period before the
+Semitic invasion. The documents in question are small, roughly formed
+tablets of clay very similar to those employed in the early periods of
+Babylonian history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them
+offer the greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian
+characters with which we are familiar. Although they cannot be fully
+deciphered at present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts,
+the signs upon them consisting of lists of figures and what are
+probably ideographs for things. Some of the ideographs, such as that for
+"tablet," with which many of the texts begin, are very similar to the
+Sumerian or Babylonian signs for the same objects; but the majority are
+entirely different and have been formed and developed upon a system of
+their own.
+
+[Illustration: 230.jpg CLAY TABLET, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN
+INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]
+
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's _D�l�gation en
+     Perse, Mem._, t. vi, pi. 23.
+
+On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in
+an early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial
+character of the ideographs was still prominent.
+
+[Illustration: 231.jpg CLAY TABLET, RECENTLY FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN
+INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]
+
+     The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan's _D�l�gation
+     en Perse, M�m._, t. vi, pi. 22.
+
+Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet
+been identified, P�re Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded
+in making out the system of numeration. He has identified the signs for
+unity, 10, 100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for
+these figures are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.
+
+[Illustration: 231a.jpg Fractions]
+
+The system, too, is different, for it is a decimal, and not a
+sexagesimal, system of numeration.
+
+That in its origin this form of writing had some connection with that
+employed and, so far as we know, invented by the ancient Sumerians
+is possible.* But it shows small trace of Sumerian influence, and the
+disparity in the two systems of numeration is a clear indication that,
+at any rate, it broke off and was isolated from the latter at a very
+early period. Having once been adopted by the early Elamites, it
+continued to be used by them for long periods with but small change or
+modification. Employed far from the centre of Sumerian civilization, its
+development was slow, and it seems to have remained in its ideographic
+state, while the system employed by the Sumerians, and adopted by the
+Semitic Babylonians, was developed along syllabic lines.
+
+     * It is, of course, also possible that the system of writing
+     had no connection in its origin with that of the Sumerians,
+     and was invented independently of the system employed in
+     Babylonia. In that case, the signs which resemble certain of
+     the Sumerian characters must have been adopted in a later
+     stage of its development. Though it would be rash to
+     dogmatize on the subject, the view that connects its origin
+     with the Sumerians appears on the whole to fit in best with
+     the evidence at present available.
+
+It was without doubt this proto-Elamite system of writing which the
+Semites from Babylonia found employed in Elam on their first incursions
+into that country. They brought with them their own more convenient form
+of writing, and, when the country had once been finally subdued, the
+subject Elamite princes adopted the foreign system of writing and
+language from their conquerors for memorial and monumental inscriptions.
+But the ancient native writing was not entirely ousted, and continued
+to be employed by the common people of Elam for the ordinary purposes
+of daily life. That this was the case at least until the reign of
+Karibu-sha-Shu-shinak, one of the early subject native rulers, is clear
+from one of his inscriptions engraved upon a block of limestone to
+commemorate the dedication of what were probably some temple furnishings
+in honour of the god Shu-shinak.
+
+[Illustration: 233.jpg BLOCK OF LIMESTONE, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING
+INSCRIPTIONS OF KARIBU-SHA-SHUSHINAK.]
+
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's _D�l�gation en
+     Perse_, M�m., t. vi, pi. 2.
+
+The main part of the inscription is written in Semitic Babylonian,
+and below there is an addition to the text written in proto-Elamite
+characters, probably enumerating the offerings which the
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak decreed should be made for the future in honour
+of the god.* In course of time this proto-Elamite system of writing by
+means of ideographs seems to have died out, and a modified form of the
+Babylonian system was adopted by the Elamites for writing their own
+language phonetically. It is in this phonetic character that the
+so-called "Anzanite" texts of the later Elamite princes were composed.
+
+     *We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of
+     Karibu-sha-Shushinak. But it is also possible that the
+     second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later
+     period. From its position on the stone it is clear that it
+     was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak's
+     inscription in Semitic Babylonian. See the photographic
+     reproduction.
+
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription
+has been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject
+princes of Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C.
+3000. He styles himself "patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,"
+but we do not know at present to what contemporary king in Babylonia
+he owed allegiance. The longest of his inscriptions that have been
+recovered is engraved upon a stele of limestone and records the building
+of the Gate of Shushinak at Susa and the cutting of a canal; it also
+recounts the offerings which Karibu-sha-Shushinak dedicated on the
+completion of the work. It may here be quoted as an example of the
+class of votive inscriptions from which the names of these early Elamite
+rulers have been recovered. The inscription runs as follows: "For
+the god Shushinak, his lord, Karibu-sha-Shushinak, the son of
+Shimbi-ish-khuk, patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,--when
+he set the (door) of his Gate in place,... in the Gate of the god
+Shushinak, his lord, and when he had opened the canal of Sidur, he set
+up in face thereof his canopy, and he set planks of cedar-wood for its
+gate. A sheep in the interior thereof, and sheep without, he appointed
+(for sacrifice) to him each day. On days of festival he caused the
+people to sing songs in the Gate of the god Shushinak. And twenty
+measures of fine oil he dedicated to make his gate beautiful. Four
+_magi_ of silver he dedicated; a censer of silver and gold he dedicated
+for a sweet odour; a,sword he dedicated; an axe with four blades
+he dedicated, and he dedicated silver in addition for the mounting
+thereof.... A righteous judgment he judged in the city! As for the man
+who shall transgress his judgment or shall remove his gift, may the
+gods Shushinak and Shamash, Bel and Ea, Ninni and Sin, Mnkharsag and
+Nati--may all the gods uproot his foundation, and his seed may they
+destroy!"
+
+It will be seen that Karibu-sha-Shushinak takes a delight in enumerating
+the details of the offerings he has ordained in honour of his city-god
+Shushinak, and this religious temper is peculiarly characteristic of the
+princes of Elam throughout the whole course of their history. Another
+interesting point to notice in the inscription is that, although the
+writer invokes Shushinak, his own god, and puts his name at the head
+of the list of deities whose vengeance he implores upon the impious, he
+also calls upon the gods of the Babylonians. As he wrote the inscription
+itself in Babylonian, in the belief that it might be recovered by
+some future Semitic inhabitant of his country, so he included in his
+imprecations those deities whose names he conceived would be most
+reverenced by such a reader. In addition to Karibu-sha-Shushinak the
+names of a number of other patesis, or viceroys, have recently
+been recovered, such as Khutran-tepti, and Idadu I and his son
+Kal-Rukhu-ratir, and his grandson Idadu II. All these probably ruled
+after Karibu-sha-Shushinak, and may be set in the early period of
+Babylonian supremacy in Elam.
+
+It has been stated above that the allegiance which these early Elamite
+princes owed to their overlords in Babylonia was probably reflected in
+the titles which they bear upon their inscriptions recently found at
+Susa. These titles are "_patesi_ of Susa, _shakkannak_ of Elam," which
+may be rendered as "viceroy of Susa, governor of Elam." But inscriptions
+have been found on the same site belonging to another series of rulers,
+to whom a different title is applied. Instead of referring to themselves
+as viceroys of Susa and governors of Elam, they bear the title of
+_sukkal_ of Elam, of Siparki, and of Susa. Siparki, or Sipar, was
+probably the name of an important section of Elamite territory, and
+the title _sukkalu_, "ruler," probably carries with it an idea of
+independence of foreign control which is absent from the title of
+_patesi_. It is therefore legitimate to trace this change of title to
+a corresponding change in the political condition of Elam; and there is
+much to be said for the view that the rulers of Elam who bore the title
+of _sukkalu_ reigned at a period when Elam herself was independent, and
+may possibly have exercised a suzerainty over the neighbouring districts
+of Babylonia.
+
+The worker of this change in the political condition of Elam and
+the author of her independence was a king named Kutir-Nakhkhunte or
+Kutir-Na'khunde, whose name and deeds have been preserved in
+later Assyrian records, where he is termed Kudur-Nankhundi and
+Kudur-Nakhundu.* This ruler, according to the Assyrian king
+Ashur-bani-pal, was not content with throwing off the yoke under which
+his land had laboured for so long, but carried war into the country of
+his suzerain and marched through Babylonia devastating and despoiling
+the principal cities. This successful Elamite campaign took place,
+according to the computation of the later Assyrian scribes, about the
+year 2280 B. c, and it is probable that for many years afterwards the
+authority of the King of Elam extended over the plains of Babylonia.
+It has been suggested that Kutir-Nakh-khunte, after including Babylonia
+within his empire, did not remain permanently in Elam, but may have
+resided for a part of each year, at least, in Lower Mesopotamia.
+His object, no doubt, would have been to superintend in person the
+administration of his empire and to check any growing spirit of
+independence among his local governors. He may thus have appointed in
+Susa itself a local governor who would carry on the business of the
+country during his absence, and, under the king himself, would wield
+supreme authority. Such governors may have been the sukkali, who, unlike
+the patesi, were independent of foreign control, but yet did not enjoy
+the full title of "king."
+
+     * For references to the passages where the name occurs, see
+     King, _Letters of Hammurabi_, vol. i, p. Ivy.
+
+It is possible that the sukkalu who ruled in Elam during the reign of
+Kutir-Nakhkhunte was named Temti-agun, for a short inscription of
+this ruler has been recovered, in which he records that he built and
+dedicated a certain temple with the object of ensuring the preservation
+of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi. If we may identify the Kutir-Va'khundi
+of this text with the great Elamite conqueror, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, it
+follows that Temti-agun, the sukkal of Susa, was his subordinate. The
+inscription mentions other names which are possibly those of rulers of
+this period, and reads as follows: "Temti-agun, sukkal of Susa, the son
+of the sister of Sirukdu', hath built a temple of bricks at Ishme-karab
+for the preservation of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi, and for the
+preservation of the life of Lila-irtash, and for the preservation of his
+own life, and for the preservation of the life of Temti-khisha-khanesh
+and of Pil-kishamma-khashduk." As Lila-irtash is mentioned immediately
+after Kutir-Na'khundi, he was possibly his son, and he may have
+succeeded him as ruler of the empire of Elam and Babylonia, though no
+confirmation of this view has yet been discovered. Temti-khisha-khanesh
+is mentioned immediately after the reference to the preservation of the
+life of Temti-agun himself, and it may be conjectured that the name was
+that of Temti-agun's son, or possibly that of his wife, in which event
+the last two personages mentioned in the text may have been the sons of
+Temti-agun.
+
+This short text affords a good example of one class of votive
+inscriptions from which it is possible to recover the names of Elamite
+rulers of this period, and it illustrates the uncertainty which at
+present attaches to the identification of the names themselves and the
+order in which they are to be arranged. Such uncertainty necessarily
+exists when only a few texts have been recovered, and it will disappear
+with the discovery of additional monuments by which the results already
+arrived at may be checked. We need not here enumerate all the names of
+the later Elamite rulers which have been found in the numerous votive
+inscriptions recovered during the recent excavations at Susa. The order
+in which they should be arranged is still a matter of considerable
+uncertainty, and the facts recorded by them in such inscriptions as we
+possess mainly concern the building and restoration of Elamite temples
+and the decoration of shrines, and they are thus of no great historical
+interest. These votive texts are well illustrated by a remarkable find
+of foundation deposits made last year by M. de Morgan in the temple of
+Shushinak at Susa, consisting of figures and jewelry of gold and silver,
+and objects of lead, bronze, iron, stone, and ivory, cylinder-seals,
+mace-heads, vases, etc. This is the richest foundation deposit that has
+been recovered on any ancient site, and its archaeological interest in
+connection with the development of Elamite art is great. But in no other
+way does the find affect our conception of the history of the country,
+and we may therefore pass on to a consideration of such recent
+discoveries as throw new light upon the course of history in Western
+Asia.
+
+With the advent of the First Dynasty in Babylon Elam found herself
+face to face with a power prepared to dispute her claims to exercise a
+suzerainty over the plains of Mesopotamia. It is held by many writers
+that the First Dynasty of Babylon was of Arab origin, and there is much
+to be said for this view. M. Pognon was the first to start the theory
+that its kings were not purely Babylonian, but were of either Arab or
+Aramaean extraction, and he based his theory on a study of the forms of
+the names which some of them bore. The name of Samsu-imna, for instance,
+means "the sun is our god," but the form of the words of which the name
+is composed betray foreign influence. Thus in Babylonian the name for
+"sun" or the Sun-god would be _Shamash_ or _Shamshu_, not _Samsu_; in
+the second half of the name, while _ilu_ ("god") is good Babylonian, the
+ending _na_, which is the pronominal suffix of the first person plural,
+is not Babylonian, but Arabic. We need not here enter into a long
+philological discussion, and the instance already cited may suffice to
+show in what way many of the names met in the Babylonian inscriptions
+of this period betray a foreign, and possibly an Arabic, origin. But
+whether we assign the forms of these names to Arabic influence or not,
+it may be regarded as certain that, the First Dynasty of Babylon had
+its origin in the incursion into Babylonia of a new wave of Semitic
+immigration.
+
+[Illustration: 240.jpg BRICK STAMPED WITH AN INSCRIPTION OF
+KUDUR-MABURG]
+
+The invading Semites brought with them fresh blood and unexhausted
+energy, and, finding many of their own race in scattered cities and
+settlements throughout the country, they succeeded in establishing a
+purely Semitic dynasty, with its capital at Babylon, and set about the
+task of freeing the country from any vestiges of foreign control. Many
+centuries earlier Semitic kings had ruled in Babylonian cities, and
+Semitic empires had been formed there. Sargon and Nar�m-Sin,
+having their capital at Agade, had established their control over a
+considerable area of Western Asia and had held Elam as a province. But
+so far as Elam was concerned Kutir-Nakhkhunte had reversed the balance
+and had raised Elam to the position of the predominant power.
+
+Of the struggles and campaigns of the earlier kings of the First Dynasty
+of Babylon we know little, for, although we possess a considerable
+number of legal and commercial documents of the period, we have
+recovered no strictly historical inscriptions. Our main source of
+information is the dates upon these documents, which are not dated by
+the years of the reigning king, but on a system adopted by the early
+Babylonian kings from their Sumerian predecessors. In the later periods
+of Babylonian history tablets were dated in the year of the king who was
+reigning at the time the document was drawn up, but this simple system
+had not been adopted at this early period. In place of this we find that
+each year was cited by the event of greatest importance which occurred
+in that year. This event might be the cutting of a canal, when the year
+in which this took place might be referred to as "the year in which
+the canal named Ai-khegallu was cut;" or it might be the building of a
+temple, as in the date-formula, "the year in which the great temple of
+the Moon-god was built;" or it might be "the conquest of a city, such
+as the year in which the city of Kish was destroyed." Now it will be
+obvious that this system of dating had many disadvantages. An event
+might be of great importance for one city, while it might never have
+been heard of in another district; thus it sometimes happened that the
+same event was not adopted throughout the whole country for designating
+a particular year, and the result was that different systems of
+dating were employed in different parts of Babylonia. Moreover, when a
+particular system had been in use for a considerable time, it required
+a very good memory to retain the order and period of the various events
+referred to in the date-formulae, so as to fix in a moment the date of a
+document by its mention of one of them. In order to assist themselves
+in their task of fixing dates in this manner, the scribes of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon drew up lists of the titles of the years, arranged
+in chronological order under the reigns of the kings to which they
+referred. Some of these lists have been recovered, and they are of the
+greatest assistance in fixing the chronology, while at the same time
+they furnish us with considerable information concerning the history of
+the period of which we should otherwise have been in ignorance.
+
+From these lists of date-formul�, and from the dates themselves which
+are found upon the legal and commercial tablets of the period, we learn
+that Kish, Ka-sallu, and Isin all gave trouble to the earlier kings of
+the First Dynasty, and had in turn to be subdued. Elam did not watch the
+diminution of her influence in Babylonia without a struggle to retain
+it. Under Kudur-mabug, who was prince or governor of the districts lying
+along the frontier of Elam, the Elamites struggled hard to maintain
+their position in Babylonia, making the city of Ur the centre from which
+they sought to check the growing power of Babylon. From bricks that have
+been recovered from Mukayyer, the site of the city of Ur, we learn that
+Kudur-mabug rebuilt the temple in that city dedicated to the Moon-god,
+which is an indication of the firm hold he had obtained upon the city.
+It was obvious to the new Semitic dynasty in Babylon that, until Ur and
+the neighbouring city of Larsam had been captured, they could entertain
+no hope of removing the Elamite yoke from Southern Babylonia. It is
+probable that the earlier kings of the dynasty made many attempts to
+capture them, with varying success. An echo of one of their struggles in
+which they claimed the victory may be seen in the date-formula for the
+fourteenth year of the reign of Sin-muballit, Hammurabi's father and
+predecessor on the throne of Babylon. This year was referred to in the
+documents of the period as "the year in which the people of Ur were
+slain with the sword." It will be noted that the capture of the city
+is not commemorated, so that we may infer that the slaughter of the
+Elamites which is recorded did not materially reduce their influence,
+as they were left in possession of their principal stronghold. In fact,
+Elam was not signally defeated in the reign of Kudur-mabug, but in that
+of his son Rim-Sin. From the date-formul� of Hammurabi's reign we learn
+that the struggle between Elam and Babylon was brought to a climax in
+the thirtieth year of his reign, when it is recorded in the formulas
+that he defeated the Elamite army and overthrew Rim-Sin, while in the
+following year we gather that he added the land of E'mutbal, that is,
+the western district of Elam, to his dominions.
+
+An unpublished chronicle in the British Museum gives us further details
+of Hammurabi's victory over the Elamites, and at the same time makes it
+clear that the defeat and overthrow of Rim-Sin was not so crushing
+as has hitherto been supposed. This chronicle relates that Hammurabi
+attacked Rim-Sin, and, after capturing the cities of Ur and Larsam,
+carried their spoil to Babylon. Up to the present it has been supposed
+that Hammurabi's victory marked the end of Elamite influence in
+Babylonia, and that thenceforward the supremacy of Babylon was
+established throughout the whole of the country. But from the
+new chronicle we gather that Hammurabi did not succeed in finally
+suppressing the attempts of Elam to regain her former position. It is
+true that the cities of Ur and Larsam were finally incorporated in the
+Babylonian empire, and the letters of Hammurabi to Sin-idinnam, the
+governor whom he placed in authority over Larsam, afford abundant
+evidence of the stringency of the administrative control which he
+established over Southern Babylonia. But R�m-Sin was only crippled for
+the time, and, on being driven from Ur and Larsam, he retired beyond
+the Elamite frontier and devoted his energies to the recuperation of his
+forces against the time when he should feel himself strong enough again
+to make a bid for victory in his struggle against the growing power of
+Babylon. It is probable that he made no further attempt to renew the
+contest during the life of Hammurabi, but after Samsu-iluna, the son
+of Hammurabi, had succeeded to the Babylonian throne, he appeared in
+Babylonia at the head of the forces he had collected, and attempted to
+regain the cities and territory he had lost.
+
+[Illustration: 245.jpg SEMITIC BABYLONIAN CONTRACT-TABLET]
+
+     Inscribed in the reign of Hammurabi with a deed recording
+     the division of property. The actual tablet is on the right;
+     that which appears to be another and larger tablet on the
+     left is the hollow clay case in which the tablet on the
+     right was originally enclosed. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     & Co.
+
+The portion of the text of the chronicle relating to the war between
+R�m-Sin and Samsu-iluna is broken so that it is not possible to follow
+the campaign in detail, but it appears that Samsu-iluna defeated
+Rim-Sin, and possibly captured him or burnt him alive in a palace in
+which he had taken refuge.
+
+With the final defeat of R�m-Sin by Samsu-iluna it is probable that Elam
+ceased to be a thorn in the side of the kings of Babylon and that
+she made no further attempts to extend her authority beyond her own
+frontiers. But no sooner had Samsu-iluna freed his country from all
+danger from this quarter than he found himself faced by a new foe,
+before whom the dynasty eventually succumbed. This fact we learn from
+the unpublished chronicle to which reference has already been made, and
+the name of this new foe, as supplied by the chronicle, will render
+it necessary to revise all current schemes of Babylonian chronology.
+Samsu-iluna's new foe was no other than Iluma-ilu, the first king of the
+Second Dynasty, and, so far from having been regarded as Samsu-iluna's
+contemporary, hitherto it has been imagined that he ascended the throne
+of Babylon one hundred and eighteen years after Samsu-iluna's death.
+The new information supplied by the chronicle thus proves two important
+facts: first, that the Second Dynasty, instead of immediately succeeding
+the First Dynasty, was partly contemporary with it; second, that during
+the period in which the two dynasties were contemporary they were at
+war with one another, the Second Dynasty gradually encroaching on
+the territory of the First Dynasty, until it eventually succeeded in
+capturing Babylon and in getting the whole of the country under its
+control. We also learn from the new chronicle that this Second Dynasty
+at first established itself in "the Country of the Sea," that is to say,
+the districts in the extreme south of Babylonia bordering on the Persian
+Gulf, and afterwards extended its borders northward until it gradually
+absorbed the whole of Babylonia. Before discussing the other facts
+supplied by the new chronicle, with regard to the rise and growth of the
+Country of the Sea, whose kings formed the so-called "Second Dynasty,"
+it will be well to refer briefly to the sources from which the
+information on the period to be found in the current histories is
+derived.
+
+All the schemes of Babylonian chronology that have been suggested during
+the last twenty years have been based mainly on the great list of kings
+which is preserved in the British Museum. This document was drawn up in
+the Neo-Babylonian or Persian period, and when complete it gave a list
+of the names of all the Babylonian kings from the First Dynasty of
+Babylon down to the time in which it was written. The names of the kings
+are arranged in dynasties, and details are given as to the length of
+their reigns and the total number of years each dynasty lasted. The
+beginning of the list which gave the names of the First Dynasty is
+wanting, but the missing portion has been restored from a smaller
+document which gives a list of the kings of the First and Second
+Dynasties only. In the great list of kings the dynasties are arranged
+one after the other, and it was obvious that its compiler imagined that
+they succeeded one another in the order in which he arranged them.
+But when the total number of years the dynasties lasted is learned, we
+obtain dates for the first dynasties in the list which are too early to
+agree with other chronological information supplied by the historical
+inscriptions. The majority of writers have accepted the figures of the
+list of kings and have been content to ignore the discrepancies; others
+have sought to reconcile the available data by ingenious emendations of
+the figures given by the list and the historical inscriptions, or have
+omitted the Second Dynasty entirely from their calculations. The new
+chronicle, by showing that the First and Second Dynasties were partly
+contemporaneous, explains the discrepancies that have hitherto proved so
+puzzling.
+
+It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed discussion of
+Babylonian chronology, and therefore we will confine ourselves to a
+brief description of the sequence of events as revealed by the new
+chronicle. According to the list of kings, Iluma-ilu's reign was a long
+one, lasting for sixty years, and the new chronicle gives no indication
+as to the period of his reign at which active hostilities with Babylon
+broke out. If the war occurred in the latter portion of his reign, it
+would follow that he had been for many years organizing the forces of
+the new state he had founded in the south of Babylonia before making
+serious encroachments in the north; and in that case the incessant
+campaigns carried on by Babylon against Blam in the reigns of Hammurabi
+and Samsu-iluna would have afforded him the opportunity of establishing
+a firm foothold in the Country of the Sea without the risk of Babylonian
+interference. If, on the other hand, it was in the earlier part of his
+reign that hostilities with Babylon broke out, we may suppose that,
+while Samsu-iluna was devoting all his energies to crush Bim-Sin, the
+Country of the Sea declared her independence of Babylonian control. In
+this case we may imagine Samsu-iluna hurrying south, on the conclusion
+of his Elamite campaign, to crush the newly formed state before it had
+had time to organize its forces for prolonged resistance.
+
+Whichever of these alternatives eventually may prove to be correct, it
+is certain that Samsu-iluna took the initiative in Babylon's struggle
+with the Country of the Sea, and that his action was due either to her
+declaration of independence or to some daring act of aggression on the
+part of this small state which had hitherto appeared too insignificant
+to cause Babylon any serious trouble. The new chronicle tells us that
+Samsu-iluna undertook two expeditions against the Country of the Sea,
+both of which proved unsuccessful. In the first of these he penetrated
+to the very shores of the Persian Gulf, where a battle took place in
+which Samsu-iluna was defeated, and the bodies of many of the Babylonian
+soldiers were washed away by the sea. In the second campaign Iluma-ilu
+did not await Samsu-iluna's attack, but advanced to meet him, and again
+defeated the Babylonian army. In the reign of Ab�shu', Samsu-iluna's
+son and successor, Iluma-ilu appears to have undertaken fresh acts of
+aggression against Babylon; and it was probably during one of his raids
+in Babylonian territory that Ab�shu' attempted to crush the growing power
+of the Country of the Sea by the capture of its daring leader, Iluma-ilu
+himself. The new chronicle informs us that, with this object in
+view, Ab�shu' dammed the river Tigris, hoping by this means to cut off
+Iluma-ilu and his army, but his stratagem did not succeed, and Iluma-ilu
+got back to his own territory in safety.
+
+The new chronicle does not supply us with further details of the
+struggle between Babylon and the Country of the Sea, but we may conclude
+that all similar attempts on the part of the later kings of the First
+Dynasty to crush or restrain the power of the new state were useless. It
+is probable that from this time forward the kings of the First Dynasty
+accepted the independence of the Country of the Sea upon their southern
+border as an evil which they were powerless to prevent. They must have
+looked back with regret to the good times the country had enjoyed under
+the powerful sway of Hammurabi, whose victorious arms even their ancient
+foes, the Blamites, had been unable to withstand. But, although the
+chronicle does not recount the further successes achieved by the Country
+of the Sea, it records a fact which undoubtedly contributed to hasten
+the fall of Babylon and bring the First Dynasty to an end. It tells us
+that in the reign of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty,
+the men of the land of Khattu (the Hittites from Northern Syria) marched
+against him in order to conquer the land of Akkad; in other words, they
+marched down the Euphrates and invaded Northern Babylonia. The chronicle
+does not state how far the invasion was successful, but the appearance
+of a new enemy from the northwest must have divided the Babylonian
+forces and thus have reduced their power of resisting pressure from the
+Country of the Sea. Samsu-ditana may have succeeded in defeating the
+Hittites and in driving them from his country; but the fact that he
+was the last king of the First Dynasty proves that in his reign Babylon
+itself fell into the hands of the king of the Country of the Sea.
+
+The question now arises, To what race did the people of the Country
+of the Sea belong? Did they represent an advance-guard of the Kassite
+tribes, who eventually succeeded in establishing themselves as the Third
+Dynasty in Babylon? Or were they the Elamites who, when driven from Ur
+and Larsam, retreated southwards and maintained their independence on
+the shores of the Persian Gulf? Or did they represent some fresh wave of
+Semitic immigration'? That they were not Kassites is proved by the new
+chronicle which relates how the Country of the Sea was conquered by the
+Kassites, and how the dynasty founded by Iluma-ilu thus came to an end.
+There is nothing to show that they were Elamites, and if the Country of
+the Sea had been colonized by fresh Semitic tribes, so far from opposing
+their kindred in Babylon, most probably they would have proved to them
+a source of additional strength and support. In fact, there are
+indications that the people of the Country of the Sea are to be referred
+to an older stock than the Elamites, the Semites, or the Kassites. In
+the dynasty of the Country of the Sea there is no doubt that we may
+trace the last successful struggle of the ancient Sumerians to retain
+possession of the land which they had held for so many centuries before
+the invading Semites had disputed its possession with them.
+
+Evidence of the Sumerian origin of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea may be traced in the names which several of them bear. Ishkibal,
+Grulkishar, Peshgal-daramash, A-dara-kalama, Akur-ul-ana, and
+Melam-kur-kura, the names of some of them, are all good Sumerian names,
+and Shushshi, the brother of Ishkibal, may also be taken as a Sumerian
+name. It is true that the first three kings of the dynasty, Iluma-ilu,
+Itti-ili-nibi, and Damki-ilishu, and the last king of the dynasty,
+Ea-gamil, bear Semitic Babylonian names, but there is evidence that
+at least one of these is merely a Semitic rendering of a Sumerian
+equivalent. Iluma-ilu, the founder of the dynasty, has left inscriptions
+in which his name is written in its correct Sumerian form as
+Dingir-a-an, and the fact that he and some of his successors either bore
+Semitic names or appear in the late list of kings with their Sumerian
+names translated into Babylonian form may be easily explained by
+supposing that the population of the Country of the Sea was mixed and
+that the Sumerian and Semitic tongues were to a great extent employed
+indiscriminately. This supposition is not inconsistent with the
+suggestion that the dynasty of the Country of the Sea was Sumerian, and
+that under it the Sumerians once more became the predominant race in
+Babylonia.
+
+The new chronicle also relates how the dynasty of the Country of the
+Sea succumbed in its turn before the incursions of the Kassites. We know
+that already under the First Dynasty the Kassite tribes had begun to
+make incursions into Babylonia, for the ninth year of Samsu-iluna was
+named in the date-formulae after a Kassite invasion, which, as it
+was commemorated in this manner by the Babylonians, was probably
+successfully repulsed. Such invasions must have taken place from time to
+time during the period of supremacy attained by the Country of the Sea,
+and it was undoubtedly with a view to stopping such incursions--for the
+future that Ea-gamil--the last king of the Second Dynasty, decided to
+invade Elam and conquer the mountainous districts in which the Kassite
+tribes had built their strongholds. This Elamite campaign of Ea-gamil
+is recorded by the new chronicle, which relates how he was defeated and
+driven from the country by Ulam-Buriash, the brother of Bitiliash the
+Kassite. Ulam-Buriash did not rest content with repelling Ea-gamil's
+invasion of his land, but pursued him across the border and succeeded
+in conquering the Country of the Sea and in establishing there his own
+administration. The gradual conquest of the whole of Babylonia by the
+Kassites no doubt followed the conquest of the Country of the Sea,
+for the chronicle relates how the process of subjugation, begun by
+Ulam-Buriash, was continued by his nephew Agum, and we know from the
+lists of kings that Ea-gamil was the last king of the dynasty founded by
+Iluma-ilu. In this fashion the Second Dynasty was brought to an end, and
+the Sumerian element in the mixed population of Babylonia did not again
+succeed in gaining control of the government of the country.
+
+It will be noticed that the account of the earliest Kassite rulers of
+Babylonia which is given by the new chronicle does not exactly tally
+with the names of the kings of the Third Dynasty as found upon the
+list of kings. On this document the first king of the dynasty is named
+Gandash, with whom we may probably identify Ulam-Buriash, the Kassite
+conqueror of the Country of the Sea; the second king is Agum, and the
+third is Bitiliashi. According to the new chronicle Agum was the son
+of Bitiliashi, and it would be improbable that he should have ruled in
+Babylonia before his father. But this difficulty is removed by supposing
+that the two names were transposed by some copyist. The different
+names assigned to the founder of the Kassite dynasty may be due to
+the existence of variant traditions, or Ulam-Buriash may have assumed
+another name on his conquest of Babylonia, a practice which was usual
+with the later kings of Assyria when they occupied the Babylonian
+throne.
+
+The information supplied by the new chronicle with regard to the
+relations of the first three dynasties to one another is of the greatest
+possible interest to the student of early Babylonian history. We see
+that the Semitic empire founded at Babylon by Sumu-abu, and consolidated
+by Hammurabi, was not established on so firm a basis as has hitherto
+been believed. The later kings of the dynasty, after Elam had been
+conquered, had to defend their empire from encroachments on the south,
+and they eventually succumbed before the onslaught of the Sumerian
+element, which still remained in the population of Babylonia and had
+rallied in the Country of the Sea. This dynasty in its turn succumbed
+before the invasion of the Kassites from the mountains in the western
+districts of Elam, and, although the city of Babylon retained her
+position as the capital of the country throughout these changes of
+government, she was the capital of rulers of different races, who
+successively fought for and obtained the control of the fertile plains
+of Mesopotamia.
+
+It is probable that the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty exercised
+authority not only over Babylonia but also over the greater part of
+Elam, for a number of inscriptions of Kassite kings of Babylonia have
+been found by M. de Morgan at Susa. These inscriptions consist of
+grants of land written on roughly shaped stone stel�, a class which the
+Babylonians themselves called _kudurru_, while they have been frequently
+referred to by modern writers as "boundary-stones." This latter term
+is not very happily chosen, for it suggests that the actual monuments
+themselves were set up on the limits of a field or estate to mark its
+boundary. It is true that the inscription on a kudurru enumerates the
+exact position and size of the estate with which it is concerned,
+but the kudurru was never actually used to mark the boundary. It was
+preserved as a title-deed, in the house of the owner of the estate or
+possibly in the temple of his god, and formed his charter or title-deed
+to which he could appeal in case of any dispute arising as to his right
+of ownership. One of the kudurrus found by M. de Morgan records the
+grant of a number of estates near Babylon by Nazimaruttash, a king of
+the Third or Kassite Dynasty, to the god Marduk, that is to say they
+were assigned by the king to the service of E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk at Babylon.
+
+[Illustration: 256.jpg A KUDURRU OR "BOUNDARY-STONE."]
+
+     Inscribed with a text of Nazimaruttash, a king of the Third
+     or Kassite Dynasty, conferring certain estates near Babylon
+     on the temple of Marduk and on a certain man named Kashakti-
+     Shugab. The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan's
+     Delegation en Perse, M�m., t. ii, pi, 18.
+
+All the crops and produce from the land were granted for the supply of
+the temple, which was to enjoy the property without the payment of any
+tax or tribute. The text also records the gift of considerable tracts of
+land in the same district to a private individual named Kashakti-Shugab,
+who was to enjoy a similar freedom from taxation so far as the lands
+bestowed upon him were concerned.
+
+This freedom from taxation is specially enacted by the document in
+the words: "Whensoever in the days that are to come the ruler of the
+country, or one of the governors, or directors, or wardens of these
+districts, shall make any claim with regard to these estates, or shall
+attempt to impose the payment of a tithe or tax upon them, may all the
+great gods whose names are commemorated, or whose arms are portrayed, or
+whose dwelling-places are represented, on this stone, curse him with an
+evil curse and blot out his name!"
+
+Incidentally, this curse illustrates one of the most striking
+characteristics of the kudurrus, or "boundary-stones," viz. the carved
+figures of gods and representations of their emblems, which all of them
+bare in addition to the texts inscribed upon them. At one time it was
+thought that these symbols were to be connected with the signs of the
+zodiac and various constellations and stars, and it was suggested that
+they might have been intended to represent the relative positions of the
+heavenly bodies at the time the document was drawn up. But this text
+of Nazimaruttash and other similar documents that have recently been
+discovered prove that the presence of the figures and emblems of the
+gods upon the stones is to be explained on another and far more simple
+theory. They were placed there as guardians of the property to which the
+kudurru referred, and it was believed that the carving of their figures
+or emblems upon the stone would ensure their intervention in case of
+any attempted infringement of the rights and privileges which it was
+the object of the document to commemorate and preserve. A photographic
+reproduction of one side of the kudurru of Nazi-maruttash is shown in
+the accompanying illustration. There will be seen a representation of
+Gula or Bau, the mother of the gods, who is portrayed as seated on
+her throne and wearing the four-horned head-dress and a long robe
+that reaches to her feet. In the field are emblems of the Sun-god, the
+Moon-god, Ishtar, and other deities, and the representation of divine
+emblems and dwelling-places is continued on another face of the stone
+round the corner towards which Grula is looking. The other two faces of
+the document are taken up with the inscription.
+
+An interesting note is appended to the text inscribed upon the stone,
+beginning under the throne and feet of Marduk and continuing under the
+emblems of the gods upon the other side. This note relates the history
+of the document in the following words: "In those days Kashakti-Shugab,
+the son of Nusku-na'id, inscribed (this document) upon a memorial
+of clay, and he set it before his god. But in the reign of
+Marduk-aplu-iddina, king of hosts, the son of Melishikhu, King
+of Babylon, the wall fell upon this memorial and crushed it.
+Shu-khuli-Shugab, the son of Nibishiku, wrote a copy of the ancient
+text upon a new stone stele, and he set it (before the god)." It will be
+seen, therefore, that this actual stone that has been recovered was not
+the document drawn up in the reign of Nazimaruttash, but a copy made
+under Marduk-aplu-iddina, a later king of the Third Dynasty. The
+original deed was drawn up to preserve the rights of Kashakti-Shugab,
+who shared the grant of land with the temple of Marduk. His share was
+less than half that of the temple, but, as both were situated in the
+same district, he was careful to enumerate and describe the temple's
+share, to prevent any encroachment on his rights by the Babylonian
+priests.
+
+It is probable that such grants of land were made to private individuals
+in return for special services which they had rendered to the king. Thus
+a broken kudurru among M. de Morgan's finds records the confirmation of
+a man's claims to certain property by Biti-liash II, the claims being
+based on a grant made to the man's ancestor by Kurigalzu for services
+rendered to the king during his war with Assyria. One of the finest
+specimens of this class of charters or title-deeds has been found at
+Susa, dating from the reign of Melishikhu, a king of the Third Dynasty.
+The document in question records a grant of certain property in the
+district of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, near the cities Agade and D�r-Kurigalzu,
+made by Melishikhu to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son, who succeeded him
+upon the throne of Babylon. The text first gives details with regard to
+the size and situation of the estates included in the grant of land, and
+it states the names of the high officials who were entrusted with the
+duty of measuring them. The remainder of the text defines and secures
+the privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina together with the land,
+and, as it throws considerable light upon the system of land tenure at
+the period, an extract from it may here be translated:
+
+"To prevent the encroachment on his land," the inscription runs, "thus
+hath he (i.e. the king) established his (Marduk-aplu-iddina's) charter.
+On his land taxes and tithes shall they not impose; ditches, limits, and
+boundaries shall they not displace; there shall be no plots, stratagems,
+or claims (with regard to his possession); for forced labour or public
+work for the prevention of floods, for the maintenance and repair of
+the royal canal under the protection of the towns of Bit-Sikkamidu
+and Damik-Adad, among the gangs levied in the towns of the district of
+Nin�-Agade, they shall not call out the people of his estate; they are
+not liable to forced labour on the sluices of the royal canal, nor
+are they liable for building dams, nor for closing the canal, nor for
+digging out the bed thereof."
+
+[Illustration: 260.jpg KUOTTRRU, OR "BOUNDARY-STONE."]
+
+     Inscribed with a text of Melishikhu, one of the kings of the
+     Third or Kassite Dynasty of Babylon, recording a grant of
+     certain property to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son The
+     photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan's Delegation en
+     Perse, Mem., t. ii, pi. 24.
+
+"A cultivator of his lands, whether hired or belonging to the estate,
+and the men who receive his instructions (i.e. his overseers) shall no
+governor of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab� cause to leave his lands, whether by the
+order of the king, or by the order of the governor, or by the order of
+whosoever may be at B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�. On wood, grass, straw, corn,
+and every other sort of crop, on his carts and yoke, on his ass and
+man-servant, shall they make no levy. During the scarcity of water in
+the canal running between the Bati-Anzanim canal and the canal of the
+royal district, on the waters of his ditch for irrigation shall they
+make no levy; from the ditch of his reservoir shall they not draw water,
+neither shall they divert (his water for) irrigation, and other land
+shall they not irrigate nor water therewith. The grass of his lands
+shall they not mow; the beasts belonging to the king or to a governor,
+which may be assigned to the district of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, shall they
+not drive within his boundary, nor shall they pasture them on his grass.
+He shall not be forced to build a road or a bridge, whether for the
+king, or for the governor who may be appointed in the district of
+B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, neither shall he be liable for any new form of
+forced labour, which in the days that are to come a king, or a governor
+appointed in the district of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, shall institute and
+exact, nor for forced labour long fallen into disuse which may be
+revived anew. To prevent encroachment on his land the king hath fixed
+the privileges of his domain, and that which appertaineth unto it, and
+all that he hath granted unto him; and in the presence of Shamash, and
+Marduk, and Anunitu, and the great gods of heaven and earth, he hath
+inscribed them upon a stone, and he hath left it as an everlasting
+memorial with regard to his estate."
+
+The whole of the text is too long to quote, and it will suffice to note
+here that Melishikhu proceeds to appeal to future kings to respect the
+land and privileges which he has granted to his son, Marduk-aplu-iddina,
+even as he himself has respected similar grants made by his predecessors
+on the throne; and the text ends with some very vivid curses against
+any one, whatever his station, who should make any encroachments on the
+privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina, or should alter or do any harm
+to the memorial-stone itself. The emblems of the gods whom Melishikhu
+invokes to avenge any infringement of his grant are sculptured upon one
+side of the stone, for, as has already been remarked, it was believed
+that by carving them upon the memorial-stone their help in guarding the
+stone itself and its enactments was assured.
+
+From the portion of the text inscribed upon the stone which has just
+been translated it is seen that the owner of land in Babylonia in the
+period of the Kassite kings, unless he was granted special exemption,
+was liable to furnish forced labour for public works to the state or to
+his district, to furnish grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of
+the king or governor, and to pay various taxes and tithes on his land,
+his water for irrigation, and his crops. From the numerous documents
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon that have been recovered and published
+within the last few years we know that similar customs were prevalent at
+that period, so that it is clear that the successive conquests to which
+the country was subjected, and the establishment of different dynasties
+of foreign kings at Babylon, did not to any appreciable extent affect
+the life and customs of the inhabitants of the country or even the
+general character of its government and administration. Some documents
+of a commercial and legal nature, inscribed upon clay tablets during the
+reigns of the Kassite kings of Babylon, have been found at Nippur,
+but they have not yet been published, and the information we possess
+concerning the life of the people in this period is obtained indirectly
+from kudurrus or boundary-stones, such as those of Nazimaruttash and
+Melishikhu which have been already described. Of documents relating to
+the life of the people under the rule of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea we have none, and, with the exception of the unpublished chronicle
+which has been described earlier in this chapter, our information for
+this period is confined to one or two short votive inscriptions. But the
+case is very different with regard to the reigns of the Semitic kings of
+the First Dynasty of Babylon. Thousands of tablets relating to legal and
+commercial transactions during this period have been recovered, and more
+recently a most valuable series of royal letters, written by Hammurabi
+and other kings of his dynasty, has been brought to light.
+
+[Illustration: 264.jpg Upper Part of the Stele of Hammurabi, King of
+Babylon.]
+
+     The stele is inscribed with his great code of laws. The Sun-
+     god is represented as seated on a throne in the form of a
+     temple fa�ade, and his feet are resting upon the mountains.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+Moreover, the recently discovered code of laws drawn up by Hammurabi
+contains information of the greatest interest with regard to the
+conditions of life that were prevalent in Babylonia at that period.
+From these three sources it is possible to draw up a comparatively full
+account of early Babylonian life and customs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+
+
+In tracing the ancient history of Mesopotamia and the surrounding
+countries it is possible to construct a narrative which has the
+appearance of being comparatively full and complete. With regard to
+Babylonia it may be shown how dynasty succeeded dynasty, and for long
+periods together the names of the kings have been recovered and the
+order of their succession fixed with certainty. But the number and
+importance of the original documents on which this connected narration
+is based vary enormously for different periods. Gaps occur in our
+knowledge of the sequence of events, which with some ingenuity may be
+bridged over by means of the native lists of kings and the genealogies
+furnished by the historical inscriptions. On the other hand, as if to
+make up for such parsimony, the excavations have yielded a wealth of
+material for illustrating the conditions of early Babylonian life which
+prevailed in such periods. The most fortunate of these periods, so far
+as the recovery of its records is concerned, is undoubtedly the period
+of the Semitic kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and in particular
+the reign of its greatest ruler, Hammurabi. When M. Maspero wrote his
+history, thousands of clay tablets, inscribed with legal and commercial
+documents and dated in the reigns of these early kings, had already been
+recovered, and the information they furnished was duly summarized by
+him.* But since that time two other sources of information have been
+made available which have largely increased our knowledge of
+the constitution of the early Babylonian state, its system of
+administration, and the conditions of life of the various classes of the
+population.
+
+     * Most of these tablets are preserved in the British Museum.
+     The principal?works in which they have been published are
+     Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum (1896, etc.),
+     Strassmaier's Altbabylonischen Vertr�ge aus Warka, and
+     Meissner's Beitr�ge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht. A
+     number of similar tablets of this period, preserved in the
+     Pennsylvania Museum, will shortly be published by Dr. Ranke.
+
+One of these new sources of information consists of a remarkable series
+of royal letters, written by kings of the First Dynasty, which has been
+recovered and is now preserved in the British Museum. The letters were
+addressed to the governors and high officials of various great cities in
+Babylonia, and they contain the king's orders with regard to details of
+the administration of the country which had been brought to his notice.
+The range of subjects with which they deal is enormous, and there is
+scarcely one of them which does not add to our knowledge of the period.*
+The other new source of information is the great code of laws, drawn up
+by Hammurabi for the guidance of his people and defining the duties and
+privileges of all classes of his subjects, the discovery of which at
+Susa has been described in a previous chapter. The laws are engraved on
+a great stele of diorite in no less than forty-nine columns of writing,
+of which forty-four are preserved,* and at the head of the stele is
+sculptured a representation of the king receiving them from Shamash, the
+Sun-god.
+
+     * See King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, 3 vols.
+     (1898-1900).
+
+This code shows to what an extent the administration of law and justice
+had been developed in Babylonia in the time of the First Dynasty. From
+the contracts and letters of the period we already knew that regular
+judges and duly appointed courts of law were in existence, and the code
+itself was evidently intended by the king to give the royal sanction to
+a great body of legal decisions and enactments which already possessed
+the authority conferred by custom and tradition. The means by which such
+a code could have come into existence are illustrated by the system of
+procedure adopted in the courts at this period. After a case had been
+heard and judgment had been given, a summary of the case and of the
+evidence, together with the judgment, was drawn up and written out on
+tablets in due legal form and phraseology. A list of the witnesses was
+appended, and, after the tablet had been dated and sealed, it was stored
+away among the legal archives of the court, where it was ready for
+production in the event of any future appeal or case in which the
+recorded decision was involved. This procedure represents an advanced
+stage in the system of judicial administration, but the care which
+was taken for the preservation of the judgments given was evidently
+traditional, and would naturally give rise in course of time to the
+existence of a recognized code of laws.
+
+Moreover, when once a judgment had been given and had been duly recorded
+it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision
+he was severely punished. For not only was he expelled from his
+judgment-seat, and debarred from exercising judicial functions in the
+future, but, if his judgment had involved the infliction of a penalty,
+he was obliged to pay twelve times the amount to the man he had
+condemned. Such an enactment must have occasionally given rise to
+hardship or injustice, but at least it must have had the effect
+of imbuing the judges with a sense of their responsibility and of
+instilling a respect for their decisions in the minds of the people. A
+further check upon injustice was provided by the custom of the elders of
+the city, who sat with the judge and assisted him in the carrying out
+of his duties; and it was always open to a man, if he believed that he
+could not get justice enforced, to make an appeal to the king. It is not
+our present purpose to give a technical discussion of the legal contents
+of the code, but rather to examine it with the object of ascertaining
+what light it throws upon ancient Babylonian life and customs, and the
+conditions under which the people lived.
+
+The code gives a good deal of information with regard to the family life
+of the Babylonians, and, above all, proves the sanctity with which the
+marriage-tie was invested. The claims that were involved by marriage
+were not lightly undertaken. Any marriage, to be legally binding, had to
+be accompanied by a duly executed and attested marriage-contract. If a
+man had taken a woman to wife without having carried out this necessary
+preliminary, the woman was not regarded as his wife in the legal sense.
+On the other hand, when once such a marriage-contract had been drawn up,
+its inviolability was stringently secured. A case of proved adultery
+on the part of a man's wife was punished by the drowning of the guilty
+parties, though the husband of the woman, if he wished to save his wife,
+could do so by an appeal to the king. Similarly, death was the penalty
+for a man who ravished another man's betrothed wife while she was still
+living in her father's house, but in this case the girl's innocence
+and inexperience were taken into account, and no penalty was enforced
+against her and she was allowed to go free. Where the adultery of a wife
+was not proved, and only depended on the accusation of the husband, the
+woman could clear herself by swearing her own innocence; if, however,
+the accusation was not brought by the husband himself, but by others,
+the woman could clear herself by submitting to the ordeal by water; that
+is to say, she would plunge into the Euphrates; if the river carried her
+away and she were drowned, it was regarded as proof that the accusation
+was well founded; if, on the contrary, she survived and got safely
+to the bank, she was considered innocent and was forthwith allowed to
+return to her household completely vindicated.
+
+It will have been seen that the duty of chastity on the part of a
+married woman was strictly enforced, but the husband's responsibility to
+properly maintain his wife was also recognized, and in the event of
+his desertion she could under certain circumstances become the wife of
+another man. Thus, if he left his city and fled from it of his own free
+will and deserted his wife, he could not reclaim her on his return,
+since he had not been forced to leave the city, but had done so because
+he hated it. This rule did not apply to the case of a man who was taken
+captive in battle. In such circumstances the wife's action was to be
+guided by the condition of her husband's affairs. If the captive husband
+possessed sufficient property on which his wife could be maintained
+during his captivity in a strange land, she had no reason nor excuse
+for seeking another marriage. If under these circumstances she became
+another man's wife, she was to be prosecuted at law, and, her action
+being the equivalent of adultery, she was to be drowned. But the case
+was regarded as altered if the captive husband had not sufficient means
+for the maintenance of his wife during his absence. The woman would then
+be thrown on her own resources, and if she became the wife of another
+man she incurred no blame. On the return of the captive he could reclaim
+his wife, but the children of the second marriage would remain with
+their own father. These regulations for the conduct of a woman, whose
+husband was captured in battle, give an intimate picture of the manner
+in which the constant wars of this early period affected the lives of
+those who took part in them.
+
+Under the Babylonians at the period of the First Dynasty divorce was
+strictly regulated, though it was far easier for the man to obtain one
+than for the woman. If we may regard the copies of Sumerian laws, which
+have come down to us from the late Assyrian period, as parts of the code
+in use under the early Sumerians, we must conclude that at this earlier
+period the law was still more in favour of the husband, who could
+divorce his wife whenever he so desired, merely paying her half a mana
+as compensation. Under the Sumerians the wife could not obtain a
+divorce at all, and the penalty for denying her husband was death. These
+regulations were modified in favour of the woman in Hammurabi's code;
+for under its provisions, if a man divorced his wife or his concubine,
+he was obliged to make proper provision for her maintenance. Whether
+she were barren or had borne him children, he was obliged to return
+her marriage portion; and in the latter case she had the custody of the
+children, for whose maintenance and education he was obliged to furnish
+the necessary supplies. Moreover, at the man's death she and her
+children would inherit a share of his property. When there had been no
+marriage portion, a sum was fixed which the husband was obliged to pay
+to his divorced wife, according to his status. In cases where the wife
+was proved to have wasted her household and to have entirely failed in
+her duty, her husband could divorce her without paying any compensation,
+or could make her a slave in his house, and the extreme penalty for
+this offence was death. On the other hand, a woman could not be divorced
+because she had contracted a permanent disease; and, if she desired to
+divorce her husband and could prove that her past life had been seemly,
+she could do so, returning to her father's house and taking her marriage
+portion with her.
+
+It is not necessary here to go very minutely into the regulations given
+by the code with regard to marriage portions, the rights of widows,
+the laws of inheritance, and the laws regulating the adoption and
+maintenance of children. The customs that already have been described
+with regard to marriage and divorce may serve to indicate the spirit
+in which the code is drawn up and the recognized status occupied by the
+wife in the Babylonian household. The extremely independent position
+enjoyed by women in the early Babylonian days is illustrated by the
+existence of a special class of women, to which constant reference is
+made in the contracts and letters of the period. When the existence of
+this class of women was first recognized from the references to them in
+the contract-tablets inscribed at the time of the First Dynasty, they
+were regarded as priestesses, but the regulations concerning them which
+occur in the code of Hammurabi prove that their duties were not strictly
+sacerdotal, but that they occupied the position of votaries. The
+majority of those referred to in the inscriptions of this period
+were vowed to the service of E-bab-bara, the temple of the Sun-god at
+Sippara, and of E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk at Babylon, but
+it is probable that all the great temples in the country had classes of
+female votaries attached to them. From the evidence at present
+available it may be concluded that the functions of these women bore no
+resemblance to that of the sacred prostitutes devoted to the service of
+the goddess Ishtar in the city of Erech. They seem to have occupied a
+position of great influence and independence in the community, and
+their duties and privileges were defined and safeguarded by special
+legislation.
+
+Generally they lived together in a special building, or convent,
+attached to the temple, but they had considerable freedom and could
+leave the convent and also contract marriage. Their vows, however,
+while securing them special privileges, entailed corresponding
+responsibilities. Even when married a votary was still obliged to remain
+a virgin, and, should her husband desire to have children, she could not
+bear them herself, but must provide him with a maid or concubine. Also
+she had to maintain a high standard of moral conduct, for any breach
+of which severe penalties were enforced. Thus, if a votary who was not
+living in the convent opened a beer-shop, or should enter one for drink,
+she ran the risk of being put to death. But the privileges she enjoyed
+were also considerable, for even when unmarried she enjoyed the status
+of a married woman, and if any man slandered her he incurred the penalty
+of branding on the forehead. Moreover, a married votary, though she
+could not bear her husband children, was secured in her position as the
+permanent head of his household. The concubine she might give to her
+husband was always the wife's inferior, even after bearing him children,
+and should the former attempt to put herself on a level of equality with
+the votary, the latter might brand her as a slave and put her with the
+female slaves. If the concubine proved barren she could be sold. The
+votary could also possess property, and on taking her vows was provided
+with a portion by her father exactly as though she were being given
+in marriage. Her portion was vested in herself and did not become the
+property of the order of votaries, nor of the temple to which she
+was attached. The proceeds of her property were devoted to her own
+maintenance, and on her father's death her brothers looked after
+her interests, or she might farm the property out. Under certain
+circumstances she could inherit property and was not obliged to pay
+taxes on it, and such property she could bequeath at her own death; but
+upon her death her portion returned to her own family unless her father
+had assigned her the privilege of bequeathing it. That the social
+position enjoyed by a votary was considerable is proved by the fact that
+many women of good family, and even members of the royal house, took
+vows. The existence of the order and its high repute indicate a
+very advanced conception of the position of women among the early
+Babylonians.
+
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gather considerable information with
+regard to the various classes of which the community was composed and
+to their relative social positions. For the purposes of legislation
+the community was divided into three main classes or sections, which
+corresponded to well-defined strata in the social system. The lowest
+of these classes consisted of the slaves, who must have formed a
+considerable portion of the population. The class next above them
+comprised the large body of free men, who were possessed of a certain
+amount of property but were poor and humble, as their name, _muslik�nu_,
+implied. These we may refer to as the middle class. The highest, or
+upper class, in the Babylonian community embraced all the officers and
+ministers attached to the court, the higher officials and servants
+of the state, and the owners of considerable lands and estates. The
+differences which divided and marked off from one another the two great
+classes of free men in the population of Babylonia is well illustrated
+by the scale of payments as compensation for injury which they were
+obliged to make or were entitled to receive. Thus, if a member of the
+upper class were guilty of stealing an ox, or a sheep, or an ass, or
+a pig, or a boat, from a temple or a private house, he had to pay the
+owner thirty times its value as compensation, whereas if the thief were
+a member of the middle class he only had to pay ten times its price, but
+if he had no property and so could not pay compensation he was put to
+death. The penalty for manslaughter was less if the assailant was a man
+of the middle class, and such a man could also divorce his wife more
+cheaply, and was privileged to pay his doctor or surgeon a smaller fee
+for a successful operation.
+
+But the privileges enjoyed by a man of the middle class were
+counterbalanced by a corresponding diminution of the value at which
+his life and limbs were assessed. Thus, if a doctor by carrying out an
+operation unskilfully caused the death of a member of the upper class,
+or inflicted a serious injury upon him, such as the loss of an eye, the
+punishment was the amputation of both hands, but no such penalty seems
+to have been exacted if the patient were a member of the middle class.
+If, however, the patient were a slave of a member of the middle class,
+in the event of death under the operation, the doctor had to give the
+owner another slave, and in the event of the slave losing his eye, he
+had to pay the owner half the slave's value. Penalties for assault were
+also regulated in accordance with the social position and standing
+of the parties to the quarrel. Thus, if one member of the upper class
+knocked out the eye or the tooth of one of his equals, his own eye or
+his own tooth was knocked out as a punishment, and if he broke the limb
+of one of the members of his own class, he had his corresponding limb
+broken; but if he knocked out the eye of a member of the middle class,
+or broke his limb, he suffered no punishment in his own person, but was
+fined one mana of silver, and for knocking out the tooth of such a man
+he was fined one-third of a mana. If two members of the same class were
+engaged in a quarrel, and one of them made a peculiarly improper assault
+upon the other, the assailant was only fined, the fine being larger
+if the quarrel was between members of the upper class. But if such an
+assault was made by one man upon another who was of higher rank than
+himself, the assailant was punished by being publicly beaten in the
+presence of the assembly, when he received sixty stripes from a scourge
+of ox-hide. These regulations show the privileges and responsibilities
+which pertained to the two classes of free men in the Babylonian
+community, and they indicate the relative social positions which they
+enjoyed.
+
+Both classes of free men could own slaves, though it is obvious that
+they were more numerous in the households and on the estates of members
+of the upper class. The slave was the absolute property of his master
+and could be bought and sold and employed as a deposit for a debt,
+but, though slaves as a class had few rights of their own, in certain
+circumstances they could acquire them. Thus, if the owner of a female
+slave had begotten children by her he could not use her as the payment
+for a debt, and in the event of his having done so he was obliged to
+ransom her by paying the original amount of the debt in money. It was
+also possible for a male slave, whether owned by a member of the upper
+or of the middle class, to marry a free woman, and if he did so, his
+children were free and did not become the property of his master. Also,
+if the free woman whom the slave married brought with her a marriage
+portion from her father's house, this remained her own property on the
+slave's death, and supposing the couple had acquired other property
+during the time they lived together as man and wife, the owner of the
+slave could only claim half of such property, the other half being
+retained by the free woman for her own use and for that of her children.
+
+Generally speaking, the lot of the slave was not a particularly hard
+one, for he was a recognized member of his owner's household, and, as a
+valuable piece of property, it was obviously to his owner's interest to
+keep him healthy and in good condition. In fact, the value of the slave
+is attested by the severity of the penalty imposed for abducting a male
+or female slave from the owner's house and removing him or her from
+the city; for a man guilty of this offence was put to death. The same
+penalty was imposed for harbouring and taking possession of a runaway
+slave, whereas a fixed reward was paid by the owner to any one by whom
+a runaway slave was captured and brought back. Special legislation was
+also devised with the object of rendering the theft of slaves difficult
+and their detection easy. Thus, if a brander put a mark upon a slave
+without the owner's consent, he was liable to have his hands cut off,
+and if he could prove that he did so through being deceived by another
+man, that man was put to death. For bad offences slaves were liable to
+severe punishments, such as cutting off the ear, which was the penalty
+for denying his master, and also for making an aggravated assault on a
+member of the upper class of free men. But it is clear that on the whole
+the slave was well looked after. He was also not condemned to remain
+perpetually a slave, for while still in his master's service it was
+possible for him, under certain conditions, to acquire property of his
+own, and if he did so he was able with his master's consent to purchase
+his freedom. If a slave were captured by the enemy and taken to a
+foreign land and sold, and were then brought back by his new owner to
+his own country, he could claim his liberty without having to pay any
+purchase-money to either of his masters.
+
+The code of Hammurabi also contains detailed regulations concerning the
+duties of debtors and creditors, and it throws an interesting light
+on the commercial life of the Babylonians at this early period. For
+instance, it reveals the method by which a wealthy man, or a merchant,
+extended his business and obtained large profits by trading with other
+towns. This he did by employing agents who were under certain fixed
+obligations to him, but acted independently so far as their trading was
+concerned. From the merchant these agents would receive money or grain
+or wool or oil or any sort of goods wherewith to trade, and in return
+they paid a fixed share of their profits, retaining the remainder as
+the recompense for their own services. They were thus the earliest of
+commercial travellers. In order to prevent fraud between the merchant
+and the agent special regulations were framed for the dealings they had
+with one another. Thus, when the agent received from the merchant the
+money or goods to trade with, it was enacted that he should at the time
+of the transaction give a properly executed receipt for the amount he
+had received. Similarly, if the agent gave the merchant money in return
+for the goods he had received and in token of his good faith, the
+merchant had to give a receipt to the agent, and in reckoning their
+accounts after the agent's return from his journey, only such amounts as
+were specified in the receipts were to be regarded as legal obligations.
+If the agent forgot to obtain his proper receipt he did so at his own
+risk.
+
+[Illustration: 280.jpg CLAY CONTRACT TABLET AND ITS OUTER CASE]
+
+     Dating from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon.
+
+Travelling at this period was attended with some risk, as it is in the
+East at the present day, and the caravan with which an agent travelled
+was liable to attack from brigands, or it might be captured by enemies
+of the country from which it set out. It was right that loss from this
+cause should not be borne by the agent, who by trading with the goods
+was risking his own life, but should fall upon the merchant who had
+merely advanced the goods and was safe in his own city. It is plain,
+however, that disputes frequently arose in consequence of the loss of
+goods through a caravan being attacked and robbed, for the code states
+clearly the responsibility of the merchant in the matter. If in the
+course of his journey an enemy had forced the agent to give up some of
+the goods he was carrying, on his return the agent had to specify the
+amount on oath, and he was then acquitted of all responsibility in the
+matter. If he attempted to cheat his employer by misappropriating the
+money or goods advanced to him, on being convicted of the offence before
+the elders of the city, he was obliged to repay the merchant three times
+the amount he had taken. On the other hand, if the merchant attempted
+to defraud his agent by denying that the due amount had been returned to
+him, he was obliged on conviction to pay the agent six times the amount
+as compensation. It will thus be seen that the law sought to protect the
+agent from the risk of being robbed by his more powerful employer.
+
+The merchant sometimes furnished the agent with goods which he was to
+dispose of in the best markets he could find in the cities and towns
+along his route, and sometimes he would give the agent money with which
+to purchase goods in foreign cities for sale on his return. If the
+venture proved successful the merchant and his agent shared the profits
+between them, but if the agent made bad bargains he had to refund to the
+merchant the value of the goods he had received; if the merchant had not
+agreed to risk losing any profit, the amount to be refunded to him was
+fixed at double the value of the goods advanced.
+
+[Illustration: 282.jpg A TRACK IN THE DESERT.]
+
+This last enactment gives an indication of the immense profits which
+were obtained by both the merchant and the agent from this system of
+foreign trade, for it is clear that what was regarded fair profit for
+the merchant was double the value of the goods disposed of. The profits
+of a successful journey would also include a fair return to the agent
+for the trouble and time involved in his undertaking. Many of the
+contract tablets of this early period relate to such commercial
+journeys, which show that various bargains were made between the
+different parties interested, and sometimes such contracts, or
+partnerships, were entered into, not for a single journey only, but for
+long periods. We may therefore conclude that at the time of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon, and probably for long centuries before that period,
+the great trade-routes of the East were crowded with traffic. With the
+exception that donkeys and asses were employed for beasts of burden and
+were not supplemented by horses and camels until a much later period, a
+camping-ground in the desert on one of the great trade-routes must have
+presented a scene similar to that of a caravan camping in the desert at
+the present day.
+
+[Illustration: 283.jpg A CAMPING-GROUND IN THE DESERT, BETWEEN BIREJIK
+AND URFA.]
+
+The rough tracks beaten by the feet of men and beasts are the same
+to-day as they were in that remote period. We can imagine a body of
+these early travellers approaching a walled city at dusk and hastening
+their pace to get there before the gates were shut. Such a picture as
+that of the approach to the city of Samarra, with its mediaeval walls,
+may be taken as having had its counterpart in many a city of the early
+Babylonians. The caravan route leads through the desert to the city
+gate, and if we substitute two massive temple towers for the domes of
+the mosques that rise above the wall, little else in the picture need be
+changed.
+
+[Illustration: 284.jpg APPROACH TO THE CITY OF SAMARRA, SITUATED ON THE
+LEFT BANK OF THE TIGRIS.]
+
+     A small caravan is here seen approaching the city at sunset
+     before the gates are shut. Samarra was only founded in A. D.
+     834, by the Khalif el-Motasim, the son of Har�n er-Rash�d,
+     but customs in the East do not change, and the photograph
+     may be used to illustrate the approach of an early
+     Babylonian caravan to a walled city of the period.
+
+The houses, too, at this period must have resembled the structures of
+unburnt brick of the present day, with their flat mud tops, on which
+the inmates sleep at night during the hot season, supported on poles
+and brushwood. The code furnishes evidence that at that time, also, the
+houses were not particularly well built and were liable to fall, and,
+in the event of their doing so, it very justly fixes the responsibility
+upon the builder. It is clear from the penalties for bad workmanship
+enforced upon the builder that considerable abuses had existed in the
+trade before the time of Hammurabi, and it is not improbable that the
+enforcement of the penalties succeeded in stamping them out. Thus, if
+a builder built a house for a man, and his work was not sound and the
+house fell and crushed the owner so that he died, it was enacted that
+the builder himself should be put to death. If the fall of the house
+killed the owner's son, the builder's own son was to be put to death.
+
+[Illustration: 285.jpg A SMALL CARAVAN IN THE MOUNTAINS OF KURDISTAN.]
+
+If one or more of the owner's slaves were killed, the builder had to
+restore him slave for slave. Any damage which the owner's goods might
+have suffered from the fall of the house was to be made good by the
+builder. In addition to these penalties the builder was obliged to
+rebuild the house, or any portion of it that had fallen through
+not being properly secured, at his own cost. On the other hand, due
+provisions were made for the payment of the builder for sound work; and
+as the houses of the period rarely, if ever, consisted of more than one
+story, the scale of payment was fixed by the area of ground covered by
+the building.
+
+[Illustration: 286.jpg THE CITY OF MOSUL.]
+
+     Situated on the right bank of the Tigris opposite the mounds
+     which mark the site of the ancient city of Nineveh. The
+     flat-roof ednouses which may be distinguished in the
+     photograph are very similar in form and construction to
+     those employed by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
+
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gain considerable information with
+regard to agricultural pursuits in ancient Babylonia, for elaborate
+regulations are given concerning the landowner's duties and
+responsibilities, and his relations to his tenants. The usual practice
+in hiring land for cultivation was for the tenant to pay his rent in
+kind, by assigning a certain proportion of the crop, generally a third
+or a half, to the owner. If a tenant hired certain land for cultivation
+he was bound to till it and raise a crop, and should he neglect to do
+so he had to pay the owner what was reckoned as the average rent of the
+land, and he had also to break up the land and plough it before handing
+it back. As the rent of a field was usually reckoned at harvest, and its
+amount depended on the size of the crop, it was only fair that damage to
+the crop from flood or storm should not be made up by the tenant; thus
+it was enacted by the code that any loss from such a cause should be
+shared equally by the owner of the field and the farmer, though if the
+latter had already paid his rent at the time the damage occurred he
+could not make a claim for repayment.
+
+[Illustration: 287.jpg THE VILLAGE OF NEBI YUNUS.]
+
+     Built on one of the mounds marking the site of the Assyrian
+     city of Nineveh. The mosque in the photograph is built over
+     the traditional site of the prophet Jonah's tomb. The flat-
+     roofed houses of the modern dwellers on the mound can be
+     well seen in the picture.
+
+It is clear from the enactments of the code that disputes were frequent,
+not only between farmers and landowners, but also between farmers and
+shepherds. It is certain that the latter, in the attempt to find pasture
+for the flocks, often allowed their sheep to feed off the farmers' fields
+in the spring. This practice the code set itself to prevent by fixing a
+scale of compensation to be paid by any shepherd who caused his sheep to
+graze on cultivated land without the owner's consent. If the offence was
+committed in the early spring, when the crop was still small, the farmer
+was to harvest the crop and receive a considerable price in kind as
+compensation for the shepherd. But if it occurred later on in the
+spring, when the sheep had been brought in from the meadows and turned
+into the great common field at the city gate, the offence would less
+probably be due to accident and the damage to the crop would be greater.
+In these circumstances the shepherd had to take over the crop and pay
+the farmer very heavily for his loss.
+
+[Illustration: 288.jpg Portrait-sculpture of Hammurabi, King of Babylon]
+
+     From a stone slab in the British Museum.
+
+The planting of gardens and orchards was encouraged, and a man was
+allowed to use a field for this purpose without paying a yearly rent. He
+might plant it and tend it for four years, and in the fifth year of
+his tenancy the original owner of the field took half of the garden
+in payment, while the other half the planter of the garden kept for
+himself. If a bare patch had been left in the garden it was to be
+reckoned in the planter's half. Regulations were framed to ensure the
+proper carrying out of the planting, for if the tenant neglected to do
+this during the first four years, he was still liable to plant the plot
+he had taken without receiving his half, and he had to pay the owner
+compensation in addition, which varied in amount according to the
+original condition of the land. If a man hired a garden, the rent he
+paid to the owner was fixed at two-thirds of its produce. Detailed
+regulations are also given in the code concerning the hire of cattle
+and asses, and the compensation to be paid to the owner for the loss or
+ill-treatment of his beasts. These are framed on the just principle that
+the hirer was responsible only for damage or loss which he could have
+reasonably prevented. Thus, if a lion killed a hired ox or ass in the
+open country, or if an ox was killed by lightning, the loss fell upon
+the owner and not on the man who hired the beast. But if the hirer
+killed the ox through carelessness or by beating it unmercifully, or if
+the beast broke its leg while in his charge, he had to restore another
+ox to the owner in place of the one he had hired. For lesser damages to
+the beast the hirer had to pay compensation on a fixed scale. Thus, if
+the ox had its eye knocked out during the period of its hire, the man
+who hired it had to pay to the owner half its value; while for a broken
+horn, the loss of the tail, or a torn muzzle, he paid a quarter of the
+value of the beast.
+
+Fines were also levied for carelessness in looking after cattle, though
+in cases of damage or injury, where carelessness could not be proved,
+the owner of a beast was not held responsible. A bull might go wild at
+any time and gore a man, however careful and conscientious the owner
+might be, and in these circumstances the injured man could not bring an
+action against the owner. But if a bull had already gored a man, and,
+although it was known to be vicious, the owner had not blunted its horns
+or shut it up, in the event of its goring and killing a free man, he had
+to pay half a mana of silver. One-third of a mana was the price paid for
+a slave who was killed. A landed proprietor who might hire farmers to
+cultivate his fields inflicted severe fines for acts of dishonesty with
+regard to the cattle, provender, or seed-corn committed to their charge.
+If a man stole the provender for the cattle he had to make it good, and
+he was also liable to the punishment of having his hands cut off. In
+the event of his being convicted of letting out the oxen for hire, or
+stealing the seed-corn so that he did not produce a crop, he had to pay
+very heavy compensation, and, if he could not pay, he was liable to be
+torn to pieces by the oxen in the field he should have cultivated.
+
+In a dry land like Babylonia, where little rain falls and that in only
+one season of the year, the irrigation of his fields forms one of the
+most important duties of the agriculturist. The farmer leads the water
+to his fields along small irrigation-canals or channels above the level
+of the soil, their sides being formed of banks of earth. It is clear
+that similar methods were employed by the early Babylonians. One such
+channel might supply the fields of several farmers, and it was the duty
+of each man through whose land the channel flowed to keep its banks on
+his land in repair. If he omitted to strengthen his bank or dyke, and
+the water forced a breach and flooded his neighbour's field, he had to
+pay compensation in kind for any crop that was ruined; while if he could
+not pay, he and his goods were sold, and his neighbours, whose fields
+had been damaged through his carelessness, shared the money.
+
+The land of Babylonian farmers was prepared for irrigation before it was
+sown by being divided into a number of small square or oblong tracts,
+each separated from the others by a low bank of earth, the seed being
+afterwards sown within the small squares or patches. Some of the banks
+running lengthwise through the field were made into small channels, the
+ends of which were carried up to the bank of the nearest main irrigation
+canal. No system of gates or sluices was employed, and when the farmer
+wished to water one of his fields he simply broke away the bank opposite
+one of his small channels and let the water flow into it. He would let
+the water run along this small channel until it reached the part of
+his land he wished to water. He then blocked the channel with a little
+earth, at the same time breaking down its bank so that the water flowed
+over one of the small squares and thoroughly soaked it. When this square
+was finished he filled up the bank and repeated the process for the
+next square, and so on until he had watered the necessary portion of
+the field. When this was finished he returned to the main channel and
+stopped the flow of the water by blocking up the hole he had made in the
+dyke. The whole process was, and to-day still is, extremely simple,
+but it needs care and vigilance, especially in the case of extensive
+irrigation when water is being carried into several parts of an estate
+at once. It will be obvious that any carelessness on the part of the
+irrigator in not shutting off the water in time may lead to extensive
+damage, not only to his own fields, but to those of his neighbours. In
+the early Babylonian period, if a farmer left the water running in his
+channel, and it flooded his neighbour's field and hurt his crop, he had
+to pay compensation according to the amount of damage done.
+
+It was stated above that the irrigation-canals and little channels were
+made above the level of the soil so that the water could at any point
+be tapped and allowed to flow over the surrounding land; and in a flat
+country like Babylonia it will be obvious that some means had to be
+employed for raising the water from its natural level to the higher
+level of the land. As we should expect, reference is made in the
+Babylonian inscriptions to irrigation-machines, and, although their
+exact form and construction are not described, they must have been very
+similar to those employed at the present day. The modern inhabitants of
+Mesopotamia employ four sorts of contrivances for raising the water into
+their irrigation-channels; three of these are quite primitive, and are
+those most commonly employed. The method which gives the least trouble
+and which is used wherever the conditions allow is a primitive form of
+water-wheel. This can be used only in a river with a good current.
+The wheel is formed of rough boughs and branches nailed together, with
+spokes joining the outer rims to a roughly hewn axle. A row of rough
+earthenware cups or bottles are tied round the outer rim for picking
+up the water, and a few rough paddles are fixed so that they stick out
+beyond the rim. The wheel is then fixed in place near the bank of the
+river, its axle resting in pillars of rough masonry.
+
+[Illustration: 293.jpg A MODERN MACHINE FOR IRRIGATION ON THE
+EUPHRATES.]
+
+As the current turns the wheel, the bottles on the rim dip below the
+surface and are raised up full. At the top of the wheel is fixed a
+trough made by hollowing half the trunk of a date-palm, and into this
+the bottles pour their water, which is conducted from the trough by
+means of a small aqueduct into the irrigation-channel on the bank.
+
+The convenience of the water-wheel will be obvious, for the water is
+raised without the labour of man or beast, and a constant supply is
+secured day and night so long as the current is strong enough to turn
+the wheel. The water can be cut off by blocking the wheel or tying it
+up. These wheels are most common on the Euphrates, and are usually set
+up where there is a slight drop in the river bed and the water runs
+swiftly over shallows. As the banks are very high, the wheels are
+necessarily huge contrivances in order to reach the level of the fields,
+and their very rough construction causes them to creak and groan as they
+turn with the current. In a convenient place in the river several of
+these are sometimes set up side by side, and the noise of their combined
+creakings can be heard from a great distance. Some idea of what one of
+these machines looks like can be obtained from the illustration. At Hit
+on the Euphrates a line of gigantic water-wheels is built across the
+river, and the noise they make is extraordinary.
+
+Where there is no current to turn one of these wheels, or where the bank
+is too high, the water must be raised by the labour of man or beast. The
+commonest method, which is the one employed generally on the Tigris, is
+to raise it in skins, which are drawn up by horses, donkeys, or cattle.
+A recess with perpendicular sides is cut into the bank, and a wooden
+spindle on wooden struts is supported horizontally over the recess. A
+rope running over the spindle is fastened to the skin, while the funnel
+end of the skin is held up by a second rope, running over a lower
+spindle, until its mouth is opposite the trough into which the water
+is to be poured. The beasts which are employed for raising the skin
+are fastened to the ends of the ropes, and they get a good purchase for
+their pull by being driven down a short cutting or inclined plane in the
+bank. To get a constant flow of water, two skins are usually employed,
+and as one is drawn up full the other is let down empty.
+
+The third primitive method of raising water, which is commoner in Egypt
+than in Mesopotamia at the present day, is the _shadduf_, and is worked
+by hand. It consists of a beam supported in the centre, at one end of
+which is tied a rope with a bucket or vessel for raising the water, and
+at the other end is fixed a counterweight.* On an Assyrian bas-relief
+found at Kuyunjik are representations of the shadduf in operation,
+two of them being used, the one above the other, to raise the water to
+successive levels. These were probably the contrivances usually employed
+by the early Babylonians for raising the water to the level of their
+fields, and the fact that they were light and easily removed must have
+made them tempting objects to the dishonest farmer. Hammurabi therefore
+fixed a scale of compensation to be paid to the owner by a detected
+thief, which varied according to the class and value of the machine
+he stole. The rivers and larger canals of Babylonia were used by the
+ancient inhabitants not only for the irrigation of their fields, but
+also as waterways for the transport of heavy materials. The recently
+published letters of Hammurabi and Ab�shu' contain directions for the
+transportation of corn, dates, sesame seed, and wood, which were ordered
+to be brought in ships to Babylon, and the code of Hammurabi refers to
+the transportation by water of wool and oil. It is therefore clear that
+at this period considerable use was made of vessels of different size
+for conveying supplies in bulk by water. The method by which the size of
+such ships and barges was reckoned was based on the amount of grain
+they were capable of carrying, and this was measured by the _gur_, the
+largest measure of capacity. Thus mention is made in the inscriptions of
+vessels of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and
+seventy-five gur capacity. A boat-builder's fee for building a vessel of
+sixty gur was fixed at two shekels of silver, and it was proportionately
+less for boats of smaller capacity. To ensure that the boat-builder
+should not scamp his work, regulations were drawn up to fix on him the
+responsibility for unsound work. Thus if a boat-builder were employed to
+build a vessel, and he put faulty work into its construction so that it
+developed defects within a year of its being launched, he was obliged to
+strengthen and rebuild it at his own expense.
+
+     * The fourth class of machine for raising water employed in
+     Mesopotamia at the present day consists of an endless chain
+     of iron buckets running over a wheel. This is geared by
+     means of rough wooden cogs to a horizontal wheel, the
+     spindle of which has long poles fixed to it, to which horses
+     or cattle are harnessed. The beasts go round in a circle and
+     so turn the machine. The contrivance is not so primitive as
+     the three described above, and the iron buckets are of
+     European importation.
+
+The hire of a boatman was fixed at six gur of corn to be paid him
+yearly, but it is clear that some of the larger vessels carried crews
+commanded by a chief boatman, or captain, whose pay was probably on
+a larger scale. If a man let his boat to a boatman, the latter was
+responsible for losing or sinking it, and he had to replace it. A
+boatman was also responsible for the safety of his vessel and of any
+goods, such as corn, wool, oil, or dates, which he had been hired to
+transport, and if they were sunk through his carelessness he had to make
+good the loss. If he succeeded in refloating the boat after it had been
+sunk, he was only under obligation to pay the owner half its value in
+compensation for the damage it had sustained. In the case of a collision
+between two vessels, if one was at anchor at the time, the owner of the
+other vessel had to pay compensation for the boat that was sunk and its
+cargo, the owner of the latter estimating on oath the value of what
+had been sunk. Boats were also employed as ferries, and they must have
+resembled the primitive form of ferry-boat in use at the present day,
+which is heavily built of huge timbers, and employed for transporting
+beasts as well as men across a river.
+
+[Illustration: 297.jpg KAIKS, OR NATIVE BOATS ON THE EUPHRATES AT
+BIREJIE.]
+
+     Employed for ferrying caravans across the river.
+
+There is evidence that under the Assyrians rafts floated on inflated
+skins were employed for the transport of heavy goods, and these have
+survived in the keleks of the present day. They are specially adapted
+for the transportation of heavy materials, for they are carried down by
+the current, and are kept in the course by means of huge sweeps or oars.
+Being formed only of logs of wood and skins, they are not costly, for
+wood is plentiful in the upper reaches of the rivers. At the end of
+their journey, after the goods are landed, they are broken up. The wood
+is sold at a profit, and the skins, after being deflated, are packed on
+to donkeys to return by caravan.
+
+[Illustration: 298.jpg THE MODERN BRIDGE OF BOATS ACROSS THE TIGRIS
+OPPOSITE MOSUL.]
+
+It is not improbable that such rafts were employed on the Tigris and the
+Euphrates from the earliest periods of Chald�an history, though boats
+would have been used on the canals and more sluggish waterways.
+
+In the preceding pages we have given a sketch of the more striking
+aspects of early Babylonian life, on which light has been thrown by
+recently discovered documents belonging to the period of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon. We have seen that, in the code of laws drawn up
+by Hammurabi, regulations were framed for settling disputes and fixing
+responsibilities under almost every condition and circumstance which
+might arise among the inhabitants of the country at that time; and the
+question naturally arises as to how far the code of laws was in actual
+operation.
+
+[Illustration: 299.jpg A SMALL KELEK, OK RAFT, UPON THE TIGRIS AT
+BAGHDAD.]
+
+It is conceivable that the king may have held admirable convictions, but
+have been possessed of little power to carry them out and to see
+that his regulations were enforced. Luckily, we have not to depend on
+conjecture for settling the question, for Hammurabi's own letters which
+are now preserved in the British Museum afford abundant evidence of the
+active control which the king exercised over every department of his
+administration and in every province of his empire. In the earlier
+periods of history, when each city lived independently of its neighbours
+and had its own system of government, the need for close and frequent
+communication between them was not pressing, but this became apparent
+as soon as they were welded together and formed parts of an extended
+empire. Thus in the time of Sargon of Agade, about 3800 B.C., an
+extensive system of royal convoys was established between the principal
+cities. At Telloh the late M. de Sarzec came across numbers of lumps of
+clay bearing the seal impressions of Sargon and of his son Nar�m-Sin,
+which had been used as seals and labels upon packages sent from Agade
+to Shirpurla. In the time of Dungi, King of Ur, there was a constant
+interchange of officials between the various cities of Babylonia and
+Elam, and during the more recent diggings at Telloh there have been
+found vouchers for the supply of food for their sustenance when stopping
+at Shirpurla in the course of their journeys. In the case of Hammurabi
+we have recovered some of the actual letters sent by the king himself to
+Sin-idinnam, his local governor in the city of Larsam, and from them we
+gain considerable insight into the principles which guided him in the
+administration of his empire.
+
+The letters themselves, in their general characteristics, resembled the
+contract tablets of the period which have been already described. They
+were written on small clay tablets oblong in shape, and as they were
+only three or four inches long they could easily be carried about the
+person of the messenger into whose charge they were delivered. After the
+tablet was written it was enclosed in a thin envelope of clay, having
+been first powdered with dry clay to prevent its sticking to the
+envelope. The name of the person for whom the letter was intended was
+written on the outside of the envelope, and both it and the tablet were
+baked hard to ensure that they should not be broken on their travels.
+The recipient of the letter, on its being delivered to him, broke the
+outer envelope by tapping it sharply, and it then fell away in pieces,
+leaving the letter and its message exposed. The envelopes were very
+similar to those in which the contract tablets of the period were
+enclosed, of which illustrations have already been given, their only
+difference being that the text of the tablet was not repeated on the
+envelope, as was the case with the former class of documents.
+
+The royal letters that have been recovered throw little light on
+military affairs and the prosecution of campaigns, for, being addressed
+to governors of cities and civil officials, most of them deal with
+matters affecting the internal administration of the empire. One letter
+indeed contains directions concerning the movements of two hundred
+and forty soldiers of "the King's Company" who had been stationed in
+Assyria, and another letter mentions certain troops who were quartered
+in the city of Ur. A third deals with the supply of clothing and oil
+for a section of the Babylonian army, and troops are also mentioned
+as having formed the escort for certain goddesses captured from the
+Elamites; while directions are sent to others engaged in a campaign upon
+the Elamite frontier. The letter which contains directions for the
+safe escort of the captured Elamite goddesses, and the one ordering the
+return of these same goddesses to their own shrines, show that
+foreign deities, even when captured from an enemy, were treated by the
+Babylonians with the same respect and reverence that was shown by them
+to their own gods and goddesses. Hammurabi gave directions in the first
+letter for the conveyance of the goddesses to Babylon with all due pomp
+and ceremony, sheep being supplied for sacrifice upon the journey,
+and their usual rites being performed by their own temple-women and
+priestesses. The king's voluntary restoration of the goddesses to their
+own country may have been due to the fact that, after their transference
+to Babylon, the army of the Babylonians suffered defeat in Elam. This
+misfortune would naturally have been ascribed by the king and the
+priests to the anger of the Elamite goddesses at being detained in a
+foreign land, and Hammurabi probably arrived at his decision that they
+should be escorted back in the hope of once more securing victory for
+the Babylonian arms.
+
+The care which the king exercised for the due worship of his own gods
+and the proper supply of their temples is well illustrated from the
+letters that have been recovered, for he superintended the collection
+of the temple revenues, and the herdsmen and shepherds attached to the
+service of the gods sent their reports directly to him. He also took
+care that the observances of religious rites and ceremonies were duly
+carried out, and on one occasion he postponed the hearing of a lawsuit
+concerning the title to certain property which was in dispute, as it
+would have interfered with the proper observance of a festival in
+the city of Ur. The plaintiff in the suit was the chief of the temple
+bakers, and it was his duty to superintend the preparation of certain
+offerings for the occasion. In order that he should not have to leave
+his duties, the king put off the hearing of the case until after the
+festival had been duly celebrated. The king also exercised a strict
+control over the priests themselves, and received reports from the chief
+priests concerning their own subordinates, and it is probable that the
+royal sanction was obtained for all the principal appointments. The
+guild of soothsayers was an important religious class at this time,
+and they also were under the king's direct control. A letter written by
+Ammiditana, one of the later kings of the First Dynasty, to three high
+officials of the city of Sippar, contains directions with regard to
+certain duties to be carried out by the soothsayers attached to the
+service of the city, and indicates the nature of their functions.
+Ammiditana wrote to the officials in question, stating that there was a
+scarcity of corn in the city of Shagga, and he therefore ordered them
+to send a supply thither. But before the corn was brought into the city
+they were told to consult the soothsayers, who were to divine the future
+and ascertain whether the omens were favourable. If they proved to be
+so, the corn was to be brought in. We may conjecture that the king took
+this precaution, as he feared the scarcity of corn in Shagga was due
+to the anger of some local deity or spirit, and that, if this were the
+case, the bringing in of the corn would only lead to fresh troubles.
+This danger it was the duty of the soothsayers to prevent.
+
+Another class of the priesthood, which we may infer was under the king's
+direct control, was the astrologers, whose duty it probably was to make
+reports to the king of the conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, with a
+view to ascertaining whether they portended good or evil to the
+state. No astrological reports written in this early period have
+been recovered, but at a later period under the Assyrian empire the
+astrologers reported regularly to the king on such matters, and it is
+probable that the practice was one long established. One of Hammurabi's
+letters proves that the king regulated the calendar, and it is
+legitimate to suppose that he sought the advice of his astrologers as
+to the times when intercalary months were to be inserted. The letter
+dealing with the calendar was written to inform Sin-idinnam, the
+governor of Larsam, that an intercalary month was to be inserted. "Since
+the year (i.e. the calendar) hath a deficiency," he writes, "let the
+month which is now beginning be registered as a second Elul," and the
+king adds that this insertion of an extra month will not justify any
+postponement in the payment of the regular tribute due from the city of
+Larsam, which had to be paid a month earlier than usual to make up for
+the month that was inserted. The intercalation of additional months
+was due to the fact that the Babylonian months were lunar, so that the
+calendar had to be corrected at intervals to make it correspond to the
+solar year.
+
+From the description already given of the code of laws drawn up by
+Hammurabi it will have been seen that the king attempted to incorporate
+and arrange a set of regulations which should settle any dispute likely
+to arise with regard to the duties and privileges of all classes of
+his subjects. That this code was not a dead letter, but was actively
+administered, is abundantly proved by many of the letters of Hammurabi
+which have been recovered. From these we learn that the king took a very
+active part in the administration of justice in the country, and that he
+exercised a strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the
+capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities
+and towns of Babylonia. Any private citizen was entitled to make a
+direct appeal to the king for justice, if he thought he could not obtain
+it in his local court, and it is clear from Hammurabi's letters that he
+always listened to such an appeal and gave it adequate consideration.
+The king was anxious to stamp out all corruption on the part of those
+who were invested with authority, and he had no mercy on any of his
+officers who were convicted of taking bribes. On one occasion when he
+had been informed of a case of bribery in the city of D�r-gurgurri, he
+at once ordered the governor of the district in which D�r-gurgurri lay
+to investigate the charge and send to Babylon those who were proved to
+be guilty, that they might be punished. He also ordered that the bribe
+should be confiscated and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise
+provision which must have tended to discourage those who were inclined
+to tamper with the course of justice, while at the same time it enriched
+the state. It is probable that the king tried all cases of appeal in
+person when it was possible to do so. But if the litigants lived at
+a considerable distance from Babylon, he gave directions to his local
+officials on the spot to try the case. When he was convinced of
+the justice of any claim, he would decide the case himself and send
+instructions to the local authorities to see that his decision was duly
+carried out. It is certain that many disputes arose at this period in
+consequence of the extortions of money-lenders. These men frequently
+laid claim in a fraudulent manner to fields and estates which they had
+received in pledge as security for seed-corn advanced by them. In
+cases where fraud was proved Hammurabi had no mercy, and summoned the
+money-lender to Babylon to receive punishment, however wealthy and
+powerful he might be.
+
+A subject frequently referred to in Hammurabi's letters is the
+collection of revenues, and it is clear that an elaborate system was in
+force throughout the country for the levying and payment of tribute
+to the state by the principal cities of Babylonia, as well as for the
+collection of rent and revenue from the royal estates and from the lands
+which were set apart for the supply of the great temples. Collectors of
+both secular and religious tribute sent reports directly to the king,
+and if there was any deficit in the supply which was expected from a
+collector he had to make it up himself; but the king was always ready
+to listen to and investigate a complaint and to enforce the payment of
+tribute or taxes so that the loss should not fall upon the collector.
+Thus, in one of his letters Hammurabi informs the governor of
+Larsam that a collector named Sheb-Sin had reported to him, saying
+"Enubi-Marduk hath laid hands upon the money for the temple of
+B�t-il-kittim (i.e. the great temple of the Sun-god at Larsam) which is
+due from the city of D�r-gurgurri and from the (region round about the)
+Tigris, and he hath not rendered the full sum; and Gimil-Marduk hath
+laid hands upon the money for the temple of B�t-il-kittim which is due
+from the city.of Rakhabu and from the region round about that city, and
+he hath not (paid) the full amount. But the palace hath exacted the full
+sum from me." It is probable that both Enubi-Marduk and Gimil-Marduk
+were money-lenders, for we know from another letter that the former had
+laid claim to certain property on which he had held a mortgage, although
+the mortgage had been redeemed. In the present case they had probably
+lent money or seed-corn to certain cultivators of land near D�r-gurgurri
+and Rakhabu and along the Tigris, and in settlement of their claims they
+had seized the crops and had, moreover, refused to pay to the king's
+officer the proportion of the crops that was due to the state as
+taxes upon the land. The governor of Larsam, the principal city in the
+district, had rightly, as the representative of the palace (i.e.
+the king), caused the tax-collector to make up the deficiency, but
+Hammurabi, on receiving the subordinate officer's complaint, referred
+the matter back to the governor. The end of the letter is wanting, but
+we may infer that Hammurabi condemned the defaulting money-lenders to
+pay the taxes due, and fined them in addition, or ordered them to be
+sent to the capital for punishment.
+
+On another occasion Sheb-Sin himself and a second tax-collector named
+Sin-mushtal appear to have been in fault and to have evaded coming to
+Babylon when summoned thither by the king. It had been their duty to
+collect large quantities of sesame seed as well as taxes paid in money.
+When first summoned, they had made the excuse that it was the time of
+harvest and they would come after the harvest was over. But as they
+did not then make their appearance, Hammurabi wrote an urgent letter
+insisting that they should be despatched with the full amount of the
+taxes due, in the company of a trustworthy officer who would see that
+they duly arrived at the capital.
+
+Tribute on flocks and herds was also levied by the king, and collectors
+or assessors of the revenue were stationed in each district, whose duty
+it was to report any deficit in the revenue accounts. The owners of
+flocks and herds were bound to bring the young cattle and lambs that
+were due as tribute to the central city of the district in which they
+dwelt, and they were then collected into large bodies and added to the
+royal flocks and herds; but, if the owners attempted to hold back any
+that were due as tribute, they were afterwards forced to incur the extra
+expense and trouble of driving the beasts to Babylon. The flocks and
+herds owned by the king and the great temples were probably enormous,
+and yielded a considerable revenue in themselves apart from the tribute
+and taxes due from private owners. Shepherds and herdsmen were placed in
+charge of them, and they were divided into groups under chief shepherds,
+who arranged the districts in which the herds and flocks were to be
+grazed, distributing them when possible along the banks and in the
+neighbourhood of rivers and canals which would afford good pasturage and
+a plentiful supply of water. The king received reports from the chief
+shepherds and herdsmen, and it was the duty of the governors of the
+chief cities and districts of Babylonia to make tours of inspection
+and see that due care was taken of the royal flocks and sheep. The
+sheep-shearing for all the flocks that were pastured near the capital
+took place in Babylon, and the king used to send out summonses to his
+chief shepherds to inform them of the day when the shearing would take
+place; and it is probable that the governors of the other great cities
+sent out similar orders to the shepherds of flocks under their charge.
+Royal and priestly flocks were often under the same chief officer, a
+fact which shows the very strict control the king exercised over the
+temple revenues.
+
+The interests of the agricultural population were strictly looked
+after by the king, who secured a proper supply of water for purposes of
+irrigation by seeing that the canals and waterways were kept in a proper
+state of repair and cleaned out at regular intervals. There is also
+evidence that nearly every king of the First Dynasty of Babylon cut new
+canals, and extended the system of irrigation and transportation which
+had been handed down to him from his fathers. The draining of the
+marshes and the proper repair of the canals could only be carried out
+by careful and continuous supervision, and it was the duty of the local
+governors to see that the inhabitants of villages and owners of land
+situated on the banks of a canal should keep it in proper order. When
+this duty had been neglected complaints were often sent to the king,
+who gave orders to the local governor to remedy the defect. Thus on one
+occasion it had been ordered that a canal at Erech which had silted
+up should be deepened, but the dredging had not been carried out
+thoroughly, so that the bed of the canal soon silted up again and boats
+were prevented from entering the city. In these circumstances Hammurabi
+gave pressing orders that the obstruction was to be removed and the
+canal made navigable within three days.
+
+Damage was often done to the banks of canals by floods which followed
+the winter rains, and a letter of Ab�shu' gives an interesting account of
+a sudden rise of the water in the Irnina canal so that it overflowed its
+banks. The king was building a palace at the city of K�r-Irnina, which
+was supplied by the Irnina canal, and every year it was possible to put
+so much work into the building. But one year, when little more than a
+third of the year's work was done, the building operations were stopped
+by flood, the canal having overflowed its banks so that the water rose
+right up to the wall of the town. In return for the duty of keeping
+the canals in order, the villagers along the banks had the privilege of
+fishing in its waters in the portion which was in their charge, and
+any poaching by other villagers in this part of the stream was strictly
+forbidden. On one occasion, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Hammurabi's son
+and successor, the fishermen of the district of Rabim went down in their
+boats to the district of Shakanim and caught fish there contrary to the
+law. So the inhabitants of Shakanim complained of this poaching to the
+king, who sent a palace official to the authorities of Sippar, near
+which city the districts in question lay, with orders to inquire into
+the matter and take steps to prevent all such poaching for the future.
+
+The regulation of transportation on the canals was also under the royal
+jurisdiction. The method of reckoning the size of ships has already
+been described, and there is evidence that the king possessed numerous
+vessels of all sizes for the carrying of grain, wool, and dates, as well
+as for the wood and stone employed in his building operations. Each ship
+seems to have had its own crew, under the command of a captain, and it
+is probable that officials who regulated the transportation from the
+centres where they were stationed were placed in charge of separate
+sections of the rivers and of the canals.
+
+It is obvious, from the account that has been given of the numerous
+operations directly controlled and superintended by the king, that
+he had need of a very large body of officials, by whose means he was
+enabled to carry out successfully the administration of the country.
+In the course of the account we have made mention of the judges and
+judicial officers, the assessors and collectors of revenue, and the
+officials of the palace who were under the king's direct orders. It is
+also obvious that different classes of officers were in charge of all
+the departments of the administration. Two classes of officials,
+who were placed in charge of the public works and looked after and
+controlled the public slaves, and probably also had a good deal to do
+with the collection of the revenue, had special privileges assigned
+to them, and special legislation was drawn up to protect them in the
+enjoyment of the same. As payment for their duties they were each
+granted land with a house and garden, they were assigned the use of
+certain sheep and cattle with which to stock their land, and in addition
+they received a regular salary. They were in a sense personal retainers
+of the king and were liable to be sent at any moment on a special
+mission to carry out the king's commands. Disobedience was severely
+punished; for, if such an officer, when detailed for a special mission,
+did not go but hired a substitute, he was liable to be put to death and
+the substitute he had hired could take his office. Sometimes an officer
+was sent for long periods some distance from his home to take charge
+of a garrison, and when this was done his home duties were performed by
+another man, who temporarily occupied his house and land, but gave it
+back to the officer on his return. If such an officer had a son old
+enough to perform his duty in his father's absence, he was allowed to
+do so and to till his father's lands; but if the son was too young,
+the substitute who took the officer's place had to pay one-third of
+the produce of the land to the child's mother for his education. Before
+departing on his journey to the garrison it was the officer's duty to
+arrange for the proper cultivation of his land and the discharge of his
+local duties during his absence. If he omitted to do so and left
+his land and duties neglected for more than a year, and another had
+meanwhile taken his place, on his return he could not reclaim his land
+and office. It will be obvious, therefore, that his position was a
+specially favoured one and much sought after, and these regulations
+ensured that the duties attaching to the office were not neglected.
+
+In the course of his garrison duty or when on special service, these
+officers ran some risk of being captured by the enemy, and in that event
+regulations were drawn up for their ransom. If the captured officer was
+wealthy and could pay for his own ransom, he was bound to do so, but
+if he had not the necessary means his ransom was to be paid out of the
+local temple treasury, and, when the funds in the temple treasury
+did not suffice, he was to be ransomed by the state. It was specially
+enacted that his land and garden and house were in no case to be sold
+in order to pay for his ransom. These were inalienably attached to the
+office which he held, and he was not allowed to sell them or the sheep
+and cattle with which they were stocked. Moreover, he was not allowed
+to bequeath any of this property to his wife or daughter, so that his
+office would appear to have been hereditary and the property attached to
+it to have been entailed on his son if he succeeded him. Such succession
+would not, of course, have taken place if the officer by his own neglect
+or disobedience had forfeited his office and its privileges during his
+lifetime.
+
+It has been suggested with considerable probability that these officials
+were originally personal retainers and follows of Sumu-abu, the founder
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon. They were probably assigned lands
+throughout the country in return for their services to the king, and
+their special duties were to preserve order and uphold the authority of
+their master. In the course of time their duties were no doubt modified,
+but they retained their privileges and they must have continued to be a
+very valuable body of officers, on whose personal loyalty the king could
+always rely. In the preceding chapter we have already seen how grants of
+considerable estates were made by the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty
+to followers who had rendered conspicuous services, and at the same time
+they received the privilege of holding such lands free of all liability
+to forced labour and the payment of tithes and taxes. We may conclude
+that the class of royal officers under the kings of the First Dynasty
+had a similar origin.
+
+In the present chapter, from information recently made available, we
+have given some account of the system of administration adopted by the
+early kings of Babylon, and we have described in some detail the
+various classes of the Babylonian population, their occupations, and the
+conditions under which they lived. In the two preceding chapters we have
+dealt with the political history of Western Asia from the very earliest
+period of the Sumerian city-states down to the time of the Kassite
+kings. In the course of this account we have seen how Mesopotamia in the
+dawn of history was in the sole possession of the Sumerian race and how
+afterwards it fell in turn under the dominion of the Semites and the
+kings of Elam. The immigration of fresh Semitic tribes at the end of the
+third millennium before Christ resulted in the establishment in Babylon
+of the Semitic kings who are known as First Dynasty kings; and under the
+sway of Hammurabi, the greatest of this group of kings, the empire thus
+established in Western Asia had every appearance of permanence. Although
+Elam no longer troubled Babylon, a great danger arose from a new and
+unexpected quarter. In the Country of the Sea--which comprised the
+districts in the extreme south of Babylonia on the shores of the Persian
+Gulf--the Sumerians had rallied their forces, and they now declared
+themselves independent of Babylonian control. A period of conflict
+followed between the kings of the First Dynasty and the kings of the
+Country of the Sea, in which the latter more than held their own; and,
+when the Hittite tribes of Syria invaded Northern Babylonia in the reign
+of Samsu-ditana, Babylon's power of resistance was so far weakened that
+she fell an easy prey to the rulers of the Country of the Sea. But the
+reappearance of the Sumerians in the r�le of leading race in Western
+Asia was destined not to last long, and was little more than the last
+flicker of vitality exhibited by this ancient and exhausted race. Thus
+the Second Dynasty fell in its turn before the onslaught of the Kassite
+tribes who descended from the mountainous districts in the west of Elam,
+and, having overrun the whole of Mesopotamia, established a new dynasty
+at Babylon, and adopted Babylonian civilization.
+
+With the advent of the Kassite kings a new chapter opens in the history
+of Western Asia. Up to that time Egypt and Babylon, the two chief
+centres of ancient civilization, had no doubt indirectly influenced one
+another, but they had not come into actual contact. During the period of
+the Kassite kings both Babylon and Assyria established direct relations
+with Egypt, and from that time forward the influence they exerted upon
+one another was continuous and unbroken. We have already traced the
+history of Babylon up to this point in the light of recent discoveries,
+and a similar task awaits us with regard to Assyria. Before we enter
+into a discussion of Assyria's origin and early history in the light of
+recent excavation and research, it is necessary that we should return
+once more to Egypt, and describe the course of her history from the
+period when Thebes succeeded in displacing Memphis as the capital city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+
+We have seen that it was in the Theban period that Egypt emerged from
+her isolation, and for the first time came into contact with Western
+Asia. This grand turning-point in Egyptian history seemed to be the
+appropriate place at which to pause in the description of our latest
+knowledge of Egyptian history, in order to make known the results of
+archaeological discovery in Mesopotamia and Western Asia generally. The
+description has been carried down past the point of convergence of the
+two originally isolated paths of Egyptian and Babylonian civilization,
+and what new information the latest discoveries have communicated to us
+on this subject has been told in the preceding chapters. We now have to
+retrace our steps to the point where we left Egyptian history and resume
+the thread of our Egyptian narrative.
+
+The Hyksos conquest and the rise of Thebes are practically
+contemporaneous. The conquest took place perhaps three or four hundred
+years after the first advancement of Thebes to the position of capital
+of Egypt, but it must be remembered that this position was not retained
+during the time of the XIIth Dynasty. The kings of that dynasty, though
+they were Thebans, did not reign at Thebes. Their royal city was in the
+North, in the neighbourhood of Lisht and M�d�m, where their pyramids
+were erected, and their chief care was for the lake province of the
+Fayy�m, which was largely the creation of Amenemhat III, the Moeris
+of the Greeks. It was not till Thebes became the focus of the
+national resistance to the Hyksos that its period of greatness began.
+Henceforward it was the undisputed capital of Egypt, enlarged and
+embellished by the care and munificence of a hundred kings, enriched by
+the tribute of a hundred conquered nations.
+
+But were we to confine ourselves to the consideration only of the latest
+discoveries of Theban greatness after the expulsion of the Hyksos, we
+should be omitting much that is of interest and importance. For the
+Egyptians the first grand climacteric in their history (after the
+foundation of the monarchy) was the transference of the royal power from
+Memphis and Herakleopolis to a Theban house. The second, which followed
+soon after, was the Hyksos invasion. The two are closely connected in
+Theban history; it is Thebes that defeated Herakleopolis and conquered
+Memphis; it is Theban power that was overthrown by the Hyksos; it is
+Thebes that expelled them and initiated the second great period of
+Egyptian history. We therefore resume our narrative at a point before
+the great increase of Theban power at the time of the expulsion of the
+Hyksos, and will trace this power from its rise, which followed
+the defeat of Herakleopolis and Memphis. It is upon this epoch--the
+beginning of Theban power--that the latest discoveries at Thebes have
+thrown some new light.
+
+More than anywhere else in Egypt excavations have been carried on at
+Thebes, on the site of the ancient capital of the country. And here, if
+anywhere, it might have been supposed that there was nothing more to be
+found, no new thing to be exhumed from the soil, no new fact to be added
+to our knowledge of Egyptian history. Yet here, no less than at Abydos,
+has the archaeological exploration of the last few years been especially
+successful, and we have seen that the ancient city of Thebes has a great
+deal more to tell us than we had expected.
+
+The most ancient remains at Thebes were discovered by Mr. Newberry in
+the shape of two tombs of the VIth Dynasty, cut upon the face of the
+well-known hill of Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna, on the west bank of the Nile
+opposite Luxor. Every winter traveller to Egypt knows, well the ride
+from the sandy shore opposite the Luxor temple, along the narrow pathway
+between the gardens and the canal, across the bridges and over the
+cultivated land to the Ramesseum, behind which rises Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna,
+with its countless tombs, ranged in serried rows along the scarred and
+scarped face of the hill. This hill, which is geologically a fragment of
+the plateau behind which some gigantic landslip was sent sliding in the
+direction of the river, leaving the picturesque gorge and cliffs of D�r
+el-Bahari to mark the place from which it was riven, was evidently the
+seat of the oldest Theban necropolis. Here were the tombs of the Theban
+chiefs in the period of the Old Kingdom, two of which have been found
+by Mr. Newberry. In later times, it would seem, these tombs were largely
+occupied and remodelled by the great nobles of the XVIIIth Dynasty, so
+that now nearly all the tombs extant on Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna belong to
+that dynasty.
+
+Of the Thebes of the IXth and Xth Dynasties, when the Herakleopolites
+ruled, we have in the British Museum two very remarkable statues--one of
+which is here illustrated--of the steward of the palace, Mera. The tomb
+from which they came is not known. Both are very beautiful examples
+of the Egyptian sculptor's art, and are executed in a style eminently
+characteristic of the transition period between the work of the Old and
+Middle Kingdoms. As specimens of the art of the Hierakonpolite period,
+of which we have hardly any examples, they are of the greatest interest.
+Mera is represented wearing a different head-dress in each figure; in
+one he has a short wig, in the other a skullcap.
+
+[Illustration: 320.jpg STATUE OF MERA]
+
+When the Herakleopolite dominion was finally overthrown, in spite of the
+valiant resistance of the princes of Asy�t, and the Thebans assumed the
+Pharaonic dignity, thus founding the XIth Dynasty, the Theban necropolis
+was situated in the great bay in the cliffs, immediately north of Sh�kh
+Abd el-K�rna, which is known as D�r el-Bahari. In this picturesque part
+of Western Thebes, in many respects perhaps the most picturesque
+place in Egypt, the greatest king of the XIth Dynasty, Neb-hapet-R�
+Mentuhetep, excavated his tomb and built for the worship of his ghost
+a funerary temple, which he called _Akh-aset_, "Glorious-is-its-
+Situation," a name fully justified by its surroundings. This temple is
+an entirely new discovery, made by Prof. Naville and Mr. Hall in 1903.
+The results obtained up to date have been of very great importance,
+especially with regard to the history of Egyptian art and architecture,
+for our sources of information were few and we were previously not very
+well informed as to the condition of art in the time of the XIth
+Dynasty.
+
+The new temple lies immediately to the south of the great XVIIIth
+Dynasty temple at D�r el-Bahari, which has always been known, and which
+was excavated first by Mariette and later by Prof. Naville, for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund. To the results of the later excavations we shall
+return. When they were finally completed, in the year 1898, the great
+XVIIIth Dynasty temple, which was built by Queen Hatshepsu, had been
+entirely cleared of d�bris, and the colonnades had been partially
+restored (under the care of Mr. Somers Clarke) in order to make a roof
+under which to protect the sculptures on the walls. The whole mass of
+d�bris, consisting largely of fallen _talus_ from the cliffs above,
+which had almost hidden the temple, was removed; but a large tract lying
+to the south of the temple, which was also covered with similar mounds
+of d�bris, was not touched, but remained to await further investigation.
+It was here, beneath these heaps of d�bris, that the new temple was
+found when work was resumed by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1903. The
+actual tomb of the king has not yet been revealed, although that of
+Neb-hetep Mentuhetep, who may have been his immediate predecessor,
+was discovered by Mr. Carter in 1899. It was known, however, and still
+uninjured in the reign of Ramses IX of the XXth Dynasty. Then, as we
+learn from the report of the inspectors sent to examine the royal tombs,
+which is preserved in the Abbott Papyrus, they found the _pyramid-tomb_
+of King Xeb-hapet-R� which is in Tjesret (the ancient Egyptian name for
+D�r el-Bahari); it was intact. We know, therefore, that it was intact
+about 1000 B.C. The description of it as a pyramid-tomb is interesting,
+for in the inscription of Tetu, the priest of Akh-aset, who was buried
+at Abydos, Akh-aset is said to have been a pyramid. That the newly
+discovered temple was called Akh-aset we know from several inscriptions
+found in it. And the most remarkable thing about this temple is that in
+its centre there was a pyramid. This must be the pyramid-tomb which was
+found intact by the inspectors, so that the tomb itself must be close
+by. But it does not seem to have been beneath the pyramid, below which
+is only solid rock. It is perhaps a gallery cut in the cliffs at the
+back of the temple.
+
+The pyramid was then a dummy, made of rubble within a revetment of heavy
+flint nodules, which was faced with fine limestone. It was erected on a
+pyloni-form base with heavy cornice of the usual Egyptian pattern. This
+central pyramid was surrounded by a roofed hall or ambulatory of small
+octagonal pillars, the outside wall of which was decorated with coloured
+reliefs, depicting various scenes connected with the _sed-heb_ or
+jubilee-festival of the king, processions of the warriors and magnates
+of the realm, scenes of husbandry, boat-building, and so forth, all of
+which were considered appropriate to the chapel of a royal tomb at that
+period. Outside this wall was an open colonnade of square pillars.
+The whole of this was built upon an artificially squared rectangular
+platform of natural rock, about fifteen feet high. To north and south of
+this were open courts. The southern is bounded by the hill; the northern
+is now bounded by the Great Temple of Hat-shepsu, but, before this was
+built, there was evidently a very large open court here. The face of the
+rock platform is masked by a wall of large rectangular blocks of fine
+white limestone, some of which measure six feet by three feet six
+inches. They are beautifully squared and laid in bonded courses of
+alternate sizes, and the walls generally may be said to be among the
+finest yet found in Egypt. We have already remarked that the architects
+of the Middle Kingdom appear to have been specially fond of fine masonry
+in white stone. The contrast between these splendid XIth Dynasty walls,
+with their great base-stones of sandstone, and the bad rough masonry of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty temple close by, is striking. The XVIIIth Dynasty
+architects and masons had degenerated considerably from the standard of
+the Middle Kingdom.
+
+This rock platform was approached from the east in the centre by an
+inclined plane or ramp, of which part of the original pavement of wooden
+beams remains _in situ_.
+
+[Illustration: 324.jpg XIth DYNASTY WALL: D�R EL-BAHARI.]
+
+     Excavated by Mr. Hall, 1904, for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
+
+To right and left of this ramp are colonnades, each of twenty-two square
+pillars, all inscribed with the name and titles of Mentuhetep. The walls
+masking the platform in these colonnades were sculptured with various
+scenes, chiefly representing boat processions and campaigns against the
+Aamu or nomads of the Sinaitic peninsula. The design of the colonnades
+is the same as that of the Great Temple, and the whole plan of this
+part, with its platform approached by a ramp flanked by colonnades,
+is so like that of the Great Temple that we cannot but assume that the
+peculiar design of the latter, with its tiers of platforms approached by
+ramps flanked by colonnades, is not an original idea, but was directly
+copied by the XVIIIth Dynasty architects from the older XIth Dynasty
+temple which they found at D�r el-Bahari when they began their work.
+
+[Illustration: 325.jpg XVIIIth DYNASTY WALL, DBR EL-BAHARI.]
+
+     Excavated by M. Naville, 1896; repaired by Mr. Howard
+     Carter, 1904.
+
+The supposed originality of Hatshepsu's temple is then non-existent;
+it was a copy of the older design, in fact, a magnificent piece of
+archaism. But Hatshepsu's architects copied this feature only; the
+actual arrangements _on_ the platforms in the two temples are as
+different as they can possibly be. In the older we have a central
+pyramid with a colonnade round it, in the newer may be found an open
+court in front of rock-cave shrines.
+
+[Illustration: 326.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE NORTH LOWER COLONNADE OF THE
+XIth DYNASTY TEMPLE, DER EL-BAHARI, 1904.]
+
+Before the XIth Dynasty temple was set up a series of statues of King
+Mentuhetep and of a later king, Amenhetep I, in the form of Osiris, like
+those of Usertsen (Senusret) I at Lisht already mentioned. One of these
+statues is in the British Museum. In the south court were discovered
+six statues of King Usertsen (Senusret) III, depicting him at different
+periods of his life. Pour of the heads are preserved, and, as the
+expression of each differs from that of the other, it is quite evident
+that some show him as a young, others as an old, man.
+
+[Illustration: 327.jpg GRANITE THRESHOLD AND OCTAGONAL SANDSTONE
+PILLARS]
+
+     Of The XIth Dynasty Temple At Dee El-Bahari. About 2500 B.C.
+
+The face is of the well-known hard and lined type which is seen also in
+the portraits of Amenemhat III, and was formerly considered to be that
+of the Hyksos. Messrs. Newberry and Garstang, as we have seen, consider
+it to be so, indirectly, as they regard the type as having been
+introduced into the XIIth Dynasty by Queen Nefret, the mother of
+Usertsen (Sen-usret) III. This queen, they think, _was_ a Hittite
+princess, and the Hittites were practically the same thing as the
+Hyksos. We have seen, however, that there is very little foundation for
+this view, and it is more than probable that this peculiar physiognomy
+is of a type purely Egyptian in character.
+
+[Illustration: 328.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE TOMB OF A PRIESTESS,]
+
+     On The Platform Of The XIth Dynasty Temple, Der El-Bahari,
+     1904.
+
+On the platform, around the central pyramid, were buried in small
+chamber-tombs a number of priestesses of the goddess Hathor, the
+mistress of the desert and special deity of D�r el-Bahari. They were
+all members of the king's har�m, and they bore the title of "King's
+Favourite." As told in a previous chapter, all were buried at one
+time, before the final completion of the temple, and it is by no means
+impossible that they were strangled at the king's death and buried round
+him in order that their ghosts might accompany him in the next world,
+just as the slaves were buried around the graves (or secondary graves)
+of the 1st Dynasty kings at Aby-dos. They themselves, as also already
+related, took with them to the next world little waxen figures which
+when called upon could by magic be turned into ghostly slaves. These
+images were _ushabtiu,_ "answerers," the predecessors of the little
+figures of wood, stone, and pottery which are found buried with the
+dead in later times. The priestesses themselves were, so to speak, human
+_ushabtiu,_ for royal use only, and accompanied the kings to their final
+resting-place.
+
+With the priestesses was buried the usual funerary furniture
+characteristic of the period. This consisted of little models of
+granaries with the peasants bringing in the corn, models of bakers and
+brewers at work, boats with their crews, etc., just as we find them
+in the XIth and XIIth Dynasty tombs at el-Bersha and Beni Hasan. These
+models, too, were supposed to be transformed by magic into actual
+workmen who would work for the deceased, heap up grain for her, brew
+beer for her, ferry her over the ghostly Nile into the tomb-world, or
+perform any other services required.
+
+Some of the stone sarcophagi of the priestesses are very elaborately
+decorated with carved and painted reliefs depicting each deceased
+receiving offerings from priests, one of whom milks the holy cows of
+Hathor to give her milk. The sarcophagi were let down into the tomb in
+pieces and there joined together, and they have been removed in the same
+way. The finest is a unique example of XIth Dynasty art, and it is now
+preserved in the Museum of Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: 330.jpg CASES OF ANTIQUITIES LEAVING D�R EL-BAHARI FOR
+TRANSPORT TO CAIRO.]
+
+In memory of the priestesses there were erected on the platform behind
+the pyramid a number of small shrines, which were decorated with the
+most delicately coloured carvings in high relief, representing chiefly
+the same subjects as those on the sarcophagi. The peculiar style of
+these reliefs was previously unknown. In connection with them a most
+interesting possibility presents itself.
+
+[Illustration: 331.jpg SHIPPING CASES OF ANTIQUITIES ON BOARD THE NILE
+STEAMER AT LUXOR, FOR THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND.]
+
+We know the name of the chief artist of Mentuhetep's reign. He was
+called Mertisen, and he thus describes himself on his tombstone from
+Abydos, now in the Louvre: "I was an artist skilled in my art. I knew
+my art, how to represent the forms of going forth and returning, so that
+each limb may be in its proper place. I knew how the figure of a man
+should walk and the carriage of a woman, the poising of the arm to
+bring the hippopotamus low, the going of the runner. I knew how to make
+amulets, which enable us to go without fire burning us and without the
+flood washing us away. No man could do this but I, and the eldest son
+of my body. Him has the god decreed to excel in art, and I have seen
+the perfections of the work of his hands in every kind of rare stone,
+in gold and silver, in ivory and ebony." Now since Mertisen and his son
+were the chief artists of their day, it is more than probable that they
+were employed to decorate their king's funerary chapel. So that in all
+probability the XIth Dynasty reliefs from D�r el-Bahari are the work
+of Mertisen and his son, and in them we see the actual "forms of going
+forth and returning, the poising of the arm to bring the hippopotamus
+low, the going of the runner," to which he refers on his tombstone. This
+adds a note of personal interest to the reliefs, an interest which is
+often sadly wanting in Egypt, where we rarely know the names of the
+great artists whose works we admire so much. We have recovered the names
+of the sculptor and painter of Seti I's temple at Abydos and that of the
+sculptor of some of the tombs at Tell el-Amarna, but otherwise very few
+names of the artists are directly associated with the temples and tombs
+which they decorated, and of the architects we know little more. The
+great temple of D�r el-Bahari was, however, we know, designed by Senmut,
+the chief architect to Queen Hatshepsu.
+
+It is noticeable that Mertisen's art, if it is Mertisen's, is of a
+peculiar character. It is not quite so fully developed as that of the
+succeeding XIIth Dynasty. The drawing of the figures is often peculiar,
+strange lanky forms taking the place of the perfect proportions of the
+IVth-VIth and the XIIth Dynasty styles. Great elaboration is bestowed
+upon decoration, which is again of a type rather archaic in character
+when compared with that of the XIIth Dynasty. We are often reminded of
+the rude sculptures which used to be regarded as typical of the art of
+the XIth Dynasty, while at the same time we find work which could not
+be surpassed by the best XIIth Dynasty masters. In fact, the art of
+Neb-hapet-R�'s reign was the art of a transitional period. Under the
+decadent Memphites of the VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties, Egyptian art
+rapidly fell from the high estate which it had attained under the Vth
+Dynasty, and, though good work was done under the Hierakonpolites, the
+chief characteristic of Egyptian art at the time of the Xth and early
+XIth Dynasties is its curious roughness and almost barbaric appearance.
+When, however, the kings of the XIth Dynasty reunited the whole land
+under one sceptre, and the long reign of Neb-hapet-R� Mentuhetep enabled
+the reconsolidation of the realm to be carried out by one hand, art
+began to revive, and, just as to Neb-hapet-R� must be attributed the
+renascence of the Egyptian state under the hegemony of Thebes, so must
+the revival of art in his reign be attributed to his great artists,
+Mertisen and his son. They carried out in the realm of art what their
+king had carried out in the political realm, and to them must be
+attributed the origin of the art of the Middle Kingdom which under the
+XIIth Dynasty attained so high a pitch of excellence. The sculptures
+of the king's temple at D�r el-Bahari, then, are monuments of the
+renascence of Egyptian art, after the state of decadence into which it
+had fallen during the long civil wars between South and North; it is
+a reviving art, struggling out of barbarism to regain perfection, and
+therefore has much about it that seems archaic, stiff, and curious when
+compared with later work. To the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptian it would no
+doubt have seemed hopelessly old-fashioned and even semi-barbarous, and
+he had no qualms about sweeping it aside whenever it appeared in the
+way of the work of his own time; but to us this very strangeness
+gives additional charm and interest, and we can only be thankful that
+Mertisen's work has lasted (in fragments only, it is true) to our own
+day, to tell us the story of a little known chapter in the history of
+ancient Egyptian art.
+
+From this description it will have been seen that the temple is an
+important monument of the Egyptian art and architecture of the Middle
+Kingdom. It is the only temple of that period of which considerable
+traces have been found, and on that account the study of it will be of
+the greatest interest. It is the best preserved of the older temples of
+Egypt, and at Thebes it is by far the most ancient building recovered.
+Historically it has given us a new king of the XIth Dynasty,
+Sekh�he-tep-R� Mentuhetep, and the name of the queen of Neb-hapet-R�
+Mentuhetep, Aasheit, who seems to have been an Ethiopian, to judge from
+her portrait, which has been discovered. It is interesting to note that
+one of the priestesses was a negress.
+
+The name Neb-hapet-R� may be unfamiliar to those readers who are
+acquainted with the lists of the Egyptian kings. It is a correction
+of the former reading, "Neb-kheru-R�," which is now known from these
+excavations to be erroneous. Neb-hapet-R� (or, as he used to be called,
+Neb-kheru-R�) is Mentuhetep III of Prof. Petrie's arrangement. Before
+him there seem to have come the kings Mentuhetep Neb-hetep (who is also
+commemorated in this temple) and Neb-taui-R�; after him, Sekh�hetep-R�
+Mentuhetep IV and Se�nkhkar� Mentuhetep V, who were followed by an
+Antef, bearing the banner or hawk-name Uah-�nkh. This king was followed
+by Amenemhat I, the first king of the XIIth Dynasty. Antef Uah-�nkh may
+be numbered Antef I, as the prince Antefa, who founded the XIth Dynasty,
+did not assume the title of king.
+
+Other kings of the name of Antef also ruled over Egypt, and they used to
+be regarded as belonging to the XIth Dynasty; but Prof. Steindorff
+has now proved that they really reigned after the XIIIth Dynasty, and
+immediately before the Sekenenr�s, who were the fighters of the Hyksos
+and predecessors of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The second names of Antef III
+(Seshes-R�-up-maat) and Antef IV (Seshes-R�-her-her-maat) are exactly
+similar to those of the XIIIth Dynasty kings and quite unlike those of
+the Mentuheteps; also at Koptos a decree of Antef II (Nub-kheper-R�) has
+been found inscribed on a doorway of Usertsen (Senusret) I; so that
+he cannot have preceded him. Prof. Petrie does not yet accept these
+conclusions, and classes all the Antefs together with the Mentuheteps in
+the XIth Dynasty. He considers that he has evidence from Herakleopolis
+that Antef Xub-kheper-R� (whom he numbers Antef V) preceded the XIIth
+Dynasty, and he supposes that the decree of Nub-kheper-R� at Koptos is
+a later copy of the original and was inscribed during the XIIth Dynasty.
+But this is a difficult saying. The probabilities are that Prof.
+Steindorff is right. Antef Uah-�nkh must, however, have preceded the
+XIIth Dynasty, since an official of that period refers to his father's
+father as having lived in Uah-�nkh 's time.
+
+The necropolis of D�r el-Bahari was no doubt used all through the period
+of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties, and many tombs of that period have been
+found there. A large number of these were obliterated by the building
+of the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, in the northern part of the
+cliff-bay. We know of one queen's tomb of that period which runs right
+underneath this temple from the north, and there is another that is
+entered at the south side which also runs down underneath it. Several
+tombs were likewise found in the court between it and the XIth Dynasty
+temple. We know that the XVIIIth Dynasty temple was largely built over
+this court, and we can see now the XIth Dynasty mask-wall on the west of
+the court running northwards underneath the mass of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple. In all probability, then, when the temple of Hatshepsu
+was built, the larger portion of the Middle Kingdom necropolis (of
+chamber-tombs reached by pits), which had filled up the bay to the north
+of the Mentuhetep temple, was covered up and obliterated, just as
+the older VIth Dynasty gallery tombs of Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna had been
+appropriated and altered at the same period.
+
+The kings of the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties were not buried at Thebes,
+as we have seen, but in the North, at Dash�r, Lisht, and near the
+Fayymn, with which their royal city at Itht-taui had brought them into
+contact. But at the end of the XIIIth Dynasty the great invasion of the
+Hyksos probably occurred, and all Northern Egypt fell under the Arab
+sway. The native kings were driven south from the Fayymn to Abydos,
+Koptos, and Thebes, and at Thebes they were buried, in a new necropolis
+to the north of D�r el-Bahari (probably then full), on the flank of a
+long spur of hill which is now called Dra' Abu-'l-Negga, "Abu-'l-Negga's
+Arm." Here the Theban kings of the period between the XIIIth and XVIIth
+Dynasties, Upuantemsaf, Antef Nub-kheper-R�, and his descendants, Antefs
+III and IV, were buried. In their time the pressure of foreign invasion
+seems to have been felt, for, to judge from their coffins, which show
+progressive degeneration of style and workmanship, poverty now afflicted
+Upper Egypt and art had fallen sadly from the high standard which it had
+reached in the days of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties. Probably the later
+Antefs and Sebekemsafs were vassals of the Hyksos. Their descendants
+of the XVIIth Dynasty were buried in the same necropolis of Dra'
+Abu-'l-Negga, and so were the first two kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
+Aahmes and Amenhetep I. The tombs of the last two have not yet been
+found, but we know from the Abbott Papyrus that Amenhetep's was
+here, for, like that of Menttihetep III, it was found intact by the
+inspectors. It was a gallery-tomb of very great length, and will be a
+most interesting find when it is discovered, as it no doubt eventually
+will be. Aahmes had a tomb at Abydos, which was discovered by Mr.
+Currelly, working for the Egypt Exploration Fund. This, however, like
+the Abydene tomb of Usert-sen (Senusret) III, was in all likelihood a
+sham or secondary tomb, the king having most probably been buried at
+Thebes, in the Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. The Abydos tomb is of interesting
+construction. The entrance is by a simple pit, from which a gallery
+runs round in a curving direction to a great hall supported by eighteen
+square pillars, beyond which is a further gallery which was never
+finished. Nothing was found in the tomb. On the slope of the mountain,
+due west of and in a line with the tomb, Mr. Currelly found a
+terrace-temple analogous to those of D�r el-Bahari, approached not
+by means of a ramp but by stairways at the side. It was evidently the
+funerary temple of the tomb.
+
+[Illustration: 338.jpg Statue of Queen Teta-shera]
+
+     Grandmother of Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos and
+     founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty. About 1700 B. C. British
+     Museum. From the photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The secondary tomb of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Abydos, which has
+already been mentioned, was discovered in the preceding year by Mr. A.
+E. P. Weigall, and excavated by Mr. Currelly in 1903. It lies north of
+the Aahmes temple, between it and the main cemetery of Abydos. It is a
+great _b�b_ or gallery-tomb, like those of the later kings at Thebes,
+with the usual apparatus of granite plugs, barriers, pits, etc., to
+defy plunderers. The tomb had been plundered, nevertheless, though it is
+probable that the robbers were vastly disappointed with what they
+found in it. Mr. Currelly ascribes the absence of all remains to the
+plunderers, but the fact is that there probably never was anything in
+it but an empty sarcophagus. Near the tomb Mr. Weigall discovered
+some dummy mastabas, a find of great interest. Just as the king had a
+secondary tomb, so secondary mastabas, mere dummies of rubble like the
+XIth Dynasty pyramid at D�r el-Bahari, were erected beside it to look
+like the tombs of his courtiers. Some curious sinuous brick walls which
+appear to act as dividing lines form a remarkable feature of this sham
+cemetery. In a line with the tomb, on the edge of the cultivation,
+is the funerary temple belonging to it, which was found by Mr.
+Randall-Maclver in 1900. Nothing remains but the bases of the fluted
+limestone columns and some brick walls. A headless statue of Usertsen
+was found.
+
+We have an interesting example of the custom of building a secondary
+tomb for royalties in these two n�cropoles of Dra' Abu-'l-Negga and
+Abydos. Queen Teta-shera, the grandmother of Aahmes, a beautiful
+statuette of whom may be seen in the British Museum, had a small pyramid
+at Abydos, eastward of and in a line with the temple and secondary tomb
+of Aahmes. In 1901 Mr. Mace attempted to find the chamber, but could
+not. In the next year Mr. Currelly found between it and the Aahmes
+tomb a small chapel, containing a splendid stele, on which Aahmes
+commemorates his grandmother, who, he says, was buried at Thebes and had
+a _mer-�h�t_ at Abydos, and he records his determination to build her
+also a pyramid at Abydos, out of his love and veneration for her memory.
+It thus appeared that the pyramid to the east was simply a dummy,
+like Usertsen's mastabas, or the Mentuhetep pyramid at D�r el-Bahari.
+Teta-shera was actually buried at Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. Her secondary
+pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was in the "holy ground" at
+Abydos, though it was not an imitation _b�b_, but a dummy pyramid of
+rubble. This well illustrates the whole custom of the royal primary and
+secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had obtained in the case of
+royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty, when Aha had two
+tombs, one at Nak�da and the other at Abydos. It is probable that all
+the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings being really
+buried elsewhere. After their time we know for certain that Tjeser and
+Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly Usertsen
+(Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III and
+Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs. Ramses III
+also had two tombs, both at Thebes. The reasons for this custom were
+two: first, the desire to elude plunderers, and second, the wish to give
+the ghost a _pied-�-terre_ on the sacred soil of Abydos or Sakk�ra.
+
+As the inscription of Aahmes which records the building of the dummy
+pyramid of Teta-shera is of considerable interest, it may here be
+translated. The text reads: "It came to pass that when his Majesty the
+king, even the king of South and North, Neb-pehti-R�, Son of the Sun,
+Aahmes, Giver of Life, was taking his pleasure in the _tjadu_-hall,
+the hereditary princess greatly favoured and greatly prized, the king's
+daughter, the king's sister, the god's wife and great wife of the king,
+Nefret-ari-Aahmes, the living, was in the presence of his Majesty. And
+the one spake unto the other, seeking to do honour to These There,*
+which consisteth in the pouring of water, the offering upon the altar,
+the painting of the stele at the beginning of each season, at the
+Festival of the New Moon, at the feast of the month, the feast of the
+going-forth of the _Sem_-priest, the Ceremonies of the Night, the Feasts
+of the Fifth Day of the Month and of the Sixth, the _Hak_-festival, the
+_Uag_-festival, the feast of Thoth, the beginning of every season of
+heaven and earth. And his sister spake, answering him: 'Why hath one
+remembered these matters, and wherefore hath this word been said?
+Prithee, what hath come into thy heart?' The king spake, saying: 'As for
+me, I have remembered the mother of my mother, the mother of my father,
+the king's great wife and king's mother Teta-shera, deceased, whose
+tomb-chamber and _mer-ah�t_ are at this moment upon the soil of Thebes
+and Abydos. I have spoken thus unto thee because my Majesty desireth to
+cause a pyramid and chapel to be made for her in the Sacred Land, as a
+gift of a monument from my Majesty, and that its lake should be dug, its
+trees planted, and its offerings prescribed; that it should be provided
+with slaves, furnished with lands, and endowed with cattle, with
+_hen-ka_ priests and _kher-heb_ priests performing their duties, each
+man knowing what he hath to do.' Behold! when his Majesty had thus
+spoken, these things were immediately carried out. His Majesty did these
+things on account of the greatness of the love which he bore her, which
+was greater than anything. Never had ancestral kings done the like for
+their mothers. Behold! his Majesty extended his arm and bent his hand,
+and made for her the king's offering to Geb, to the Ennead of Gods, to
+the lesser Ennead of Gods... [to Anubis] in the God's Shrine, thousands
+of offerings of bread, beer, oxen, geese, cattle... to [the Queen
+Teta-shera]." This is one of the most interesting inscriptions
+discovered in Egypt in recent years, for the picturesqueness of its
+diction is unusual.
+
+     * A polite periphrasis for the dead.
+
+As has already been said, the king Amenhetep I was also buried in the
+Dra' Abu-'l-Negga, but the tomb has not yet been found. Amenhetep I and
+his mother, Queen Nefret-ari-Aahmes, who is mentioned in the inscription
+translated above, were both venerated as tutelary demons of the Western
+Necropolis of Thebes after their deaths, as also was Mentuhetep III. At
+D�r el-Bahari both kings seem to have been worshipped with Hathor, the
+Mistress of the Waste. The worship of Amen-R� in the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple of D�r el-Bahari was a novelty introduced by the priests of Amen
+at that time. But the worship of Hathor went on side by side with that
+of Amen in a chapel with a rock-cut shrine at the side of the Great
+Temple. Very possibly this was the original cave-shrine of Hathor, long
+before Mentuhetep's time, and was incorporated with the Great Temple and
+beautified with the addition of a pillared hall before it, built
+over part of the XIth Dynasty north court and wall, by Hatshepsu's
+architects.
+
+The Great Temple, the excavation of which for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+was successfully brought to an end by Prof. Naville in 1898, was erected
+by Queen Hatshepsu in honour of Amen-R�, her father Thothmes I, and her
+brother-husband Thothmes II, and received a few additions from Thothmes
+III, her successor. He, however, did not complete it, and it fell into
+disrepair, besides suffering from the iconoclastic zeal of the heretic
+Akhunaten, who hammered out some of the beautifully painted scenes upon
+its walls. These were badly restored by Ramses II, whose painting is
+easily distinguished from the original work by the dulness and badness
+of its colour.
+
+The peculiar plan and other remarkable characteristics of this temple
+are well known. Its great terraces, with the ramps leading up to them,
+flanked by colonnades, which, as we have seen, were imitated from the
+design of the old XIth Dynasty temple at its side, are familiar from a
+hundred illustrations, and the marvellously preserved colouring of its
+delicate reliefs is known to every winter visitor to Egypt, and can be
+realized by those who have never been there through the medium of Mr.
+Howard Carter's wonderful coloured reproductions, published in Prof.
+Naville's edition of the temple by the Egypt Exploration Fund. The Great
+Temple stands to-day clear of all the d�bris which used to cover it, a
+lasting monument to the work of the greatest of the societies which busy
+themselves with the unearthing of the relics of the ancient world.
+
+[Illustration: 334.jpg THE TWO TEMPLES OF DES EL-BAHARI.] Excavated by
+Prof. Nayille, 1893-8 and 1903-6, for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+
+The two temples of D�r el-Bahari will soon stand side by side, as they
+originally stood, and will always be associated with the name of the
+society which rescued them from oblivion, and gave us the treasures
+of the royal tombs at Abydos. The names of the two men whom the Egypt
+Exploration Fund commissioned to excavate D�r el-Bahari and Abydos, and
+for whose work it exclusively supplied the funds, Profs. Naville and
+Petrie, will live chiefly in connection with their work at D�r el-Bahari
+and Abydos.
+
+The Egyptians called the two temples _Tjeserti_, "the two holy places,"
+the new building receiving the name of _Tjeser-tjesru_, "Holy of
+Holies," and the whole tract of D�r el-Bahari the appellation _Tjesret_,
+"the Holy." The extraordinary beauty of the situation in which they are
+placed, with its huge cliffs and rugged hillsides, may be appreciated
+from the photograph which is taken from a steep path half-way up the
+cliff above the Great Temple. In it we see the Great Temple in the
+foreground with the modern roofs of two of its colonnades, devised in
+order to protect the sculptures beneath them, the great trilithon gate
+leading to the upper court, and the entrance to the cave-shrine of
+Amen-R�, with the niches of the kings on either side, immediately at the
+foot of the cliff. In the middle distance is the duller form of the XIth
+Dynasty temple, with its rectangular platform, the ramp leading up
+to it, and the pyramid in the centre of it, surrounded by pillars,
+half-emerging from the great heaps of sand and d�bris all around. The
+background of cliffs and hills, as seen in the photograph, will serve to
+give some idea of the beauty of the surroundings,--an arid beauty, it is
+true, for all is desert. There is not a blade of vegetation near; all
+is salmon-red in colour beneath a sky of ineffable blue, and against the
+red cliffs the white temple stands out in vivid contrast.
+
+The second illustration gives a nearer view of the great trilithon
+gate in the upper court, at the head of the ramp. The long hill of Dra'
+Abu-'l-Negga is seen bending away northward behind the gate.
+
+[Illustration: 346.jpg THE UPPER COURT AND TRILITHON GATE]
+
+     Of The Xviiith Dynasty Temple At D�k El-Bahari. About 1500
+     B.C.
+
+This is the famous gate on which the jealous Thothmes III chiselled out
+Hatshepsu's name in the royal cartouches and inserted his own in
+its place; but he forgot to alter the gender of the pronouns in the
+accompanying inscription, which therefore reads "King Thothmes III, she
+made this monument to her father Amen."
+
+Among Prof. Naville's discoveries here one of the most important is that
+of the altar in a small court to the north, which, as the inscription
+says, was made in honour of the god R�-Harmachis "of beautiful white
+stone of Anu." It is of the finest white limestone known. Here also were
+found the carved ebony doors of a shrine, now in the Cairo Museum. One
+of the most beautiful parts of the temple is the Shrine of Anubis, with
+its splendidly preserved paintings and perfect columns and roof of
+white limestone. The effect of the pure white stone and simplicity of
+architecture is almost Hellenic.
+
+The Shrine of Hathor has been known since the time of Mariette, but in
+connection with it some interesting discoveries have been made during
+the excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple. In the court between the two
+temples were found a large number of small votive offerings, consisting
+of scarabs, beads, little figures of cows and women, etc., of blue
+glazed _fa�ence_ and rough pottery, bronze and wood, and blue glazed
+ware ears, eyes, and plaques with figures of the sacred cow, and other
+small objects of the same nature. These are evidently the ex-votos of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty fellah�n to the goddess Hathor in the rock-shrine
+above the court. When the shrine was full or the little ex-votos broken,
+the sacristans threw them over the wall into the court below, which thus
+became a kind of dust-heap. Over this heap the sand and d�bris gradually
+collected, and thus they were preserved. The objects found are of
+considerable interest to anthropological science.
+
+The Great Temple was built, as we have said, in honour of Thothmes I
+and II, and the deities Amen-R� and Hathor. More especially it was the
+funerary chapel of Thothmes I. His tomb was excavated, not in the Dra'
+Abu-l-Negga, which was doubtless now too near the capital city and not
+in a sufficiently dignified position of aloofness from the common herd,
+but at the end of the long valley of the Wadiy�n, behind the cliff-hill
+above D�r el-Bahari. Hence the new temple was oriented in the direction
+of his tomb. Immediately behind the temple, on the other side of the
+hill, is the tomb which was discovered by Lepsius and cleared in 1904
+for Mr. Theodore N. Davis by Mr. Howard Carter, then chief inspector of
+antiquities at Thebes. Its gallery is of very small dimensions, and it
+winds about in the hill in corkscrew fashion like the tomb of Aahmes at
+Aby-dos. Owing to its extraordinary length, the heat and foul air in the
+depths of the tomb were almost insupportable and caused great difficulty
+to the excavators. When the sarcophagus-chamber was at length reached,
+it was found to contain the empty sarcophagi of Thothmes I and of
+Hatshepsu. The bodies had been removed for safe-keeping in the time of
+the XXIst Dynasty, that of Thothmes I having been found with those
+of Set! I and Ramses II in the famous pit at D�r el-Bahari, which was
+discovered by M. Maspero in 1881. Thothmes I seems to have had another
+and more elaborate tomb (No. 38) in the Valley of the Tombs of the
+Kings, which was discovered by M. Loret in 1898. Its frescoes had been
+destroyed by the infiltration of water.
+
+The fashion of royal burial in the great valley behind D�r el-Bahari
+was followed during the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth Dynasties. Here in the
+eastern branch of the Wadiy�n, now called the _Bib�n el-Mul�k_, "the
+Tombs of the Kings," the greater number of the mightiest Theban Pharaohs
+were buried. In the western valley rested two of the kings of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, who desired even more remote burial-places, Amenhetep
+III and Ai. The former chose for his last home a most kingly site.
+Ancient kings had raised great pyramids of artificial stone over their
+graves. Amenhetep, perhaps the greatest and most powerful Pharaoh of
+them all, chose to have a natural pyramid for his grave, a mountain for
+his tumulus. The illustration shows us the tomb of this monarch, opening
+out of the side of one of the most imposing hills in the Western Valley.
+No other king but Amenhetep rested beneath this hill, which thus marks
+his grave and his only.
+
+It is in the Eastern Valley, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings
+properly speaking, that the tombs of Thothmes I and Hatshepsu lie, and
+here the most recent discoveries have been made. It is a desolate spot.
+As we come over the hill from D�r el-Bahari we see below us in the
+glaring sunshine a rocky canon, with sides sometimes sheer cliff,
+sometimes sloped by great falls of rock in past ages. At the bottom
+of these slopes the square openings of the many royal tombs can be
+descried. [See illustration.] Far below we see the forms of tourists
+and the tomb-guards accompanying them, moving in and out of the openings
+like ants going in and out of an ants' nest. Nothing is heard but the
+occasional cry of a kite and the ceaseless rhythmical throbbing of the
+exhaust-pipe of the electric light engine in the unfinished tomb of
+Ramses XI. Above and around are the red desert hills. The Egyptians
+called it "The Place of Eternity."
+
+[Illustration: 350.jpg THE TOMB-MOUNTAIN OF AMENHETEF III, IN THE
+WESTERN VALLEY, THEBES.]
+
+In this valley some remarkable discoveries have been made during the
+last few years. In 1898 M. Gr�baut discovered the tomb of Amenhetep
+II, in which was found the mummy of the king, intact, lying in its
+sarcophagus in the depths of the tomb. The royal body now lies there
+for all to see. The tomb is lighted with electricity, as are all the
+principal tombs of the kings. At the head of the sarcophagus is a single
+lamp, and, when the party of visitors is collected in silence around the
+place of death, all the lights are turned out, and then the single
+light is switched on, showing the royal head illuminated against the
+surrounding blackness. The effect is indescribably weird and impressive.
+The body has only twice been removed from the tomb since its burial, the
+second time when it was for a brief space taken up into the sunlight to
+be photographed by Mr.. Carter, in January, 1902. The temporary removal
+was carefully carried out, the body of his Majesty being borne up
+through the passages of the tomb on the shoulders of the Italian
+electric light workmen, preceded and followed by impassive Arab
+candle-bearers. The workmen were most reverent in their handling of the
+body of "_ il gran r�_," as they called him.
+
+In the tomb were found some very interesting objects, including a model
+boat (afterwards stolen), across which lay the body of a woman. This
+body now lies, with others found close by, in a side chamber of the
+tomb. One may be that of Hatshepsu. The walls of the tomb-chamber are
+painted to resemble papyrus, and on them are written chapters of the
+"Book of What Is in the Underworld," for the guidance of the royal
+ghost.
+
+In 1902-3 Mr. Theodore Davis excavated the tomb of Thothmes IV. It
+yielded a rich harvest of antiquities belonging to the funeral state of
+the king, including a chariot with sides of embossed and gilded leather,
+decorated with representations of the king's warlike deeds, and much
+fine blue pottery, all of which are now in the Cairo Museum. The
+tomb-gallery returns upon itself, describing a curve. An interesting
+point with regard to it is that it had evidently been violated even in
+the short time between the reigns of its owner and Horem-heb, probably
+in the period of anarchy which prevailed at Thebes during the reign
+of the heretic Akhunaten; for in one of the chambers is a hieratic
+inscription recording the repair of the tomb in the eighth year of
+Horemheb by Maya, superintendent of works in the Tombs of the Kings. It
+reads as follows: "In the eighth year, the third month of summer, under
+the Majesty of King Tjeser-khepru-R� Sotp-n-R�, Son of the Sun, Horemheb
+Meriamen, his Majesty (Life, health, and wealth unto him!) commanded
+that orders should be sent unto the Fanbearer on the King's Left Hand,
+the King's Scribe and Overseer of the Treasury, the Overseer of the
+Works in the Place of Eternity, the Leader of the Festivals of Amen
+in Karnak, Maya, son of the judge Aui, born of the Lady Ueret, that he
+should renew the burial of King Men-khepru-R�, deceased, in the August
+Habitation in Western Thebes." Men-khepru-R� was the prenomen or
+throne-name of Thothmes IV. Tied round a pillar in the tomb is still a
+length of the actual rope used by the thieves for crossing the chasm,
+which, as in many of the tombs here, was left open in the gallery to bar
+the way to plunderers. The mummy of the king was found in the tomb of
+Amenhetep II, and is now at Cairo.
+
+The discovery of the tomb of Thothmes I and Hat-shepsu has already been
+described. In 1905 Mr. Davis made his latest find, the tomb of Iuaa
+and Tuaa, the father and mother of Queen Tii, the famous consort of
+Amenhetep III and mother of Akhunaten the heretic. Readers of Prof.
+Maspero's history will remember that Iuaa and Tuaa are mentioned on one
+of the large memorial scarabs of Amenhetep III, which commemorates his
+marriage. The tomb has yielded an almost incredible treasure of funerary
+furniture, besides the actual mummies of Tii's parents, including a
+chariot overlaid with gold. Gold overlay of great thickness is found on
+everything, boxes, chairs, etc. It was no wonder that Egypt seemed the
+land of gold to the Asiatics, and that even the King of Babylon begs
+this very Pharaoh Amenhetep to send him gold, in one of the letters
+found at Tell el-Amarna, "for gold is as water in thy land." It is
+probable that Egypt really attained the height of her material wealth
+and prosperity in the reign of Amenhetep III. Certainly her dominion
+reached its farthest limits in his time, and his influence was felt from
+the Tigris to the Sudan. He hunted lions for his pleasure in Northern
+Mesopotamia, and he built temples at Jebel Barkal beyond Dongola. We see
+the evidence of lavish wealth in the furniture of the tomb of Iuaa and
+Tuaa. Yet, fine as are many of these gold-overlaid and overladen objects
+of the XVIIIth Dynasty, they have neither the good taste nor the charm
+of the beautiful jewels from the XIIth Dynasty tombs at Dash�r. It is
+mere vulgar wealth. There is too much gold thrown about. "For gold is as
+water in thy land." In three hundred years' time Egypt was to know what
+poverty meant, when the poor priest-kings of the XXIst Dynasty could
+hardly keep body and soul together and make a comparatively decent show
+as Pharaohs of Egypt. Then no doubt the latter-day Thebans sighed for
+the good old times of the XVIIIth Dynasty, when their city ruled a
+considerable part of Africa and Western Asia and garnered their riches
+into her coffers. But the days of the XIIth Dynasty had really been
+better still. Then there was not so much wealth, but what there was (and
+there was as much gold then, too) was used sparingly, tastefully, and
+simply. The XIIth Dynasty, not the XVIIIth, was the real Golden Age of
+Egypt.
+
+From the funeral panoply of a tomb like that of Iuaa and Tuaa we can
+obtain some idea of the pomp and state of Amenhetep III. But the remains
+of his Theban palace, which have been discovered and excavated by Mr. C.
+Tytus and Mr. P. E. Newberry, do not bear out this idea of magnificence.
+It is quite possible that the palace was merely a pleasure house,
+erected very hastily and destined to fall to pieces when its owner tired
+of it or died, like the many palaces of the late Khedive Ismail. It
+stood on the border of an artificial lake, whereon the Pharaoh and his
+consort Tii sailed to take their pleasure in golden barks. This is now
+the cultivated rectangular space of land known as the Birket Hab�, which
+is still surrounded by the remains of the embankment built to retain its
+waters, and becomes a lake during the inundation. On the western shore
+of this lake Amenhetep erected the "stately pleasure dome," the
+remains of which still cover the sandy tract known as el-Malkata, "the
+Salt-pans," south of the great temple of Med�net Hab�. These remains
+consist merely of the foundations and lowest wall-courses of a
+complicated and rambling building of many chambers, constructed of
+common unburnt brick and plastered with white stucco on walls and
+floors, on which were painted beautiful frescoes of fighting bulls,
+birds of the air, water-fowl, fish-ponds, etc., in much the same style
+as the frescoes of Tell el-Amarna executed in the next reign. There
+were small pillared halls, the columns of which were of wood, mounted
+on bases of white limestone. The majority still remain in position. In
+several chambers there are small da�ses, and in one the remains of a
+throne, built of brick and mud covered with plaster and stucco, upon
+which the Pharaoh Amenhetep sat. This is the palace of him whom the
+Greeks called Memnon, who ruled Egypt when Israel was in bondage and
+when the dynasty of Minos reigned in Crete. Here by the side of his
+pleasure-lake the most powerful of Egyptian Pharaohs whiled away his
+time during the summer heats. Evidently the building was intended to be
+of the lightest construction, and never meant to last; but to our ideas
+it seems odd that an Egyptian Pharaoh should live in a mud palace. Such
+a building is, however, quite suited to the climate of Egypt, as are the
+modern crude brick dwellings of the fellah�n. In the ruins of the
+palace were found several small objects of interest, and close by was
+an ancient glass manufactory of Amenhetep III's time, where much of the
+characteristic beautifully coloured and variegated opaque glass of the
+period was made.
+
+[Illustration: 356.jpg THE TOMB-HILL OF SHEKH 'ABD EL-KUBNA, THEBES.]
+
+The tombs of the magnates of Amenhetep III's reign and of the reigns
+of his immediate predecessors were excavated, as has been said, on the
+eastern slope of the hill of Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna, where was the earliest
+Theban necropolis. No doubt many of the early tombs of the time of the
+VIth Dynasty were appropriated and remodelled by the XVIIIth Dynasty
+magnates. We have an instance of time's revenge in this matter, in the
+case of the tomb of Imadua, a great priestly official of the time of
+the XXth Dynasty. This tomb previously belonged to an XVIIIth Dynasty
+worthy, but Imadua appropriated it three hundred years later and covered
+up all its frescoes with the much begilt decoration fashionable in his
+period. Perhaps the XVIIIth Dynasty owner had stolen it from an original
+owner of the time of the VIth Dynasty. The tomb has lately been cleared
+out by Mr. Newberry.
+
+Much work of the same kind has been done here of late years by Messrs.
+Newberry and R. L. Mond, in succession. To both we are indebted for the
+excavation of many known tombs, as well as for the discovery of many
+others previously unknown. Among the former was that of Sebekhetep,
+cleared by Mr. Newberry. Se-bekhetep was an official of the time of
+Thothmes III. From his tomb, and from others in the same hill, came many
+years ago the fine frescoes shown in the illustration, which are among
+the most valued treasures of the Egyptian department of the British
+Museum. They are typical specimens of the wall-decoration of an XVIIIth
+Dynasty tomb. On one may be seen a bald-headed peasant, with staff in
+hand, pulling an ear of corn from the standing crop in order to see if
+it is ripe. He is the "Chief Reaper," and above him is a prayer that the
+"great god in heaven" may increase the crop. To the right of him is a
+charioteer standing beside a car and reining back a pair of horses, one
+black, the other bay. Below is another charioteer with two white
+horses. He sits on the floor of the car with his back to them, eating
+or resting, while they nibble the branches of a tree close by. Another
+scene is that of a scribe keeping tally of offerings brought to the
+tomb, while fellahm are bringing flocks of geese and other fowl, some in
+crates. The inscription above is apparently addressed by the goose-herd
+to the man with the crates. It reads: "Hasten thy feet because of the
+geese! Hearken! thou knowest not the next minute what has been said
+to thee!" Above, a re�s with a stick bids other peasants squat on the
+ground before addressing the scribe, and he is saying to them: "Sit ye
+down to talk." The third scene is in another style; on it may be seen
+Semites bringing offerings of vases of gold, silver, and copper to the
+royal presence, bowing themselves to the ground and kissing the dust
+before the throne. The fidelity and accuracy with which the racial type
+of the tribute-bearers is given is most extraordinary; every face
+seems a portrait, and each one might be seen any day now in the Jewish
+quarters of Whitechapel.
+
+[Illustration: 358.jpg Wall-Painting from a Tomb]
+
+The first two paintings are representative of a very common style of
+fresco-pictures in these tombs. The care with which the animals
+are depicted is remarkable. Possibly one of the finest Egyptian
+representations of an animal is the fresco of a goat in the tomb of
+Gen-Amen, discovered by Mr. Mond. There is even an attempt here at
+chiaroscuro, which is unknown to Egyptian art generally, except at Tell
+el-Amarna. Evidently the Egyptian painters reached the apogee of
+their art towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The third, the
+representation of tribute-bearers, is of a type also well known at
+this period. In all the chief tombs we have processions of Egyptians,
+Westerners, Northerners, Easterners, and Southerners, bringing tribute
+to the Pharaoh. The North is represented by the Semites, the East by the
+Punites (when they occur), the South by negroes, the West by the Keftiu
+or people of Crete and Cyprus. The representations of the last-named
+people have become of the very highest interest during the last few
+years, on account of the discoveries in Crete, which have revealed to
+us the state and civilization of these very Keftiu. Messrs. Evans
+and Halbherr have discovered at Knossos and Phaistos the cities and
+palace-temples of the king who sent forth their ambassadors to far-away
+Egypt with gifts for the mighty Pharaoh; these ambassadors were painted
+in the tombs of their hosts as representative of the quarter of the
+world from which they came.
+
+The two chief Egyptian representations of these people, who since they
+lived in Greece may be called Greeks, though their more proper title
+would be "Pe-lasgians," are to be found in the tombs of Rekhmar� and
+Senmut, the former a vizier under Thothmes III, the latter the
+architect of Hatshepsu's temple at D�r el-Bahari. Senmut's tomb is a
+new rediscovery. It was known, as Rekhmar�'s was, in the early days of
+Egyptological science, and Prisse d'Avennes copied its paintings. It was
+afterwards lost sight of until rediscovered by Mr. Newberry and Prof.
+Steindorff.
+
+[Illustration: 360.jpg FRESCO IN THE TOMB OF SENMUT AT THEBES.] About
+1500 B.C.
+
+The tomb of Rekhmar� (No. 35) is well known to every visitor to Thebes,
+but it is difficult to get at that of Senmut (No. 110); it lies at the
+top of the hill round to the left and overlooking D�r el-Bahari,
+an appropriate place for it, by the way. In some ways Senmut's
+representations are more interesting than Rekhmar�'s. They are more
+easily seen, since they are now in the open air, the fore hall of the
+tomb having been ruined; and they are better preserved, since they have
+not been subjected to a century of inspection with naked candles and
+pawing with greasy hands, as have Rekhmar�'s frescoes. Further, there
+is no possibility of mistaking what they represent. From right to
+left, walking in procession, we see the Minoan gift-bearers from Crete,
+carrying in their hands and on their shoulders great cups of gold and
+silver, in shape like the famous gold cups found at Vaphio in Lakonia,
+but much larger, also a ewer of gold and silver exactly like one of
+bronze discovered by Mr. Evans two years ago at Knossos, and a huge
+copper jug with four ring-handles round the sides. All these vases are
+specifically and definitely Mycenaean, or rather, following the new
+terminology, Minoan. They are of Greek manufacture and are carried on
+the shoulders of Pelasgian Greeks. The bearers wear the usual Mycenaean
+costume, high boots and a gaily ornamented kilt, and little else, just
+as we see it depicted in the fresco of the Cupbearer at Knossos and
+in other Greek representations. The coiffure, possibly the most
+characteristic thing about the Mycenaean Greeks, is faithfully
+represented by the Egyptians both here and in Rekhmar�'s tomb. The
+Mycenaean men allowed their hair to grow to its full natural length,
+like women, and wore it partly hanging down the back, partly tied up
+in a knot or plait (the _kepas_ of the dandy Paris in the Iliad) on the
+crown of the head. This was the universal fashion, and the Keftiu are
+consistently depicted by the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptians as following it.
+The faces in the Senmut fresco are not so well portrayed as those in the
+Rekhmar� fresco. There it is evident that the first three ambassadors
+are faithfully depicted, as the portraits are marked. The procession
+advances from left to right. The first man, "the Great Chief of the
+Kefti and the Isles of the Green Sea," is young, and has a remarkably
+small mouth with an amiable expression. His complexion is fair rather
+than dark, but his hair is dark brown. His lieutenant, the next in
+order, is of a different type,--elderly, with a most forbidding visage,
+Roman nose, and nutcracker jaws. Most of the others are very much
+alike,--young, dark in complexion, and with long black hair hanging
+below their waists and twisted up into fantastic knots and curls on the
+tops of their heads. One, carrying on his shoulder a great silver vase
+with curving handles and in one hand a dagger of early European Bronze
+Age type, is looking back to hear some remark of his next companion.
+Any one of these gift-bearers might have sat for the portrait of
+the Knossian Cupbearer, the fresco discovered by Mr. Evans in the
+palace-temple of Minos; he has the same ruddy brown complexion, the same
+long black hair dressed in the same fashion, the same parti-coloured
+kilt, and he bears his vase in much the same way. We have only to allow
+for the difference of Egyptian and Mycenaean ways of drawing. There is
+no doubt whatever that these Keftiu of the Egyptians were Cretans of the
+Minoan Age. They used to be considered Phoenicians, but this view was
+long ago exploded. They are not Semites, and that is quite enough.
+Neither are they Asiatics of any kind. They are purely and simply
+Mycenaean, or rather Minoan, Greeks of the pre-Hellenic period--Pelasgi,
+that is to say.
+
+Probably no discovery of more far-reaching importance to our knowledge
+of the history of the world generally and of our own culture especially
+has ever been made than the finding of Mycen� by Schliemann, and
+the further finds that have resulted therefrom, culminating in the
+discoveries of Mr. Arthur Evans at Knossos. Naturally, these discoveries
+are of extraordinary interest to us, for they have revealed the
+beginnings and first bloom of the European civilization of to-day. For
+our culture-ancestors are neither the Egyptians, nor the Assyrians, nor
+the Hebrews, but the Hellenes, and they, the Aryan-Greeks, derived most
+of their civilization from the pre-Hellenic people whom they found in
+the land before them, the Pelasgi or "Mycen�an" Greeks, "Minoans," as we
+now call them, the Keftiu of the Egyptians. These are the ancient Greeks
+of the Heroic Age, to which the legends of the Hellenes refer; in their
+day were fought the wars of Troy and of the Seven against Thebes, in
+their day the tragedy of the Atridse was played out to its end, in their
+day the wise Minos ruled Knossos and the _�gean_. And of all the events
+which are at the back of these legends we know nothing. The hi�roglyphed
+tablets of the pre-Hellenic Greeks lie before us, but we cannot read
+them; we can only see that the Minoan writing in many ways resembled
+the Egyptian, thus again confirming our impression of the original early
+connection of the two cultures.
+
+In view of this connection, and the known close relations between Crete
+and Egypt, from the end of the XIIth Dynasty to the end of the XVIIIth,
+we might have hoped to recover at Knossos a bilingual inscription in
+Cretan and Egyptian hieroglyphs which would give us the key to the
+Minoan script and tell us what we so dearly wish to know. But this hope
+has not yet been realized. Two Egyptian inscriptions have been found at
+Knossos, but no bilingual one. A list of Keftian names is preserved in
+the British Museum upon an Egyptian writing-board from Thebes with what
+is perhaps a copy of a single Cretan hieroglyph, a vase; but again,
+nothing bilingual. A list of "Keftian words" occurs at the head of a
+papyrus, also in the British Museum, but they appear to be nonsense,
+a mere imitation of the sounds of a strange tongue. Still we need
+not despair of finding the much desired Cretan-Egyptian bilingual
+inscription yet. Perhaps the double text of a treaty between Crete and
+Egypt, like that of Ramses II with the Hittites, may come to light.
+Meanwhile we can only do our best with the means at our hand to trace
+out the history of the relations of the oldest European culture with
+the ancient civilization of Egypt. The tomb-paintings at Thebes are very
+important material. Eor it is due to them that the voice of the doubter
+has finally ceased to be heard, and that now no archaeologist questions
+that the Egyptians were in direct communication with the Cretan
+Mycen�ans in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, some fifteen hundred years
+before Christ, for no one doubts that the pictures of the Keftiu are
+pictures of Mycenaeans.
+
+As we have seen, we know that this connection was far older than the
+time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, but it is during that time and the Hyksos
+period that we have the clearest documentary proof of its existence,
+from the statuette of Abnub and the alabastron lid of King Khian,
+found at Knossos, down to the Mycenaean pottery fragments found at Tell
+el-Amarna, a site which has been utterly abandoned since the time of
+the heretic Akhunaten (B.C. 1430), so that there is no possibility of
+anything found there being later than his time. That the connection
+existed as late as the time of the XXth Dynasty we know from the
+representations of golden _B�gelkannen_ or false-necked vases of
+Mycenaean form in the tomb of Ramses III in the Bib�n el-Mul�k, and of
+golden cups of Vaphio type in the tomb of Imadua, already mentioned.
+This brings the connection down to about 1050 B.C.
+
+After that date we cannot hope to find any certain evidence of
+connection, for by that time the Mycenaean civilization had probably
+come to an end. In the days of the XIIth and XVIIIth Dynasties a great
+and splendid power evidently existed in Crete, and sent its peaceful
+ambassadors, the Keftiu who are represented in the Theban tombs, to
+Egypt. But with the XIXth Dynasty the name of the Keftiu disappears from
+Egyptian records, and their place is taken by a congeries of warring
+seafaring tribes, whose names as given by the Egyptians seem to be forms
+of tribal and place names well known to us in the Greece of later days.
+We find the Akaivasha (_Axaifol_, Achaians), Shakalsha (Sagalassians of
+Pisidia), Tursha (Tylissians of Crete?), and Shardana (Sardians) allied
+with the Libyans and Mashauash (Maxyes) in a land attack upon Egypt in
+the days of Meneptah, the successor of Ramses II--just as in the later
+days of the XXVIth Dynasty the Northern pirates visited the African
+shore of the Mediterranean, and in alliance with the predatory Libyans
+attacked Egypt.
+
+Prof. Petrie has lately [History of Egypt, iii, pp. Ill, I12.] proffered
+an alternative view, which would make all these tribes Tunisians and
+Algerians, thus disposing of the identification of the Akaivasha with
+the Achaians, and making them the ancient representatives of the town
+of el-Aghwat (Roman Agbia) in Tunis. But several difficulties might be
+pointed out which are in the way of an acceptance of this view, and it
+is probable that the older identifications with Greek tribes must still
+be retained, so that Meneptah's Akaivasha are evidently the ancient
+representatives of the Achai(v)ans, the Achivi of the Roman poets. The
+terminations _sha_ and _na_, which appear in these names, are merely
+ethnic and locative affixes belonging to the Asianic language system
+spoken by these tribes at that time, to which the language of the Minoan
+Cretans (which is written in the Knossian hieroglyphs) belonged. They
+existed in ancient Lycian in the forms _azzi_ and _nna_, and we find
+them enshrined in the Asia Minor place-names terminating in _assos_
+and _nda_, as Halikarnassos, Sagalassos (Shakalasha in Meneptah's
+inscription), Oroanda, and Labraunda (which, as we have seen, is the
+same as the [Greek word], a word of pre-Hellenic origin, both meaning
+"Place of the Double Axe") The identification of these _sha_ and _nal_
+terminations in the Egyptian transliterations of the foreign names, with
+the Lycian affixes referred to, was made some five years ago,* and is
+now generally accepted. We have, then, to find the equivalents of
+these names, to strike off the final termination, as in the case of
+Akaiva-sha, where Akaiva only is the real name, and this seems to be
+the Egyptian equivalent of _Axaifol_, Achivi. It is strange to meet with
+this great name on an Egyptian monument of the thirteenth century B.C.
+But yet not so strange, when we recollect that it is precisely to that
+period that Greek legend refers the war of Troy, which was an attack
+by Greek tribes from all parts of the �gean upon the Asianic city
+at Hissarlik in the Troad, exactly parallel to the attacks of the
+Northerners on Egypt. And Homer preserves many a reminiscence of early
+Greek visits, peaceful and the reverse, to the coast of Egypt at this
+period. The reader will have noticed that one no longer treats the siege
+of Troy as a myth. To do so would be to exhibit a most uncritical mind;
+even the legends of King Arthur have a historic foundation, and those of
+the Nibelungen are still more probable.
+
+     * See Hall, Oldest Civilization of Greece, p. 178/.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg Page Image to display Greek words]
+
+[Illustration: 369.jpg Page Image to display Greek words]
+
+In the eighth year of Ramses III the second Northern attack was made,
+by the Pulesta (_Pelishtim_, Philistines), Tjakaray, Shakalasha
+(Sagalassians), Vashasha, and Danauna or Daanau, in alliance with North
+Syrian tribes. The Danauna are evidently the ancient representatives of
+the _Aavao�_, the Danaans who formed the bulk of the Greek army against
+Troy under the leadership of the long-haired Achaians, [Greek words]
+(like the Keftiu). The Vashasha have been identified by the writer with
+the Axians, the [Greek word] of Crete. Prof. Petrie compares the name
+of the Tjakaray with that of the (modern) place Zakro in Crete.
+Identifications with modern place-names are of doubtful value;
+for instance, we cannot but hold that Prof. Petrie errs greatly in
+identifying the name of the Pidasa (another tribe mentioned in Ramses
+II's time) with that of the river Pidias in Cyprus. "Pidias" is a purely
+modern corruption of the ancient Pediseus, which means the "plain-river"
+(because it flows through the central plain of the island), from the
+Greek [Greek word]. If, then, we make the Pidasa Cypriotes we assume
+that pure Greek was spoken in Cyprus as early as 1100 b. c, which is
+highly improbable. The Pidasa were probably Le-leges (Pedasians); the
+name of Pisidia may be the same, by metathesis. Pedasos is a name always
+connected with the much wandering tribe of the Leleges, where-ever they
+are found in Lakonia or in Asia Minor. We believe them to have been
+known to the Egyptians as Pidasa. The identification of the Tjakaray
+with Zakro is very tempting. The name was formerly identified with
+that of the Teukrians, but the v in the word Tewpot lias always been a
+stumbling-block in the way. Perhaps Zakro is neither more nor less than
+the Tetkpoc-name, since the legendary Teucer, the archer, was connected
+with the eastern or Eteokretan end of Crete, where Zakro lies. In
+Mycen�an times Zakro was an important place, so that the Tjakaray may
+be the Teukroi, after all, and Zakro may preserve the name. At any rate,
+this identification is most alluring and, taken in conjunction with
+the other cumulative identifications, is very probable; but the
+identification of the Pid�a with the river Pedi�us in Cyprus is
+neither alluring nor probable.
+
+In the time of Ramses II some of these Asia Minor tribes had marched
+against Egypt as allies of the Hittites. We find among them the Luka or
+Lycians, the Dardenui (Dardanians, who may possibly have been at that
+time in the Troad, or elsewhere, for all these tribes were certainly
+migratory), and the Masa (perhaps the Mysians). With the Cretans of
+Ramses Ill's time must be reckoned the Pulesta, who are certainly the
+Philistines, then most probably in course of their traditional migration
+from Crete to Palestine. In Philistia recent excavations by Mr. Welch
+have disclosed the unmistakable presence of a late Mycen�an culture,
+and we can only ascribe this to the Philistines, who were of Cretan
+origin.
+
+Thus we see that all these Northern tribal names hold together with
+remarkable persistence, and in fact refuse to be identified with any
+tribes but those of Asia Minor and the �gean. In them we see the broken
+remnants of the old Minoan (Keftian) power, driven hither and thither
+across the seas by intestinal feuds, and "winding the skein of grievous
+wars till every man of them perished," as Homer says of the heroes after
+the siege of Troy. These were in fact the wanderings of the heroes, the
+period of _Sturm und Drang_ which succeeded the great civilized epoch of
+Minos and his thalassocracy, of Knossos, Phaistos, and the Keftius.
+On the walls of the temple of Med�net Hab�, Ramses III depicted the
+portraits of the conquered heroes who had fallen before the Egyptian
+onslaught, and he called them heroes, _tuher_ in Egyptian, fully
+recognizing their Berserker gallantry. Above all in interest are the
+portraits of the Philistines, those Greeks who at this very time seized
+part of Palestine (which takes its name from them), and continued to
+exist there as a separate people (like the Normans in France) for at
+least two centuries. Goliath the giant was, then, a Greek; certainly he
+was of Cretan descent, and so a Pelasgian.
+
+Such are the conclusions to which modern discovery in Crete has impelled
+us with regard to the pictures of the Keftiu at Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna. It
+is indeed a new chapter in the history of the relations of ancient Egypt
+with the outside world that Dr. Arthur Evans has opened for us. And in
+this connection some American work must not be overlooked. An expedition
+sent out by the University of Pennsylvania, under Miss Harriet Boyd,
+has discovered much of importance to Mycen�an study in the ruins of an
+ancient town at Gournia in Crete, east of Knossos. Here, however, little
+has been found that will bear directly on the question of relations
+between Mycenaean Greece and Egypt.
+
+The Theban n�cropoles of the New Empire are by no means exhausted by a
+description of the Tombs of the Kings and Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna; but few
+new discoveries have been made anywhere except in the picturesque valley
+of the Tombs of the Queens, south of Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna. Here the
+Italian Egyptologist, Prof. Schiaparelli, has lately discovered and
+excavated some very fine tombs of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties. The best
+is that of Queen Nefertari, one of the wives of Ramses II. The colouring
+of the reliefs upon these walls is extraordinarily bright, and the
+portraits of the queen, who has a very beautiful face, with aquiline
+nose, are wonderfully preserved. She was of the dark type, while another
+queen, Titi by name, who was buried close by, was fair, and had a
+retrouss� nose. Prof. Schiaparelli also discovered here the tombs of
+some princes of the XXth Dynasty, who died young. All the tombs are
+much alike, with a single short gallery, on the walls of which are
+mythological scenes, figures of the prince and of his father, the king,
+etc., painted in a crude style, which shows a great degeneration from
+that of the XVIIIth Dynasty tombs.
+
+We now leave the great necropolis and turn to the later temples of the
+Western Bank at Thebes. These were of a funerary character, like those
+of D�r el-Bahari, already described. The most imposing of all in some
+respects is the Ramesseum, where lies the huge granite colossus of
+Ramses II, prostrate and broken, which Diodorus knew as the statue of
+Osymandyas. This name is a late corruption of Ramses II's throne-name,
+User-maat-R�, pronounced �simare. The temple has been cleared by
+Mr. Howard Carter for the Egyptian government, and the small town of
+priests' houses, magazines, and cellars, to the west of it, has been
+excavated by him. This is quite a little Pompeii, with its small
+streets, its houses with the stucco still clinging to the walls, its
+public altar, its market colonnade, and its gallery of statues. The
+statues are only of brick like the walls, and roughly shaped and
+plastered, but they were portraits, undoubtedly, of celebrities of
+the time, though we do not know of whom. On either side are the long
+magazines in which were kept the possessions of the priests of the
+Ramesseum, the grain from the lands with which they were endowed, and
+everything meet to be offered to the ghost of the king whom they served.
+The plan of the place had evidently been altered after the time of
+Ramses II, as remains of overbuilding were found here and there. The
+magazines were first investigated in 1896 by Prof. Petrie, who also
+found in the neighbourhood the remains of a number of small royal
+funerary temples of the XVIIIth Dynasty, all looking in the direction of
+the hill, beyond which lay the tombs of the kings.
+
+[Illustration: 372.jpg THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE QUEENS AT THEBES.]
+
+     In which Prof. Schiaparelli discovered the tomb of Ramses
+     II's wife (1904).
+
+We may now turn to Luxor, where immediately above the landing-place of
+the steamers and dahabiyas rise the stately coloured colonnades of the
+Temple of Luxor. Unfortunately, modern excavations have not been
+allowed to pursue their course to completion here, as in the first great
+colonnaded court, which was added by Ramses II to the original building
+of Amenhetep III, Tutankhamen, and Horemheb, there still remains
+the Mohammedan Mosque of Abu-'l-Hagg�g, which may not be removed.
+Abu-'l-Hagg�g, "the Father of Pilgrims" (so called on account of the
+number of pilgrims to his shrine), was a very holy sh�kh, and his memory
+is held in the greatest reverence by the Luksuris. It is unlucky that
+this mosque was built within the court of the Great Temple, and it
+cannot be removed till Moslem religious prejudices become at least
+partially ameliorated, and then the work of completely excavating the
+Temple of Luxor may be carried out.
+
+Between Luxor and Karnak lay the temple of the goddess Mut, consort of
+Amen and protectress of Thebes. It stood in the part of the city known
+as Asheru. This building was cleared in 1895 at the expense and under
+the supervision of two English ladies, Miss Benson and Miss Gourlay.
+
+[Illustration: 374.jpg THE NILE-BANK AT LUXOR]
+
+     With A Dahab�ya And A Steamer Of The Anglo-American Nile
+     Company.
+
+The temple had always been remarkable on account of the prodigious
+number of seated figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhemet, or
+Pakhet, which it contains, dedicated by Amenhetep III and Sheshenk I;
+most of those in the British Museum were brought from this temple.
+The excavators found many more of them, and also some very interesting
+portrait-statues of the late period which had been dedicated there.
+The most important of these was the head and shoulders of a statue of
+Mentuemhat, governor of Thebes at the time of the sack of the city by
+Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668 B.C. In Miss Benson's interesting book,
+_The Temple of Mut in Asher_, it is suggested, on the authority of Prof.
+Petrie, that his facial type is Cypriote, but this speculation is a
+dangerous one, as is also the similar speculation that the wonderful
+portrait-head of an old man found by Miss Benson [* Plate vii of her
+book.] is of Philistine type. We have only to look at the faces of
+elderly Egyptians to-day to see that the types presented by Mentuemhat
+and Miss Benson's "Philistine" need be nothing but pure Egyptian. The
+whole work of the clearing was most efficiently carried out, and the
+Cairo Museum obtained from it some valuable specimens of Egyptian
+sculpture.
+
+The Great Temple of Karnak is one of the chief cares of the Egyptian
+Department of Antiquities. Its paramount importance, so to speak, as the
+cathedral temple of Egypt, renders its preservation and exploration a
+work of constant necessity, and its great extent makes this work one
+which is always going on and which probably will be going on for many
+years to come. The Temple of Karnak has cost the Egyptian government
+much money, yet not a piastre of this can be grudged. For several years
+past the works have been under the charge of M. Georges Legrain, the
+well-known engineer and draughtsman who was associated with M. de
+Morgan in the work at Dash�r. His task is to clear out the whole temple
+thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have left
+undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has fallen.
+
+[Illustration: 376.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OP KAKNAK.]
+
+     The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was
+     erected by Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by
+     Thothmes III. No general work of restoration is
+     contemplated, nor would this be in the slightest degree
+     desirable. Up to the present M. Legrain has certainly
+     carried out all three branches of his task with great
+     success. An unforeseen event has, however, considerably
+     complicated and retarded the work.
+
+In October, 1899, one of the columns of the side aisles of the great
+Hypostyle Hall fell, bringing down with it several others. The whole
+place was a chaotic ruin, and for a moment it seemed as though the whole
+of the Great Hall, one of the wonders of the world, would collapse.
+The disaster was due to the gradual infiltration of water from the Nile
+beneath the structure, whose foundations, as is usual in Egypt, were of
+the flimsiest description. Even the most imposing Egyptian temples
+have jerry-built foundations; usually they are built on the top of the
+wall-stumps of earlier buildings of different plan, filled in with a
+confused mass of earlier slabs and weak rubbish of all kinds. Had the
+Egyptian buildings been built on sure foundations, they would have been
+preserved to a much greater extent even than they are. In such a climate
+as that of Egypt a stone building well built should last for ever.
+
+M. Legrain has for the last five years been busy repairing the damage.
+All the fallen columns are now restored to the perpendicular, and the
+capitals and architraves are in process of being hoisted into their
+original positions. The process by which M. Legrain carries out this
+work has been already described. He works in the old Egyptian fashion,
+building great inclines or ramps of earth up which the pillar-drums,
+the capitals, and the architrave-blocks are hauled by manual labour, and
+then swung into position. This is the way in which the Egyptians built
+Karnak, and in this way, too, M. Le-grain is rebuilding it. It is a slow
+process, but a sure one, and now it will not be long before we shall
+see the hall, except its roof, in much the same condition as it was when
+Seti built it. Lovers of the picturesque will, however, miss the famous
+leaning column, hanging poised across the hall, which has been a main
+feature in so many pictures and photographs of Karnak. This fell in the
+catastrophe of 1899, and naturally it has not been possible to restore
+it to its picturesque, but dangerous, position.
+
+The work at Karnak has been distinguished during the last two years by
+two remarkable discoveries. Outside the main temple, to the north of
+the Hypostyle Hall, M. Legrain found a series of private sanctuaries or
+shrines, built of brick by personages of the XVIIIth Dynasty and later,
+in order to testify their devotion to Amen. In these small cells were
+found some remarkable statues, one of which is illustrated. It is one of
+the most perfect of its kind. A great dignitary of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+is seen seated with his wife, their daughter standing between them.
+Round his neck are four chains of golden rings, with which he had been
+decorated by the Pharaoh for his services. It is a remarkable group,
+interesting for its style and workmanship as well as for its subject. As
+an example of the formal hieratic type of portraiture it is very fine.
+
+The other and more important discovery of the two was made by M. Legrain
+on the south side of the Hypo-style Hall.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OP KAKNAK.]
+
+The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was erected by
+Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by Thothmes III.
+
+M. de Morgan in the work at Dash�r. His task is to clear out the whole
+temple thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have
+left undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has
+fallen. Tentative excavations, begun in an unoccupied tract under the
+wall of the hall, resulted in the discovery of parts of statues; the
+place was then regularly excavated, and the result has been amazing.
+The ground was full of statues, large and small, at some unknown period
+buried pell-mell, one on the top of another. Some are broken, but the
+majority are perfect, which is in itself unusual, and is due very much
+to the soft, muddy soil in which they have lain. Statues found on dry
+desert land are often terribly cracked, especially when they are of
+black granite, the crystals of which seem to have a greater tendency to
+disintegration than have those of the red syenite. The Karnak statues
+are figures of pious persons, who had dedicated portraits of themselves
+in the temple of Amen, together with those of great men whom the king
+had honoured by ordering their statues placed in the temple during their
+lives.
+
+Of this number was the great sage Amenhetep, son of Hapi, the founder of
+the little desert temple of D�r el-Med�na, near D�r el-Bahari, who was
+a sort of prime minister under Amenhetep III, and was venerated in later
+days as a demigod. His statue was found with the others by M. Legrain.
+Among them is a figure made entirely of green felspar, an unusual
+material for so large a statuette. A fine portrait of Thothmes III was
+also found. The illustration shows this wonderfully fruitful excavation
+in progress, with the diggers at work in the black mud soil, in the
+foreground the basket-boys carrying away the rubbish on their shoulders,
+and the massive granite walls of the Great Hypostyle Hall of Seti in the
+background. The huge size of the roof-blocks is noticeable. These are
+not the actual uppermost roof-blocks, but only the architraves from
+pillar to pillar; the original roof consisted of similar blocks laid
+across in the transverse direction from architrave to architrave. An
+Egyptian granite temple was in fact built upon the plan of a child's box
+of bricks; it was but a modified and beautified Stonehenge.
+
+[Illustration: 381.jpg PORTRAIT-GROUP OF A GREAT NOBLE AND HIS WIFE]
+
+     Of The Time Of The Xviiith Dynasty. Discovered by M. Legrain
+     at Karnak.
+
+Other important discoveries have been made by M. Legrain in the course
+of his work.
+
+[Illustration: 382.jpg A TOMB PITTED UP AS AN EXPLORER'S RESIDENCE.]
+
+     The Tomb of Pentu (No. 5) at Tell el-Amarna, inhabited by
+     Mr. de G. Davies during his work for the Archaeological
+     Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund). About 1400 B.C.
+
+Among them are statues of the late Middle Kingdom, including one of King
+Usertsen (Senusret) IV of the XIIIth Dynasty. There are also reliefs of
+the reign of Amenhetep I, which are remarkable for the delicacy of their
+workmanship and the sureness of their technique.
+
+We know that the temple was built as early as the time of TJsertsen,
+for in it have been found one or two of his blocks; and no doubt the
+original shrine, which was rebuilt in the time of Philip Arrhidseus, was
+of the same period, but hitherto no remains of the centuries between his
+time and that of Hatshepsu had been found. With M. Legrain's work in the
+greatest temple of Thebes we finish our account of the new discoveries
+in the chief city of ancient Egypt, as we began it with the work of M.
+Naville in the oldest temple there.
+
+One of the most interesting questions connected with the archaeology
+of Thebes is that which asks whether the heretical disk-worshipper
+Akhunaten (Amenhetep IV) erected buildings there, and whether any
+trace of them has ever been discovered. To those who are interested in
+Egyptian history and religion the transitory episode of the disk-worship
+heresy is already familiar. The precise character of the heretical
+dogma, which Amenhetep IV proclaimed and desired his subjects to.
+accept, has lately been well explained by Mr. de Garis Davies in his
+volumes, published by the "Archaeological Survey of Egypt" branch of
+the Egypt Exploration Fund, on the tombs of el-Amarna. He shows that the
+heretical doctrine was a monotheism of a very high order. Amenhetep IV
+(or as he preferred to call himself, Akhunaten, "Glory of the Disk") did
+not, as has usually been supposed, merely worship the Sun-disk itself
+as the giver of life, and nothing more. He venerated the glowing disk
+merely as the visible emanation of the deity behind it, who dispensed
+heat and life to all living things through its medium. The disk was, so
+to speak, the window in heaven through which the unknown God, the "Lord
+of the Disk," shed a portion of his radiance on the world. Now, given
+an ignorance of the true astronomical character of the sun, we see how
+eminently rational a religion this was. In effect, the sun is the source
+of all life upon this earth, and so Akhunaten caused its rays to be
+depicted each with a hand holding out the sign of life to the earth. The
+monotheistic worship of the sun alone is certainly the highest form of
+pagan religion, but Akhunaten saw further than this. His doctrine was
+that there was a deity behind the sun, whose glory shone through it and
+gave us life. This deity was unnamed and unnamable; he was "the Lord
+of the Disk." We see in his heresy, therefore, the highest attitude
+to which religious ideas had attained before the days of the Hebrew
+prophets.
+
+This religion seems to have been developed out of the philosophical
+speculations of the priests of the Sun at Heliopolis. Akhunaten with
+unwise iconoclastic zeal endeavoured to root out the worship of the
+ancient gods of Egypt, and especially that of Amen-B�, the ruler of the
+Egyptian pantheon, whose primacy in the hearts of the people made him
+the most redoubtable rival of the new doctrine. But the name of the
+old Sun-god B�-Harmaehis was spared, and it is evident that Akhunaten
+regarded him as more or less identical with his god.
+
+It has been supposed by Prof. Petrie that Queen Tii, the mother of
+Akhunaten, was of Mitannian (Armenian) origin, and that she brought the
+Aten religion to Egypt from her native land, and taught it to her son.
+Certainly it seems as though the new doctrine had made some headway
+before the death of Amenhetep III, but we have no reason to attribute it
+to Tii, or to suppose that she brought it with her from abroad. There is
+no proof whatever that she was not a native Egyptian, and the mummies of
+her parents, Iuaa and Tuaa, are purely Egyptian in facial type. It
+seems undoubted that the Aten cult was a development of pure Egyptian
+religious thought.
+
+At first Akhunaten tried to establish his religion at Thebes alongside
+that of Amen and his attendant pantheon. He seems to have built a temple
+to the Aten there, and we see that his courtiers began to make tombs for
+themselves in the new realistic style of sculptural art, which the king,
+heretical in art as in religion, had introduced. The tomb of Barnes at
+Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna has on one side of the door a representation of
+the king in the old regular style, and on the other side one in the new
+realistic style, which depicts him in all the native ugliness in which
+this strange truth-loving man seems to have positively gloried. We
+find, too, that he caused a temple to the Aten to be erected in far-away
+Napata, the capital of Nubia, by Jebel Barkal in the Sudan. The facts
+as to the Theban and Napata temples have been pointed out by Prof.
+Breasted, of Chicago.
+
+But the opposition of the Theban priesthood was too strong. Akhunaten
+shook the dust of the capital off his feet and retired to the isolated
+city of Akhet-aten, "the Glory of the Disk," at the modern Tell
+el-Amarna, where he could philosophize in peace, while his kingdom was
+left to take care of itself. He and his wife Nefret-iti, who seems to
+have been a faithful sharer of his views, reigned over a select court
+of Aten-worship-ping nobles, priests, and artists. The artists had under
+Akhunaten an unrivalled opportunity for development, of which they had
+already begun to take considerable advantage before the end of his reign
+and the restoration of the old order of ideas. Their style takes on
+itself an almost bizarre freedom, which reminds us strongly of the
+similar characteristic in Mycenaean art. There is a strange little
+relief in the Berlin Museum of the king standing cross-legged, leaning
+on a staff, and languidly smelling a flower, while the queen stands
+by with her garments blown about by the wind. The artistic monarch's
+graceful attitude is probably a faithful transcript of a characteristic
+pose.
+
+We see from this what an Egyptian artist could do when his shackles were
+removed, but unluckily Egypt never produced another king who was at the
+same time an original genius, an artist, and a thinker. When Akhunaten
+died, the Egyptian artists' shackles were riveted tighter than ever.
+The reaction was strong. The kingdom had fallen into anarchy, and the
+foreign empire which his predecessors had built up had practically
+been thrown to the winds by Akhunaten. The whole is an example of the
+confusion and disorganization which ensue when a philosopher rules. Not
+long after the heretic's death the old religion was fully restored, the
+cult of the disk was blotted out, and the Egyptians returned joyfully
+to the worship of their myriad deities. Akhunaten's ideals were too high
+for them. The d�bris of the foreign empire was, as usual in such
+cases, put together again, and customary law and order restored by
+the conservative reactionaries who succeeded him. Henceforth Egyptian
+civilization runs an uninspired and undeveloping course till the days
+of the Sa�tes and the Ptolemies. This point in the history of Egypt,
+therefore, forms a convenient stopping-place at which to pause, while
+we turn once more to Western Asia, and ascertain to what extent recent
+excavations and research have thrown new light upon the problems
+connected with the rise and history of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian
+Empires.
+
+[Illustration: 387.jpg]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF
+RECENT RESEARCH
+
+
+The early history of Assyria has long been a subject on which historians
+were obliged to trust largely to conjecture, in their attempts to
+reconstruct the stages by which its early rulers obtained their
+independence and laid the foundations of the mighty empire over which
+their successors ruled. That the land was colonized from Babylonia and
+was at first ruled as a dependency of the southern kingdom have long
+been regarded as established facts, but until recently little was known
+of its early rulers and governors, and still less of the condition of
+the country and its capital during the early periods of their existence.
+Since the excavations carried out by the British Museum at Kala
+Sherghat, on the western bank of the Tigris, it has been known that
+the mounds at that spot mark the site of the city of Ashur, the first
+capital of the Assyrians, and the monuments and records recovered
+during those excavations have hitherto formed our principal source of
+information for the early history of the country.* Some of the oldest
+records found in the course of these excavations were short votive texts
+inscribed by rulers who bore the title of _ishshakku_, corresponding to
+the Sumerian and early Babylonian title of patesi, and with some such
+meaning as "viceroy." It was rightly conjectured from the title which
+they bore that these early rulers owed allegiance to the kings of
+Babylon and were their nominees, or at any rate their tributaries. The
+names of a few of these early viceroys were recovered from their votive
+inscriptions and from notices in later historical texts, but it was
+obvious that our knowledge of early Assyrian history would remain very
+fragmentary until systematic excavations in Assyria were resumed. Three
+years ago (1902) the British Museum resumed excavations at Kuyunjik, the
+site of Nineveh. The work was begun and carried out under the direction
+of Mr. L. W. King, but since last summer has been continued by Mr. R. C.
+Thompson. Last year, too, excavations were reopened at Sherghat by
+the Deutsch-Orient Ge-sellschaft, at first under the direction of Dr.
+Koldewey, and afterwards under that of Dr. Andrae, by whom they are
+at present being carried on. This renewed activity on the sites of the
+ancient cities of Assyria is already producing results of considerable
+interest, and the veil which has so long concealed the earlier periods
+in the history of that country is being lifted.
+
+     * For the texts and translations of these documents, see
+     Budge and King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, pp. iff.
+
+Shortly before these excavations in Assyria were set on foot an
+indication was obtained from an early Babylonian text that the history
+of Assyria as a dependent state or province of Babylon must be pushed
+back to a far more remote period than had hitherto been supposed. In one
+of Hammurabi's letters to Sin-idinnam, governor of the city of Larsam,
+to which reference has already been made, directions are given for
+the despatch to the king of "two hundred and forty men of 'the King's
+Company' under the command of Nannar-iddina... who have left the country
+of Ashur and the district of Shitullum." From this most interesting
+reference it followed that the country to the north of Babylonia was
+known as Assyria at the time of the kings of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon, and the fact that Babylonian troops were stationed there
+by Hammurabi proved that the country formed an integral part of the
+Babylonian empire.
+
+These conclusions were soon after strikingly confirmed by two passages
+in the introductory sections of Hammurabi's code of laws which was
+discovered at Susa. Here Hammurabi records that he "restored his (i.e.
+the god Ashur's) protecting image unto the city of Ashur," and a few
+lines farther on he describes himself as the king "who hath made
+the names of Ishtar glorious in the city of Nineveh in the temple of
+E-mish-mish." That Ashur should be referred to at this period is what we
+might expect, inasmuch as it was known to have been the earliest capital
+of Assyria; more striking is the reference to Nineveh, proving as it
+does that it was a flourishing city in Hammurabi's time and that the
+temple of Ishtar there had already been long established. It is true
+that Gudea, the Sumerian patesi of Shirpurla, records that he rebuilt
+the temple of the goddess Ninni (Ishtar) at a place called Nina. Now
+Nina may very probably be identified with Nineveh, but many writers have
+taken it to be a place in Southern Babylonia and possibly a district of
+Shirpurla itself. No such uncertainty attaches to Hammurabi's reference
+to Nineveh, which is undoubtedly the Assyrian city of that name.
+Although no account has yet been published of the recent excavations
+carried out at Nineveh by the British Museum, they fully corroborate the
+inference drawn with regard to the great age of the city. The series of
+trenches which were cut deep into the lower strata of Kuyunjik revealed
+numerous traces of very early habitations on the mound.
+
+Neither in Hammurabi's letters, nor upon the stele inscribed with his
+code of laws, is any reference made to the contemporary governor or
+ruler of Assyria, but on a contract tablet preserved in the Pennsylvania
+Museum a name has been recovered which will probably be identified
+with that of the ruler of Assyria in Hammurabi's reign. In legal and
+commercial documents of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon the
+contracting parties frequently swore by the names of two gods (usually
+Shamash and Marduk) and also that of the reigning king. Now it has been
+found by Dr. Banke that on this document in the Pennsylvania Museum the
+contracting parties swear by the name of Hammurabi and also by that of
+Shamshi-Adad. As only gods and kings are mentioned in the oath formulas
+of this period, it follows that Shamshi-Adad was a king, or at any rate
+a patesi or ishshakku. Now from its form the name Shamshi-Adad must
+be that of an Assyrian, not that of a Babylonian, and, since he is
+associated in the oath formula with Hammurabi, it is legitimate to
+conclude that he governed Assyria in the time of Hammurabi as a
+dependency of Babylon. An early Assyrian ishshakku of this name, who was
+the son of Ishme-Dagan, is mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser I, but he cannot
+be identified with the ruler of the time of Hammurabi, since,
+according to Tiglath-Pileser, he ruled too late, about 1800 B.C.
+A brick-inscription of another Shamshi-Adad, however, the son of
+Igur-kapkapu, is preserved in the British Museum, and it is probable
+that we may identify him with Hammurabi's Assyrian viceroy. Erishum and
+his son Ikunum, whose inscriptions are also preserved in the British
+Museum, should certainly be assigned to an early period of Assyrian
+history.
+
+The recent excavations at Sherghat are already yielding the names
+of other early Assyrian viceroys, and, although the texts of the
+inscriptions in which their names occur have not yet been published, we
+may briefly enumerate the more important of the discoveries that have
+been made. Last year a small cone or cylinder was found which, though
+it bears only a few lines of inscription, restores the names of no less
+than seven early Assyrian viceroys whose existence was not previously
+known. The cone was inscribed by Ashir-r�m-nish�shu, who gives his own
+genealogy and records the restoration of the wall of the city of Ashur,
+which he states had been rebuilt by certain of his predecessors on
+the throne. The principal portion of the inscription reads as
+follows: "Ashir-r�m-nish�shu, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of
+Ashir-nirari, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of Ashir-rabi, the
+viceroy. The city wall which Kikia, Ikunum, Shar-kenkate-Ashir, and
+Ashir-nirari, the son of Ishme-Dagan, my forefathers, had built, was
+fallen, and for the preservation of my life... I rebuilt it." Perhaps no
+inscription has yet been recovered in either Assyria or Babylonia which
+contained so much new information packed into so small a space. Of the
+names of the early viceroys mentioned in it only one was previously
+known, i.e. the name of Ikunum, the son of Erishum, is found in a late
+copy of a votive text preserved in the British Museum. Thus from these
+few lines the names of three rulers in direct succession have been
+recovered, viz., Ashir-rabi, Ashir-nirari, and Ashur-r�m-nish�shu, and
+also those of four earlier rulers, viz., Kikia, Shar-kenkate-Ashir,
+Ishme-Dagan, and his son Ashir-nirari. Another interesting point about
+the inscription is the spelling of the name of the national god of the
+Assyrians. In the later periods it is always written _Ashur_, but at
+this early time we see that the second vowel is changed and that at
+first the name was written _Ashir_, a form that was already known
+from the Cappadocian cuneiform inscriptions. The form Ashir is a good
+participial construction and signifies "the Beneficent," "the Merciful
+One."
+
+Another interesting find, which was also made last year, consists of
+four stone tablets, each engraved with the same building-inscription
+of Shalmaneser I, a king who reigned over Assyria about 1300 B.C. In
+recording his rebuilding of E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of the god
+Ashur in the city of Ashur, he gives a brief summary of the temple's
+history with details as to the length of time which elapsed between
+the different periods during which it had been previously restored. The
+temple was burned in Shalmaneser's time, and, when recording this fact
+and the putting out of the fire, he summarizes the temple's history in a
+long parenthesis, as will be seen from the following translation of the
+extract: "When E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of Ashur, my lord, which
+Ushpia (variant _Aushpia_), the priest of Ashur, my forefather, had
+built aforetime,--and it fell into decay and Erishu, my forefather,
+the priest of Ashur, rebuilt it; 159 years passed by after the reign of
+Erishu, and that temple fell into decay, and Shamshi-Adad, the priest
+of Ashur, rebuilt it; (during) 580 years that temple which Shamshi-Adad,
+the priest of Ashur, had built, grew hoary and old--(when) fire broke
+out in the midst thereof..., at that time I drenched that temple (with
+water) in (all) its circuit."
+
+From this extract it will be seen that Shalmaneser gives us, in Ushpia
+or Aushpia, the name of a very early Assyrian viceroy, who in his belief
+was the founder of the great temple of the god Ashur. He also tells us
+that 159 years separated Erishu from a viceroy named Shamshi-Adad, and
+that 580 years separated Shamshi-Adad from his own time. When these
+inscriptions were first found they were hailed with considerable
+satisfaction by historians, as they gave what seemed to be valuable
+information for settling the chronology of the early patesis. But
+confidence in the accuracy of Shalmaneser's reckoning was somewhat
+shaken a few months afterwards by the discovery of a prism of
+Esarhaddon, who gave in it a history of the same temple, but ascribed
+totally different figures for the periods separating the reigns
+of Erishu and Shamshi-Adad, and the temple's destruction by fire.
+Esarhaddon agrees with Shalmaneser in ascribing the founding of the
+temple to Ushpia, but he states that only 126 years (instead of 159
+years) separated Erishu (whom he spells Irishu), the son of Ilu-shumma,
+from Shamshi-Adad, the son of B�l-kabi; and he adds that 434 years
+(instead of 580 years) elapsed between Shamshi-Adad's restoration of the
+temple and the time when it was burned down. As Shalmaneser I lived over
+six hundred years earlier than Esarhaddon, he was obviously in a better
+position to ascertain the periods at which the events recorded took
+place, but the discrepancy between the figures he gives and those of
+Esarhaddon is disconcerting. It shows that Assyrian scribes could make
+bad mistakes in their reckoning, and it serves to cast discredit on the
+absolute accuracy of the chronological notices contained in other
+late Assyrian inscriptions. So far from helping to settle the unsolved
+problems of Assyrian chronology, these two recent finds at Sherghat
+have introduced fresh confusion, and Assyrian chronology for the earlier
+periods is once more cast into the melting pot.
+
+In addition to the recovery of the names of hitherto unknown early
+rulers of Assyria, the recent excavations at Sherghat have enabled us to
+ascertain the true reading of the name of Shalmaneser I's grandfather,
+who reigned a considerable time after Assyria had gained her
+independence. The name of this king has hitherto been read as Pudi-ilu,
+but it is now shown that the signs composing the first part of the name
+are not to be taken phonetically, but as ideographs, the true reading of
+the name being Arik-d�n-ilu, the signification of which is "Long
+(i.e. far-reaching) is the judgment of God." Arik-d�n-ilu was a great
+conqueror, as were his immediate descendants, all of whom extended the
+territory of Assyria. By strengthening the country and increasing her
+resources they enabled Arik-d�n-ilu 's great-grandson, Tukulti-Ninib I,
+to achieve the conquest of Babylon itself. Concerning Tukulti-Ninib's
+reign and achievements an interesting inscription has recently been
+discovered. This is now preserved in the British Museum, and before
+describing it we may briefly refer to another phase of the excavations
+at Sherghat.
+
+[Illustration: 396.jpg Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription of
+Arik-den-ilu.]
+
+     An early independent King of Assyria, who reigned about B.C.
+     1350. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The mounds of Sherghat rise a considerable height above the level of
+the plain, and are to a great extent of natural and not of artificial
+formation. In fact, the existence of a group of high natural mounds at
+this point on the bank of the Tigris must have led to its selection
+by the early Assyrians as the site on which to build their first
+stronghold. The mounds were already so high, from their natural
+formation, that there was no need for the later Assyrian kings
+to increase their height artificially (as they raised the chief
+palace-mound at Nineveh), and the remains of the Assyrian buildings of
+the early period are thus only covered by a few feet of d�bris and not
+by masses of unburnt brick and artificially piled up soil. This fact
+has considerably facilitated the systematic uncovering of the principal
+mound that is now being carried out by Dr. Andrae.
+
+[Illustration: 397.jpg ENTRANCE INTO ONE OF THE GALLERIES OR TUNNELS CUT
+INTO THE PRINCIPAL MOUND AT SHERGHAT.]
+
+Work has hitherto been confined to the northwest corner of the mound
+around the ziggurat, or temple tower, and already considerable traces of
+Assyrian buildings have been laid bare in this portion of the site. The
+city wall on the northern side has been uncovered, as well as quays with
+steps leading down to the water along the river front. Part of the
+great temple of the god Ashur has been excavated, though a considerable
+portion of it must be still covered by the modern Turkish fort at the
+extreme northern point of the mounds; also part of a palace erected
+by Ashur-nasir-pal has been identified. In fact, the work at Sherghat
+promises to add considerably to our knowledge of ancient Assyrian
+architecture.
+
+The inscription of Tukulti-Ninib I, which was referred to above as
+having been recently acquired by the trustees of the British Museum,
+affords valuable information for the reconstruction of the history of
+Assyria during the first half of the thirteenth century B.C.* It is seen
+from the facts summarized that for our knowledge of the earlier
+history of the country we have to depend to a large extent on short
+brick-inscriptions and votive texts supplemented by historical
+references in inscriptions of the later period. The only historical
+inscription of any length belonging to the early Assyrian period,
+which had been published up to a year ago, was the famous memorial slab
+containing an inscription of Adad-nirari I, which was acquired by the
+late Mr. George Smith some thirty years ago. Although purchased in
+Mosul, the slab had been found by the natives in the mounds at Sherghat,
+for the text engraved upon it in archaic Assyrian characters records the
+restoration of a part of the temple of the god Ashur in the ancient city
+of Ashur, the first capital of the Assyrians, now marked by the
+mounds of Sherghat, which have already been described. The object of
+Adad-nirari in causing the memorial slab to be inscribed was to record
+the restoration of the portion of the temple which he had rebuilt,
+but the most important part of the inscription was contained in the
+introductory phrases with which the text opens. They recorded
+the conquests achieved not only by Adad-nirari but by his father
+Arik-d�n-ilu, his grandfather B�l-nirari, and his great-grandfather
+Ashur-uballit. They thus enabled the historian to trace the gradual
+extension and consolidation of the Assyrian empire during a critical
+period in its early history.
+
+     * For the text and translation of the inscription, see King,
+     Studies it Eastern History, i (1904).
+
+The recently recovered memorial slab of Tukulti-Ninib I is similar to
+that of his grandfather Adad-nirari I, and ranks in importance with it
+for the light it throws on the early struggles of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninib
+'s slab, like that of Adad-nirari, was a foundation memorial intended to
+record certain building operations carried out by order of the king.
+The building so commemorated was not the restoration of a portion of
+a temple, but the founding of a new city, in which the king erected
+no less than eight temples dedicated to various deities, while he also
+records that he built a palace therein for his own habitation, that he
+protected the city by a strongly fortified wall, and that he cut a canal
+from the Tigris by which he ensured a continuous supply of fresh water.
+These were the facts which the memorial was primarily intended to
+record, but, like the text of Adad-nirari I, the most interesting events
+for the historian are those referred to in the introductory portions of
+the inscription. Before giving details concerning the founding of the
+new city, named Kar-Tukulti-Mnib, "the Fortress of Tukulti-Mnib,"
+the king supplies an account of the military expeditions which he
+had conducted during the course of his reign up to the time when the
+foundation memorial was inscribed. These introductory paragraphs record
+how the king gradually conquered the peoples to the north and northeast
+of Assyria, and how he finally undertook a successful campaign against
+Babylon, during which he captured the city and completely subjugated
+both Northern and Southern Babylonia. Tukulti-Mnib's reign thus marks an
+epoch in the history of his country.
+
+We have already seen how, during the early ages of her history, Assyria
+had been merely a subject province of the Babylonian empire. Her rulers
+had been viceroys owing allegiance to their overlords in Babylon,
+under whose orders they administered the country, while garrisons of
+Babylonian soldiers, and troops commanded by Babylonian officers, served
+to keep the country in a state of subjection. Gradually, however, the
+country began to feel her feet and long for independence. The conquest
+of Babylon by the kings of the Country of the Sea afforded her the
+opportunity of throwing off the Babylonian yoke. In the fifteenth
+century the Assyrian kings were powerful enough to have independent
+relations with the kings of Egypt, and, during the two centuries which
+preceded Tukulti-Mnib's reign.
+
+Assyria's relations with Babylon were the cause of constant friction due
+to the northern kingdom's growth in power and influence. The frontier
+between the two countries was constantly in dispute, and, though
+sometimes rectified by treaty, the claims of Assyria often led to war
+between the two countries. The general result of these conflicts was
+that Assyria gradually extended her authority farther southwards, and
+encroached upon territory which had previously been Babylonian. The
+successes gained by Ashur-uballit, B�l-nirari, and Adad-nirari I against
+the contemporary Babylonian kings had all resulted in the cession of
+fresh territory to Assyria and in an increase of her international
+importance. Up to the time of Tukulti-Mnib no Assyrian king had actually
+seated himself upon the Babylonian throne. This feat was achieved by
+Tukulti-Mnib, and his reign thus marks an important step in the gradual
+advance of Assyria to the position which she later occupied as the
+predominant power in Western Asia.
+
+Before undertaking his campaign against Babylon, Tukulti-Mnib secured
+himself against attack from other quarters, and his newly discovered
+memorial inscription supplies considerable information concerning the
+steps he took to achieve this object. In his inscription the king does
+not number his military expeditions, and, with the exception of the
+first one, he does not state the period of his reign in which they
+were undertaken. The results of his campaigns are summarized in four
+paragraphs of the text, and it is probable that they are not described
+in chronological order, but are arranged rather according to the
+geographical position of the districts which he invaded and subdued.
+Tukulti-Ninib records that his first campaign took place at the
+beginning of his sovereignty, in the first year of his reign, and it was
+directed against the tribes and peoples inhabiting the territory on the
+east of Assyria. Of the tribes which he overran and conquered on this
+occasion the most important was the Kuti, who probably dwelt in the
+districts to the east of the Lower Z�b. They were a turbulent race and
+they had already been conquered by Arik-d�n-ilu and Adad-nirari I, but
+on neither occasion had they been completely subdued, and they had soon
+regained their independence. Their subjugation by Tukulti-Ninib was
+a necessary preliminary to any conquest in the south, and we can well
+understand why it was undertaken by the king at the beginning of his
+reign. Other conquests which were also made in the same region were the
+Ukuman� and the lands of Elkhu-nia, Sharnida, and Mekhri, mountainous
+districts which probably lay to the north of the Lower Z�b. The country
+of Mekhri took its name from the mekhru-tree, a kind of pine or fir,
+which grew there in abundance upon the mountainsides, and was highly
+esteemed by the Assyrian kings as affording excellent wood for building
+purposes. At a later period Ashur-nasir-pal invaded the country in the
+course of his campaigns and brought back beams of mekhru-wood, which he
+used in the construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar
+in Nineveh.
+
+The second group of tribes and districts enumerated by Tukulti-Ninib as
+having been subdued in his early years, before his conquest of Babylon,
+all lay probably to the northwest of Assyria. The most powerful among
+these peoples were the Shubari, who, like the Kut� on the eastern
+border of Assyria, had already been conquered by Adad-nirari I, but had
+regained their independence and were once more threatening the border on
+this side. The third group of his conquests consisted of the districts
+ruled over by forty kings of the lands of Na'iri, which was a general
+term for the mountainous districts to the north of Assyria, including
+territory to the west of Lake Van and extending eastwards to the
+districts around Lake Urmi. The forty kings in this region whom
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts of having subdued were little more than chieftains
+of the mountain tribes, each one possessing authority over a few
+villages scattered among the hills and valleys. But the men of Na'iri
+were a warlike and hardy race, and, if left long in undisturbed
+possession of their native fastnesses, they were tempted to make raids
+into the fertile plains of Assyria. It was therefore only politic for
+Tukulti-Ninib to traverse their country with fire and sword, and, by
+exacting heavy tribute, to keep the fear of Assyrian power before their
+eyes. From the king's records we thus learn that he subdued and crippled
+the semi-independent races living on his borders to the north, to the
+northwest, and to the east. On the west was the desert, from which
+region he need fear no organized attack when he concentrated his army
+elsewhere, for his permanent garrisons were strong enough to repel and
+punish any incursion of nomadic tribes. He was thus in a position to try
+conclusions with his hereditary foe in the south, without any fear of
+leaving his land open to invasion in his absence.
+
+The campaign against Babylon was the most important one undertaken by
+Tukulti-Ninib, and its successful issue was the crowning point of his
+military career. The king relates that the great gods Ashur, Bel, and
+Shamash, and the goddess Ishtar, the queen of heaven and earth, marched
+at the head of his warriors when he set out upon the expedition. After
+crossing the border and penetrating into Babylonian territory he seems
+to have had some difficulty in forcing Bitiliashu, the Kassite king who
+then occupied the throne of Babylon, to a decisive engagement. But by
+a skilful disposition of his forces he succeeded in hemming him in, so
+that the Babylonian army was compelled to engage in a pitched battle.
+The result of the fighting was a complete victory for the Assyrian arms.
+Many of the Babylonian warriors fell fighting, and Bitiliashu himself
+was captured by the Assyrian soldiers in the midst of the battle.
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts that he trampled his lordly neck beneath his feet,
+and on his return to Assyria he carried his captive back in fetters to
+present him with the spoils of the campaign before Ashur, the national
+god of the Assyrians.
+
+Before returning to Assyria, however, Tukulti-Ninib marched with his
+army throughout the length and breadth of Babylonia, and achieved
+the subjugation of the whole of the Sumer and Akkad. He destroyed the
+fortifications of Babylon to ensure that they should not again be used
+against himself, and all the inhabitants who did not at once submit to
+his decrees he put co the sword. He then appointed his own officers
+to rule the country and established his own system of administration,
+adding to his previous title of "King of Assyria," those of "King of
+Karduniash (i. e. Babylonia)" and "King of Sumer and Akkad." It was
+probably from this period that he also adopted the title of "King of the
+Poor Quarters of the World." As a mark of the complete subjugation of
+their ancient foe, Tukulti-Ninib and his army carried back with them
+to Assyria not only the captive Babylonian king, but also the statue of
+Marduk, the national god of Babylon. This they removed from B-sagila,
+his sumptuous temple in Babylon, and they looted the sacred treasures
+from the treasure-chambers, and carried them off together with the spoil
+of the city.
+
+Tukulti-Ninib no doubt left a sufficient proportion of his army in
+Babylon to garrison the city and support the governors and officials
+into whose charge he committed the administration of the land, but he
+himself returned to Assyria with the rich spoil of the campaign, and
+it was probably as a use for this large increase of wealth and material
+that he decided to found another city which should bear his own name and
+perpetuate it for future ages. The king records that he undertook this
+task at the bidding of Bel (i.e. the god Ashur), who commanded that he
+should found a new city and build a dwelling-place for him therein.
+In accordance with the desire of Ashur and the gods, which was thus
+conveyed to him, the king founded the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+he erected therein temples dedicated not only to Ashur, but also to the
+gods Adad, and Sha-mash, and Ninib, and Nusku, and Nergal, and Imina-bi,
+and the goddess Ishtar. The spoils from Babylon and the temple treasures
+from E-sagila were doubtless used for the decoration of these temples
+and the adornment of their shrines, and the king endowed the temples and
+appointed regular offerings, which he ordained should be their property
+for ever. He also built a sumptuous palace for his own abode when he
+stayed in the city, which he constructed on a mound or terrace of earth,
+faced with brick, and piled high above the level of the city. Finally,
+he completed its fortification by the erection of a massive wall around
+it, and the completion of this wall was the occasion on which his
+memorial tablet was inscribed.
+
+The memorial tablet was buried and bricked up within the actual
+structure of the wall, in order that in future ages it might be read by
+those who found it, and so it might preserve his name and fame. After
+finishing the account of his building operations in the new city and
+recording the completion of the city wall from its foundation to its
+coping stone, the king makes an appeal to any future ruler who should
+find it, in the following words: "In the days that are to come, when
+this wall shall have grown old and shall have fallen into ruins, may
+a future prince repair the damaged parts thereof, and may he anoint my
+memorial tablet with oil, and may he offer sacrifices and restore
+it unto its place, and then Ashur will hearken unto his prayers. But
+whosoever shall destroy this wall, or shall remove my memorial tablet or
+my name that is inscribed thereon, or shall leave Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, the
+city of my dominion, desolate, or shall destroy it, may the lord Ashur
+overthrow his kingdom, and may he break his weapons, and may he cause
+his warriors to be defeated, and may he diminish his boundaries, and may
+he ordain that his rule shall be cut off, and on his days may he bring
+sorrow, and his years may he make evil, and may he blot out his name and
+his seed from the land!"
+
+By such blessings and curses Tukulti-Ninib hoped to ensure the
+preservation of his name and the rebuilding of his city, should it at
+any time be neglected and fall into decay. Curiously enough, it was in
+this very city that Tukulti-Ninib met his own fate less than seven years
+after he had founded it. At that time one of his own sons, who bore the
+name of Ashur-nasir-pal, conspired against his father and stirred up the
+nobles to revolt. The insurrection was arranged when Tukulti-Ninib was
+absent from his capital and staying in Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, where he was
+probably protected by only a small bodyguard, the bulk of his veteran
+warriors remaining behind in garrison at Ashur. The insurgent nobles,
+headed by Ashur-nasir-pal, fell upon the king without warning when
+he was passing through the city without any suspicion of risk from a
+treacherous attack. The king defended himself and sought refuge in a
+neighbouring house, but the conspirators surrounded the building and,
+having forced an entrance, slew him with the sword. Thus Tukulti-Ninib
+perished in the city he had built and beautified with the spoils of his
+campaigns, where he had looked forward to passing a peaceful and secure
+old age. Of the fate of the city itself we know little except that its
+site is marked to-day by a few mounds which rise slightly above the
+level of the surrounding desert. The king's memorial tablet only has
+survived. For some 3,200 years it rested undisturbed in the foundations
+of the wall of unburnt brick, where it was buried by Tukulti-Ninib on
+the completion of the city wall.
+
+[Illustration: 408.jpg Stone Tablet. Bearing an inscription of
+Tukulti-Ninib I]
+
+     King of Assyria, about B. C. 1275.
+
+Thence it was removed by the hands of modern Arabs, and it is now
+preserved in the British Museum, where the characters of the inscription
+may be seen to be as sharp and uninjured as on the day when the Assyrian
+graver inscribed them by order of the king.
+
+In the account of his first campaign, which is preserved upon
+the memorial tablet, it is stated that the peoples conquered by
+Tukulti-Ninib brought their yearly tribute to the city of Ashur. This
+fact is of considerable interest, for it proves that Tukulti-Ninib
+restored the capital of Assyria to the city of Ashur, removing it from
+Calah, whither it had been transferred by his father Shalmaneser I. The
+city of Calah had been founded and built by Shalmaneser I in the same
+way that his son Tukulti-Ninib built the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+the building of both cities is striking evidence of the rapid growth
+of Assyria and her need of expansion around fresh centres prepared for
+administration and defence. The shifting of the Assyrian capital to
+Calah by Shalmaneser I was also due to the extension of Assyrian power
+in the north, in consequence of which there was need of having the
+capital nearer the centre of the country so enlarged. Ashur's recovery
+of her old position under Tukulti-Ninib I was only a temporary check to
+this movement northwards, and, so long as Babylon remained a conquered
+province of the Assyrian empire, obviously the need for a capital
+farther north than Ashur would not have been pressing.
+
+[Illustration 409.jpg THE ZIGGURAT, OR TEMPLE TOWER, OF THE ASSYRIAN
+CITY OF CALAH.]
+
+But with Tukulti-Ninib's death Babylon regained her independence and
+freed herself from Assyrian control, and the centre of the northern
+kingdom was once more subject to the influences which eventually
+resulted in the permanent transference of her capital to Nineveh. To the
+comparative neglect into which Ashur and Calah consequently fell, we
+may probably trace the extensive remains of buildings belonging to the
+earlier periods of Assyrian history which have been recovered and still
+remain to be found, in the mounds that mark their sites.
+
+We have given some account of the results already achieved from the
+excavations carried out during the last two years at Sherghat, the site
+of the city of Ashur. That much remains to be done on the site of Calah,
+the other early capital of Assyria, is evident from even a cursory
+examination of the present condition of the mounds that mark the
+location of the city. These mounds are now known by the name of Nimr�d
+and are situated on the left or eastern bank of the Tigris, a short
+distance above the point at which it is joined by the stream of the
+Upper Z�b, and the great mound which still covers the remains of the
+ziggurat, or temple tower, can be seen from a considerable distance
+across the plain. During the excavations formerly carried out here for
+the British Museum, remains of palaces were recovered which had been
+built or restored by Shal-maneser I, Ashur-nasir-pal, Shalmaneser II,
+Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon, Esarhaddon, and Ashur-etil-il�ni. After the
+conclusion of the diggings and the removal of many of the sculptures to
+England, the site was covered again with earth, in order to protect the
+remains of Assyrian buildings which were left in place. Since that time
+the soil has sunk and been washed away by the rains so that many of the
+larger sculptures are now protruding above the soil, an example of which
+is seen in the two winged bulls in the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal. It
+is improbable that the mounds of Nimr�d will yield such rich results
+as Sherghat, but the site would probably well repay prolonged and
+systematic excavation.
+
+We have hitherto summarized and described the principal facts,
+with regard to the early history of Babylonia and Assyria and the
+neighbouring countries, which have been obtained from the excavations
+conducted recently on the sites of ancient cities. From the actual
+remains of the buildings that have been unearthed we have secured
+information with regard to the temples and palaces of ancient rulers and
+the plans on which they were designed. Erom the objects of daily life
+and of religious use which have been recovered, such as weapons of
+bronze and iron, and vessels of metal, stone, and clay, it is possible
+for the archaeologist to draw conclusions with regard to the customs of
+these early peoples; while from a study of their style and workmanship
+and of such examples of their sculpture as have been brought to light,
+he may determine the stage of artistic development at which they had
+arrived. The clay tablets and stone monuments that have been recovered
+reveal the family life of the people, their commercial undertakings,
+their system of legislation and land tenure, their epistolary
+correspondence, and the administration under which they lived, while the
+royal inscriptions and foundation-memorials throw light on the religious
+and historical events of the period in which they were inscribed.
+Information on all these points has been acquired as the result of
+excavation, and is based on the discoveries in the ruins of early cities
+which have remained buried beneath the soil for some thousands of years.
+But for the history of Assyria and of the other nations in the north
+there is still another source of information to which reference must now
+be made.
+
+The kings of Assyria were not content with recording their achievements
+on the walls of their buildings, on stelae set up in their palaces and
+temples, on their tablets of annals preserved in their archive-chambers,
+and on their cylinders and foundation-memorials concealed within the
+actual structure of the buildings themselves. They have also left
+records graven in the living rock, and these have never been buried,
+but have been exposed to wind and weather from the moment they
+were engraved. Records of irrigation works and military operations
+successfully undertaken by Assyrian kings remain to this day on the
+face of the mountains to the north and east of Assyria. The kings of
+one great mountain race that had its capital at Van borrowed from the
+Assyrians this method of recording their achievements, and, adopting the
+Assyrian character, have left numerous rock-inscriptions in their own
+language in the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan. In some instances
+the action of rain and frost has nearly if not quite obliterated the
+record, and a few have been defaced by the hand of man. But as the
+majority are engraved in panels cut on the sheer face of the rock, and
+are inaccessible except by means of ropes and tackle, they have escaped
+mutilation. The photograph reproduced will serve to show the means that
+must be adopted for reaching such rock-inscriptions in order to examine
+or copy them.
+
+[Illustration: 413.jpg WORK IN PROGRESS ON ONE OF THE ROCK-INSCRIPTIONS
+OF SENNACHERIB]
+
+     In The Gorge Of The River Gomel, Near Bavian.
+
+The inscription shown in the photograph is one of those cut by
+Sennacherib in the gorge near Bavian, through which the river Gomel
+flows, and can be reached only by climbing down ropes fixed to the top
+of the cliff. The choice of such positions by the kings who caused the
+inscriptions to be engraved was dictated by the desire to render it
+difficult to destroy them, but it has also had the effect of delaying to
+some extent their copying and decipherment by modern workers.
+
+[Illustration: 414.jpg THE PRINCIPAL ROCK SCULPTURES IN THE GORGE OF THE
+GOMEL]
+
+     Near Bavian In Assyria.
+
+Considerable progress, however, has recently been made in identifying
+and copying these texts, and we may here give a short account of what
+has been done and of the information furnished by the inscriptions that
+have been examined.
+
+Recently considerable additions have been made to our knowledge of the
+ancient empire of Van and of its relation to the later kings of Assyria
+by the labours of Prof Lehmann and Dr. Belck on the inscriptions which
+the kings of that period caused to be engraved upon the rocks among the
+mountains of Armenia.
+
+[Illustration: 415.jpg THE ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAN.]
+
+The flat roofs of the houses of the city of Van may be seen to the left
+of the photograph nestling below the rock.
+
+The centre and capital of this empire was the ancient city which stood
+on the site of the modern town of Van at the southwest corner of the
+lake which bears the same name. The city was built at the foot of a
+natural rock which rises precipitously from the plain, and must have
+formed an impregnable stronghold against the attack of the foe.
+
+In this citadel at the present day remain the ancient galleries and
+staircases and chambers which were cut in the living rock by the kings
+who made it their fortress, and their inscriptions, engraved upon the
+face of the rock on specially prepared and polished surfaces, enable us
+to reconstruct in some degree the history of that ancient empire. From
+time to time there have been found and copied other similar texts, which
+are cut on the mountainsides or on the massive stones which formed part
+of the construction of their buildings and fortifications. A complete
+collection of these texts, together with translations, will shortly be
+published by Prof. Lehmann. Meanwhile, this scholar has discussed and
+summarized the results to be obtained from much of his material, and
+we are thus already enabled to sketch the principal achievements of the
+rulers of this mountain race, who were constantly at war with the later
+kings of Assyria, and for two centuries at least disputed her claim to
+supremacy in this portion of Western Asia.
+
+The country occupied by this ancient people of Van was the great
+table-land which now forms Armenia. The people themselves cannot
+be connected with the Armenians, for their language presents no
+characteristics of those of the Indo-European family, and it is equally
+certain that they are not to be traced to a Semitic origin. It is true
+that they employed the Assyrian method of writing their inscriptions,
+and their art differs only in minor points from that of the Assyrians,
+but in both instances this similarity of culture was directly borrowed
+at a time when the less civilized race, having its centre at Van, came
+into direct contact with the Assyrians.
+
+[Illustration: 417.jpg ANCIENT FLIGHT OF STEPS AND GALLERY ON THE FACE
+OF THE ROCK-CITADEL OF VAN.
+
+The exact date at which this influence began to be exerted is not
+certain, but we have records of immediate relations with Assyria in the
+second half of the ninth century before Christ. The district inhabited
+by the Vannic people was known to the Assyrians by the name of Urartu,
+and although the inscriptions of the earlier Assyrian kings do not
+record expeditions against that country, they frequently make mention of
+campaigns against princes and petty rulers of the land of Na'iri. They
+must therefore for long have exercised an indirect, if not a direct,
+influence on the peoples and tribes which lay more to the north.
+
+The earliest evidence of direct contact between the Assyrians and the
+land of Urartu which we at present possess dates from the reign of
+Ashur-nasir-pal, and in the reign of his son Shalmaneser II three
+expeditions were undertaken against the people of Van. The name of the
+king of Urartu at this time was Arame, and his capital city, Arzasku,
+probably lay to the north of Lake Van. On all three occasions the
+Assyrians were victorious, forcing Arame to abandon his capital
+and capturing his cities as far as the sources of the Euphrates.
+Subsequently, in the year 833 B.C., Shalmaneser II made another attack
+upon the country, which at that time was under the sway of Sarduris I.
+Under this monarch the citadel of Van became the great stronghold of the
+people of Urartu, for he added to the natural strength of the position
+by the construction of walls built between the rock of Van and the
+harbour. The massive blocks of stone of which his fortifications
+were composed are standing at the present day, and they bear eloquent
+testimony to the energy with which this monarch devoted himself to the
+task of rendering his new citadel impregnable. The fortification and
+strengthening of Van and its citadel was carried on during the reigns of
+his direct successors and descendants, Ispui-nis, Menuas, and Argistis
+I, so that when Tiglath-pile-ser III brought fire and sword into the
+country and laid siege to Van in the reign of Sarduris II, he could not
+capture the citadel.
+
+[Illustration: 419.jpg PART OF THE ANCIENT FORTIFICATIONS OF THE CITY OF
+VAN, BETWEEN THE CITADEL AND THE LAKE.]
+
+It was not difficult for the Assyrian king to assault and capture the
+city itself, which lay at the foot of the citadel as it does at the
+present day, but the latter, within the fortifications of which Sarduris
+and his garrison withdrew, proved itself able to withstand the Assyrian
+attack. The expedition of Tiglath-pileser III did not succeed in
+crushing the Vannic empire, for Rusas I, the son and successor of
+Sarduris II, allied himself to the neighbouring mountain races and gave
+considerable trouble to Sargon, the Assyrian king, who was obliged to
+undertake an expedition to check their aggressions.
+
+It was probably Rusas I who erected the buildings on Toprak Kala, the
+hill to the east of Van, traces of which remain to the present day. He
+built a palace and a temple, and around them he constructed a new city
+with a reservoir to supply it with water, possibly because the slopes
+of Toprak Kala rendered it easier of defence than the city in the
+plain (beneath the rock and citadel) which had fallen an easy prey to
+Tiglath-pileser III. The site of the temple on Toprak Kala has been
+excavated by the trustees of the British Museum, and our knowledge of
+Vannic art is derived from the shields and helmets of bronze and small
+bronze figures and fittings which were recovered from this building. One
+of the shields brought to the British Museum from the Toprak Kala, where
+it originally hung with others on the temple walls, bears the name of
+Argistis II, who was the son and successor of Rusas I, and who attempted
+to give trouble to the Assyrians by stirring the inhabitants of the land
+of Kummukh (Kommagene) to revolt against Sargon. His son, Rusas II,
+was the contemporary of Esarhaddon, and from some recently discovered
+rock-inscriptions we learn that he extended the limits of his kingdom on
+the west and secured victories against Mushki (Meshech) to the southeast
+of the Halys and against the Hittites in Northern Syria. Rusas III
+rebuilt the temple on Toprak Kala, as we know from an inscription of his
+on one of the shields from that place in the British Museum. Both he and
+Sarduris III were on friendly terms with the Assyrians, for we know that
+they both sent embassies to Ashur-bani-pal.
+
+By far the larger number of rock-inscriptions that have yet been found
+and copied in the mountainous districts bordering on Assyria were
+engraved by this ancient Vannic people, and Drs. Lehmann and Belck have
+done good service by making careful copies and collations of all those
+which are at present known. Work on other classes of rock-inscriptions
+has also been carried on by other travellers. A new edition of the
+inscriptions of Sennacherib in the gorge of the Gomel, near the village
+of Bavian, has been made by Mr. King, who has also been fortunate enough
+to find a number of hitherto unknown inscriptions in Kurdistan on the
+Judi Dagh and at the sources of the Tigris. The inscriptions at
+the mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb, "the Dog River," in Syria, have
+been reexamined by Dr. Knudtzon, and the long inscription which
+Nebuchadnezzar II cut on the rocks at Wadi Brissa in the Lebanon,
+formerly published by M. Pognon, has been recopied by Dr. Weissbach.
+Finally, the great trilingual inscription of Darius Hystaspes on the
+rock at Bisutun in Persia, which was formerly copied by the late Sir
+Henry Raw-linson and used by him for the successful decipherment of the
+cuneiform inscriptions, was completely copied last year by Messrs. King
+and Thompson.
+
+     Messrs. King and Thompson are preparing a new edition of
+     this inscription.
+
+The main facts of the history of Assyria under her later kings and of
+Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods were many years
+ago correctly ascertained, and recent excavation and research have done
+little to add to our knowledge of the history of these periods. It was
+hoped that the excavations conducted by Dr. Koldewey at Babylon would
+result in the recovery of a wealth of inscriptions and records referring
+to the later history of the country, but unfortunately comparatively
+few tablets or inscriptions have been found, and those that have been
+recovered consist mainly of building-inscriptions and votive texts. One
+such building-inscription contains an interesting historical reference.
+It occurs on a barrel-cylinder of clay inscribed with a text of
+Nabopolassar, and it was found in the temple of Ninib and records the
+completion and restoration of the temple by the king. In addition to
+recording the building operations he had carried out in the temple,
+Nabopolassar boasts of his opposition to the Assyrians. He says: "As for
+the Assyrians who had ruled all peoples from distant days and had set
+the people of the land under a heavy yoke, I, the weak and humble man
+who worshippeth the Lord of Lords (i.e. the god Marduk), through the
+mighty power of Nab� and Marduk, my lords, held back their feet from the
+land of Akkad and cast off their yoke."
+
+It is not yet certain whether the Babylonians under Nabopolassar
+actively assisted Cyaxares and the Medes in the siege and in the
+subsequent capture of Nineveh in 606 B.C. but this newly discovered
+reference to the Assyrians by Nabopolassar may possibly be taken
+to imply that the Babylonians were passive and not active allies of
+Cyaxares. If the cylinder were inscribed after the fall of Nineveh we
+should have expected Nabopolassar, had he taken an active part in the
+capture of the city, to have boasted in more definite terms of his
+achievement. On his stele which is preserved at Constantinople,
+Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire, who himself
+suffered defeat at the hands of Cyrus, King of Persia, ascribed the fall
+of Nineveh to the anger of Marduk and the other gods of Babylon because
+of the destruction of their city and the spoliation of their temples by
+Sennacherib in 689 B.C. We see the irony of fate in the fact that Cyrus
+also ascribed the defeat and deposition of Nabonidus and the fall of
+Babylon to Marduk's intervention, whose anger he alleges was aroused
+by the attempt of Nabonidus to concentrate the worship of the local
+city-gods in Babylon.
+
+Thus it will be seen that recent excavation and research have not
+yet supplied the data for filling in such gaps as still remain in our
+knowledge of the later history of Assyria and Babylon. The closing
+years of the Assyrian empire and the military achievements of the great
+Neo-Babylonian rulers, Nabopolassar, Nerig-lissar, and Nebuchadnezzar
+II, have not yet been found recorded in any published Assyrian or
+Babylonian inscription, but it may be expected that at any moment
+some text will be discovered that will throw light upon the problems
+connected with the history of those periods which still await solution.
+Meanwhile, the excavations at Babylon, although they have not added
+much to our knowledge of the later history of the country, have been
+of immense service in revealing the topography of the city during the
+Neo-Babylonian period, as well as the positions, plans, and characters
+of the principal buildings erected by the later Babylonian kings. The
+discovery of the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on the mound of the Kasr,
+of the small but complete temple E-makh, of the temple of the goddess
+Nin-makh to the northeast of the palaces, and of the sacred road
+dividing them and passing through the Great Gate of Ishtar (adorned with
+representations of lions, bulls, and dragons in raised brick upon its
+walls) has enabled us to form some conception of the splendour and
+magnificence of the city as it appeared when rebuilt by its last native
+rulers. Moreover, the great temple E-sagila, the famous shrine of the
+god Marduk, has been identified and partly excavated beneath the huge
+mound of Tell Amran ibn-Ali, while a smaller and less famous temple of
+Ninib has been discovered in the lower mounds which lie to the eastward.
+Finally, the sacred way from E-sagila to the palace mound has been
+traced and uncovered. We are thus enabled to reconstitute the scene of
+the most solemn rite of the Babylonian festival of the New Year, when
+the statue of the god Marduk was carried in solemn procession along this
+road from the temple to the palace, and the Babylonian king made his
+yearly obeisance to the national god, placing his own hands within those
+of Marduk, in token of his submission to and dependence on the divine
+will.
+
+[Illustration: 425.jpg WITHIN THE SHRINE OP E-MAKH, THE TEMPLE OP THE
+GODDESS NIN-MAKH.]
+
+Though recent excavations have not led to any startling discoveries
+with regard to the history of Western Asia during the last years of
+the Babylonian empire, research among the tablets dating from the
+Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods has lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of Babylonian literature. These periods were marked by great
+literary activity on the part of the priests at Babylon, Sippar, and
+elsewhere, who, under the royal orders, scoured the country for all
+remains of the early literature which was preserved in the ancient
+temples and archives of the country, and made careful copies and
+collections of all they found. Many of these tablets containing
+Neo-Babylonian copies of earlier literary texts are preserved in the
+British Museum, and have been recently published, and we have thus
+recovered some of the principal grammatical, religious, and magical
+compositions of the earlier Babylonian period.
+
+[Illustration: 426.jpg TRENCH IN THE BABYLONIAN PLAIN]
+
+     Between The Mound Of The Kasr And Tell Amran Ibn-Ali,
+     Showing A Section Of The Paved Sacred Way.
+
+Among the most interesting of such recent finds is a series of tablets
+inscribed with the Babylonian legends concerning the creation of the
+world and man, which present many new and striking parallels to the
+beliefs on these subjects embodied in Hebrew literature. We have not
+space to treat this subject at greater length in the present work, but
+we may here note that discovery and research in its relation to the
+later empires that ruled at Babylon have produced results of literary
+rather than of historical importance. But we should exceed the space
+at our disposal if we attempted even to skim this fascinating field of
+study in which so much has recently been achieved. For it is time we
+turned once more to Egypt and directed our inquiry towards ascertaining
+what recent research has to tell us with regard to her inhabitants
+during the later periods of her existence as a nation of the ancient
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+
+
+Before we turned from Egypt to summarize the information, afforded by
+recent discoveries, upon the history of Western Asia under the kings
+of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, we noted that the Asiatic
+empire of Egypt was regained by the reactionary kings of the XIXth
+Dynasty, after its temporary loss owing to the vagaries of Akhunaten.
+Palestine remained Egyptian throughout the period of the judges until
+the foundation of the kingdom of Judah. With the decline of military
+spirit in Egypt and the increasing power of the priesthood, authority
+over Asia became less and less a reality. Tribute was no longer paid,
+and the tribes wrangled without a restraining hand, during the reigns of
+the successors of Ramses III. By the time of the priest-kings of Thebes
+(the XXIst Dynasty) the authority of the Pharaohs had ceased to be
+exercised in Syria. Egypt was itself divided into two kingdoms, the one
+ruled by Northern descendants of the Ramessids at Tanis, the other by
+the priestly monarchs at Thebes, who reigned by right of inheritance as
+a result of the marriage of the daughter of Ramses with the high
+priest Amenhetep, father of Herhor, the first priest-king. The Thebans
+fortified Gebel�n in the South and el-H�bi in the North against attack,
+and evidently their relations with the Tanites were not always friendly.
+
+In Syria nothing of the imperial power remained. The prestige of the god
+Amen of Thebes, however, was still very great. We see this clearly from
+a very interesting papyrus of the reign of Herhor, published in 1899 by
+Mr. Golenischeff, which describes the adventures of Uenuamen, an envoy
+sent (about 1050 B.C.) to Phoenicia to bring wood from the mountains of
+Lebanon for the construction of a great festival bark of the god Amen
+at Thebes. In the course of his mission he was very badly treated
+(We cannot well imagine Thothmes III or Amenhetep III tolerating
+ill-treatment of their envoy!) and eventually shipwrecked on the coast
+of the land of Alashiya or Cyprus. He tells us in the papyrus, which
+seems to be the official report of his mission, that, having been given
+letters of credence to the Prince of Byblos from the King of Tanis,
+"to whom Amen had given charge of his North-land," he at length reached
+Phoenicia, and after much discussion and argument was able to prevail
+upon the prince to have the wood which he wanted brought down from
+Lebanon to the seashore.
+
+Here, however, a difficulty presented itself,--the harbour was filled
+with the piratical ships of the Cretan Tjakaray, who refused to allow
+Uenuamen to return to Egypt. They said, 'Seize him; let no ship of his
+go unto the land of Egypt!' "Then," says Uenuamen in the papyrus, "I sat
+down and wept. The scribe of the prince came out unto me; he said unto
+me, 'What ail-eth thee?' I replied, 'Seest thou not the birds which fly,
+which fly back unto Egypt? Look at them, they go unto the cool canal,
+and how long do I remain abandoned here? Seest thou not those who would
+prevent my return?' He went away and spoke unto the prince, who began
+to weep at the words which were told unto him and which were so sad. He
+sent his scribe out unto me, who brought me two measures of wine and a
+deer. He sent me Tentnuet, an Egyptian singing-girl who was with him,
+saying unto her, 'Sing unto him, that he may not grieve!' He sent word
+unto me, 'Eat, drink, and grieve not! To-morrow shalt thou hear all that
+I shall say.' On the morrow he had the people of his harbour summoned,
+and he stood in the midst of them, and he said unto the Tjakaray, 'What
+aileth you?' They answered him, 'We will pursue the piratical ships
+which thou sendest unto Egypt with our unhappy companions.' He said unto
+them, 'I cannot seize the ambassador of Amen in my land. Let me send him
+away and then do ye pursue after him to seize him!' He sent me on board,
+and he sent me away... to the haven of the sea. The wind drove me upon
+the land of Alashiya. The people of the city came out in order to slay
+me. I was dragged by them to the place where Hatiba, the queen of the
+city, was. I met her as she was going out of one of her houses into
+the other. I greeted her and said unto the people who stood by her, 'Is
+there not one among you who understandeth the speech of Egypt?' One
+of them replied, 'I understand it.' I said unto him, 'Say unto thy
+mistress: even as far as the city in which Amen dwelleth (i. e. Thebes)
+have I heard the proverb, "In all cities is injustice done; only in
+Alashiya is justice to be found," and now is injustice done here every
+day!' She said, 'What is it that thou sayest?' I said unto her, 'Since
+the sea raged and the wind drove me upon the land in which thou livest,
+therefore thou wilt not allow them to seize my body and to kill me, for
+verily I am an ambassador of Amen. Remember that I am one who will be
+sought for always. And if these men of the Prince of Byblos whom they
+seek to kill (are killed), verily if their chief finds ten men of thine,
+will he not kill them also?' She summoned the men, and they were brought
+before her. She said unto me, 'Lie down and sleep...'"
+
+At this point the papyrus breaks off, and we do not know how Uenuamen
+returned to Egypt with his wood. The description of his casting-away and
+landing on Alashiya is quite Homeric, and gives a vivid picture of the
+manners of the time. The natural impulse of the islanders is to kill
+the strange castaway, and only the fear of revenge and of the wrath of a
+distant foreign deity restrains them. Alashiya is probably Cyprus, which
+also bore the name Yantinay from the time of Thothmes III until the
+seventh century, when it is called Yatnan by the Assyrians. A king
+of Alashiya corresponded with Amenhetep III in cuneiform on terms of
+perfect equality, three hundred years before: "Brother," he writes,
+"should the small amount of the copper which I have sent thee be
+displeasing unto thy heart, it is because in my land the hand of Nergal
+my lord slew all the men of my land (i.e. they died of the plague), and
+there was no working of copper; and this was, my brother, not pleasing
+unto thy heart. Thy messenger with my messenger swiftly will I send, and
+whatsoever amount of copper thou hast asked for, O my brother, I,
+even I, will send it unto thee." The mention by Herhor's envoy of
+Nesibinebdad (Smendes), the King of Tanis, a powerful ruler who in
+reality constantly threatened the existence of the priestly monarchy
+at Thebes, as "him to whom Amen has committed the wardship of his
+North-land," is distinctly amusing. The hard fact of the independence of
+Lower Egypt had to be glozed somehow.
+
+The days of Theban power were coming to an end and only the prestige
+of the god Amen remained strong for two hundred years more. But the
+alliance of Amen and his priests with a band of predatory and destroying
+foreign conquerors, the Ethiopians (whose rulers were the descendants
+of the priest-kings, who retired to Napata on the succession of the
+powerful Bubastite dynasty of Shishak to that of Tanis, abandoning
+Thebes to the Northerners), did much to destroy the prestige of Amen
+and of everything connected with him. An Ethiopian victory meant only
+an Assyrian reconquest, and between them Ethiopians and Assyrians had
+well-nigh ruined Egypt. In the Sa�te period Thebes had declined greatly
+in power as well as in influence, and all its traditions were anathema
+to the leading people of the time, although not of course in Akhunaten's
+sense.
+
+With the Sa�te period we seem almost to have retraced our steps and to
+have reentered the age of the Pyramid Builders. All the pomp and glory
+of Thothmes, Amenhetep, and Ramses were gone. The days of imperial Egypt
+were over, and the minds of men, sickened of foreign war, turned for
+peace and quietness to the simpler ideals of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+We have already seen that an archaistic revival of the styles of the
+early dynasties is characteristic of this late period, and that men
+were buried at Sakk�ra and at Thebes in tombs which recall in form and
+decoration those of the courtiers of the Pyramid Builders. Everywhere
+we see this fashion of archaism. A Theban noble of this period named
+Aba was buried at Thebes. Long ago, nearly three thousand years before,
+under the VIth Dynasty, there had lived a great noble of the same name,
+who was buried in a rock-tomb at D�r el-Gebr�w�, in Middle Egypt. This
+tomb was open and known in the days of the second Aba, who caused to be
+copied and reproduced in his tomb in the Asas�f at Thebes most of the
+scenes from the bas-relief with which it had been decorated. The tomb
+of the VIth Dynasty Aba has lately been copied for the Archaeological
+Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund) by Mr. de Garis Davies, who has
+found the reliefs of the XXVIth Dynasty Aba of considerable use to him
+in reconstituting destroyed portions of their ancient originals.
+
+During late years important discoveries of objects of this era have been
+few. One of the most noteworthy is that of a contemporary inscription
+describing the battle of Momemphis, which is mentioned by Herodotus (ii,
+163, 169). We now have the official account of this battle, and know
+that it took place in the third year of the reign of Amasis--not before
+he became king. This was the fight in which the unpatriotic king,
+Apries, who had paid for his partiality for the Greeks of Nau-kratis
+with the loss of his throne, was finally defeated. As we see from this
+inscription, he was probably murdered by the country people during his
+flight.
+
+The following are the most important passages of the inscription: "His
+Majesty (Amasis) was in the Festival-Hall, discussing plans for his
+whole land, when one came to say unto him, 'H��-ab-R� (Apries) is rowing
+up; he hath gone on board the ships which have crossed over. Haunebu
+(Greeks), one knows not their number, are traversing the North-land,
+which is as if it had no master to rule it; he (Apries) hath summoned
+them, they are coming round him. It is he who hath arranged their
+settlement in the Peh-�n (the An-dropolite name); they infest the whole
+breadth of Egypt, those who are on thy waters fly before them!'... His
+Majesty mounted his chariot, having taken lance and bow in his hand...
+(the enemy) reached Andropolis; the soldiers sang with joy on the
+roads... they did their duty in destroying the enemy. His Majesty fought
+like a lion; he made victims among them, one knows not how many. The
+ships and their warriors were overturned, they saw the depths as do the
+fishes. Like a flame he extended, making a feast of fighting. His heart
+rejoiced.... The third year, the 8th Athyr, one came to tell Majesty:
+'Let their vile-ness be ended! They throng the roads, there are
+thousands there ravaging the land; they fill every road. Those who are
+in ships bear thy terror in their hearts. But it is not yet finished.'
+Said his Majesty unto his soldiers: '...Young men and old men, do this
+in the cities and nomes!'... Going upon every road, let not a day pass
+without fighting their galleys!'... The land was traversed as by the
+blast of a tempest, destroying their ships, which were abandoned by the
+crews. The people accomplished their fate, killing the prince (Apries)
+on his couch, when he had gone to repose in his cabin. When he saw his
+friend overthrown... his Majesty himself buried him (Apries), in order
+to establish him as a king possessing virtue, for his Majesty decreed
+that the hatred of the gods should be removed from him."
+
+This is the event to which we have already referred in a preceding
+chapter, as proving the great amelioration of Egyptian ideas with regard
+to the treatment of a conquered enemy, as compared with those of other
+ancient nations. Amasis refers to the deposed monarch as his "friend,"
+and buries him in a manner befitting a king at the charges of Amasis
+himself. This act warded off from the spirit of Apries the just anger
+of the gods at his partiality for the "foreign devils," and ensured his
+reception by Osiris as a king neb menkh, "possessing virtues."
+
+The town of Naukratis, where Apries established himself, had been
+granted to the Greek traders by Psametik I a century or more before. Mr.
+D. G. Hogarth's recent exploration of the site has led to a considerable
+modification of our first ideas of the place, which were obtained
+from Prof. Petrie 's excavations. Prof. Petrie was the discoverer of
+Naukratis, and his diggings told us what Naukratis was like in the first
+instance, but Mr. Hogarth has shown that several of his identifications
+were erroneous and that the map of the place must be redrawn. The chief
+error was in the placing of the Hellenion (the great meeting-place of
+the Greeks), which is now known to be in quite a different position from
+that assigned to it by Prof. Petrie. The "Great Temenos" of Prof. Petrie
+has now been shown to be non-existent. Mr. Hogarth has also pointed out
+that an old Egyptian town existed at Nau-kratis long before the Greeks
+came there. This town is mentioned on a very interesting stele of black
+basalt (discovered at Tell Gaif, the site of Naukratis, and now in the
+Cairo Museum), under the name of "Permerti, which is called Nukrate."
+The first is the old Egyptian name, the second the Greek name adapted
+to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stele was erected by Tekhtnebf, the last
+native king of Egypt, to commemorate his gifts to the temples of Ne�th
+on the occasion of his accession at Sais. It is beautifully cut, and the
+inscription is written in a curious manner, with alphabetic spellings
+instead of ideographs, and ideographs instead of alphabetic spellings,
+which savours fully of the affectation of the learned pedant who drafted
+it; for now, of course, in the fourth century before Christ, nobody but
+a priestly antiquarian could read hieroglyphics. Demotic was the only
+writing for practical purposes.
+
+We see this fact well illustrated in the inscriptions of the Ptolema�c
+temples. The accession of the Ptolemies marked a great increase in the
+material wealth of Egypt, and foreign conquest again came in fashion.
+Ptolemy Euergetes marched into Asia in the grand style of a Ramses and
+brought back the images of gods which had been carried off by Esarhaddon
+or Nebuchadnezzar II centuries before. He was received on his return
+to Egypt with acclamations as a true successor of the Pharaohs. The
+imperial spirit was again in vogue, and the archaistic simplicity and
+independence of the Sa�tes gave place to an archaistic imperialism, the
+first-fruits of which were the repair and building of temples in the
+great Pharaonic style. On these we see the Ptolemies masquerading as
+Pharaohs, and the climax of absurdity is reached when Ptolemy Auletes
+(the Piper) is seen striking down Asiatic enemies in the manner of
+Amen-hetep or Ramses! This scene is directly copied from a Ramesside
+temple, and we find imitations of reliefs of Ramses II so slavish that
+the name of the earlier king is actually copied, as well as the relief,
+and appears above the figure of a Ptolemy. The names of the nations who
+were conquered by Thothmes III are repeated on Ptolemaic sculptures to
+do duty for the conquered of Euergetes, with all sorts of mistakes
+in spelling, naturally, and also with later interpolations. Such an
+inscription is that in the temple of Kom Ombo, which Prof. Say ce has
+held to contain the names of "Caphtor and Casluhim" and to prove the
+knowledge of the latter name in the fourteenth century before Christ.
+The name of Caphtor is the old Egyptian Keftiu (Crete); that of Casluhim
+is unknown in real Old Egyptian inscriptions, and in this Ptolemaic list
+at Kom Ombo it may be quite a late interpolation in the lists, perhaps
+no older than the Persian period, since we find the names of Parsa
+(Persia) and Susa, which were certainly unknown to Thothmes III,
+included in it. We see generally from the Ptolemaic inscriptions that
+nobody could read them but a few priests, who often made mistakes. One
+of the most serious was the identification of Keftiu with Phoenicia in
+the Stele of Canopus. This misled modern archaeologists down to the
+time of Dr. Evans's discoveries at Knossos, though how these utterly
+un-Semitic looking Keftiu could have been Phoenicians was a puzzle to
+everybody. We now know, of course, that they were Mycenaean or
+Minoan Cretans, and that the Ptolemaic antiquaries made a mistake in
+identifying the land of Keftiu with Phoenicia.
+
+We must not, however, say too much in dispraise of the Ptolemaic
+Egyptians and their works. We have to be grateful to them indeed for the
+building of the temples of Edfu and Dendera, which, owing to their later
+date, are still in good preservation, while the best preserved of the
+old Pharaonic fanes, such as Medinet Hab�, have suffered considerably
+from the ravages of time. Eor these temples show us to-day what an
+old Egyptian temple, when perfect, really looked like. They are, so to
+speak, perfect mummies of temples, while of the old buildings we have
+nothing but the disjointed and damaged skeletons.
+
+A good deal of repairing has been done to these buildings, especially
+to that at Edfu, of late years. But the main archaeological interest of
+Ptolemaic and Roman times has been found in the field of epigraphy and
+the study of papyri, with which the names of Messrs. Kenyon, Grenfell,
+and Hunt are chiefly connected. The treasures which have lately been
+obtained by the British Museum in the shape of the manuscripts of
+Aristotle's "Constitution of Athens," the lost poems of Bacchylides, and
+the Mimes of Herondas, all of which have been published for the trustees
+of that institution by Mr. Kenyon, are known to those who are interested
+in these subjects. The long series of publications of Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt, issued at the expense of the Egypt Exploration Fund
+(Graeco-Roman branch), with the exception of the volume of discoveries
+at Teb-tunis, which was issued by the University of California, is also
+well known.
+
+The two places with which Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt's work has been
+chiefly connected are the Fayy�m and Behnes�, the site of the ancient
+Permje or Oxyr-rhynchus. The lake-province of the Fayy�m, which attained
+such prominence in the days of the XIIth Dynasty, seems to have had
+little or no history during the whole period of the New Empire, but in
+Ptolemaic times it revived and again became one of the richest and
+most important provinces of Egypt. The town of Arsino� was founded at
+Crocodilopolis, where are now the mounds of Kom el-F�ris (The Mound of
+the Horseman), near Medinet el-Payyum, and became the capital of the
+province. At Illah�n, just outside the entrance to the Fayy�m, was the
+great Nile harbour and entrep�t of the lake-district, called Ptolema�s
+Hormos.
+
+The explorations of Messrs. Hogarth, Grenfell, and Hunt in the years
+of 1895-6 and 1898-9 resulted in the identification of the sites of the
+ancient cities of Karanis (Kom Ush�m), Bacchias (Omm el-'Atl), Euhemeria
+(Kasr el-Ban�t), Theadelphia (Har�t), and Philoteris (Wadfa). The work
+for the University of California in 18991900 at Umm el-Baragat showed
+that this place was Tebtunis. Dime, on the northern coast of the Birket
+Kar�n, the modern representative of the ancient Lake Moeris, is now
+known to be the ancient Sokno-paiou Nesos (the Isle of Soknopaios), a
+local form of Sebek, the crocodile-god of the Fayy�m. At Karanis this
+god was worshipped under the name of Petesuchos ("He whom Sebek
+has given"), in conjunction with Osiris Pnepher�s (P-nefer-ho,
+"the beautiful of face"); at Tebtunis he became Seknebtunis., i.e.
+Sebek-neb-Teb-tunis (Sebek, lord of Tebtunis). This is a typical example
+of the portmanteau pronunciations of the latter-day Egyptians.
+
+Many very interesting discoveries were made during the course of the
+excavations of these places (besides Mr. Hogarth's find of the temple
+of Petesuchos and Pnepher�s at Karanis), consisting of Roman pottery
+of varied form and Roman agricultural implements, including a perfect
+plough.* The main interest of all, however, lies, both here and at
+Behnes�, in the papyri. They consist of Greek and Latin documents of
+all ages from the early Ptolemaic to the Christian. In fact, Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt have been unearthing and sifting the contents of the
+waste-paper baskets of the ancient Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptians, which
+had been thrown out on to dust-heaps near the towns. Nothing perishes
+in,, the dry climate and soil of Egypt, so the contents of the ancient
+dust-heaps have been preserved intact until our own day, and have been
+found by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt, just as the contents of the houses
+of the ancient Indian rulers of Chinese Turkestan, at Niya and Khotan,
+with their store of Kha-roshthi documents, have been preserved intact in
+the dry Tibetan desert climate and have been found by Dr. Stein.** There
+is much analogy between the discoveries of Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in
+Egypt and those of Dr. Stein in Turkestan.
+
+     * Illustrated on Plate IX of Fay�m Towns and Their Papyri.
+
+     ** See Dr. Stein's Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, London,
+     1903.
+
+The Gr�co-Egyptian documents are of all kinds, consisting of letters,
+lists, deeds, notices, tax-assessments, receipts, accounts, and business
+records of every sort and kind, besides new fragments of classical
+authors and the important "Sayings of Jesus," discovered at Behnes�,
+which have been published in a special popular form by the Egypt
+Exploration Fund.*
+
+     * Aoyla 'Itjffov, 1897, and New Sayings of Jesus, 1904.
+
+These last fragments of the oldest Christian literature, which are
+of such great importance and interest to all Christians, cannot be
+described or discussed here. The other documents are no less
+important to the student of ancient literature, the historian, and the
+sociologist. The classical fragments include many texts of lost authors,
+including Menander. We will give a few specimens of the private
+letters and documents, which will show how extremely modern the ancient
+Egyptians were, and how little difference there actually is between our
+civilization and theirs, except in the-matter of mechanical invention.
+They had no locomotives and telephones; otherwise they were the same. We
+resemble them much more than we resemble our mediaeval ancestors or even
+the Elizabethans.
+
+This is a boy's letter to his father, who would not take him up to town
+with him to see the sights: "Theon to his father Theon, greeting. It was
+a fine thing of you not to take me with you to the city! If you won't
+take me with you to Alexandria, I won't write you a letter, or speak to
+you, or say good-bye to you; and if you go to Alexandria I won't take
+your hand or ever greet you again. That is what will happen if you
+won't take me. Mother said to Archelaus, 'It quite upsets him to be left
+behind.' It was good of you to send me presents on the 12th, the day
+you sailed. Send me a lyre, I implore you. If you don't, I won't eat, I
+won't drink: there now!'" Is not this more like the letter of a spoiled
+child of to-day than are the solemnly dutiful epistles of even our
+grandfathers and grandmothers when young? The touch about "Mother said
+to Archelaus, 'It quite upsets him to be left behind'" is delightfully
+like the modern small boy, and the final request and threat are also
+eminently characteristic.
+
+Here is a letter asking somebody to redeem the writer's property from
+the pawnshop: "Now please redeem my property from Sarapion. It is
+pledged for two minas. I have paid the interest up to the month Epeiph,
+at the rate of a stater per mina. There is a casket of incense-wood,
+and another of onyx, a tunic, a white veil with a real purple border, a
+handkerchief, a tunic with a Laconian stripe, a garment of purple linen,
+two armlets, a necklace, a coverlet, a figure of Aphrodite, a cup, a big
+tin flask, and a wine-jar. From Onetor get the two bracelets. They have
+been pledged since the month Tybi of last year for eight... at the
+rate of a stater per mina. If the cash is insufficient owing to the
+carelessness of Theagenis, if, I say, it is insufficient, sell the
+bracelets and make up the money." Here is an affectionate letter of
+invitation: "Greeting, my dear Serenia, from Petosiris. Be sure, dear,
+to come up on the 20th for the birthday festival of the god, and let me
+know whether you are coming by boat or by donkey, that we may send for
+you accordingly. Take care not to forget."
+
+Here is an advertisement of a gymnastic display:
+
+"The assault-at-arms by the youths will take place to-morrow, the 24th.
+Tradition, no less than the distinguished character of the festival,
+requires that they should do their utmost in the gymnastic display. Two
+performances." Signed by Dioskourides, magistrate of Oxyrrhynchus.
+
+Here is a report from a public physician to a magistrate: "To
+Claudianus, the mayor, from Dionysos, public physician. I was to-day
+instructed by you, through Herakleides your assistant, to inspect the
+body of a man who had been found hanged, named Hierax, and to report to
+you my opinion of it. I therefore inspected the body in the presence
+of the aforesaid Herakleides at the house of Epagathus in the Broadway
+ward, and found it hanged by a noose, which fact I accordingly report."
+Dated in the twelfth year of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 173).
+
+The above translations are taken, slightly modified, from those in The
+Oxyrrhynchus Papyri, vol. i. The next specimen, a quaint letter, is
+translated from the text in Mr. Grenfell's Greek Papyri (Oxford, 1896),
+p. 69: "To Noumen, police captain and mayor, from Pokas son of On�s,
+unpaid policeman. I have been maltreated by Peadius the priest of the
+temple of Sebek in Crocodilopolis. On the first epagomenal day of the
+eleventh year, after having abused me about... in the aforesaid temple,
+the person complained against sprang upon me and in the presence of
+witnesses struck me many blows with a stick which he had. And as part of
+my body was not covered, he tore my shirt, and this fact I called upon
+the bystanders to bear witness to. Wherefore I request that if it seems
+proper you will write to Klearchos the headman to send him to you, in
+order that, if what I have written is true, I may obtain justice at your
+hands."
+
+A will of Hadrian's reign, taken from the Oxyrrhynchus Papyri (i, p.
+173), may also be of interest: "This is the last will and testament,
+made in the street (i.e. at a street notary's stand), of Pekysis, son of
+Hermes and Didyme, an inhabitant of Oxyrrhynchus, being sane and in his
+right mind. So long as I live, I am to have powers over my property,
+to alter my will as I please. But if I die with this will unchanged, I
+devise my daughter Ammonous whose mother is Ptolema, if she survive me,
+but if not then her children, heir to my shares in the common house,
+court, and rooms situate in the Cretan ward. All the furniture,
+movables, and household stock and other property whatever that I shall
+leave, I bequeath to the mother of my children and my wife Ptolema, the
+freedwoman of Demetrius, son of Hermippus, with the condition that
+she shall have for her lifetime the right of using, dwelling in, and
+building in the said house, court, and rooms. If Ammonous should die
+without children and intestate, the share of the fixtures shall belong
+to her half-brother on the mother's side, Anatas, if he survive, but if
+not, to... No one shall violate the terms of this my will under pain of
+paying to my daughter and heir Ammonous a fine of 1,000 drachmae and to
+the treasury an equal sum." Here follow the signatures of testator and
+witnesses, who are described, as in a passport, one of them as follows:
+"I, Dionysios, son of Dionysios of the same city, witness the will of
+Pekysis. I am forty-six years of age, have a curl over my right temple,
+and this is my seal of Dionysoplaton."
+
+During the Roman period, which we have now reached in our survey, the
+temple building of the Ptolemies was carried on with like energy. One of
+the best-known temples of the Roman period is that at Philse, which
+is known as the "Kiosk," or "Pharaoh's Bed." Owing to the great
+picturesqueness of its situation, this small temple, which was built in
+the reign of Trajan, has been a favourite subject for the painters of
+the last fifty years, and next to the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and Karnak,
+it is probably the most widely known of all Egyptian buildings. Recently
+it has come very much to the front for an additional reason. Like all
+the other temples of Philse, it had been arch�ologically surveyed and
+cleared by Col. H. Gr. Lyons and Dr. Borchardt, but further work of a
+far-reaching character was rendered necessary by the building of the
+great Aswan dam, below the island of Philse, one of the results of
+which has been the partial submergence of the island and its temples,
+including the picturesque Kiosk. The following account, taken from the
+new edition (1906) of Murray's _Guide to Egypt and the Sudan_, will
+suffice better than any other description to explain what the dam is,
+how it has affected Philse, and what work has been done to obviate the
+possibility of serious damage to the Kiosk and other buildings.
+
+"In 1898 the Egyptian government signed a contract with Messrs. John
+Aird & Co. for the construction of the great reservoir and dam at
+Shell�l, which serves for the storage of water at the time of the flood
+Nile. The river is 'held up' here sixty-five feet above its old normal
+level. A great masonry dyke, 150 feet high in places, has been carried
+across the Bab el-Kebir of the First Cataract, and a canal and four
+locks, two hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, allow for the passage
+of traffic up and down the river.
+
+[Illustration: 447.jpg The Great Dam Of Asw�n]
+
+     Showing Water Rushing Through The Sluices
+
+The dam is 2,185 yards long and over ninety feet thick at the base; in
+places it rises one hundred feet above the bed of the river. It is built
+of the local red granite, and at each end the granite dam is built into
+the granite hillside. Seven hundred and eight thousand cubic yards of
+masonry were used. The sluices are 180 in number, and are arranged at
+four different levels. The sight of the great volume of water pouring
+through them is a very fine one. The Nile begins to rise in July, and at
+the end of November it is necessary to begin closing the sluice-gates
+to hold up the water. By the end of February the reservoir is usually
+filled and Phil� partially submerged, so that boats can sail in and out
+of the colonnades and Pharaoh's Bed. By the beginning of July the water
+has been distributed, and it then falls to its normal level.
+
+"It is of course regrettable that the engineers were unable to find
+another site for the dam, as it seemed inevitable that some damage would
+result to the temples of Phil� from their partial submergence. Korosko
+was proposed as a site, but was rejected for cogent reasons, and
+apparently Shell�l was the only possible place. Further, no serious
+person, who places the greatest good of the greatest number above
+considerations of the picturesque and the 'interesting,' will deny
+that if it is necessary to sacrifice Phil� to the good of the people of
+Egypt, Phil� must go. 'Let the dead bury their dead.' The concern of the
+rulers of Egypt must be with the living people of Egypt rather than with
+the dead bones of the past; and they would not be doing their duty did
+they for a moment allow artistic and archaeological considerations to
+outweigh in their minds the practical necessities of the country. This
+does not in the least imply that they do not owe a lesser duty to the
+monuments of Egypt, which are among the most precious relics of the past
+history of mankind. They do owe this lesser duty, and with regard to
+Philae it has been conscientiously fulfilled. The whole temple, in order
+that its stability may be preserved under the stress of submersion, has
+been braced up and underpinned, under the superintendence of Mr. Ball,
+of the Survey Department, who has most efficiently carried out this
+important work, at a cost of �22,000.
+
+[Illustration: 449.jpg THE KIOSK AT PHILAE IN PROCESS OF UNDERPINNING
+AND RESTORATION, JANUARY, 1902.]
+
+Steel girders have been fixed across the island from quay to quay,
+and these have been surrounded by cement masonry, made water-tight
+by forcing in cement grout. Pharaoh's Bed and the colonnade have been
+firmly underpinned in cement masonry, and there is little doubt that the
+actual stability of Philae is now more certain than that of any other
+temple in Egypt. The only possible damage that can accrue to it is
+the partial discolouration of the lower courses of the stonework of
+Pharaoh's Bed, etc., which already bear a distinct high-water mark. Some
+surface disintegration from the formation of salt crystals is perhaps
+inevitable here, but the effects of this can always be neutralized
+by careful washing, which it should be an important charge of the
+Antiquities Department to regularly carry out."
+
+[Illustration: 450.jpg THE ANCIENT QUAY OP PHIL�, NOVEMBER, 1904.]
+
+     This is entirely covered when the reservoir is full, and the
+     palm-trees are farther submerged.
+
+The photographs accompanying the present chapter show the dam, the Kiosk
+in process of conservation and underpinning (1902), and the shores of
+the island as they now appear in the month of November, with the water
+nearly up to the level of the quays. A view is also given of the island
+of Konosso, with its inscriptions, as it is now. The island is simply a
+huge granite boulder of the kind characteristic of the neighbourhood of
+Shell�l (Phila?) and Aswan.
+
+On the island of Elephantine, opposite Aswan, an interesting discovery
+has lately been made by Mr. Howard Carter. This is a remarkable well,
+which was supposed by the ancients to lie immediately on the tropic. It
+formed the basis of Eratosthenes' calculations of the measurement of the
+earth. Important finds of documents written in Aramaic have also been
+made here; they show that there was on the island in Ptolemaic times a
+regular colony of Syrian merchants.
+
+South of Aswan and Philse begins Nubia. The Nubian language, which is
+quite different from Arabic, is spoken by everybody on the island of
+Elephantine, and its various dialects are used as far south as Dongola,
+where Arabic again is generally spoken till we reach the land of the
+negroes, south of Khartum. In Ptolemaic and Roman days the Nubians were
+a powerful people, and the whole of Nubia and the modern North Sudan
+formed an independent kingdom, ruled by queens who bore the title or
+name of Candace. It was the eunuch of a Candace who was converted to
+Christianity as he was returning from a mission to Jerusalem to salute
+Jehovah. "Go and join thyself unto his chariot" was the command to
+Philip, and when the Ethiopian had heard the gospel from his lips he
+went on his way rejoicing. The capital of this Candace was at Mero�, the
+modern Bagarawiya, near Shendi. Here, and at Naga not far off, are
+the remains of the temples of the Can-daces, great buildings of
+semi-barbaric Egyptian style. For the civilization of the Nubians, such
+as it was, was of Egyptian origin. Ever since Egyptian rule had been
+extended southwards to Jebel Barkal, beyond Dongola, in the time of
+Amenhetep II, Egyptian culture had influenced the Nubians. Amenhetep III
+built a temple to Amen at Napat�, the capital of Nubia, which lay
+under the shadow of Mount Barkal; Akhunaten erected a sanctuary of the
+Sun-Disk there; and Ramses II also built there.
+
+[Illustration: 452.jpg THE ROOK OF KONOSSO IN JANUARY, 1902, BEFORE THE
+BUILDING OF THE DAM AND FORMATION OF THE RESERVOIR.]
+
+The place in fact was a sort of appanage of the priests of Amen at
+Thebes, and when the last priest-king evacuated Thebes, leaving it to
+the Bubastites of the XXIId Dynasty, it was to distant Napata that he
+retired. Here a priestly dynasty continued to reign until, two centuries
+later, the troubles and misfortunes of Egypt seemed to afford an
+opportunity for the reassertion of the exiled Theban power. Piankhi
+Mera-men returned to Egypt in triumph as its rightful sovereign, but his
+successors, Shabak, Shabatak, and Tirha-kah, had to contend constantly
+with the Assyrians. Finally ITrdamaneh, Tirhakah's successor, returned
+to Nubia, leaving Egypt, in the decadence of the Assyrian might, free to
+lead a quiet existence under Psametik I and the succeeding monarchs of
+the XXVIth Dynasty. When Cambyses conquered Egypt he aspired to conquer
+Nubia also, but his army was routed and destroyed by the Napatan king,
+who tells us in an inscription how he defeated "the man Kambasauden,"
+who had attacked him. At Napata the Nubian monarchs, one of the greatest
+of whom in Ptolemaic times was Ergam-enes, a contemporary of Ptolemy
+Philopator, continued to reign. But the first Roman governor of Egypt,
+�lius Gallus, destroyed Napata, and the Nubians removed their capital
+to Mero�, where the Candaces reigned.
+
+The monuments of this Nubian kingdom, the temples of Jebel Barkal, the
+pyramids of Nure close by, the pyramids of Bagarawiya, the temples of
+Wadi Ben Naga, Mesawwarat en-Naga, and Mesawwarat es-Sufra ("Mesawwarat"
+proper), were originally investigated by Cailliaud and afterwards by
+Lepsius. During the last few years they and the pyramids excavated by
+Dr. E. A. Wallis-Budge, of the British Museum, for the Sudan government,
+have been again explored. As the results of his work are not yet
+fully published, it is possible at present only to quote the following
+description from Cook's _Handbook for Egypt and the Sudan_ (by Dr.
+Budge), p. 6, of work on the pyramids of Jebel Barkal: "the writer
+excavated the shafts of one of the pyramids here in 1897, and at the
+depth of about twenty-five cubits found a group of three chambers, in
+one of which were a number of bones of the sheep which was sacrificed
+there about two thousand years ago, and also portions of a broken
+amphora which had held Rho-dian wine. A second shaft, which led to the
+mummy-chamber, was partly emptied, but at a further depth of twenty
+cubits water was found. The high-water mark of the reservoir when full
+is ------ and, as there were no visible means for pumping it out, the
+mummy-chamber could not be entered." With regard to the Bagaraw�ya
+pyramids, Dr. Budge writes, on p. 700 of the same work, � propos of the
+story of the Italian Ferlini that he found Roman jewelry in one of these
+pyramids: "In 1903 the writer excavated a number of the pyramids of
+Mero� for the Governor-General of the Sudan, Sir F. R. Wingate, and
+he is convinced that the statements made by Ferlini are the result of
+misapprehension on his part. The pyramids are solid throughout, and the
+bodies are buried under them. When the details are complete the proofs
+for this will be published." Dr. Budge has also written upon the subject
+of the orientation of the Jebel Barkal and Nure pyramids.
+
+[Illustration: 454.jpg THE ISLE OF KONOSSO, WITH ITS INSCRIPTIONS]
+
+It is very curious to find the pyramids reappearing in Egyptian
+tomb-architecture in the very latest period of Egyptian history. We
+find them when Egyptian civilization was just entering upon its vigorous
+manhood, then they gradually disappear, only to revive in its decadent
+and exiled old age. The Ethiopian pyramids are all of much more
+elongated form than the old Egyptian ones. It is possible that they may
+be a survival of the archaistic movement of the XXVIth Dynasty, to which
+we have already referred.
+
+These are not the latest Egyptian monuments in the Sudan, nor are the
+temples of Naga and Mesawwarat the most ancient, though they belong
+to the Roman period and are decidedly barbarian as to their style and,
+especially, as to their decoration. The southernmost as well as latest
+relic of Egypt in the Sudan is the Christian church of Soba, on the Blue
+Mie, a few miles above Khartum. In it was found a stone ram, an emblem
+of Amen-R�, which had formerly stood in the temple of Naga and had been
+brought to Soba perhaps under the impression that it was the Christian
+Lamb. It was removed to the garden of the governor-general's palace at
+Khartum, where it now stands.
+
+The church at Soba is a relic of the Christian kingdom of Alua, which
+succeeded the realm of the Candaces. One of its chief seats was at
+Dongola, and all Nubia is covered with the ruins of its churches. It
+was, of course, an offshoot of the Christianity of Egypt, but a late
+one, since Isis was still worshipped at Philse in the sixth century,
+long after the Edict of Theodosius had officially abolished paganism
+throughout the Roman world, and the Nubians were at first zealous
+votaries of the goddess of Philo. So also when Egypt fell beneath the
+sway of the Moslem in the seventh century, Nubia remained an independent
+Christian state, and continued so down to the twelfth century, when the
+soldiers of Islam conquered the country.
+
+Of late pagan and early Christian Egypt very much that is new has been
+discovered during the last few years. The period of the Lower Empire
+has yielded much to the explorers of Oxyrrhynchus, and many papyri of
+interest belonging to this period have been published by Mr. Kenyon in
+his _Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the British Museum_, especially
+the letters of Flavius Abin�us, a military officer of the fourth
+century. The papyri of this period are full of the high-flown titles
+and affected phraseology which was so beloved of Byzantine scribes.
+"Glorious Dukes of the Theba�d," "most magnificent counts and
+lieutenants," "all-praiseworthy secretaries," and the like strut across
+the pages of the letters and documents which begin "In the name of Our
+Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the God and Saviour of us all, in
+the year x of the reign of the most divine and praised, great, and
+beneficent Lord Flavius Heraclius (or other) the eternal Augustus and
+Auto-krator, month x, year x of the In diction." It is an extraordinary
+period, this of the sixth and seventh centuries, which we have now
+entered, with its bizarre combination of the official titulary of
+the divine and eternal C�sars Imperatores Augusti with the initial
+invocation of Christ and the Trinity. It is the transition from the
+ancient to the modern world, and as such has an interest all its own.
+
+In Egypt the struggle between the adherents of Chalcedon, the "Melkites"
+or Imperialists of the orthodox Greek rite, and the Eutychians or
+Mono-physites, the followers of the patriarch Dioskoros, who rejected
+Chalcedon, was going on with unabated fury, and was hardly stopped even
+by the invasion of the pagan Persians. The last effort of the party of
+Constantinople to stamp out the Monophysite heresy was made when Cyril
+was patriarch and governor of Egypt. According to an ingenious theory
+put forward by Mr. Butler, in his _Arab Conquest of Egypt_, it is Cyril
+the patriarch who was the mysterious Mukaukas, the [Greek word], or
+"Great and Magnificent One," who played so doubtful a part in the
+epoch-making events of the Arab conquest by Amr in A.D. 639-41. Usually
+this Mukaukas has been regarded as a "noble Copt," and the Copts have
+generally been credited with having assisted the Islamites against
+the power of Constantinople. This was a very natural and probable
+conclusion, but Mr. Butler will have it that the Copts resisted the
+Arabs valiantly, and that the treacherous Mukaukas was none other than
+the Constantinopolitan patriarch himself.
+
+In the papyri it is interesting to note the gradual increase of Arab
+names after the conquest, more especially in those of the Archduke
+Rainer 's collection from the Fayy�m, which was so near the new capital
+city, Fust�t. In Upper Egypt the change was not noticeable for a long
+time, and in the great collection of Coptic _ostraka_ (inscriptions on
+slips of limestone and sherds of pottery, used as a substitute for paper
+or parchment), found in the ruins of the Coptic monastery established,
+on the temple site of D�r el-Bahari, we find no Arab names. These
+documents, part of which have been published by Mr. W. E. Crum for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund, while another part will shortly be issued for
+the trustees of the British Museum by Mr. Hall, date to the seventh and
+eighth centuries. Their contents resemble those of the earlier papyri
+from Oxyrrhynchus, though they are not of so varied a nature and are
+generally written by persons of less intelligence, i.e. the monks and
+peasants of the monasteries and villages of Tj�me, or Western Thebes.
+During the late excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple of D�r el-Bahari,
+more of these _ostraka_ were found, which will be published for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund by Messrs. Naville and Hall. Of actual buildings
+of the Coptic period the most important excavations have been those of
+the French School of Cairo at B�w�t, north of Asy�t. This work, which
+was carried on by M. Jean Cl�dat, has resulted in the discovery of very
+important frescoes and funerary inscriptions, belonging to the monastery
+of a famous martyr, St. Apollo. With these new discoveries of Christian
+Egypt our work reaches its fitting close. The frontier which divides the
+ancient from the modern world has almost been crossed. We look back from
+the monastery of B�w�t down a long vista of new discoveries until, four
+thousand years before, we see again the Great Heads coming to the Tomb
+of Den, Narmer inspecting the bodies of the dead Northerners, and,
+far away in Babylonia, Nar�m-Sin crossing the mountains of the East to
+conquer Elam, or leading his allies against the prince of Sinai.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chald�a, Syria,
+Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17321-8.txt or 17321-8.zip *****
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria,
+Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery
+
+Author: L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17321]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Spines]
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT
+
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+
+
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+
+
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+
+
+
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+
+
+Copyright 1906
+
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece1]
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece1-text]
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage1]
+
+[Illustration: Versa1]
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+
+It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations
+in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume
+have been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in
+those countries. The greater number of the photographs here published
+were taken by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest
+Leroux, of Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number
+of plates from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent
+discoveries in Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell & Co., of
+London, for kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs
+issued by them.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
+which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt
+and Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the
+publication of Prof. Maspero's _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
+l'Orient Classique_, and includes short descriptions of the excavations
+from which these results have been obtained. It is in no sense a
+connected and continuous history of these countries, for that has
+already been written by Prof. Maspero, but is rather intended as an
+appendix or addendum to his work, briefly recapitulating and describing
+the discoveries made since its appearance. On this account we
+have followed a geographical rather than a chronological system of
+arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has been made to suggest
+to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of events.
+
+At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and
+activity, both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and
+every season's work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends
+our knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were
+unknown to the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added
+to Egyptian history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the
+primitive Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing
+a hitherto totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization.
+Further than this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest
+historical kings of Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from
+material as yet unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties
+of Babylon. Important discoveries have also been made with regard to
+isolated points in the later historical periods. We have therefore
+attempted to include the most important of these in our survey of recent
+excavations and their results. We would again remind the reader that
+Prof. Maspero's great work must be consulted for the complete history of
+the period, the present volume being, not a connected history of Egypt
+and Western Asia, but a description and discussion of the manner in
+which recent discovery and research have added to and modified our
+conceptions of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. The Discovery of Prehistoric Egypt
+
+II. Abydos and the First Three Dynasties
+
+III. Memphis and the Pyramids
+
+IV. Recent Excavations in Western Asia and the Dawn of Chaldaean History
+
+V. Elam and Babylon, the Country of the Sea and the Kassites
+
+VI. Early Babylonian Life and Customs
+
+VII. Temples and Tombs of Thebes
+
+VIII. The Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires in the Light of Recent
+Research
+
+IX. The Last Days of Ancient Egypt
+
+
+
+
+EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+
+_In the Light of Recent Excavation and Research_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+
+During the last ten years our conception of the beginnings of Egyptian
+antiquity has profoundly altered. When Prof. Maspero published the
+first volume of his great _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples des l'Orient
+Classique_, in 1895, Egyptian history, properly so called, still began
+with the Pyramid-builders, Sne-feru, Khufu, and Khafra (Cheops and
+Chephren), and the legendary lists of earlier kings preserved at Abydos
+and Sakkara were still quoted as the only source of knowledge of the
+time before the IVth Dynasty. Of a prehistoric Egypt nothing was known,
+beyond a few flint flakes gathered here and there upon the desert
+plateaus, which might or might not tell of an age when the ancestors
+of the Pyramid-builders knew only the stone tools and weapons of the
+primeval savage.
+
+Now, however, the veil which has hidden the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization from us has been lifted, and we see things, more or less,
+as they actually were, unobscured by the traditions of a later day.
+Until the last few years nothing of the real beginnings of history in
+either Egypt or Mesopotamia had been found; legend supplied the only
+material for the reconstruction of the earliest history of the oldest
+civilized nations of the globe. Nor was it seriously supposed that any
+relics of prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia ever would be found. The
+antiquity of the known history of these countries already appeared
+so great that nobody took into consideration the possibility of our
+discovering a prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia; the idea was too remote
+from practical work. And further, civilization in these countries had
+lasted so long that it seemed more than probable that all traces
+of their prehistoric age had long since been swept away. Yet the
+possibility, which seemed hardly worth a moment's consideration in 1895,
+is in 1905 an assured reality, at least as far as Egypt is concerned.
+Prehistoric Babylonia has yet to be discovered. It is true, for example,
+that at Mukay-yar, the site of ancient Ur of the Chaldees, burials
+in earthenware coffins, in which the skeletons lie in the doubled-up
+position characteristic of Neolithic interments, have been found; but
+there is no doubt whatever that these are burials of a much later date,
+belonging, quite possibly, to the Parthian period. Nothing that may
+rightfully be termed prehistoric has yet been found in the Euphrates
+valley, whereas in Egypt prehistoric antiquities are now almost as well
+known and as well represented in our museums as are the prehistoric
+antiquities of Europe and America.
+
+With the exception of a few palasoliths from the surface of the Syrian
+desert, near the Euphrates valley, not a single implement of the Age
+of Stone has yet been found in Southern Mesopotamia, whereas Egypt
+has yielded to us the most perfect examples of the flint-knapper's
+art known, flint tools and weapons more beautiful than the finest that
+Europe and America can show. The reason is not far to seek. Southern
+Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities, which
+doubtless mark the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are
+situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the
+Euphrates; so that all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country
+would seem to have disappeared, buried deep beneath city-mounds, clay
+and marsh. It is the same in the Egyptian Delta, a similar country; and
+here no traces of the prehistoric culture of Egypt have been found. The
+attempt to find them was made last year at Buto, which is known to be
+one of the most antique centres of civilization, and probably was one of
+the earliest settlements in Egypt, but without success. The infiltration
+of water had made excavation impossible and had no doubt destroyed
+everything belonging to the most ancient settlement. It is not going too
+far to predict that exactly the same thing will be found by any explorer
+who tries to discover a Neolithic stratum beneath a city-mound of
+Babylonia. There is little hope that prehistoric Chaldaea will ever be
+known to us. But in Egypt the conditions are different. The Delta is
+like Babylonia, it is true; but in the Upper Nile valley the river flows
+down with but a thin border of alluvial land on either side, through the
+rocky and hilly desert, the dry Sahara, where rain falls but once in two
+or three years. Antiquities buried in this soil in the most remote
+ages are preserved intact as they were first interred, until the modern
+investigator comes along to look for them. And it is on the desert
+margin of the valley that the remains of prehistoric Egypt have been
+found. That is the reason for their perfect preservation till our own
+day, and why we know prehistoric Egypt so well.
+
+The chief work of Egyptian civilization was the proper irrigation of
+the alluvial soil, the turning of marsh into cultivated fields, and the
+reclamation of land from the desert for the purposes of agriculture.
+Owing to the rainless character of the country, the only means
+of obtaining water for the crops is by irrigation, and where the
+fertilizing Nile water cannot be taken by means of canals, there
+cultivation ends and the desert begins. Before Egyptian civilization,
+properly so called, began, the valley was a great marsh through which
+the Nile found its way north to the sea. The half-savage, stone-using
+ancestors of the civilized Egyptians hunted wild fowl, crocodiles,
+and hippopotami in the marshy valley; but except in a few isolated
+settlements on convenient mounds here and there (the forerunners of the
+later villages), they did not live there. Their settlements were on
+the dry desert margin, and it was here, upon low tongues of desert hill
+jutting out into the plain, that they buried their dead. Their simple
+shallow graves were safe from the flood, and, but for the depredations
+of jackals and hyenas, here they have remained intact till our own
+day, and have yielded up to us the facts from which we have derived our
+knowledge of prehistoric Egypt. Thus it is that we know so much of the
+Egyptians of the Stone Age, while of their contemporaries in Mesopotamia
+we know nothing, nor is anything further likely to be discovered.
+
+But these desert cemeteries, with their crowds of oval shallow graves,
+covered by only a few inches of surface soil, in which the Neolithic
+Egyptians lie crouched up with their flint implements and polished
+pottery beside them, are but monuments of the later age of prehistoric
+Egypt. Long before the Neolithic Egyptian hunted his game in the
+marshes, and here and there essayed the work of reclamation for the
+purposes of an incipient agriculture, a far older race inhabited the
+valley of the Nile. The written records of Egyptian civilization go back
+four thousand years before Christ, or earlier, and the Neolithic Age of
+Egypt must go back to a period several thousand years before that. But
+we can now go back much further still, to the Palaeolithic Age of Egypt.
+At a time when Europe was still covered by the ice and snows of the
+Glacial Period, and man fought as an equal, hardly yet as a superior,
+with cave-bear and mammoth, the Palaeolithic Egyptians lived on the
+banks of the Nile. Their habitat was doubtless the desert slopes, often,
+too, the plateaus themselves; but that they lived entirely upon the
+plateaus, high up above the Nile marsh, is improbable. There, it is
+true, we find their flint implements, the great pear-shaped weapons of
+the types of Chelles, St. Acheul, and Le Moustier, types well known
+to all who are acquainted with the flint implements of the "Drift" in
+Europe. And it is there that the theory, generally accepted hitherto,
+has placed the habitat of the makers and users of these implements.
+
+The idea was that in Palaeolithic days, contemporary with the Glacial
+Age of Northern Europe and America, the climate of Egypt was entirely
+different from that of later times and of to-day. Instead of dry desert,
+the mountain plateaus bordering the Nile valley were supposed to have
+been then covered with forest, through which flowed countless streams
+to feed the river below. It was suggested that remains of these streams
+were to be seen in the side ravines, or wadis, of the Nile valley, which
+run up from the low desert on the river level into the hills on either
+hand. These wadis undoubtedly show extensive traces of strong water
+action; they curve and twist as the streams found their easiest way
+to the level through the softer strata, they are heaped up with great
+water-worn boulders, they are hollowed out where waterfalls once fell.
+They have the appearance of dry watercourses, exactly what any mountain
+burns would be were the water-supply suddenly cut off for ever, the
+climate altered from rainy to eternal sun-glare, and every plant and
+tree blasted, never to grow again. Acting on the supposition that this
+idea was a correct one, most observers have concluded that the climate
+of Egypt in remote periods was very different from the dry, rainless one
+now obtaining. To provide the water for the wadi streams, heavy
+rainfall and forests are desiderated. They were easily supplied, on the
+hypothesis. Forests clothed the mountain plateaus, heavy rains fell, and
+the water rushed down to the Nile, carving out the great watercourses
+which remain to this day, bearing testimony to the truth. And the
+flints, which the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the plateau-forests made
+and used, still lie on the now treeless and sun-baked desert surface.
+
+[Illustration: 007.jpg THE BED OF AN ANCIENT WATERCOURSE IN THE WADIYEN,
+THEBES.]
+
+This is certainly a very weak conclusion. In fact, it seriously damages
+the whole argument, the water-courses to the contrary notwithstanding.
+The palaeoliths are there. They can be picked up by any visitor. There
+they lie, great flints of the Drift types, just like those found in the
+gravel-beds of England and Belgium, on the desert surface where they
+were made. Undoubtedly where they were made, for the places where
+they lie are the actual ancient flint workshops, where the flints were
+chipped. Everywhere around are innumerable flint chips and perfect
+weapons, burnt black and patinated by ages of sunlight. We are taking
+one particular spot in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but
+there are plenty of others, such as the Wadi esh-Shekh on the right bank
+of the Nile opposite Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought
+back specimens of flint tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the
+Neolithic periods.
+
+The Palaeolithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited of
+late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof. Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen Sturge,
+and Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall. The
+weapons illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton, and are
+now preserved in the British Museum. Among these flints shown we notice
+two fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St. Acheul, with curious
+adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left and right. Below, to
+the right, is a very primitive instrument of Chellean type, being merely
+a sharpened pebble. Above, to left and right, are two specimens of the
+curious half-moon-shaped instruments which are characteristic of
+the Theban flint field and are hardly known elsewhere. All have the
+beautiful brown patina, which only ages of sunburn can give. The
+"poignard" type to the left, at the bottom of the plate, is broken off
+short.
+
+[Illustration: 008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.
+From the desert plateau and slopes west of Thebes.]
+
+In the smaller illustration we see some remarkable types: two scrapers
+or knives with strongly marked "bulb of percussion" (the spot where the
+flint-knapper struck and from which the flakes flew off), a very regular
+_coup-de-poing_ which looks almost like a large arrowhead, and on the
+right a much weathered and patinated scraper which must be of immemorial
+age.
+
+[Illustration: 009.jpg (right): PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS. From Man,
+March, 1905.]
+
+This came from the top plateau, not from the slopes (or subsidiary
+plateaus at the head of the _wadis_), as did the great St. Acheulian
+weapons. The circular object is very remarkable: it is the half of the
+ring of a "morpholith "(a round flinty accretion often found in the
+Theban limestone) which has been split, and the split (flat) side
+carefully bevelled. Several of these interesting objects have been
+found in conjunction with Palaeolithic implements at Thebes. No doubt the
+flints lie on the actual surface where they were made. No later water
+action has swept them away and covered them with gravel, no later human
+habitation has hidden them with successive deposits of soil, no gradual
+deposit of dust and rubbish has buried them deep. They lie as they were
+left in the far-away Palaeolithic Age, and they have lain there till
+taken away by the modern explorer.
+
+But this is not the case with all the Palaeolithic flints of Thebes. In
+the year 1882 Maj.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers discovered Palaeolithic flints in the
+deposit of diluvial detritus which lies between the cultivation and the
+mountains on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor. Many of these are
+of the same type as those found on the surface of the mountain plateau
+which lies at the head of the great _wadi_ of the Tombs of the Kings,
+while the diluvial deposit is at its mouth. The stuff of which the
+detritus is composed evidently came originally from the high plateau,
+and was washed down, with the flints, in ancient times.
+
+This is quite conceivable, but how is it that the flints left behind
+on the plateau remain on the original ancient surface? How is it
+conceivable that if (on the old theory) these plateaus were in
+Palaeolithic days clothed with forest, the Palaeolithic flints could even
+in a single instance remain undisturbed from Palaeolithic times to the
+present day, when the forest in which they were made and the forest soil
+on which they reposed have entirely disappeared? If there were woods and
+forests On the heights, it would seem impossible that we should find,
+as we do, Palaeolithic implements lying in situ on the desert surface,
+around the actual manufactories where they were made. Yet if the
+constant rainfall and the vegetation of the Libyan desert area in
+Palaeolithic days is all a myth (as it most probably is), how came the
+embedded palaeoliths, found by Gen. Pitt-Rivers, in the bed of diluvial
+detritus which is apparently _debris_ from the plateau brought down by
+the Palaeolithic _wadi_ streams?
+
+Water erosion has certainly formed the Theban _wadis_. But this water
+erosion was probably not that which would be the result of perennial
+streams flowing down from wooded heights, but of torrents like those
+of to-day, which fill the _wadis_ once in three years or so after heavy
+rain, but repeated at much closer intervals. We may in fact suppose
+just so much difference in meteorological conditions as would make it
+possible for sudden rain-storms to occur over the desert at far more
+frequent intervals than at present. That would account for the detritus
+bed at the mouth of the _wadi_, and its embedded flints, and at the
+same time maintain the general probability of the idea that the desert
+plateaus were desert in Palaeolithic days as now, and that early man only
+knapped his flints up there because he found the flint there. He himself
+lived on the slopes and nearer the marsh.
+
+This new view seems to be much sounder and more probable than the old
+one, maintained by Flinders Petrie and Blanckenhorn, according to which
+the high plateau was the home of man in Palaeolithic times, when the
+rainfall, as shown by the valley erosion and waterfalls, must have
+caused an abundant vegetation on the plateau, where man could live and
+hunt his game. [*Petrie, Nagada and Ballas, p. 49.] Were this so, it
+is patent that the Palaeolithic flints could not have been found on the
+desert surface as they are. Mr. H. J. L. Beadnell, of the Geological
+Survey of Egypt, to whom we are indebted for the promulgation of the
+more modern and probable view, says: "Is it certain that the high
+plateau was then clothed with forests? What evidence is there to show
+that it differed in any important respect from its present aspect? And
+if, as I suggest, desert conditions obtained then as now, and man merely
+worked his flints along the edges of the plateaus overlooking the
+Nile valley, I see no reason why flint implements, dating even from
+Palaeolithic times should not in favourable cases still be found in
+the spots where they were left, surrounded by the flakes struck off in
+manufacture. On the flat plateaus the occasional rains which fall--once
+in three or four years--can effect but little transport of material, and
+merely lower the general level by dissolving the underlying limestone,
+so that the plateau surface is left with a coating of nodules and blocks
+of insoluble flint and chert. Flint implements might thus be expected
+to remain in many localities for indefinite periods, but they would
+certainly become more or less 'patinated,' pitted on the surface, and
+rounded at the angles after long exposure to heat, cold, and blown
+sand." This is exactly the case of the Palaeolithic flint tools from the
+desert plateau.
+
+[Illustration: 012.jpg UPPER DESERT PLATEAU, WHERE PALEOLITHIC
+IMPLEMENTS ARE FOUND, Thebes: 1,400 leet above the Nile.]
+
+We do not know whether Palaeolithic man in Egypt was contemporary with
+the cave-man of Europe. We have no means of gauging the age of the
+Palaeolithic Egyptian weapons, as we have for the Neolithic period.
+The historical (dynastic) period of Egyptian annals began with the
+unification of the kingdom under one head somewhere about 4500 B.C. At
+that time copper as well as stone weapons were used, so that we may say
+that at the beginning of the historical age the Egyptians were living
+in the "Chalcolithic" period. We can trace the use of copper back for
+a considerable period anterior to the beginning of the Ist Dynasty,
+so that we shall probably not be far wrong if we do not bring down the
+close of the purely Neolithic Age in Egypt--the close of the Age of
+Stone, properly so called--later than +5000 B.C. How far back in the
+remote ages the transition period between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic
+Ages should be placed, it is utterly impossible to say. The use of stone
+for weapons and implements continued in Egypt as late as the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty, about 2500-2000 B.C. But these XIIth Dynasty stone
+implements show by their forms how late they are in the history of the
+Stone Age. The axe heads, for instance, are in form imitations of
+the copper and bronze axe heads usual at that period; they are stone
+imitations of metal, instead of the originals on whose model the metal
+weapons were formed. The flint implements of the XIIth Dynasty were
+a curious survival from long past ages. After the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty stone was no longer used for tools or weapons, except for the
+sacred rite of making the first incision in the dead bodies before
+beginning the operations of embalming; for this purpose, as Herodotus
+tells us, an "Ethiopian stone" was used. This was no doubt a knife of
+flint or chert, like those of the Neolithic ancestors of the Egyptians,
+and the continued use of a stone knife for this one purpose only is a
+very interesting instance of a ceremonial survival. We may compare the
+wigs of British judges.
+
+[Illustration: 014.jpg FLINT KNIFE]
+
+We have no specimen of a flint knife which can definitely be asserted to
+have belonged to an embalmer, but of the archaistic flint weapons of the
+XIIth Dynasty we have several specimens. They were found by Prof. Petrie
+at the place named by him "Kahun," the site of a XIIth Dynasty town
+built near the pyramid of King Usertsen (or Senusret) II at Illahun,
+at the mouth of the canal leading from the Nile valley into the
+oasis-province of the Payyum. These Kahun flints, and others of probably
+the same period found by Mr. Seton-Karr at the very ancient flint
+works in the Wadi esh-Shekh, are of very coarse and poor workmanship
+as compared with the stone-knapping triumphs of the late Neolithic and
+early Chalcolithic periods. The delicacy of the art had all been lost.
+But the best flint knives of the early period--dating to just a little
+before the time of the Ist Dynasty, when flint-working had attained its
+apogee, and copper had just begun to be used--are undoubtedly the most
+remarkable stone weapons ever made in the world. The grace and utility
+of the form, the delicacy of the fluted chipping on the side, and
+the minute care with which the tiny serrations of the cutting edge,
+serrations so small that often they can hardly be seen with the naked
+eye, are made, can certainly not be parallelled elsewhere. The art
+of flint-knapping reached its zenith in Ancient Egypt. The specimen
+illustrated has a handle covered with gold decorated with incised
+designs representing animals.
+
+The prehistoric Egyptians may also fairly be said to have attained
+greater perfection than other peoples in the Neolithic stage of culture,
+in other arts besides the making of stone tools and weapons. Their
+pottery is of remarkable perfection. Now that the sites of the Egyptian
+prehistoric settlements have been so thoroughly explored by competent
+archaeologists (and, unhappily, as thoroughly pillaged by incompetent
+natives), this prehistoric Egyptian pottery has become extremely well
+known. In fact, it is so common that good specimens may be bought
+anywhere in Egypt for a few piastres. Most museums possess sets of this
+pottery, of which great quantities have been brought back from Egypt
+by Prof. Petrie and other explorers. It is of very great interest,
+artistically as well as historically. The potter's wheel was not yet
+invented, and all the vases, even those of the most perfect shape, were
+built up by hand. The perfection of form attained without the aid of the
+wheel is truly marvellous.
+
+The commonest type of this pottery is a red polished ware vase with
+black top, due to its having been baked mouth downward in a fire, the
+ashes of which, according to Prof. Petrie, deoxidized the haematite
+burnishing, and so turned the red colour to black. "In good examples
+the haematite has not only been reduced to black magnetic oxide, but
+the black has the highest polish, as seen on fine Greek vases. This is
+probably due to the formation of carbonyl gas in the smothered fire.
+This gas acts as a solvent of magnetic oxide, and hence allows it to
+assume a new surface, like the glassy surface of some marbles subjected
+to solution in water." This black and red ware appears to be the most
+ancient prehistoric Egyptian pottery known. Later in date are a red
+ware and a black ware with rude geometrical incised designs, imitating
+basketwork, and with the incised lines filled in with white. Later again
+is a buff ware, either plain or decorated with wavy lines, concentric
+circles, and elaborate drawings of boats sailing on the Nile, ostriches,
+fish, men and women, and so on.
+
+[Illustration: 017.jpg (right) BUFF WARE VASE, Predynastic period,
+before 4000 B.C.]
+
+These designs are in deep red. With this elaborate pottery the Neolithic
+ceramic art of Egypt reached its highest point; in the succeeding period
+(the beginning of the historic age) there was a decline in workmanship,
+exhibiting clumsy forms and bad colour, and it is not until the time of
+the IVth Dynasty that good pottery (a fine polished red) is once more
+found. Meanwhile the invention of glazed pottery, which was unknown to
+the prehistoric Egyptians, had been made (before the beginning of the
+Ist Dynasty). The unglazed ware of the first three dynasties was bad,
+but the new invention of light blue glazed faience (not porcelain
+properly so called) seems to have made great progress, and we possess
+fine specimens at the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The prehistoric
+Egyptians were also proficient in other arts. They carved ivory and they
+worked gold, which is known to have been almost the first metal worked
+by man; certainly in Egypt it was utilized for ornament even before
+copper was used for work. We may refer to the illustration of a flint
+knife with gold handle, already given. [* See illustration.]
+
+The date of the actual introduction of copper for tools and weapons into
+Egypt is uncertain, but it seems probable that copper was occasionally
+used at a very early period. Copper weapons have been found in
+pre-dynastic graves beside the finest buff pottery with elaborate red
+designs, so that we may say that when the flint-working and pottery of
+the Neolithic Egyptians had reached its zenith, the use of copper was
+already known, and copper weapons were occasionally employed. We can
+thus speak of the "Chalcolithic" period in Egypt as having already begun
+at that time, no doubt several centuries before the beginning of the
+historical or dynastic age. Strictly speaking, the Egyptians remained
+in the "Chalcolithic" period till the end of the XIIth Dynasty, but in
+practice it is best to speak of this period, when the word is used, as
+extending from the time of the finest flint weapons and pottery of the
+prehistoric age (when the "Neolithic" period may be said to close) till
+about the IId or IIId Dynasty. By that time the "Bronze," or, rather,
+"Copper," Age of Egypt had well begun, and already stone was not in
+common use.
+
+The prehistoric pottery is of the greatest value to the archaeologist,
+for with its help some idea may be obtained of the succession of periods
+within the late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Age. The enormous number of
+prehistoric graves which have been examined enables us to make an
+exhaustive comparison of the different kinds of pottery found in
+them, so that we can arrange them in order according to pottery they
+contained. By this means we obtain an idea of the development of
+different types of pottery, and the sequence of the types. Thus it is
+that we can say with some degree of confidence that the black and red
+ware is the most ancient form, and that the buff with red designs is one
+of the latest forms of prehistoric pottery. Other objects found in the
+graves can be classified as they occur with different pottery types.
+
+With the help of the pottery we can thus gain a more or less reliable
+conspectus of the development of the late "Neolithic" culture of Egypt.
+This system of "sequence-dating" was introduced by Prof. Petrie, and is
+certainly very useful. It must not, however, be pressed too far or be
+regarded as an iron-bound system, with which all subsequent discoveries
+must be made to fit in by force. It is not to be supposed that all
+prehistoric pottery developed its series of types in an absolutely
+orderly manner without deviations or throws-back. The work of man's
+hands is variable and eccentric, and does not develop or evolve in an
+undeviating course as the work of nature does. It is a mistake, very
+often made by anthropologists and archaeologists, who forget this
+elementary fact, to assume "curves of development," and so forth, or
+semi-savage culture, on absolutely even and regular lines. Human culture
+has not developed either evenly or regularly, as a matter of fact.
+Therefore we cannot always be sure that, because the Egyptian black and
+red pottery does not occur in graves with buff and red, it is for
+this reason absolutely earlier in date than the latter. Some of the
+development-sequences may in reality be contemporary with others instead
+of earlier, and allowance must always be made for aberrations and
+reversions to earlier types.
+
+This caveat having been entered, however, we may provisionally
+accept Prof. Petrie's system of sequence-dating as giving the best
+classification of the prehistoric antiquities according to development.
+So it may fairly be said that, as far as we know, the black and red
+pottery ("sequence-date 30--") is the most ancient Neolithic Egyptian
+ware known; that the buff and red did not begin to be used till about
+"sequence-date 45;" that bone and ivory carvings were commonest in the
+earlier period ("sequence-dates 30-50"); that copper was almost unknown
+till "sequence-date 50," and so on. The arbitrary numbers used range
+from 30 to 80, in order to allow for possible earlier and later
+additions, which may be rendered necessary by the progress of discovery.
+The numbers are of course as purely arbitrary and relative as those
+of the different thermometrical systems, but they afford a convenient
+system of arrangement. The products of the prehistoric Egyptians are, so
+to speak, distributed on a conventional plan over a scale numbered from
+30 to 80, 30 representing the beginning and 80 the close of the term,
+so far as its close has as yet been ascertained. It is probable that
+"sequence-date 80" more or less accurately marks the beginning of the
+dynastic or historical period.
+
+This hypothetically chronological classification is, as has been said,
+due to Prof. Petrie, and has been adopted by Mr. Randall-Maclver and
+other students of prehistoric Egypt in their work. [*_El Amra and
+Abydos_, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902.] To Prof. Petrie then is due the
+credit of systematizing the study of Egyptian prehistoric antiquities;
+but the further credit of having _discovered_ these antiquities
+themselves and settled their date belongs not to him but to the
+distinguished French archaeologist, M. J. de Morgan, who was for several
+years director of the museum at Giza, and is now chief of the French
+archaeological delegation in Persia, which has made of late years so many
+important discoveries. The proof of the prehistoric date of this class
+of antiquities was given, not by Prof. Petrie after his excavations at
+Dendera in 1897-8, but by M. de Morgan in his volume, _Recherches sur
+les Origines de l'Egypte: l'Age de la Pierre et les Metaux_, published
+in 1895-6. In this book the true chronological position of the
+prehistoric antiquities was pointed out, and the existence of an
+Egyptian Stone Age finally decided. M. de Morgan's work was based on
+careful study of the results of excavations carried on for several years
+by the Egyptian government in various parts of Egypt, in the course
+of which a large number of cemeteries of the primitive type had been
+discovered. It was soon evident to M. de Morgan that these primitive
+graves, with their unusual pottery and flint implements, could be
+nothing less than the tombs of the prehistoric Egyptians, the Egyptians
+of the Stone Age.
+
+Objects of the prehistoric period had been known to the museums for many
+years previously, but owing to the uncertainty of their provenance and
+the absence of knowledge of the existence of the primitive cemeteries,
+no scientific conclusions had been arrived at with regard to them; and
+it was not till the publication of M. de Morgan's book that they were
+recognized and classified as prehistoric. The necropoles investigated
+by M. de Morgan and his assistants extended from Kawamil in the north,
+about twenty miles north of Abydos, to Edfu in the south. The chief
+cemeteries between these two points were those of Bat Allam, Saghel
+el-Baglieh, el-'Amra, Nakada, Tukh, and Gebelen. All the burials were
+of simple type, analogous to those of the Neolithic races in the rest
+of the world. In a shallow, oval grave, excavated often but a few inches
+below the surface of the soil, lay the body, cramped up with the knees
+to the chin, sometimes in a rough box of pottery, more often with only
+a mat to cover it. Ready to the hand of the dead man were his flint
+weapons and tools, and the usual red and black, or buff and red, pots
+lay beside him; originally, no doubt, they had been filled with the
+funeral meats, to sustain the ghost in the next world. Occasionally a
+simple copper weapon was found. With the body were also buried slate
+palettes for grinding the green eye-paint which the Egyptians loved even
+at this early period. These are often carved to suggest the forms of
+animals, such as birds, bats, tortoises, goats, etc.; on others are
+fantastic creatures with two heads. Combs of bone, too, are found,
+ornamented in a similar way with birds' or goats' heads, often double.
+And most interesting of all are the small bone and ivory figures of men
+and women which are also found. These usually have little blue beads for
+eyes, and are of the quaintest and naivest appearance conceivable. Here
+we have an elderly man with a long pointed beard, there two women with
+inane smiles upon their countenances, here another woman, of better work
+this time, with a child slung across her shoulder. This figure, which
+is in the British Museum, must be very late, as prehistoric Egyptian
+antiquities go. It is almost as good in style as the early Ist Dynasty
+objects. Such were the objects which the simple piety of the early
+Egyptian prompted him to bury with the bodies of his dead, in order that
+they might find solace and contentment in the other world.
+
+All the prehistoric cemeteries are of this type, with the graves pressed
+closely together, so that they often impinge upon one another. The
+nearness of the graves to the surface is due to the exposed positions,
+at the entrances to _wadis_, in which the primitive cemeteries are
+usually found. The result is that they are always swept by the winds,
+which prevent the desert sand from accumulating over them, and so have
+preserved the original level of the ground. From their proximity to
+the surface they are often found disturbed, more often by the agency of
+jackals than that of man.
+
+Contemporaneously with M. de Morgan's explorations, Prof. Flinders
+Petrie and Mr. J. Quibell had, in the winter of 1894-5, excavated in
+the districts of Tukh and Nakada, on the west bank of the Nile opposite
+Koptos, a series of extensive cemeteries of the primitive type, from
+which they obtained a large number of antiquities, published in their
+volume Nagada and Dallas. The plates giving representations of the
+antiquities found were of the highest interest, but the scientific value
+of the letter-press is vitiated by the fact that the true historical
+position of the antiquities was not perceived by their discoverers, who
+came to the conclusion that these remains were those of a "New Pace" of
+Libyan invaders. This race, they supposed, had entered Egypt after the
+close of the flourishing period of the "Old Kingdom" at the end of the
+VIth Dynasty, and had occupied part of the Nile valley from that time
+till the period of the Xth Dynasty.
+
+This conclusion was proved erroneous by M. de Morgan almost as soon
+as made, and the French archaeologist's identification of the primitive
+remains as pre-dynastic was at once generally accepted. It was obvious
+that a hypothesis of the settlement of a stone-using barbaric race in
+the midst of Egypt at so late a date as the period immediately preceding
+the XIIth Dynasty, a race which mixed in no way with the native
+Egyptians themselves, and left no trace of their influence upon the
+later Egyptians, was one which demanded greater faith than the simple
+explanation of M. de Morgan.
+
+The error of the British explorers was at once admitted by Mr. Quibell,
+in his volume on the excavations of 1897 at el-Kab, published in 1898.*
+Mr. Quibell at once found full and adequate confirmation of M. de
+Morgan's discovery in his diggings at el-Kab. Prof. Petrie admitted
+the correctness of M. de Morgan's views in the preface to his volume
+Diospolis Parva, published three years later in 1901.** The preface to
+the first volume of M. de Morgan's book contained a generous recognition
+of the method and general accuracy of Prof. Petrie's excavations, which
+contrasted favourably, according to M. de Morgan, with the excavations
+of others, generally carried on without scientific control, and with
+the sole aim of obtaining antiquities or literary texts.*** That M. de
+Morgan's own work was carried out as scientifically and as carefully
+is evident from the fact that his conclusions as to the chronological
+position of the prehistoric antiquities have been shown to be correct.
+To describe M. de Morgan's discovery as a "happy guess," as has been
+done, is therefore beside the mark.
+
+     * El-Kab. Egyptian Research Account, 1897, p. 11.
+
+     ** Diospolis Parva. Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901, p. 2.
+
+     *** Recherches: Age de la Pierre, p. xiii.
+
+Another most important British excavation was that carried on by
+Messrs. Randall-Maclver and Wilkin at el-'Amra. The imposing lion-headed
+promontory of el-'Amra stands out into the plain on the west bank of the
+Nile about five miles south of Abydos. At the foot of this hill M. de
+Morgan found a very extensive prehistoric necropolis, which he examined,
+but did not excavate to any great extent, and the work of thoroughly
+excavating it was performed by Messrs. Randall-MacIver and Wilkin for
+the Egypt Exploration Fund. The results have thrown very great light
+upon the prehistoric culture of Egypt, and burials of all prehistoric
+types, some of them previously unobserved, were found. Among the most
+interesting are burials in pots, which have also been found by Mr.
+Garstang in a predynastic necropolis at Ragagna, north of Abydos. One
+of the more remarkable observations made at el-'Amra was the progressive
+development of the tombs from the simplest pot-burial to a small brick
+chamber, the embryo of the brick tombs of the Ist Dynasty. Among the
+objects recovered from this site may be mentioned a pottery model of
+oxen, a box in the shape of a model hut, and a slate "palette" with what
+is perhaps the oldest Egyptian hieroglyph known, a representation of the
+fetish-sign of the god Min, in relief. All these are preserved in the
+British Museum. The skulls of the bodies found were carefully preserved
+for craniometric examination.
+
+In 1901 an extensive prehistoric cemetery was being excavated by Messrs.
+Reisner and Lythgoe at Nag'ed-Der, opposite Girga, and at el-Ahaiwa,
+further north, another prehistoric necropolis has been excavated by
+these gentlemen, working for the University of California.
+
+[Illustration: 027.jpg CAMP OF THE EXPEDITION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
+CALIFORNIA AT NAG' ED-DER, 1901.]
+
+The cemetery of Nag'ed-Der is of the usual prehistoric type, with its
+multitudes of small oval graves, excavated just a little way below the
+surface. Graves of this kind are the most primitive of all. Those at
+el-'Amra are usually more developed, often, as has been noted, rising to
+the height of regular brick tombs. They are evidently later, nearer to
+the time of the Ist Dynasty. The position of the Nag'ed-Der cemetery is
+also characteristic. It lies on the usual low ridge at the entrance to a
+desert _wadi_, which is itself one of the most picturesque in this
+part of Egypt, with its chaos of great boulders and fallen rocks. An
+illustration of the camp of Mr. Reisner's expedition at Nag'ed-Der is
+given above. The excavations of the University of California are carried
+out with the greatest possible care and are financed with the greatest
+possible liberality. Mr. Reisner has therefore been able to keep an
+absolutely complete photographic record of everything, even down to
+the successive stages in the opening of a tomb, which will be of the
+greatest use to science when published.
+
+For a detailed study of the antiquities of the prehistoric period the
+publications of Prof. Petrie, Mr. Quibell, and Mr. Randall-Maclver are
+more useful than that of M. de Morgan, who does not give enough details.
+Every atom of evidence is given in the publications of the British
+explorers, whereas it is a characteristic of French work to give
+brilliant conclusions, beautifully illustrated, without much of the
+evidence on which the conclusions are based. This kind of work does not
+appeal to the Anglo-Saxon mind, which takes nothing on trust, even
+from the most renowned experts, and always wants to know the why and
+wherefore. The complete publication of evidence which marks the British
+work will no doubt be met with, if possible in even more complete
+detail, in the American work of Messrs. Reisner, Lythgoe, and Mace (the
+last-named is an Englishman) for the University of California, when
+published. The question of speedy versus delayed publication is a very
+vexing one. Prof. Petrie prefers to publish as speedily as possible; six
+months after the season's work in Egypt is done, the full publication
+with photographs of everything appears. Mr. Reisner and the French
+explorers prefer to publish nothing until they have exhaustively studied
+the whole of the evidence, and can extract nothing more from it. This
+would be admirable if the French published their discoveries fully, but
+they do not. Even M. de Morgan has not approached the fulness of
+detail which characterizes British work and which will characterize Mr.
+Reisner's publication when it appears. The only drawback to this method
+is that general interest in the particular excavations described tends
+to pass away before the full description appears.
+
+Prof. Petrie has explored other prehistoric sites at Abadiya, and Mr.
+Quibell at el-Kab. M. de Morgan and his assistants have examined a large
+number of sites, ranging from the Delta to el-Kab. Further research has
+shown that some of the sites identified by M. de Morgan as prehistoric
+are in reality of much later date, for example, Kahun, where the late
+flints of XIIth Dynasty date were found. He notes that "large numbers
+of Neolithic flint weapons are found in the desert on the borders of
+the Fayyum, and at Helwan, south of Cairo," and that all the important
+necropoles and kitchen-middens of the predynastic people are to be found
+in the districts of Abydos and Thebes, from el-Kawamil in the North to
+el-Kab in the South. It is of course too soon to assert with confidence
+that there are no prehistoric remains in any other part of Egypt,
+especially in the long tract between the Fayyum and the district of
+Abydos, but up to the present time none have been found in this region.
+
+This geographical distribution of the prehistoric remains fits in
+curiously with the ancient legend concerning the origin of the ancestors
+of the Egyptians in Upper Egypt, and supports the much discussed theory
+that they came originally to the Nile valley from the shores of the Red
+Sea by way of the Wadi Hammamat, which debouches on to the Nile in the
+vicinity of Koptos and Kus, opposite Ballas and Tukh. The supposition
+seems a very probable one, and it may well be that the earliest
+Egyptians entered the valley of the Nile by the route suggested and
+then spread northwards and southwards in the valley. The fact that their
+remains are not found north of el-Kawamil nor south of el-Kab might
+perhaps be explained by the supposition that, when they had extended
+thus far north and south from their original place of arrival, they
+passed from the primitive Neolithic condition to the more highly
+developed copper-using culture of the period which immediately preceded
+the establishment of the monarchy. The Neolithic weapons of the Fayyum
+and Hel-wan would then be the remains of a different people, which
+inhabited the Delta and Middle Egypt in very early times. This people
+may have been of Mediterranean stock, akin to the primitive inhabitants
+of Palestine, Greece, Italy, and Spain; and they no doubt were identical
+with the inhabitants of Lower Egypt who were overthrown and conquered by
+Kha-sekhem and the other Southern founders of the monarchy (who belonged
+to the race which had come from the Red Sea by the Wadi Hammamat), and
+so were the ancestors of the later natives of Lower Egypt. Whether the
+Southerners, whose primitive remains we find from el-Kawamil to el-Kab,
+were of the same race as the Northerners whom they conquered, cannot
+be decided. The skull-form of the Southerners agrees with that of the
+Mediterranean races. But we have no necropoles of the Northerners to
+tell us much of their peculiarities. We have nothing but their flint
+arrowheads.
+
+But it should be observed that, in spite of the present absence of all
+primitive remains (whether mere flints, or actual graves with bodies and
+relics) of the primeval population between the Fayyum and el-Kawamil,
+there is no proof that the primitive race of Upper Egypt was not
+coterminous and identical with that of the lower country. It
+might therefore be urged that the whole Neolithic population was
+"Mediterranean" by its skull-form and body-structure, and specifically
+"Nilotic" (indigenous Egyptian) in its culture-type. This is quite
+possible, but we have again to account for the legends of distant origin
+on the Red Sea coast, the probability that one element of the Egyptian
+population was of extraneous origin and came from the east into the Nile
+valley near Koptos, and finally the historical fact of an advance of the
+early dynastic Egyptians from the South to the conquest of the North.
+The latter fact might of course be explained as a civil war analogous
+to that between Thebes and Asyut in the time of the IXth Dynasty, but
+against this explanation is to be set the fact that the contemporary
+monuments of the Southerners exhibit the men of the North as of foreign
+and non-Egyptian ethnic type, resembling Libyans. It is possible that
+they were akin to the Libyans; and this would square very well with the
+first theory, but it may also be made to fit in with a development of
+the second, which has been generally accepted.
+
+According to this view, the whole primitive Neolithic population of
+North and South was Miotic, indigenous in origin, and akin to the
+"Mediterraneans "of Prof. Sergi and the other ethnologists. It was not
+this population, the stone-users whose necropoles have been found by
+Messrs. de Morgan, Petrie, and Maclver, that entered the Nile valley by
+the Wadi Hammamat. This was another race of different ethnic origin,
+which came from the Red Sea toward the end of the Neolithic period,
+and, being of higher civilization than the native Nilotes, assumed the
+lordship over them, gave a great impetus to the development of their
+culture, and started at once the institution of monarchy, the knowledge
+of letters, and the use of metals. The chiefs of this superior tribe
+founded the monarchy, conquered the North, unified the kingdom, and
+began Egyptian history. From many indications it would seem probable
+that these conquerors were of Babylonian origin, or that the culture
+they brought with them (possibly from Arabia) was ultimately of
+Babylonian origin. They themselves would seem to have been Semites,
+or rather proto-Semites, who came from Arabia to Africa by way of
+the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and proceeded up the coast to about the
+neighbourhood of Kuser, whence the Wadi Hammamat offered them an open
+road to the valley of the Nile. By this route they may have entered
+Egypt, bringing with them a civilization, which, like that of the other
+Semites, had been profoundly influenced and modified by that of the
+Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia. This Semitic-Sumerian culture,
+mingling with that of the Nilotes themselves, produced the civilization
+of Ancient Egypt as we know it.
+
+This is a very plausible hypothesis, and has a great deal of evidence in
+its favour. It seems certain that in the early dynastic period two
+races lived in Egypt, which differed considerably in type, and also,
+apparently, in burial customs. The later Egyptians always buried the
+dead lying on their backs, extended at full length. During the period of
+the Middle Kingdom (XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) the head was usually turned
+over on to the left side, in order that the dead man might look through
+the two great eyes painted on that side of the coffin. Afterward the
+rigidly extended position was always adopted. The Neolithic Egyptians,
+however, buried the dead lying wholly on the left side and in a
+contracted position, with the knees drawn up to the chin. The bodies
+were not embalmed, and the extended position and mummification were
+never used. Under the IVth Dynasty we find in the necropolis of Medum
+(north of the Payyum) the two positions used simultaneously, and the
+extended bodies are mummified. The contracted bodies are skeletons, as
+in the case of most of the predynastic bodies. When these are found with
+flesh, skin, and hair intact, their preservation is due to the dryness
+of the soil and the preservative salts it contains, not to intentional
+embalming, which was evidently introduced by those who employed the
+extended position in burial. The contracted position is found as late as
+the Vth Dynasty at Dashasha, south of the Eayyum, but after that date it
+is no longer found.
+
+The conclusion is obvious that the contracted position without
+mummification, which the Neolithic people used, was supplanted in the
+early dynastic period by the extended position with mummification, and
+by the time of the VIth Dynasty it was entirely superseded. This points
+to the supersession of the burial customs of the indigenous Neolithic
+race by those of another race which conquered and dominated the
+indigenes. And, since the extended burials of the IVth Dynasty are
+evidently those of the higher nobles, while the contracted ones are
+those of inferior people, it is probable that the customs of extended
+burial and embalming were introduced by a foreign race which founded the
+Egyptian monarchical state, with its hierarchy of nobles and officials,
+and in fact started Egyptian civilization on its way. The conquerors of
+the North were thus not the descendants of the Neolithic people of the
+South, but their conquerors; in fact, they dominated the indigenes both
+of North and South, who will then appear (since we find the custom of
+contracted burial in the North at Dashasha and Medum) to have originally
+belonged to the same race.
+
+The conquering race is that which is supposed to have been of Semitic or
+proto-Semitic origin, and to have brought elements of Sumerian culture
+to savage Egypt. The reasons advanced for this supposition are the
+following:--
+
+(1) Just as the Egyptian race was evidently compounded of two elements,
+of conquered "Mediterraneans" and conquering x, so the Egyptian language
+is evidently compounded of two elements, the one Nilotic, perhaps
+related in some degree to the Berber dialects of North Africa, the other
+not x, but evidently Semitic.
+
+(2) Certain elements of the early dynastic civilization, which do not
+appear in that of the earlier pre-dynastic period, resemble well-known
+elements of the civilization of Babylonia. We may instance the use of
+the cylinder-seal, which died out in Egypt in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty, but was always used in Babylonia from the earliest to the
+latest times. The early Egyptian mace-head is of exactly the same
+type as the early Babylonian one. In the British Museum is an Egyptian
+mace-head of red breccia, which is identical in shape and size with
+one from Babylonia (also in the museum) bearing the name of
+Shargani-shar-ali (i.e. Sargon, King of Agade), one of the earliest
+Chaldaean monarchs, who must have lived about the same time as the
+Egyptian kings of the IId-IIId Dynasties, to which period the Egyptian
+mace-head may also be approximately assigned. The Egyptian art of the
+earliest dynasties bears again a remarkable resemblance to that of early
+Babylonia. It is not till the time of the IId Dynasty that Egyptian art
+begins to take upon itself the regular form which we know so well, and
+not till that of the IVth that this form was finally crystallized. Under
+the 1st Dynasty we find the figure of man or, to take other instances,
+that of a lion, or a hawk, or a snake, often treated in a style very
+different from that in which we are accustomed to see a man, a lion, a
+hawk, or a snake depicted in works of the later period. And the striking
+thing is that these early representations, which differ so much from
+what we find in later Egyptian art, curiously resemble the works of
+early Babylonian art, of the time of the patesis of Shirpurla or the
+Kings Shargani-shar-ali and Naram-Sin. One of the best known relics
+of the early art of Babylonia is the famous "Stele of Vultures" now in
+Paris. On this we see the enemies of Eannadu, one of the early rulers
+of Shirpurla, cast out to be devoured by the vultures. On an Egyptian
+relief of slate, evidently originally dedicated in a temple record of
+some historical event, and dating from the beginning of the Ist Dynasty
+(practically contemporary, according to our latest knowledge, with
+Eannadu), we have an almost exactly similar scene of captives being cast
+out into the desert, and devoured by lions and vultures. The two reliefs
+are curiously alike in their clumsy, naive style of art. A further
+point is that the official represented on the stele, who appears to be
+thrusting one of the bound captives out to die, wears a long fringed
+garment of Babylonish cut, quite different from the clothes of the later
+Egyptians.
+
+(3) There are evidently two distinct and different main strata in the
+fabric of Egyptian religion. On the one hand we find a mass of myth and
+religious belief of very primitive, almost savage, cast, combining
+a worship of the actual dead in their tombs--which were supposed
+to communicate and thus form a veritable "underworld," or, rather,
+"under-Egypt"--with veneration of magic animals, such as jackals, cats,
+hawks, and crocodiles. On the other hand, we have a sun and sky worship
+of a more elevated nature, which does not seem to have amalgamated with
+the earlier fetishism and corpse-worship until a comparatively late
+period. The main seats of the sun-worship were at Heliopolis in the
+Delta and at Edfu in Upper Egypt. Heliopolis seems always to have been
+a centre of light and leading in Egypt, and it is, as is well known,
+the On of the Bible, at whose university the Jewish lawgiver Moses is
+related to have been educated "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." The
+philosophical theories of the priests of the Sun-gods, Ra-Harmachis and
+Turn, at Heliopolis seem to have been the source from which sprang the
+monotheistic heresy of the Disk-Worshippers (in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty), who, under the guidance of the reforming King Akhunaten,
+worshipped only the disk of the sun as the source of all life, the door
+in heaven, so to speak, through which the hidden One Deity poured
+forth heat and light, the origin of life upon the earth. Very early
+in Egyptian history the Heliopolitans gained the upper hand, and the
+Ra-worship (under the Vth Dynasty, the apogee of the Old Kingdom) came
+to the front, and for the first time the kings took the afterwards
+time-honoured royal title of "Son of the Sun." It appears then as a
+more or less foreign importation into the Nile valley, and bears most
+undoubtedly a Semitic impress. Its two chief seats were situated, the
+one, Heliopolis, in the North on the eastern edge of the Delta,--just
+where an early Semitic settlement from over the desert might be expected
+to be found,--the other, Edfu, in the Upper Egyptian territory south
+of the Thebaid, Koptos, and the Wadi Ham-mamat, and close to the chief
+settlement of the earliest kings and the most ancient capital of Upper
+Egypt.
+
+(4) The custom of burying at full length was evidently introduced into
+Egypt by the second, or x race. The Neolithic Egyptians buried in the
+cramped position. The early Babylonians buried at full length, as far
+as we know. On the same "Stele of Vultures," which has already been
+mentioned, we see the burying at full length of dead warriors. [* See
+illustration.] There is no trace of any _early_ burial in Babylonia in
+the cramped position. The tombs at Warka (Erech) with cramped bodies
+in pottery coffins are of very late date. A further point arises with
+regard to embalming. The Neolithic Egyptians did not embalm the dead.
+Usually their cramped bodies are found as skeletons. When they are
+mummified, it is merely owing to the preservative action of the salt
+in the soil, not to any process of embalming. The second, or x race,
+however, evidently introduced the custom of embalming as well as that
+of burial at full length and the use of coffins. The Neolithic Egyptian
+used no box or coffin, the nearest approach to this being a pot, which
+was inverted over the coiled up body. Usually only a mat was put over
+the body.
+
+[Illustration: 038.jpg Portion of the "Stele of Vultures" Found at
+Telloh]
+
+[Illustration: 038-text.jpg]
+
+Now it is evident that Babylonians and Assyrians, who buried the dead at
+full length in chests, had some knowledge of embalming. An Assyrian king
+tells us how he buried his royal father:--
+
+     "Within the grave, the secret place,
+     In kingly oil, I gently laid him.
+     The grave-stone marketh his resting-place.
+     With mighty bronze I sealed its entrance,
+     And I protected it with an incantation."
+
+The "kingly oil" was evidently used with the idea of preserving the body
+from decay. Salt also was used to preserve the dead, and Herodotus
+says that the Babylonians buried in honey, which was also used by the
+Egyptians. No doubt the Babylonian method was less perfect than the
+Egyptian, but the comparison is an interesting one, when taken in
+connection with the other points of resemblance mentioned above.
+
+We find, then, that an analysis of the Egyptian language reveals a
+Semitic element in it; that the early dynastic culture had certain
+characteristics which were unknown to the Neolithic Egyptians but are
+closely parallelled in early Babylonia; that there were two elements in
+the Egyptian religion, one of which seems to have originally belonged to
+the Neolithic people, while the other has a Semitic appearance; and that
+there were two sets of burial customs in early Egypt, one, that of the
+Neolithic people, the other evidently that of a conquering race, which
+eventually prevailed over the former; these later rites were analogous
+to those of the Babylonians and Assyrians, though differing from them
+in points of detail. The conclusion is that the x or conquering race
+was Semitic and brought to Egypt the Semitic elements in the Egyptian
+religion and a culture originally derived from that of the Sumerian
+inhabitants of Babylonia, the non-Semitic parent of all Semitic
+civilizations.
+
+The question now arises, how did this Semitic people reach Egypt? We
+have the choice of two points of entry: First, Heliopolis in the North,
+where the Semitic sun-worship took root, and, second, the Wadi Hamma-mat
+in the South, north of Edfu, the southern centre of sun-worship, and
+Hierakonpolis (Nekheb-Nekhen), the capital of the Upper Egyptian kingdom
+which existed before the foundation of the monarchy. The legends which
+seem to bring the ancestors of the Egyptians from the Red Sea coast have
+already been mentioned. They are closely connected with the worship
+of the Sky and Sun god Horus of Edfu. Hathor, his nurse, the "House of
+Horus," the centre of whose worship was at Dendera, immediately opposite
+the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat, was said to have come from Ta-neter,
+"The Holy Land," i.e. Abyssinia or the Red Sea coast, with the company
+or _paut_ of the gods. Now the Egyptians always seem to have had some
+idea that they were connected racially with the inhabitants of the Land
+of Punt or Puenet, the modern Abyssinia and Somaliland. In the time of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty they depicted the inhabitants of Punt as greatly
+resembling themselves in form, feature, and dress, and as wearing the
+little turned-up beard which was worn by the Egyptians of the earliest
+times, but even as early as the IVth Dynasty was reserved for the
+gods. Further, the word _Punt_ is always written without the hieroglyph
+determinative of a foreign country, thus showing that the Egyptians did
+not regard the Punites as foreigners. This certainly looks as if the
+Punites were a portion of the great migration from Arabia, left behind
+on the African shore when the rest of the wandering people pressed on
+northwards to the Wadi Hammamat and the Nile. It may be that the modern
+Gallas and Abyssinians are descendants of these Punites.
+
+Now the Sky-god of Edfu is in legend a conquering hero who advances down
+the Nile valley, with his _Mesniu_, or "Smiths," to overthrow the people
+of the North, whom he defeats in a great battle near Dendera. This may
+be a reminiscence of the first fights of the invaders with the Neolithic
+inhabitants. The other form of Horus, "Horus, son of Isis," has also a
+body of retainers, the _Shemsu-Heru_, or "Followers of Horns," who are
+spoken of in late texts as the rulers of Egypt before the monarchy. They
+evidently correspond to the dynasties of _Manes_,
+
+[Illustration: 041greek.jpg]
+
+or "Ghosts," of Manetho, and are probably intended for the early kings
+of Hierakonpolis.
+
+The mention of the Followers of Horus as "Smiths" is very interesting,
+for it would appear to show that the Semitic conquerors were notable
+as metal-users, that, in fact, their conquest was that old story in the
+dawn of the world's history, the utter overthrow and subjection of the
+stone-users by the metal-users, the primeval tragedy of the supersession
+of flint by copper. This may be, but if the "Smiths" were the Semitic
+conquerors who founded the kingdom, it would appear that the use of
+copper was known in Egypt to some extent before their arrival, for we
+find it in the graves of the late Neolithic Egyptians, very sparsely
+from "sequence-date 30" to "45," but afterwards more commonly. It was
+evidently becoming known. The supposition, however, that the "Smiths"
+were the Semitic conquerors, and that they won their way by the aid of
+their superior weapons of metal, may be provisionally accepted.
+
+In favour of the view which would bring the conquerors by way of the
+Wadi Hammamat, an interesting discovery may be quoted. Immediately
+opposite Den-dera, where, according to the legend, the battle between
+the _Mesniu_ and the aborigines took place, lies Koptos, at the mouth of
+the Wadi Hammamat. Here, in 1894, underneath the pavement of the ancient
+temple, Prof. Petrie found remains which he then diagnosed as belonging
+to the most ancient epoch of Egyptian history. Among them were some
+extremely archaic statues of the god Min, on which were curious
+scratched drawings of bears, _crioceras-shells_, elephants walking over
+hills, etc., of the most primitive description. With them were lions'
+heads and birds of a style then unknown, but which we now know to belong
+to the period of the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. But the statues of
+Min are older. The _crioceras-shells_ belong to the Red Sea. Are we to
+see in these statues the holy images of the conquerors from the Red Sea
+who reached the Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, and set up the
+first memorials of their presence at Koptos? It may be so, or the Min
+statues may be older than the conquerors, and belong to the Neolithic
+race, since Min and his fetish (which we find on the slate palette from
+el-'Amra, already mentioned) seem to belong to the indigenous Nilotes.
+In any case we have in these statues, two of which are in the Ashmolean
+Museum at Oxford, probably the most ancient cult-images in the world:
+
+This theory, which would make all the Neolithic inhabitants of Egypt
+one people, who were conquered by a Semitic race, bringing a culture of
+Sumerian origin to Egypt by way of the Wadi Hammamat, is that generally
+accepted at the present time. It may, however, eventually prove
+necessary to modify it. For reasons given above, it may well be that the
+Neolithic population was itself not indigenous, and that it reached the
+Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, spreading north and south
+from the mouth of the _wadi_. It may also be considered probable that
+a Semitic wave invaded Egypt by way of the Isthmus of Suez, where
+the early sun-cultus of Heliopolis probably marks a primeval Semitic
+settlement. In that case it would seem that the _Mesniu_ or "Smiths,"
+who introduced the use of metal, would have to be referred to the
+originally Neolithic pre-Semitic people, who certainly were acquainted
+with the use of copper, though not to any great extent. But this is not
+a necessary supposition. The _Mesniu_ are closely connected with the
+Sky-god Horus, who was possibly of Semitic origin, and another Semitic
+wave, quite distinct from that which entered Egypt by way of the
+Isthmus, may very well also have reached Egypt by the Wadi Hammamat, or,
+equally possibly, from the far south, coming down to the Nile from the
+Abyssinian mountains. The legend of the coming of Hathor from Ta-neter
+may refer to some such wandering, and we know that the Egyptians of the
+Old Kingdom communicated with the Land of Punt, not by way of the Red
+Sea coast as Hatshepsut did, but by way of the Upper Nile. This would
+tally well with the march of the _Mesniu_ northwards from Edfu to their
+battle with the forces of Set at Dendera.
+
+In any case, at the dawn of connected Egyptian history, we find two main
+centres of civilization in Egypt, Heliopolis and Buto in the Delta
+in the North, and Edfu and Hierakonpolis in the South. Here were
+established at the beginning of the Chalcolithic stage of culture, we
+may say, two kingdoms, of Lower and Upper Egypt, which were eventually
+united by the superior arms of the kings of Upper Egypt, who imposed
+their rule upon the North but at the same time removed their capital
+thither. The dualism of Buto and Hierakonpolis really lasted throughout
+Egyptian history. The king was always called "Lord of the Two Lands,"
+and wore the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt; the snakes of Buto and
+Nekhebet (the goddess of Nekheb, opposite Nekhen or Hierakonpolis)
+always typified the united kingdom. This dualism of course often led to
+actual division and reversion to the predynastic order of things, as,
+for instance, in the time of the XXIst Dynasty.
+
+It might well seem that both the impulses to culture development in the
+North and South came from Semitic inspiration, and that it was to
+the Semitic invaders in North and South that the founding of the two
+kingdoms was due. This may be true to some extent, but it is at the same
+time very probable that the first development of political culture at
+Hierakonpolis was really of pre-Semitic origin. The kingdom of Buto,
+since its capital is situated so near to the seacoast, may have owed
+its origin to oversea Mediterranean connections. There is much in
+the political constitution of later Egypt which seems to have been of
+indigenous and pre-Semitic origin. Especially does this seem to be so in
+the case of the division and organization of the country into nomes. It
+is obvious that so soon as agriculture began to be practised on a large
+scale, boundaries would be formed, and in the unique conditions of
+Egypt, where all boundaries disappear beneath the inundation every
+year, it is evident that the fixing of division-lines as permanently as
+possible by means of landmarks was early essayed. We can therefore with
+confidence assign the formation of the nomes to very early times. Now
+the names of the nomes and the symbols or emblems by which they were
+distinguished are of very great interest in this connection. They are
+nearly all figures of the magic animals of the primitive religion, and
+fetish-emblems of the older deities. The names are, in fact, those of
+the territories of the Neolithic Egyptian tribes, and their emblems are
+those of the protecting tribal demons. The political divisions of the
+country seem, then, to be of extremely ancient origin, and if the nomes
+go back to a time before the Semitic invasions, so may also the kingdoms
+of the South and North.
+
+Of these predynastic kingdoms we know very little, except from legendary
+sources. The Northerners who were conquered by Aha, Narmer, and
+Khasekhehiui do not look very much like Egyptians, but rather resemble
+Semites or Libyans. On the "Stele of Palermo," a chronicle of early
+kings inscribed in the period of the Vth Dynasty, we have a list of
+early kings of the North,--Seka, Desau, Tiu, Tesh, Nihab, Uatjantj,
+Mekhe. The names are primitive in form. We know nothing more about them.
+Last year Mr. C. T. Currelly attempted to excavate at Buto, in order to
+find traces of the predynastic kingdom, but owing to the infiltration of
+water his efforts were unsuccessful. It is improbable that anything is
+now left of the most ancient period at that site, as the conditions in
+the Delta are so very different from those obtaining in Upper Egypt.
+There, at Hierakonpolis, and at el-Kab on the opposite bank of the Nile,
+the sites of the ancient cities Nekhen and Nekheb, the excavators have
+been very successful. The work was carried out by Messrs. Quibell and
+Green, in the years 1891-9. Prehistoric burials were found on the hills
+near by, but the larger portion of the antiquities were recovered from
+the temple-ruins, and date back to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty,
+exactly the time when the kings of Hierakonpolis first conquered the
+kingdom of Buto and founded the united Egyptian monarchy.
+
+The ancient temple, which was probably one of the earliest seats of
+Egyptian civilization, was situated on a mound, now known as _el-Kom
+el-ahmar_, "the Red Hill," from its colour. The chief feature of the
+most ancient temple seems to have been a circular mound, revetted by a
+wall of sandstone blocks, which was apparently erected about the end of
+the predynastic period. Upon this a shrine was probably erected. This
+was the ancient shrine of Nekhen, the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy.
+Close by it were found some of the most valuable relics of the earliest
+Pharaonic age, the great ceremonial mace-heads and vases of Narmer and
+"the Scorpion," the shields or "palettes" of the same Narmer, the vases
+and stelas of Khasekhemui, and, of later date, the splendid copper
+colossal group of King Pepi I and his son, which is now at Cairo. Most
+of the 1st Dynasty objects are preserved in the Ashmo-lean Museum at
+Oxford, which is one of the best centres for the study of early Egyptian
+antiquities. Narmer and Khasekhemui are, as we shall see, two of the
+first monarchs of all Egypt. These sculptured and inscribed mace-heads,
+shields, etc., are monuments dedicated by them in the ancestral shrine
+at Hierakonpolis as records of their deeds. Both kings seem to have
+waged war against the Northerners, the _Anu_ of Heliopolis and the
+Delta, and on these votive monuments from Hierakonpolis we find
+hieroglyphed records of the defeat of the _Anu_, who have very
+definitely Semitic physiognomies.
+
+On one shield or palette we see Narmer clubbing a man of Semitic
+appearance, who is called the "Only One of the Marsh" (Delta), while
+below two other Semites fly, seeking "fortress-protection." Above is a
+figure of a hawk, symbolizing the Upper Egyptian king, holding a rope
+which is passed through the nose of a Semitic head, while behind is a
+sign which may be read as "the North," so that the whole symbolizes the
+leading away of the North into captivity by the king of the South. It
+is significant, in view of what has been said above with regard to the
+probable Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan Northerners, to find the
+people typical of the North-land represented by the Southerners as
+Semites. Equally Semitic is the overthrown Northerner on the other
+side of this well-known monument which we are describing; he is being
+trampled under the hoofs and gored by the horns of a bull, who, like the
+hawk, symbolizes the king. The royal bull has broken down the wall of a
+fortified enclosure, in which is the hut or tent of the Semite, and the
+bricks lie about promiscuously.
+
+In connection with the Semitic origin of the Northerners, the form of
+the fortified enclosures on both sides of this monument (that to whose
+protection the two Semites on one side fly, and that out of which the
+kingly bull has dragged the chief on the other) is noticeable. As usual
+in Egyptian writing, the hieroglyph of these buildings takes the form of
+a plan. The plan shows a crenelated enclosure, resembling the walls of
+a great Babylonian palace or temple, such as have been found at Telloh,
+Warka, or Mukayyar. The same design is found in Egypt at the Shuret
+ez-Zebib, an Old Kingdom fortress at Abydos, in the tomb of King Aha at
+Nakada, and in many walls of mastaba-tombs of the early time. This is
+another argument in favour of an early connection between Egypt and
+Babylonia. We illustrate a fragment of another votive shield or palette
+of the same kind, now in the museum of the Louvre, which probably came
+originally from Hierakonpolis. It is of exactly similar workmanship to
+that of Narmer, and is no doubt a fragment of another monument of that
+king. On it we see the same subject of the overthrowing of a Northerner
+(of Semitic aspect) by the royal bull. On one side, below, is a
+fortified enclosure with crenelated walls of the type we have described,
+and within it a lion and a vase; below this another fort, and a bird
+within it. These signs may express the names of the two forts, but,
+owing to the fact that at this early period Egyptian orthography was
+not yet fixed, we cannot read them. On the other side we see a row of
+animated nome-standards of Upper Egypt, with the symbols of the god Min
+of Koptos, the hawk of Horus of Edfu, the ibis of Thot of Eshmunen, and
+the jackals of Anubis of Abydos, which drag a rope; had we the rest
+of the monument, we should see, bound at the end of the rope, some
+prisoner, king, or animal symbolic of the North. On another slate
+shield, which we also reproduce, we see a symbolical representation of
+the capture of seven Northern cities, whose names seem to mean the "Two
+Men," the "Heron," the "Owl," the "Palm," and the "Ghost" Cities.
+
+"Ghost City" is attacked by a lion, "Owl City" by a hawk, "Palm City" by
+two hawk nome-standards, and another, whose name we cannot guess at, is
+being opened up by a scorpion.
+
+[Illustration: 050.jpg (left) OBVERSE OF A SLATE RELIEF.]
+
+The operating animals evidently represent nomes and tribes of the Upper
+Egyptians. Here again we see the same crenelated walls of the Northern
+towns, and there is no doubt that this slate fragment also, which is
+preserved in the Cairo Museum, is a monument of the conquests of Narmer.
+It is executed in the same archaic style as those from Hierakonpolis.
+The animals on the other side no doubt represent part of the spoil of
+the North.
+
+Returning to the great shield or palette found by Mr. Quibell, we see
+the king coming out, followed by his sandal-bearer, the _Hen-neter_ or
+"God's Servant,"* to view the dead bodies of the slain Northerners which
+lie arranged in rows, decapitated, and with their heads between their
+feet. The king is preceded by a procession of nome-standards.
+
+[Illustration: 051.jpg (right)]
+
+Above the dead men are symbolic representations of a hawk perched on a
+harpoon over a boat, and a hawk and a door, which doubtless again refer
+to the fights of the royal hawk of Upper Egypt on the Nile and at the
+gate of the North. The designs on the mace-heads refer to the same
+conquest of the North.
+
+     * In his commentary (Hierakonpolis, i. p. 9) on this scene,
+     Prof. Petrie supposes that the seven-pointed star sign means
+     "king," and compares the eight-pointed star "used for king
+     in Babylonia." The eight-pointed star of the cuneiform
+     script does not mean "king," but "god." The star then ought
+     to mean "god," and the title "servant of a god," and this
+     supposition may be correct. _Hen-neter_, "god's servant,"
+     was the appellation of a peculiar kind of priest in later
+     days, and was then spelt with the ordinary sign for a god,
+     the picture of an axe. But in the archaic period, with which
+     we are dealing, a star like the Babylonian sign may very
+     well have been used for "god," and the title of Narmer's
+     sandal-bearer may read _Hen-neter_. He was the slave of the
+     living god Narmer. All Egyptian kings were regarded as
+     deities, more or less.
+
+The monuments Khasekhemui, a king, show us that he conquered the North
+also and slew 47,209 "Northern Enemies." The contorted attitudes of the
+dead Northerners were greatly admired and sketched at the time, and were
+reproduced on the pedestal of the king's statue found by Mr. Quibell,
+which is now at Oxford. It was an age of cheerful savage energy, like
+most times when kingdoms and peoples are in the making. About 4000 B.C.
+is the date of these various monuments.
+
+[Illustration: 052.jpg OBVERSE OP A SLATE RELIEF.]
+
+Khasekhemui probably lived later than Narmer, and we may suppose that
+his conquest was in reality a re-conquest. He may have lived as late
+as the time of the IId Dynasty, whereas Narmer must be placed at the
+beginning of the Ist, and his conquest was probably that which first
+united the two kingdoms of the South and North. As we shall see in
+the next chapter, he is probably one of the originals of the legendary
+"Mena," who was regarded from the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty onwards
+as the founder of the kingdom, and was first made known to Europe by
+Herodotus, under the name of "Menes."
+
+[Illustration: 053.jpg REVERSE OF A SLATE RELIEF, REPRESENTING ANIMALS.]
+
+Narmer is therefore the last of the ancient kings of Hierakonpolis, the
+last of Manetho's "Spirits." We may possibly have recovered the names of
+one or two of the kings anterior to Narmer in the excavations at Abydos
+(see Chapter II), but this is uncertain. To all intents and purposes we
+have only legendary knowledge of the Southern kingdom until its close,
+when Narmer the mighty went forth to strike down the Anu of the North,
+an exploit which he recorded in votive monuments at Hierakonpolis, and
+which was commemorated henceforward throughout Egyptian history in the
+yearly "Feast of the Smiting of the Anu." Then was Egypt for the first
+time united, and the fortress of the "White Wall," the "Good Abode" of
+Memphis, was built to dominate the lower country. The Ist Dynasty was
+founded and Egyptian history began.
+
+[Illustration: 054.jpg ]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+
+
+Until the recent discoveries had been made, which have thrown so much
+light upon the early history of Egypt, the traditional order and names
+of the kings of the first three Egyptian dynasties were, in default of
+more accurate information, retained by all writers on the history of the
+period. The names were taken from the official lists of kings at Abydos
+and elsewhere, and were divided into dynasties according to the system
+of Manetho, whose names agree more or less with those of the lists and
+were evidently derived from them ultimately. With regard to the fourth
+and later dynasties it was clear that the king-lists were correct, as
+their evidence agreed entirely with that of the contemporary monuments.
+But no means existed of checking the lists of the first three dynasties,
+as no contemporary monuments other than a IVth Dynasty mention of a IId
+Dynasty king, Send, had been found. The lists dated from the time of
+the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, so that it was very possible that with
+regard to the earliest dynasties they might not be very correct. This
+conclusion gained additional weight from the fact that no monuments of
+these earliest kings were ever discovered; it therefore seemed probable
+that they were purely legendary figures, in whose time (if they ever did
+exist) Egypt was still a semi-barbarous nation. The jejune stories told
+about them by Manetho seemed to confirm this idea. Mena, the reputed
+founder of the monarchy, was generally regarded as a historical figure,
+owing to the persistence of his name in all ancient literary accounts
+of the beginnings of Egyptian history; for it was but natural to suppose
+that the name of the man who unified Egypt and founded Memphis would
+endure in the mouths of the people. But with regard to his successors
+no such supposition seemed probable, until the time of Sneferu and the
+pyramid-builders.
+
+This was the critical view. Another school of historians accepted all
+the kings of the lists as historical _en bloc_, simply because the
+Egyptians had registered their names as kings. To them Teta, Ateth, and
+Ata were as historical as Mena.
+
+Modern discovery has altered our view, and truth is seen to lie between
+the opposing schools, as usual. The kings after Mena do not seem to be
+such entirely unhistorical figures as the extreme critics thought;
+the names of several of them, e.g. Merpeba, of the Ist Dynasty, are
+correctly given in the later lists, and those of others were simply
+misread, e. g. that of Semti of the same dynasty, misread "Hesepti" by
+the list-makers. On the other hand, Mena himself has become a somewhat
+doubtful quantity. The real names of most of the early monarchs of Egypt
+have been recovered for us by the latest excavations, and we can now see
+when the list-makers of the XIXth Dynasty were right and when they were
+wrong, and can distinguish what is legendary in their work from what is
+really historical. It is true that they very often appear to have been
+wrong, but, on the other hand, they were sometimes unexpectedly near
+the mark, and the general number and arrangement of their kings
+seems correct; so that we can still go to them for assistance in the
+arrangement of the names which are communicated to us by the newly
+discovered monuments. Manetho's help, too, need never be despised
+because he was a copyist of copyists; we can still use him to direct our
+investigations, and his arrangement of dynasties must still remain the
+framework of our chronological scheme, though he does not seem to have
+been always correct as to the places in which the dynasties originated.
+
+More than the names of the kings have the new discoveries communicated
+to us. They have shed a flood of light on the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization and art, supplementing the recently ascertained facts
+concerning the prehistoric age which have been described in the
+preceding chapter. The impulse to these discoveries was given by the
+work of M. de Morgan, who excavated sites of the early dynastic as
+well as of the predynastic age. Among these was a great mastaba-tomb at
+Nakada, which proved to be that of a very early king who bore the name
+of Aha, "the Fighter." The walls of this tomb are crenelated like
+those of the early Babylonian palaces and the forts of the Northerners,
+already referred to. M. de Morgan early perceived the difference between
+the Neolithic antiquities and those of the later archaic period of
+Egyptian civilization, to which the tomb at Nakada belonged. In the
+second volume of his great work on the primitive antiquities of Egypt
+_(L'Age des Metaux et le Tombeau Royale de Negadeh)_, he described
+the antiquities of the Ist Dynasty which had been found at the time he
+wrote. Antiquities of the same primitive period and even of an earlier
+date had been discovered by Prof. Flinders Petrie, as has already been
+said, at Koptos, at the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat. But though Prof.
+Petrie correctly diagnosed the age of the great statues of the god
+Min which he found, he was led, by his misdating of the "New Race"
+antiquities from Ballas and Tukh, also to misdate several of the
+primitive antiquities,--the lions and hawks, for instance, found at
+Koptos, he placed in the period between the VIIth and Xth Dynasties;
+whereas they can now, in the light of further discoveries at Abydos, be
+seen to date to the earlier part of the Ist Dynasty, the time of Narmer
+and Aha.
+
+It is these discoveries at Abydos, coupled with those (already
+described) of Mr. Quibell at Hierakonpolis, which have told us most of
+what we know with regard to the history of the first three dynasties.
+At Abydos Prof. Petrie was not himself the first in the field, the site
+having already been partially explored by a French Egyptologist, M.
+Amelineau. The excavations of M. Amelineau were, however, perhaps
+not conducted strictly on scientific lines, and his results have been
+insufficiently published with very few photographs, so that with the
+best will in the world we are unable to give M. Amelineau the full
+credit which is, no doubt, due to him for his work. The system of Prof.
+Petrie's publications has been often, and with justice, criticized, but
+he at least tells us every year what he has been doing, and gives us
+photographs of everything he has found. For this reason the epoch-making
+discoveries at Abydos have been coupled chiefly with the name of Prof.
+Petrie, while that of M. Amelineau is rarely heard in connection with
+them. As a matter of fact, however, M. Amelineau first excavated the
+necropolis of the early kings at Abydos, and discovered most of the
+tombs afterwards worked over by Prof. Petrie and Mr. Mace. Yet most of
+the important scientific results are due to the later explorers, who
+were the first to attempt a classification of them, though we must
+add that this classification has not been entirely accepted by the
+scientific world.
+
+The necropolis of the earliest kings of Egypt is situated in the great
+bay in the hills which lies behind Abydos, to the southwest of the main
+necropolis. Here, at holy Abydos, where every pious Egyptian wished to
+rest after death, the bodies of the most ancient kings were buried. It
+is said by Manetho that the original seat of their dominion was This,
+a town in the vicinity of Abydos, now represented by the modern Grirga,
+which lies a few miles distant from its site (el-Birba). This may be a
+fact, but we have as yet obtained no confirmation of it. It may well be
+that the attribution of a Thinite origin to the Ist and IId Dynasties
+was due simply to the fact that the kings of these dynasties were buried
+at Abydos, which lay within the Thinite nome. Manetho knew that they
+were buried at Abydos, and so jumped to the conclusion that they lived
+there also, and called them "Thinites."
+
+[Illustration: 060.jpg PROF. PETRIE'S CAMP AT ABYDOS, 1901.]
+
+Their real place of origin must have been Hierakonpolis, where the
+pre-dynastic kingdom of the South had its seat. The Hid Dynasty was no
+doubt of Memphite origin, as Manetho says. It is certain that the
+seat of the government of the IVth Dynasty was at Memphis, where the
+pyramid-building kings were buried, and we know that the sepulchres
+of two Hid Dynasty kings, at least, were situated in the necropolis of
+Memphis (Sakkara-Medum). So that probably the seat of government was
+transferred from Hierakonpolis to Memphis by the first king of the Hid
+Dynasty. Thenceforward the kings were buried in the Memphite necropolis.
+
+The two great necropoles of Memphis and Abydos were originally the
+seats of the worship of the two Egyptian gods of the dead, Seker and
+Khentamenti, both of whom were afterwards identified with the Busirite
+god Osiris. Abydos was also the centre of the worship of Anubis, an
+animal-deity of the dead, the jackal who prowls round the tombs at
+night. Anubis and Osiris-Khentamenti, "He who is in the West," were
+associated in the minds of the Egyptians as the protecting deities of
+Abydos. The worship of these gods as the chief Southern deities of the
+dead, and the preeminence of the necropolis of Abydos in the South, no
+doubt date back before the time of the Ist Dynasty, so that it would
+not surprise us were burials of kings of the predynastic Hierakonpolite
+kingdom discovered at Abydos. Prof. Petrie indeed claims to have
+discovered actual royal relics of that period at Abydos, but this seems
+to be one of the least certain of his conclusions. We cannot definitely
+state that the names "Ro," "Ka," and "Sma" (if they are names at all,
+which is doubtful) belong to early kings of Hierakonpolis who were
+buried at Abydos. It may be so, but further confirmation is desirable
+before we accept it as a fact; and as yet such confirmation has not been
+forthcoming. The oldest kings, who were certainly buried at Abydos, seem
+to have been the first rulers of the united kingdom of the North and
+South, Aha and his successors. N'armer is not represented. It may
+be that he was not buried at Abydos, but in the necropolis of
+Hierakonpolis. This would point to the kings of the South not having
+been buried at Abydos until after the unification of the kingdom.
+
+That Aha possessed a tomb at Abydos as well as another at Nakada seems
+peculiar, but it is a phenomenon not unknown in Egypt. Several kings,
+whose bodies were actually buried elsewhere, had second tombs at Abydos,
+in order that they might _possess_ last resting-places near the tomb
+of Osiris, although they might not prefer to _use_ them. Usertsen (or
+Senusret) III is a case in point. He was really buried in a pyramid at
+Illahun, up in the North, but he had a great rock tomb cut for him in
+the cliffs at Abydos, which he never occupied, and probably had never
+intended to occupy. We find exactly the same thing far back at the
+beginning of Egyptian history, when Aha possessed not only a great
+mastaba-tomb at Nakada, but also a tomb-chamber in the great necropolis
+of Abydos. It may be that other kings of the earliest period also had
+second sepulchres elsewhere. It is noteworthy that in none of the early
+tombs at Abydos were found any bodies which might be considered those
+of the kings themselves. M. Amelineau discovered bodies of attendants
+or slaves (who were in all probability purposely strangled and buried
+around the royal chamber in order that they should attend the king
+in the next world), but no royalties. Prof. Petrie found the arm of a
+female mummy, who may have been of royal blood, though there is nothing
+to show that she was. And the quaint plait and fringe of false hair,
+which were also found, need not have belonged to a royal mummy. It is
+therefore quite possible that these tombs at Abydos were not the actual
+last resting-places of the earliest kings, who may really have been
+buried at Hierakonpolis or elsewhere, as Aha was. Messrs. Newberry
+and Gtarstang, in their _Short History of Egypt_, suppose that Aha was
+actually buried at Abydos, and that the great tomb with objects bearing
+his name, found by M. de Morgan at Nakada, is really not his, but
+belonged to a royal princess named Neit-hetep, whose name is found in
+conjunction with his at Abydos and Nakada. But the argument is equally
+valid turned round the other way: the Nakada tomb might just as well be
+Aha's and the Abydos one Neit-hetep's. Neit-hetep, who is supposed by
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang to have been Narmer's daughter and Aha's
+wife, was evidently closely connected with Aha, and she may have been
+buried with him at Nakada and commemorated with him at Abydos.* It is
+probable that the XIXth Dynasty list-makers and Manetho considered the
+Abydos tombs to have been the real graves of the kings, but it is by no
+means impossible that they were wrong.
+
+     * A princess named Bener-ab ("Sweet-heart"), who may have
+     been Aha's daughter, was actually buried beside his tomb at
+     Abydos.
+
+This view of the royal tombs at Abydos tallies to a great extent with
+that of M. Naville, who has energetically maintained the view that M.
+Amelineau and Prof. Petrie have not discovered the real tombs of the
+early kings, but only their contemporary commemorative "tombs" at
+Abydos. The only real tomb of the Ist Dynasty, therefore, as yet
+discovered is that of Aha at Nakada, found by M. de Morgan. The fact
+that attendant slaves were buried around the Abydos tombs is no bar to
+the view that the tombs were only the monuments, not the real graves,
+of the kings. The royal ghosts would naturally visit their commemorative
+chambers at Abydos, in order to be in the company of the great Osiris,
+and ghostly servants would be as necessary to their Majesties at Abydos
+as elsewhere.
+
+It must not be thought that this revised opinion of the Abydos tombs
+detracts in the slightest degree from the importance of the discovery of
+M. Amelineau and its subsequent and more detailed investigation by Prof.
+Petrie. These monuments are as valuable for historical purposes as
+the real tombs themselves. The actual bodies of these primeval kings
+themselves we are never likely to find. The tomb of Aha at Nakada had
+been completely rifled in ancient times.
+
+The commemorative tombs of the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties at
+Abydos lie southwest of the great necropolis, far within the bay in the
+hills. Their present aspect is that of a wilderness of sand hillocks,
+covered with masses of fragments of red pottery, from which the site has
+obtained the modern Arab name of _Umm el-Ga'ab_, "Mother of Pots." It
+is impossible to move a step in any direction without crushing some
+of these potsherds under the heel. They are chiefly the remains of the
+countless little vases of rough red pottery, which were dedicated here
+as _ex-votos_ by the pious, between the XIXth and XXVIth Dynasties, to
+the memory of the ancient kings and of the great god Osiris, whose tomb,
+as we shall see, was supposed to have been situated here also.
+
+[Illustration: 065.jpg (right) THE TOMB OF KING DEN AT ABYDOS. About
+4000 B.C.]
+
+Intermingled with these later fragments are pieces of the original
+Ist Dynasty vases, which were filled with wine and provisions and were
+placed in the tombs, for the refreshment and delectation of the royal
+ghosts when they should visit their houses at Abydos. These were thrown
+out and broken when the tombs were violated. Here and there one sees a
+dip in the sand, out of which rise four walls of great bricks, forming
+a rectangular chamber, half-filled with sand. This is one of the royal
+tomb-chambers of the Ist Dynasty. That of King Den is illustrated above.
+A straight staircase descends into it from the ground-level above. In
+several of the tombs the original flooring of wooden beams is still
+preserved. Den's is the most magnificent of all, for it has a floor of
+granite blocks; we know of no other instance of stone being used for
+building in this early age. Almost every tomb has been burnt at some
+period unknown. The brick walls are burnt red, and many of the alabaster
+vases are almost calcined. This was probably the work of some unknown
+enemy.
+
+The wide complicated tombs have around the main chamber a series of
+smaller rooms, which were used to store what was considered necessary
+for the use of the royal ghost. Of these necessaries the most
+interesting to us are the slaves, who were, as there is little reason to
+doubt, purposely killed and buried round the royal chamber so that their
+spirits should be on the spot when the dead king came to Abydos; thus
+they would be always ready to serve him with the food and other things
+which had been stored in the tomb with them and placed under their
+charge. There were stacks of great vases of wine, corn, and other food;
+these were covered up with masses of fat to preserve the contents,
+and they were corked with a pottery stopper, which was protected by
+a conical clay sealing, stamped with the impress of the royal
+cylinder-seal. There were bins of corn, joints of oxen, pottery dishes,
+copper pans, and other things which might be useful for the ghostly
+cuisine of the tomb. There were numberless small objects, used, no
+doubt, by the dead monarch during life, which he would be pleased to see
+again in the next world,--carved ivory boxes, little slabs for grinding
+eye-paint, golden buttons, model tools, model vases with gold tops,
+ivory and pottery figurines, and other _objets d'art_; the golden royal
+seal of judgment of King Den in its ivory casket, and so forth. There
+were memorials of the royal victories in peace and war, little ivory
+plaques with inscriptions commemorating the founding of new buildings,
+the institution of new religious festivals in honour of the gods, the
+bringing of the captives of the royal bow and spear to the palace, the
+discomfiture of the peoples of the North-land.
+
+[Illustration: 067.jpg CONICAL VASE-STOPPERS. From Abydos. 1st Dynasty:
+about 4000 B.C.]
+
+All these things, which have done so much to reconstitute for us the
+history of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy, were placed
+under the care of the dead slaves whose bodies were buried round the
+empty tomb-chamber of their royal master in Abydos.
+
+The killing and entombment of the royal servants is of the highest
+anthropological interest, for it throws a vivid light upon the manners
+of the time. It shows the primeval Egyptians as a semi-barbaric people
+of childishly simple ways of thought. The king was dead. For all his
+kingship he was a man, and no man was immortal in this world. But yet
+how could one really die? Shadows, dreams, all kinds of phenomena which
+the primitive mind could not explain, induced the belief that, though
+the outer man might rot, there was an inner man which could not die
+and still lived on. The idea of total death was unthinkable. And where
+should this inner man still live on but in the tomb to which the outer
+man was consigned? And here, doubtless it was believed, in the house to
+which the body was consigned, the ghost lived on. And as each ghost had
+his house with the body, so no doubt all ghosts could communicate with
+one another from tomb to tomb; and so there grew up the belief in a
+tomb-world, a subterranean Egypt of tombs, in which the dead Egyptians
+still lived and had their being. Later on the boat of the sun, in which
+the god of light crossed the heavens by day, was thought to pass through
+this dead world between his setting and his rising, accompanied by the
+souls of the righteous. But of this belief we find no trace yet in the
+ideas of the Ist Dynasty. All we can see is that the _sahus_, or bodies
+of the dead, were supposed to reside in awful majesty in the tomb,
+while the ghosts could pass from tomb to tomb through the mazes of
+the underworld. Over this dread realm of dead men presided a dead god,
+Osiris of Abydos; and so the necropolis of Abydos was the necropolis of
+the underworld, to which all ghosts who were not its rightful citizens
+would come from afar to pay their court to their ruler. Thus the man
+of substance would have a monumental tablet put up to himself in this
+necropolis as a sort of _pied-a-terre_, even if he could not be buried
+there; for the king, who, for reasons chiefly connected with local
+patriotism, was buried near the city of his earthly abode, a second tomb
+would be erected, a stately mansion in the city of Osiris, in which his
+ghost could reside when it pleased him to come to Abydos.
+
+Now none could live without food, and men living under the earth needed
+it as much as men living on the earth. The royal tomb was thus provided
+with an enormous amount of earthly food for the use of the royal ghost,
+and with other things as well, as we have seen. The same provision had
+also to be made for the royal resting-place at Abydos. And in both cases
+royal slaves were needed to take care of all this provision, and to
+serve the ghost of the king, whether in his real tomb at Nakada, or
+elsewhere, or in his second tomb at Abydos. Ghosts only could serve
+ghosts, so that of the slaves ghosts had to be made. That was easily
+done; they died when their master died and followed him to the tomb.
+No doubt it seemed perfectly natural to all concerned, to the slaves as
+much as to anybody else. But it shows the child's idea of the value of
+life. An animate thing was hardly distinguished at this period from an
+inanimate thing. The most ancient Egyptians buried slaves with their
+kings as naturally as they buried jars of wine and bins of corn with
+them. Both were buried with a definite object. The slaves had to die
+before they were buried, but then so had the king himself. They all had
+to die sometime or other. And the actual killing of them was no worse
+than killing a dog, no worse even than "killing" golden buttons and
+ivory boxes. For, when the buttons and boxes were buried with the king,
+they were just as much dead as the slaves. Of the sanctity of _human_
+life as distinct from other life, there was probably no idea at all. The
+royal ghost needed ghostly servants, and they were provided as a matter
+of course.
+
+But as civilization progressed, the ideas of the Egyptians changed
+on these points, and in the later ages of the ancient world they were
+probably the most humane of the peoples, far more so than the Greeks,
+in fact. The cultured Hellenes murdered their prisoners of war without
+hesitation. Who has not been troubled in mind by the execution of Mkias
+and Demosthenes after the surrender of the Athenian army at Syracuse?
+When we compare this with Grant's refusal even to take Lee's sword
+at Appomattox, we see how we have progressed in these matters; while
+Gylippus and the Syracusans were as much children as the Ist Dynasty
+Egyptians. But the Egyptians of Gylippus's time had probably advanced
+much further than the Greeks in the direction of rational manhood. When
+Amasis had his rival Apries in his power, he did not put him to death,
+but kept him as his coadjutor on the throne. Apries fled from him,
+allied himself with Greek pirates, and advanced against his generous
+rival. After his defeat and murder at Momemphis, Amasis gave him a
+splendid burial. When we compare this generosity to a beaten foe with
+the savagery of the Assyrians, for instance, we see how far the later
+Egyptians had progressed in the paths of humanity.
+
+The ancient custom of killing slaves was first discontinued at the death
+of the lesser chieftains, but we find a possible survival of it in the
+case of a king, even as late as the time of the XIth Dynasty; for at
+Thebes, in the precinct of the funerary temple of King Neb-hapet-Ra
+Mentuhetep and round the central pyramid which commemorated his memory,
+were buried a number of the ladies of his _harim_. They were all buried
+at one and the same time, and there can be little doubt that they were
+all killed and buried round the king, in order to be with him in the
+next world. Now with each of these ladies, who had been turned into
+ghosts, was buried a little waxen human figure placed in a little model
+coffin. This was to replace her own slave. She who went to accompany
+the king in the next world had to have her own attendant also. But, not
+being royal, a real slave was not killed for her; she only took with her
+a waxen figure, which by means of charms and incantations would, when
+she called upon it, turn into a real slave, and say, "Here am I," and do
+whatever work might be required of her. The actual killing and burial
+of the slaves had in all cases except that of the king been long
+"commuted," so to speak, into a burial with the dead person of
+_ushabtis_, or "Answerers," little figures like those described above,
+made more usually of stone, and inscribed with the name of the deceased.
+They were called "Answerers" because they answered the call of their
+dead master or mistress, and by magic power became ghostly servants.
+Later on they were made of wood and glazed _faience_, as well as stone.
+By this means the greater humanity of a later age sought a relief from
+the primitive disregard of the death of others.
+
+Anthropologically interesting as are the results of the excavations at
+Umm el-Gra'ab, they are no less historically important. There is no need
+here to weary the reader with the details of scientific controversy; it
+will suffice to set before him as succinctly and clearly as possible the
+net results of the work which has been done.
+
+Messrs. Amelineau and Petrie have found the secondary tombs and have
+identified the names of the following primeval kings of Egypt. We
+arrange them in their apparent historical order.
+
+1. Aha Men (?).
+
+2. Narmer (or Betjumer) Sma (?).
+
+3. Tjer (or Khent). Besh.
+
+4. Tja Ati.
+
+5. Den Semti.
+
+6. Atjab Merpeba.
+
+7. Semerkha Nekht.
+
+8. Qa Sen.
+
+9. Khasekhem (Khasekhemui)
+
+10. Hetepsekhemui.
+
+11. Raeneb.
+
+12. Neneter.
+
+13. Sekhemab Perabsen.
+
+
+Two or three other names are ascribed by Prof. Petrie to the
+Hierakonpolite dynasty of Upper Egypt, which, as it occurs before the
+time of Mena and the Ist Dynasty, he calls "Dynasty 0." Dynasty 0,
+however, is no dynasty, and in any case we should prefer to call the
+"predynastic" dynasty "Dynasty I." The names of "Dynasty minus One,"
+however, remain problematical, and for the present it would seem safer
+to suspend judgment as to the place of the supposed royal names "Ro" and
+"Ka"(Men-kaf), which Prof. Petrie supposes to have been those of two
+of the kings of Upper Egypt who reigned before Mena. The king
+"Sma"("Uniter") is possibly identical with Aha or Narmer, more
+probably the latter. It is not necessary to detail the process by which
+Egyptologists have sought to identify these thirteen kings with the
+successors of Mena in the lists of kings and the Ist and IId Dynasties
+of Manetho. The work has been very successful, though not perhaps quite
+so completely accomplished as Prof. Petrie himself inclines to believe.
+The first identification was made by Prof. Sethe, of Gottingen, who
+pointed out that the names Semti and Merpeba on a vase-fragment found
+by M. Amelineau were in reality those of the kings Hesepti and Merbap
+of the lists, the Ousaphais and Miebis of Manetho. The perfectly certain
+identifications are these:--
+
+5. Den Semti = Hesepti, _Ousaphais_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+6. Atjab Merpeba = Merbap, _Miebis_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+7. Semerkha Nekht= Shemsu or Semsem (?), _Semempres_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+8. Qa Sen = Qebh, _Bienehhes_, Ist Dynasty.
+
+9. Khasekhemui Besh = Betju-mer (?), _Boethos_, IId Dynasty.
+
+10. Neneter = Bineneter, _Binothris_, IId Dynasty.
+
+
+Six of the Abydos kings have thus been identified with names in the
+lists and in Manetho; that is to say, we now know the real names of six
+of the earliest Egyptian monarchs, whose appellations are given us
+under mutilated forms by the later list-makers. Prof. Petrie further
+identifies (4) Tja Ati with Ateth, (3) Tjer with Teta, and (1) Aha with
+Mena. Mena, Teta, Ateth, Ata, Hesepti, Merbap, Shemsu (?), and Qebh are
+the names of the 1st Dynasty as given in the lists. The equivalent of
+Ata Prof. Petrie finds in the name "Merneit," which is found at Umm
+el-Ga'ab. But there is no proof whatever that Merneit was a king; he
+was much more probably a prince or other great personage of the reign
+of Den, who was buried with the kings. Prof. Petrie accepts the
+identification of the personal name of Aha as "Men," and so makes him
+the only equivalent of Mena. But this reading of the name is still
+doubtful. Arguing that Aha must be Mena, and having all the rest of the
+kings of the Ist Dynasty identified with the names in the lists, Prof.
+Petrie is compelled to exclude Narmer from the dynasty, and to relegate
+him to "Dynasty 0," before the time of Mena. It is quite possible,
+however, that Narmer was the successor, not the predecessor, of Mena.
+He was certainly either the one or the other, as the style of art in his
+time was exactly the same as that in the time of Aha. The "Scorpion,"
+too, whose name is found at Hierakonpolis, certainly dates to the same
+time as Narmer and Aha, for the style of his work is the same. And it
+may well be that he is not to be counted as a separate king, belonging
+to "Dynasty 0 "(or "Dynasty -I") at all, but as identical with Narmer,
+just as "Sma" may also be. We thus find that the two kings who left the
+most developed remains at Hierakonpolis are the two whose monuments at
+Abydos are the oldest of all on that site. That is to say, the kings
+whose monuments record the conquest of the North belong to the period
+of transition from the old Hierakonpolite dominion of Upper Egypt to the
+new kingdom of all Egypt. They, in fact, represent the "Mena" or Menes
+of tradition. It may be that Aha bore the personal name of _Men_, which
+would thus be the original of Mena, but this is uncertain. In any case
+both Aha and Narmer must be assigned to the Ist Dynasty, with the result
+that we know of more kings belonging to the dynasty than appear in the
+lists.
+
+Nor is this improbable. Manetho's list is evidently based upon old
+Egyptian lists derived from the authorities upon which the king-lists of
+Abydos and Sakkara were based. These old lists were made under the
+XIXth Dynasty, when an interest in the oldest kings seems to have been
+awakened, and the ruling monarchs erected temples at Abydos in their
+honour. This phenomenon can only have been due to a discovery of Umm
+el-Ga'ab and its treasures, the tombs of which were recognized as
+the burial-places (real or secondary) of the kings before the
+pyramid-builders. Seti I. and his son Ramses then worshipped the kings
+of Umm el-Ga'ab, with their names set before them in the order, number,
+and spelling in which the scribes considered they ought to be inscribed.
+It is highly probable that the number known at that time was not quite
+correct. We know that the spelling of the names was very much garbled
+(to take one example only, the signs for _Sen_ were read as one sign
+_Qebh_), so that one or two kings may have been omitted or displaced.
+This may be the case with Narmer, or, as his name ought possibly to be
+read, _Betjumer_. His monuments show by their style that he belongs to
+the very beginning of the Ist Dynasty. No name in the Ist Dynasty list
+corresponds to his. But one of the lists gives for the first king of the
+IId Dynasty (the successor of "Qebh" = Sen) a name which may also be read
+Betjumer, spelt syllabically this time, not ideographically. On this
+account Prof. Naville wishes to regard the Hierakonpolite monuments of
+Narmer as belonging to the IId Dynasty, but, as we have seen, they are
+among the most archaic known, and certainly must belong to the beginning
+of the Ist Dynasty. It is therefore probable that Khasekhemui Besh
+and Narmer (Betjumer?) were confused by this list-maker, and the
+name Betjumer was given to the first king of the IId Dynasty, who was
+probably in reality Khasekhemui. The resemblance of _Betju_ to _Besh_
+may have contributed to this confusion.
+
+So Narmer (or Betjumer) found his way out of his proper place at the
+beginning of the 1st Dynasty. Whether Aha was also called "Men" or not,
+it seems evident that he and Narmer were jointly the originals of the
+legendary Mena. Narmer, who possibly also bore the name of Sma, "the
+Uniter," conquered the North. Aha, "the Fighter," also ruled both South
+and North at the same period. Khasekhemui, too, conquered the North, but
+the style of his monuments shows such an advance upon that of the days
+of Aha and Narmer that it seems best to make him the successor of Sen
+(or "Qebh "), and, explaining the transference of the name Betjumer
+to the beginning of the IId Dynasty as due to a confusion with
+Khasekhemui's personal name Besh, to make Khasekhemui the founder of the
+IId Dynasty. The beginning of a new dynasty may well have been marked
+by a reassertion of the new royal power over Lower Egypt, which may have
+lapsed somewhat under the rule of the later kings of the Ist Dynasty.
+
+Semti is certainly the "Hesepti" of the lists, and Tja Ati is probably
+"Ateth." "Ata" is thus unidentified. Prof. Petrie makes him = Merneit,
+but, as has already been said, there is no proof that the tomb of
+Merneit is that of a king. "Teta" may be Tjer or Khent, but of this
+there is no proof. It is most probable that the names "Teta," "Ateth,"
+and "Ata" are all founded on Ati, the personal name of Tja. The king
+Tjer is then not represented in the lists, and "Mena" is a compound of
+the two oldest Abydos kings, Narmer (Betjumer) Sma (?) and Aha Men (?).
+
+These are the bare historical results that have been attained with
+regard to the names, identity, and order of the kings. The smaller
+memorials that have been found with them, especially the ivory plaques,
+have told us of events that took place during their reigns; but, with
+the exception of the constantly recurring references to the conquest of
+the North, there is little that can be considered of historical interest
+or importance. We will take one as an example. This is the tablet No.
+32,650 of the British Museum, illustrated by Prof. Petrie, _Royal Tombs_
+i (Egypt Exploration Fund), pi. xi, 14, xv, 16. This is the record of
+a single year, the first in the reign of Semti, King of Upper and Lower
+Egypt. On it we see a picture of a king performing a religious dance
+before the god Osiris, who is seated in a shrine placed on a dais. This
+religious dance was performed by all the kings in later times. Below we
+find hieroglyphic (ideographic) records of a river expedition to fight
+the Northerners and of the capture of a fortified town called An. The
+capture of the town is indicated by a broken line of fortification,
+half-encircling the name, and the hoe with which the emblematic hawks
+on the slate reliefs already described are armed; this signifies the
+opening and breaking down of the wall.
+
+On the other half of the tablet we find the viceroy of Lower Egypt,
+Hemaka, mentioned; also "the Hawk (i. e. the king) seizes the seat of
+the Libyans," and some unintelligible record of a jeweller of the palace
+and a king's carpenter. On a similar tablet (of Sen) we find the words
+"the king's carpenter made this record." All these little tablets are
+then the records of single years of a king's life, and others like them,
+preserved no doubt in royal archives, formed the base of regular annals,
+which were occasionally carved upon stone. We have an example of one of
+these in the "Stele of Palermo," a fragment of black granite, inscribed
+with the annals of the kings up to the time of the Vth Dynasty, when
+the monument itself was made. It is a matter for intense regret that the
+greater portion of this priceless historical monument has disappeared,
+leaving us but a piece out of the centre, with part of the records
+of only six kings before Snefru. Of these six the name of only one,
+Neneter, of the lid Dynasty, whose name is also found at Abydos, is
+mentioned. The only important historical event of Neneter's reign seems
+to have occurred in his thirteenth year, when the towns or palaces of
+_Ha_ ("North") and Shem-Ra ("The Sun proceeds") were founded. Nothing
+but the institution and celebration of religious festivals is recorded
+in the sixteen yearly entries preserved to us out of a reign of
+thirty-five years. The annual height of the Nile is given, and the
+occasions of numbering the people are recorded (every second year):
+nothing else. Manetho tells us that in the reign of Binothris, who
+is Neneter, it was decreed that women could hold royal honours and
+privileges. This first concession of women's rights is not mentioned on
+the strictly official "Palermo Stele."
+
+More regrettable than aught else is the absence from the "Palermo Stele"
+of that part of the original monument which gave the annals of the
+earliest kings. At any rate, in the lines of annals which still exist
+above that which contains the chronicle of the reign of Neneter no
+entry can be definitely identified as belonging to the reigns of Aha
+or Narmer. In a line below there is a mention of the "birth of
+Khasekhemui," apparently a festival in honour of the birth of that king
+celebrated in the same way as the reputed birthday of a god. This shows
+the great honour in which Khasekhemui was held, and perhaps it was he
+who really finally settled the question of the unification of North and
+South and consolidated the work of the earlier kings.
+
+As far as we can tell, then, Aha and Narmer were the first conquerors
+of the North, the unifiers of the kingdom, and the originals of the
+legendary Mena. In their time the kingdom's centre of gravity was still
+in the South, and Narmer (who is probably identical with "the Scorpion")
+dedicated the memorials of his deeds in the temple of Hierakonpolis. It
+may be that the legend of the founding of Memphis in the time of "Menes"
+is nearly correct (as we shall see, historically, the foundation may
+have been due to Merpeba), but we have the authority of Manetho for
+the fact that the first two dynasties were "Thinite" (that is, Upper
+Egyptian), and that Memphis did not become the capital till the time of
+the Hid Dynasty. With this statement the evidence of the monuments fully
+agrees. The earliest royal tombs in the pyramid-field of Memphis date
+from the time of the Hid Dynasty, so that it is evident that the kings
+had then taken up their abode in the Northern capital. We find that soon
+after the time of Khasekhemui the king Perabsen was especially connected
+with Lower Egypt. His personal name is unknown to us (though he may
+be the "Uatjnes" of the lists), but we do know that he had two
+banner-names, Sekhem-ab and Perabsen. The first is his hawk or
+Horus-name, the second his Set-name; that is to say, while he bore the
+first name as King of Upper Egypt under the special patronage of Horus,
+the hawk-god of the Upper Country, he bore the second as King of Lower
+Egypt, under the patronage of Set, the deity of the Delta, whose fetish
+animal appears above this name instead of the hawk. This shows how
+definitely Perabsen wished to appear as legitimate King of Lower as well
+as Upper Egypt. In later times the Theban kings of the XIIth Dynasty,
+when they devoted themselves to winning the allegiance of the
+Northerners by living near Memphis rather than at Thebes, seem to have
+been imitating the successors of Khasekhemui.
+
+Moreover, we now find various evidences of increasing connection with
+the North. A princess named Ne-maat-hap, who seems to have been the
+mother of Sa-nekht, the first king of the Hid Dynasty, bears the name of
+the sacred Apis of Memphis, her name signifying "Possessing the right of
+Apis." According to Manetho, the kings of the Hid Dynasty are the first
+Memphites, and this seems to be quite correct. With Ne-maat-hap the
+royal right seems to have been transferred to a Memphite house. But the
+Memphites still had associations with Upper Egypt: two of them, Tjeser
+Khet-neter and Sa-nekht, were buried near Abydos, in the desert at Bet
+Khallaf, where their tombs were discovered and excavated by Mr. Garstang
+in 1900. The tomb of Tjeser is a great brick-built mastaba, forty feet
+high and measuring 300 feet by 150 feet. The actual tomb-chambers are
+excavated in the rock, twenty feet below the ground-level and sixty feet
+below the top of the mastaba. They had been violated in ancient times,
+but a number of clay jar-sealings, alabaster vases, and bowls belonging
+to the tomb furniture were found by the discoverer. Sa-nekht's tomb is
+similar. In it was found the preserved skeleton of its owner, who was a
+giant seven feet high.
+
+[Illustration: 082.jpg THE TOMB OF KING TJESER AT BET KHALLAF. About
+3700 B.C.]
+
+It is remarkable that Manetho chronicles among the kings of the early
+period a king named Sesokhris, who was five cubits high. This may have
+been Sa-nekht.
+
+Tjeser had two tombs, one, the above-mentioned, near Abydos, the
+other at Sakkara, in the Memphite pyramid-field. This is the famous
+Step-Pyramid. Since Sa-nekht seems really to have been buried at Bet
+Khal-laf, probably Tjeser was, too, and the Step-Pyramid may have been
+his secondary or sham tomb, erected in the necropolis of Memphis as a
+compliment to Seker, the Northern god of the dead, just as Aha had his
+secondary tomb at Abydos in compliment to Khentamenti. Sne-feru, also,
+the last king of the Hid Dynasty, seems to have had two tombs. One of
+these was the great Pyramid of Medum, which was explored by Prof. Petrie
+in 1891, the other was at Dashur. Near by was the interesting necropolis
+already mentioned, in which was discovered evidence of the continuance
+of the cramped position of burial and of the absence of mummification
+among a certain section of the population even as late as the time of
+the IVth Dynasty. This has been taken to imply that the fusion of the
+primitive Neolithic and invading sub-Semitic races had not been effected
+at that time.
+
+With the IVth Dynasty the connection of the royal house with the South
+seems to have finally ceased. The governmental centre of gravity was
+finally transferred to Memphis, and the kings were thenceforth for
+several centuries buried in the great pyramids which still stand in
+serried order along the western desert border of Egypt, from the Delta
+to the province of the Fayyum. With the latest discoveries in this
+Memphite pyramid-field we shall deal in the next chapter.
+
+The transference of the royal power to Memphis under the Hid Dynasty
+naturally led to a great increase of Egyptian activity in the Northern
+lands. We read in Manetho of a great Libyan war in the reign of
+Neche-rophes, and both Sa-nekht and Tjeser seem to have finally
+established Egyptian authority in the Sinaitic peninsula, where their
+rock-inscriptions have been found.
+
+In 1904 Prof. Petrie was despatched to Sinai by the Egypt Exploration
+Fund, in order finally to record the inscriptions of the early kings
+in the Wadi Maghara, which had been lately very much damaged by the
+operations of the turquoise-miners. It seems almost incredible that
+ignorance and vandalism should still be so rampant in the twentieth
+century that the most important historical monuments are not safe from
+desecration in order to obtain a few turquoises, but it is so. Prof.
+Petrie's expedition did not start a day too soon, and at the suggestion
+of Sir William Garstin, the adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, the
+majority of the inscriptions have been removed to the Cairo Museum for
+safety and preservation. Among the new inscriptions discovered is one of
+Sa-nekht, which is now in the British Museum. Tjeser and Sa-nekht were
+not the first Egyptian kings to visit Sinai. Already, in the days of the
+1st Dynasty, Semerkha had entered that land and inscribed his name upon
+the rocks. But the regular annexation, so to speak, of Sinai to Egypt
+took place under the Memphites of the Hid Dynasty.
+
+With the Hid Dynasty we have reached the age of the pyramid-builders.
+The most typical pyramids are those of the three great kings of the IVth
+Dynasty, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, at Giza near Cairo. But, as
+we have seen, the last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, also had one
+pyramid, if not two; and the most ancient of these buildings known to
+us, the Step-Pyramid of Sakkara, was erected by Tjeser at the beginning
+of that dynasty. The evolution of the royal tombs from the time of the
+1st Dynasty to that of the IVth is very interesting to trace. At the
+period of transition from the predynastic to the dynastic age we have
+the great mastaba of Aha at Nakada, and the simplest chamber-tombs
+at Abydos. All these were of brick; no stone was used in their
+construction. Then we find the chamber-tomb of Den Semti at Abydos
+with a granite floor, the walls being still of brick. Above each of the
+Abydos tombs was probably a low mound, and in front a small chapel, from
+which a flight of steps descended into the simple chamber. On one of the
+little plaques already mentioned, which were found in these tombs, we
+have an archaic inscription, entirely written in ideographs, which
+seems to read, "The Big-Heads (i. e. the chiefs) come to the tomb." The
+ideograph for "tomb" seems to be a rude picture of the funerary chapel,
+but from it we can derive little information as to its construction.
+Towards the end of the Ist Dynasty, and during the lid, the royal tombs
+became much more complicated, being surrounded with numerous chambers
+for the dead slaves, etc. Khasekhemui's tomb has thirty-three such
+chambers, and there is one large chamber of stone. We know of no other
+instance of the use of stone work for building at this period except in
+the royal tombs. No doubt the mason's art was still so difficult that it
+was reserved for royal use only.
+
+Under the Hid Dynasty we find the last brick mastabas built for royalty,
+at Bet Khallaf, and the first pyramids, in the Memphite necropolis.
+In the mastaba of Tjeser at Bet Khallaf stone was used for the great
+portcullises which were intended to bar the way to possible plunderers
+through the passages of the tomb. The Step-Pyramid at Sakkara is, so to
+speak, a series of mastabas of stone, imposed one above the other; it
+never had the continuous casing of stone which is the mark of a true
+pyramid. The pyramid of Snefru at Medum is more developed. It also
+originated in a mastaba, enlarged, and with another mastaba-like
+erection on the top of it; but it was given a continuous sloping casing
+of fine limestone from bottom to top, and so is a true pyramid. A
+discussion of recent theories as to the building of the later pyramids
+of the IVth Dynasty will be found in the next chapter.
+
+In the time of the Ist Dynasty the royal tomb was known by the name of
+"Protection-around-the-Hawk, i.e. the king"(_Sa-ha-heru_); but under
+the Hid and IVth Dynasties regular names, such as "the Firm," "the
+Glorious," "the Appearing," etc., were given to each pyramid.
+
+[Illustration: 086.jpg FALSE DOOR OF THE TOMB OF TETA, about 3600 B.C.]
+
+We must not omit to note an interesting point in connection with the
+royal tombs at Abydos, In that of King Khent or Tjer (the reading of
+the ideograph is doubtful) M. Amelineau found a large bed or bier of
+granite, with a figure of the god Osiris lying in state sculptured in
+high relief upon it. This led him to jump to the conclusion that he
+had found the tomb of the god Osiris himself, and that a skull he found
+close by was the veritable cranium of the primeval folk-hero, who,
+according to the euhemerist theory, was the deified original of the god.
+The true explanation is given by Dr. Wallis Budge in his _History of
+Egypt_, i, p. 19. It is a fact that the tomb of Tjer was regarded by
+the Egyptians of the XIXth Dynasty as the veritable tomb of Osiris.
+They thought they had discovered it, just as M. Amelineau did. When the
+ancient royal tombs of Umm el-Ga'ab were rediscovered and identified at
+the beginning of the XIXth Dynasty, and Seti I built the great temple of
+Abydos to the divine ancestors in honour of the discovery, embellishing
+it with a relief of himself and his son Ramses making offerings to the
+names of his predecessors (the "Tablet of Abydos "), the name of King
+Khent or Tjer (which is perhaps the really correct original form) was
+read by the royal scribes as "Khent" and hastily identified with the
+first part of the name of the god _Khent-amenti_ Osiris, the lord of
+Abydos. The tomb was thus regarded as the tomb of Osiris himself, and
+it was furnished with a great stone figure of the god lying on his bier,
+attended by the two hawks of Isis and Nephthys; ever after the site was
+visited by crowds of pilgrims, who left at Umm el-Ga'ab the thousands of
+little votive vases whose fragments have given the place its name of the
+"Mother of Pots." This is the explanation of the discovery of the "Tomb
+of Osiris." We have not found what M. Amelineau seems rather naively to
+have thought possible, a confirmation of the ancient view that Osiris
+was originally a man who ruled over Egypt and was deified after his
+death; but we have found that the Egyptians themselves were more or less
+euhemerists, and did think so.
+
+It may seem remarkable that all this new knowledge of ancient Egypt is
+derived from tombs and has to do with the resting-places of the kings
+when dead, rather than with their palaces or temples when living. Of
+temples at this early period we have no trace. The oldest temple in
+Egypt is perhaps the little chapel in front of the pyramid of Snefru at
+Medum. We first hear of temples to the gods under the IVth Dynasty, but
+of the actual buildings of that period we have recovered nothing but one
+or two inscribed blocks of stone. Prof. Petrie has traced out the plan
+of the oldest temple of Osiris at Abydos, which may be of the time of
+Khufu, from scanty evidences which give us but little information. It is
+certain, however, that this temple, which is clearly one of the oldest
+in Egypt, goes back at least to his time. Its site is the mound
+called Kom es-Sultan, "The Mound of the King," close to the village of
+el-Kherba, and on the borders of the cultivation northeast of the royal
+tombs at Umm el-Oa'ab.
+
+Of royal palaces we have more definite information. North of the Kom
+es-Sultan are two great fortress-enclosures of brick: the one is known
+as _Sunet es-Zebib_, "the Storehouse of Dried Orapes;" the other is
+occupied by the Coptic monastery of Der Anba Musas. Both are certainly
+fortress-palaces of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy. We
+know from the small record-plaques of this period that the kings were
+constantly founding or repairing places of this kind, which were always
+great rectangular enclosures with crenelated brick walls like those of
+early Babylonian buildings.
+
+We have seen that the Northern Egyptian possessed similar
+fortress-cities which were captured by Narmer. These were the seats of
+the royal residence in various parts of the country. Behind their walls
+was the king's house, and no doubt also a town of nobles and retainers,
+while the peasants lived on the arable land without.
+
+[Illustration: 089.jpg THE SHUNET EZ-ZEBIB: THE FORTRESS-TOWN, About
+3900 B.C.]
+
+The Shunet ez-Zebib and its companion fortress were evidently the royal
+cities of the 1st and IId Dynasties at Abydos. The former has been
+excavated by Mr. E. R. Ayrton for the Egypt Exploration Fund, under the
+supervision of Prof. Petrie. He found jar-sealings of Khasekhemui and
+Perabsen. In later times the place was utilized as a burial-place for
+ibis-mummies (it had already been abandoned as a city before the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty), and from this fact it received the name of _Shenet
+deb-hib_, or "Storehouse of Ibis Burials." The Arab invaders adapted
+this name to their own language in the nearest form which would have
+any meaning, as _Shunet ez-Zebib_, "the Storehouse of Dried Grapes."
+The Arab word _shuna_ ("Barn" or "Storehouse") was, it should be noted,
+taken over from the Coptic _sheune,_ which is the old-Egyptian _shenet_.
+The identity of _sheune_ or _shuna_ with the German "Scheune" is a
+quaint and curious coincidence. In the illustration of the Shunet
+ez-Zebib the curved line of crenelated wall, following the contour of
+the hill, should be noted, as it is a remarkable example of the building
+of this early period.
+
+It will have been seen from the foregoing description of what
+far-reaching importance the discoveries at Abydos have been. A new
+chapter of the history of the human race has been opened, which contains
+information previously undreamt of, information which Egyptologists
+had never dared to hope would be recovered. The sand of Egypt indeed
+conceals inexhaustible treasures, and no one knows what the morrow's
+work may bring forth.
+
+_Ex Africa semper aliquid novi!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+
+
+Memphis, the "beautiful abode," the "City of the White Wall," is said
+to have been founded by the legendary Menes, who in order to build it
+diverted the stream of the Nile by means of a great dyke constructed
+near the modern village of Koshesh, south of the village of Mitrahena,
+which marks the central point of the ancient metropolis of Northern
+Egypt. It may be that the city was founded by Aha or Narmer, the
+historical originals of Mena or Menes; but we have another theory with
+regard to its foundation, that it was originally built by King Merpeba
+Atjab, whose tomb was also discovered at Abydos near those of Aha and
+Narmer. Merpeba is the oldest king whose name is absolutely identified
+with one occurring in the XIXth Dynasty king-lists and in Manetho. He
+is certainly the "Merbap" or "Merbepa" ("Merbapen") of the lists and the
+_Miebis_ of Manetho. In both the lists and in Manetho he stands fifth in
+order from Mena, and he was therefore the sixth king of the Ist Dynasty.
+The lists, Manetho, and the small monuments in his own tomb agree in
+making him the immediate successor of Semti Den (Ousaphais), and from
+the style of these latter it is evident that he comes after Tja, Tjer,
+Narmer, and Aha. That is to say, the contemporary evidence makes him the
+fifth king from Aha, the first original of "Menes."
+
+Now after the piety of Seti I had led him to erect a great temple at
+Abydos in memory of the ancient kings, whose sepulchres had probably
+been brought to light shortly before, and to compile and set up in the
+temple a list of his predecessors, a certain pious snobbery or snobbish
+piety impelled a worthy named Tunure, who lived at Memphis, to put up in
+his own tomb at Sakkara a tablet of kings like the royal one at Abydos.
+If Osiris-Khentamenti at Abydos had his tablet of kings, so should
+Osiris-Seker at Sakkara. But Tunure does not begin his list with Mena;
+his initial king is Merpeba. For him Merpeba was the first monarch to be
+commemorated at Sakkara. Does not this look very much as if the strictly
+historical Merpeba, not the rather legendary and confused Mena, was
+regarded as the first Memphite king? It may well be that it was in
+the reign of Merpeba, not in that of Aha or Narmer, that Memphis was
+founded.
+
+The XIXth Dynasty lists of course say nothing about Mena or Merpeba
+having founded Memphis; they only give the names of the kings, nothing
+more. The earliest authority for the ascription of Memphis to "Menes",
+is Herodotus, who was followed in this ascription, as in many other
+matters, by Manetho; but it must be remembered that Manetho was writing
+for the edification of a Greek king (Ptolemy Philadelphus) and his Greek
+court at Alexandria, and had therefore to evince a respect for the great
+Greek classic which he may not always have really felt. Herodotus is
+not, of course, accused of any wilful misstatement in this or in any
+other matter in which his accuracy is suspected. He merely wrote
+down what he was told by the Egyptians themselves, and Merpeba was
+sufficiently near in time to Aha to be easily confounded with him by
+the scribes of the Persian period, who no doubt ascribed everything
+to "Mena" that was done by the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties.
+Therefore it may be considered quite probable that the "Menes" who
+founded Memphis was Merpeba, the fifth or sixth king of the Ist Dynasty,
+whom Tunure, a thousand years before the time of Herodotus and his
+informants, placed at the head of the Memphite "List of Sakkara."
+
+The reconquest of the North by Khasekhemui doubtless led to a further
+strengthening of Memphis; and it is quite possible that the deeds of
+this king also contributed to make up the sum total of those ascribed to
+the Herodotean and Manethonian Menes.
+
+It may be that a town of the Northerners existed here before the time of
+the Southern Conquest, for Phtah, the local god of Memphis, has a very
+marked character of his own, quite different from that of Khen-tamenti,
+the Osiris of Abydos. He is always represented as a little bow-legged
+hydrocephalous dwarf very like the Phoenician _Kabeiroi_. It may be
+that here is another connection between the Northern Egyptians and the
+Semites. The name "Phtah," the "Opener," is definitely Semitic. We may
+then regard the dwarf Phtah as originally a non-Egyptian god of the
+Northerners, probably Semitic in origin, and his town also as antedating
+the conquest. But it evidently was to the Southerners that Memphis owed
+its importance and its eventual promotion to the position of capital of
+the united kingdom. Then the dwarf Phtah saw himself rivalled by another
+Phtah of Southern Egyptian origin, who had been installed at Memphis by
+the Southerners. This Phtah was a sort of modified edition of Osiris, in
+mummy-form and holding crook and whip, but with a refined edition of
+the Kabeiric head of the indigenous Phtah. The actual god of "the White
+Wall" was undoubtedly confused vith the dead god of the necropolis,
+whose name was Seker or Sekri (Sokari), "the Coffined." The original
+form of this deity was a mummied hawk upon a coffin, and it is very
+probable that he was imported from the South, like the second Phtah, at
+the time of the conquest, when the great Northern necropolis began
+to grow up as a duplicate of that at Abydos. Later on we find Seker
+confused with the ancient dwarf-god, and it is the latter who was
+afterwards chiefly revered as Phtah-Socharis-Osiris, the protector of
+the necropolis, the mummied Phtah being the generally recognized ruler
+of the City of the White Wall.
+
+It is from the name of Seker that the modern Sak-kara takes its title.
+Sakkara marks the central point of the great Memphite necropolis, as it
+is the nearest point of the western desert to Memphis. Northwards the
+necropolis extended to Griza and Abu Roash, southwards, to Daslmr;
+even the necropoles of Lisht and Medum may be regarded as appanages of
+Sakkara. At Sakkara itself Tjeser of the IIId Dynasty had a pyramid,
+which, as we have seen, was probably not his real tomb (which was
+the great mastaba at Bet Khallaf), but a secondary or sham tomb
+corresponding to the "tombs" of the earliest kings at Umm el-Ga'ab in
+the necropolis of Abydos. Many later kings, however, especially of the
+Vith Dynasty, were actually buried at Sakkara. Their tombs have all been
+thoroughly described by their discoverer, Prof. Maspero, in his history.
+The last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, was buried away down south at
+Medum, in splendid isolation, but he may also have had a second pyramid
+at Sakkara or Abu Roash.
+
+The kings of the IVth Dynasty were the greatest of the pyramid builders,
+and to them belong the huge edifices of Griza. The Vth Dynasty favoured
+Abusir, between Ciza and Sakkara; the Vith, as we have said, preferred
+Sakkara itself. With them the end of the Old Kingdom and of Memphite
+dominion was reached; the sceptre fell from the hands of the Memphite
+kings and was taken up by the princes of Herakleopolis (Ahnasyet
+el-Medina, near Beni Suef, south of the Eayyum) and Thebes. Where the
+Herakleopolite kings were buried we do not know; probably somewhere in
+the local necropolis of the Gebel es-Sedment, between Ahnasya and the
+Fayyum. The first Thebans (the XIth Dynasty) were certainly buried at
+Thebes, but when the Herakleopolites had finally disappeared, and all
+Egypt was again united under one strong sceptre, the Theban kings seem
+to have been drawn northwards. They removed to the seat of the dominion
+of those whom they had supplanted, and they settled in the neighbourhood
+of Herakleopolis, near the fertile province of the Fayyum, and between
+it and Memphis. Here, in the royal fortress-palace of Itht-taui,
+"Controlling the Two Lands," the kings of the XIIth Dynasty lived,
+and they were buried in the necropoles of Dashur, Lisht, and Illahun
+(Hawara), in pyramids like those of the old Memphite kings. These facts,
+of the situation of Itht-taui, of their burial in the southern an ex of
+the old necropolis of Memphis, and of the fori of their tombs (the
+true Upper Egyptian and Thebian form was a rock-cut gallery and chamber
+driven deep into the hill), show how solicitous were the Amenemhats
+and Senusrets of the suffrages of Lower Egypt, how anxious they were to
+conciliate the ancient royal pride of Memphis.
+
+Where the kings of the XIIIth Dynasty and the Hyksos or "Shepherds" were
+buried, we do not know. The kings of the restored Theban empire were
+all interred at Thebes. There are, in fact, no known royal sepulchres
+between the Fayyum and Abydos. The great kings were mostly buried in
+the neighbourhood of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. The sepulchres of the
+"Middle Empire"--the XIth to XIIIth Dynasties--in the neighbourhood
+of the Fayyum may fairly be grouped with those of the same period at
+Dashur, which belongs to the necropolis of Memphis, since it is only a
+mile or two south of Sakkara.
+
+It is chiefly with regard to the sepulchres of the kings that the most
+momentous discoveries of recent years have been made at Thebes, and at
+Sakkara, Abusir, Dashur, and Lisht, as at Abydos. For this reason we
+deal in succession with the finds in the necropoles of Abydos, Memphis,
+and Thebes respectively. And with the sepulchres of the "Old Kingdom,"
+in the Memphite necropolis proper, we have naturally grouped those of
+the "Middle Kingdom" at Dashur, Lisht, Illahun, and Hawara.
+
+Some of these modern discoveries have been commented on and illustrated
+by Prof. Maspero in his great history. But the discoveries that have
+been made since this publication have been very important,--those at
+Abusir, indeed, of first-rate importance, though not so momentous as
+those of the tombs of the Ist and IId Dynasties at Abydos, already
+described. At Abu Roash and at Giza, at the northern end of the Memphite
+necropolis, several expeditions have had considerable success, notably
+those of the American Dr. Reisner, assisted by Mr. Mace, who excavated
+the royal tombs at Umm el-Ga'ab for Prof. Petrie, those of the
+German Drs. Steindorff and Borchardt,--the latter working for the
+_Beutsch-Orient Gesellschaft_,--and those of other American excavators.
+Until the full publication of the results of these excavations appears,
+very little can be said about them. Many mastaba-tombs have, it is
+understood, been found, with interesting remains. Nothing of great
+historical importance seems to have been discovered, however. It is
+otherwise when we come to the discoveries of Messrs. Borchardt and
+Schafer at Abusir, south of Giza and north of Sakkara. At this place
+results of first-rate historical importance have been attained.
+
+The main group of pyramids at Abusir consists of the tombs of the kings
+Sahura, Neferarikara, and Ne-user-Ra, of the Vth Dynasty. The pyramids
+themselves are smaller than those of Giza, but larger than those of
+Sakkara. In general appearance and effect they resemble those of Giza,
+but they are not so imposing, as the desert here is low. Those of Giza,
+Sakkara, and Dashur owe much of their impressiveness to the fact that
+they are placed at some height above the cultivated land. The excavation
+and planning of these pyramids were carried out by Messrs. Borchardt and
+Schafer at the expense of Baron von Bissing, the well-known Egyptologist
+of Munich, and of the _Deutsch-Orient Gesell-schaft_ of Berlin. The
+antiquities found have been divided between the museums of Berlin and
+Cairo.
+
+One of the most noteworthy discoveries was that of the funerary temple
+of Ne-user-Ra, which stood at the base of his pyramid. The plan is
+interesting, and the granite lotus-bud columns found are the most
+ancient yet discovered in Egypt. Much of the paving and the wainscoting
+of the walls was of fine black marble, beautifully polished. An
+interesting find was a basin and drain with lion's-head mouth, to
+carry away the blood of the sacrifices. Some sculptures in relief were
+discovered, including a gigantic representation of the king and the
+goddess Isis, which shows that in the early days of the Vth Dynasty the
+king and the gods were already depicted in exactly the same costume as
+they wore in the days of the Ramses and the Ptolemies. The hieratic art
+of Egypt had, in fact, now taken on itself the final outward appearance
+which it retained to the very end. There is no more of the archaism
+and absence of conventionality, which marks the art of the earliest
+dynasties.
+
+We can trace by successive steps the swift development of Egyptian art
+from the rude archaism of the Ist Dynasty to its final consummation
+under the Vth, when the conventions became fixed. In the time of
+Khaesekhemui, at the beginning of the IId Dynasty, the archaic character
+of the art has already begun to wear off. Under the same dynasty we
+still have styles of unconventional naivete, such as the famous Statue
+"No. 1" of the Cairo Museum, bearing the names of Kings Hetepahaui,
+Neb-ra, and Neneter. But with the IVth Dynasty we no longer look for
+unconventionality. Prof. Petrie discovered at Abydos a small ivory
+statuette of Khufu or Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
+The portrait is a good one and carefully executed. It was not till
+the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, indeed, that the Egyptians ceased
+to portray their kings as they really were, and gave them a purely
+conventional type of face. This convention, against which the heretical
+King Amenhetep IV (Akhunaten) rebelled, in order to have himself
+portrayed in all his real ungainliness and ugliness, did not exist till
+long after the time of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+
+[Illustration: 100.jpg STATUE NO. 1 OF THE CAIRO MUSEUM, About 3900
+B.C.]
+
+The kings of the XIIth Dynasty especially were most careful that their
+statues should be accurate portraits; indeed, the portraits of Usertsen
+(Senusret) III vary from a young face to an old one, showing that the
+king was faithfully depicted at different periods of his life.
+
+But the general conventions of dress and deportment were finally fixed
+under the Vth Dynasty. After this time we no longer have such absolutely
+faithful and original presentments as the other little ivory statuette
+found by Prof. Petrie at Abydos (now in the British Museum), which shows
+us an aged monarch of the Ist Dynasty. It is obvious that the features
+are absolutely true to life, and the figure wears an unconventionally
+party-coloured and bordered robe of a kind which kings of a later day
+may have worn in actual life, but which they would assuredly never be
+depicted as wearing by the artists of their day. To the end of Egyptian
+history, the kings, even the Roman emperors, were represented on the
+monuments clothed in the official costume of their ancestors of the IVth
+and Vth Dynasties, in the same manner as we see Khufu wearing his robe
+in the little figure from Abydos, and Ne-user-Ra on the great
+relief from Abusir. There are one or two exceptions, such as the
+representations of the original genius Akhunaten at Tell el-Amarna and
+the beautiful statue of Ramses II at Turin, in which we see these kings
+wearing the real costume of their time, but such exceptions are very
+rare.
+
+The art of Abusir is therefore of great interest, since it marks the end
+of the development of the priestly art. Secular art might develop as it
+liked, though the crystallizing influence of the ecclesiastical canon is
+always evident here also. But henceforward it was an impiety, which only
+an Akhunaten could commit, to depict a king or a god on the walls of a
+temple otherwise (except so far as, the portrait was concerned) than as
+he had been depicted in the time of the Vth Dynasty.
+
+Other buildings have been excavated by the Germans at Abusir, notably
+the usual town of mastaba-tombs belonging to the chief dignitaries of
+the reign, which is always found at the foot of a royal pyramid of this
+period. Another building of the highest interest, belonging to the same
+age, was also excavated, and its true character was determined. This is
+a building at a place called er-Righa or Abu Ghuraib, "Father of Crows,"
+between Abusir and Giza. It was formerly supposed to be a pyramid, but
+the German excavations have shown that it is really a temple of the
+Sun-god Ra of Heliopolis, specially venerated by the kings of the Vth
+Dynasty, who were of Heliopolitan origin. The great pyramid-builders of
+the IVth Dynasty seem to have been the last true Memphites. At the end
+of the reign of Shepseskaf, the last monarch of the dynasty, the sceptre
+passed to a Heliopolitan family. The following VIth Dynasty may again
+have been Memphite, but this is uncertain. The capital continued to be
+Memphis, and from the beginning of the Hid Dynasty to the end of the Old
+Kingdom and the rise of Herakle-opolis and Thebes, Memphis remained the
+chief city of Egypt.
+
+The Heliopolitans were naturally the servants of the Sun-god above all
+other gods, and they were the first to call themselves "Sons of the
+Sun," a title retained by the Pharaohs throughout all subsequent
+history. It was Ne-user-Ra who built the Sun-temple of Abu Ghuraib,
+on the edge of the desert, north of his pyramid and those of his two
+immediate predecessors at Abusir. As now laid bare by the excavations of
+1900, it is seen to consist of an artificial mound, with a great court
+in front to the eastward. On the mound was erected a truncated obelisk,
+the stone emblem of the Sun-god. The worshippers in the court below
+looked towards the Sun's stone erected upon its mound in the west,
+the quarter of the sun's setting; for the Sun-god of Heliopolis was
+primarily the setting sun, Tum-Ra, not Ra Harmachis, the rising sun,
+whose emblem is the Great Sphinx at Giza, which looks towards the east.
+The sacred emblem of the Heliopolitan Sun-god reminds us forcibly of the
+Semitic _bethels_ or _baetyli_, the sacred stones of Palestine, and may
+give yet another hint of the Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan cult.
+In the court of the temple is a huge circular altar of fine alabaster,
+several feet across, on which slain oxen were offered to the Sun, and
+behind this, at the eastern end of the court, are six great basins of
+the same stone, over which the beasts were slain, with drains running
+out of them by which their blood was carried away. This temple is a most
+interesting monument of the civilization of the "Old Kingdom" at the time
+of the Vth Dynasty.
+
+At Sakkara itself, which lies a short distance south of Abusir, no new
+royal tombs have, as has been said, been discovered of late years. But a
+great deal of work has been done among the private mastaba-tombs by the
+officers of the _Service des Antiquites_, which reserves to itself the
+right of excavation here and at Dashur. The mastaba of the sage and
+writer Kagernna (or rather Gemnika, "I-have-found-a-ghost," which
+sounds very like an American Indian appellation) is very fine.
+"I-have-found-a-ghost" lived in the reign of the king Tatkara Assa, the
+"Tancheres" of Manetho, and he wrote maxims like his great contemporary
+Phtahhetep ("Offered to Phtah"), who was also buried at Sakkara. The
+officials of the _Service des Antiquites_ who cleaned the tomb unluckily
+misread his name Ka-bi-n (an impossible form which could only mean,
+literally translated, "Ghost-soul-of" or "Ghost-soul-to-me"), and they
+have placed it in this form over the entrance to his tomb. This mastaba,
+like those, already known, of Mereruka (sometimes misnamed "Mera")
+and the famous Ti, both also at Sakkara, contains a large number of
+chambers, ornamented with reliefs. In the vicinity M. Grebaut, then
+Director of the Service of Antiquities, discovered a very interesting
+Street of Tombs, a regular Via Sacra, with rows of tombs of the
+dignitaries of the VIth Dynasty on either side of it. They are generally
+very much like one another; the workmanship of the reliefs is fine, and
+the portrait of the owner of the tomb is always in evidence.
+
+Several of the smaller mastabas have lately been disposed of to the
+various museums, as they are liable to damage if they remain where they
+stand; moreover, they are not of great value to the Museum of Cairo,
+but are of considerable value to various museums which do not already
+possess complete specimens of this class of tombs. A fine one, belonging
+to the chief Uerarina, is now exhibited in the Assyrian Basement of the
+British Museum; another is in the Museum of Leyden; a third at Berlin,
+and so on. Most of these are simple tombs of one chamber. In the centre
+of the rear wall we always see the _stele_ or gravestone proper,
+built into the fabric of the tomb. Before this stood the low table
+of offerings with a bowl for oblations, and on either side a tall
+incense-altar. From the altar the divine smoke (_senetr_) arose when
+the _hen-ka_, or priest of the ghost (literally, "Ghost's Servant"),
+performed his duty of venerating the spirits of the deceased, while the
+_Kher-heb_, or cantor, enveloped in the mystic folds of the leopard-skin
+and with bronze incense-burner in hand, sang the holy litanies and
+spells which should propitiate the ghost and enable him to win his way
+to ultimate perfection in the next world.
+
+The stele is always in the form of a door with pyloni-form cornice. On
+either side is a figure of the deceased, and at the sides are carved
+prayers to Anubis, and at a later date to Osiris, who are implored to
+give the funerary meats and "everything good and pure on which the god
+there (as the dead man in the tomb has been constituted) lives;" often
+we find that the biography and list of honorary titles and dignities of
+the deceased have been added.
+
+Sakkara was used as a place of burial in the latest as well as in the
+earliest time. The Egyptians of the XXVIth Dynasty, wearied of the long
+decadence and devastating wars which had followed the glorious epoch of
+the conquering Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, turned for
+a new and refreshing inspiration to the works of the most ancient kings,
+when Egypt was a simple self-contained country, holding no intercourse
+with outside lands, bearing no outside burdens for the sake of pomp and
+glory, and knowing nothing of the decay and decadence which follows in
+the train of earthly power and grandeur. They deliberately turned their
+backs on the worn-out and discredited imperial trappings of the Thothmes
+and Ramses, and they took the supposed primitive simplicity of the
+Snefrus, the Khufus, and the Ne-user-Ras for a model and ensampler to
+their lives. It was an age of conscious and intended archaism, and in
+pursuit of the archaistic ideal the Mem-phites of the Saite age had
+themselves buried in the ancient necropolis of Sakkara, side by side
+with their ancestors of the time of the Vth and VIth Dynasties. Several
+of these tombs have lately been discovered and opened, and fitted with
+modern improvements. One or two of them, of the Persian period, have
+wells (leading to the sepulchral chamber) of enormous depth, down which
+the modern tourist is enabled to descend by a spiral iron staircase. The
+Serapeum itself is lit with electricity, and in the Tombs of the Kings
+at Thebes nothing disturbs the silence but the steady thumping pulsation
+of the dynamo-engine which lights the ancient sepulchres of the
+Pharaohs. Thus do modern ideas and inventions help us to see and so to
+understand better the works of ancient Egypt. But it is perhaps a little
+too much like the Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. The interiors of
+the later tombs are often decorated with reliefs which imitate those of
+the early period, but with a kind of delicate grace which at once marks
+them for what they are, so that it is impossible to confound them with
+the genuine ancient originals from which they were adapted.
+
+Riding from Sakkara southwards to Dashur, we pass on the way the
+gigantic stone mastaba known as the _Mastabat el-Fara'un_, "Pharaoh's
+Bench." This was considered to be the tomb of the Vth Dynasty king,
+Unas, until his pyramid was found by Prof. Maspero at Sakkara. From its
+form it might be thought to belong to a monarch of the Hid Dynasty, but
+the great size of the stone blocks of which it is built seems to point
+rather to the XIIth. All attempts to penetrate its secret by actual
+excavation have been unavailing.
+
+Further south across the desert we see from the Mastabat el-Fara'un
+four distinct pyramids, symmetrically arranged in two lines, two in each
+line. The two to the right are great stone erections of the usual
+type, like those of Giza and Abusir, and the southernmost of them has a
+peculiar broken-backed appearance, due to the alteration of the angle
+of inclination of its sides during construction. Further, it is covered
+almost to the ground by the original casing of polished white limestone
+blocks, so that it gives a very good idea of the original appearance
+of the other pyramids, which have lost their casing. These two
+pyramids very probably belong to kings of the Hid Dynasty, as does the
+Step-Pyramid of Sakkara. They strongly resemble the Giza type, and
+the northernmost of the two looks very like an understudy of the Great
+Pyramid. It seems to mark the step in the development of the royal
+pyramid which was immediately followed by the Great Pyramid. But no
+excavations have yet proved the accuracy of this view. Both pyramids
+have been entered, but nothing has been found in them. It is very
+probable that one of them is the second pyramid of Snefru.
+
+The other two pyramids, those nearest the cultivation, are of very
+different appearance. They are half-ruined, they are black in colour,
+and their whole effect is quite different from that of the stone
+pyramids. For they are built of brick, not of stone. They are pyramids,
+it is true, but of a different material and of a different date from
+those which we have been describing. They are built above the sepulchres
+of kings of the XIIth Dynasty, the Theban house which transferred
+its residence northwards to the neighbourhood of the ancient Northern
+capital. We have, in fact, reached the end of the Old Kingdom at
+Sakkara; at Dashur begin the sepulchres of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramids
+are still built, but they are not always of stone; brick is used,
+usually with stone in the interior. The general effect of these brick
+pyramids, when new, must have been indistinguishable from that of the
+stone ones, and even now, when it has become half-ruined, such a great
+brick pyramid as that of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Dashur is not
+without impressiveness. After all, there is no reason why a brick
+building should be less admirable than a stone one. And in its own way
+the construction of such colossal masses of bricks as the two eastern
+pyramids of Dashur must have been as arduous, even as difficult, as that
+of building a moderate-sized stone pyramid. The photograph of the brick
+pyramids of Dashur on this page shows well the great size of these
+masses of brickwork, which are as impressive as any of the great brick
+structures of Babylonia and Assyria.
+
+[Illustration: 109.jpg EXTERIOR OF THE SOUTHERN BRICK PYRAMID OF DASHUR]
+
+     XIITH DYNASTY. Excavated by M. de Morgan, 1895. This is the
+     secondary tomb of Amenemhat III; about 2200 B.C.
+
+The XIIth Dynasty use of brick for the royal tombs was a return to the
+custom of earlier days, for from the time of Aha to that Tjeser, from
+the 1st Dynasty to the Hid, brick had been used for the building of the
+royal mastaba-tombs, out of which the pyramids had developed.
+
+At this point, where we take leave of the great pyramids of the Old
+Kingdom, we may notice the latest theory as to the building of these
+monuments, which has of late years been enunciated by Dr. Borchardt, and
+is now generally accepted. The great Prussian explorer Lepsius, when he
+examined the pyramids in the 'forties, came to the conclusion that each
+king, when he ascended the throne, planned a small pyramid for himself.
+This was built in a few years' time, and if his reign were short, or if
+he were unable to enlarge the pyramid for other reasons, it sufficed for
+his tomb. If, however, his reign seemed likely to be one of some length,
+after the first plan was completed he enlarged his pyramid by building
+another and a larger one around it and over it. Then again, when this
+addition was finished, and the king still reigned and was in possession
+of great resources, yet another coating, so to speak, was put on to the
+pyramid, and so on till colossal structures like the First and Second
+Pyramid of Giza, which, we know, belonged to kings who were unusually
+long-lived, were completed. And finally the aged monarch died, and was
+buried in the huge tomb which his long life and his great power had
+enabled him to erect. This view appeared eminently reasonable at the
+time, and it seemed almost as though we ought to be able to tell whether
+a king had reigned long or not by the size of his pyramid, and even
+to obtain a rough idea of the length of his reign by counting the
+successive coats or accretions which it had received, much as we tell
+the age of a tree by the rings in its bole. A pyramid seemed to have
+been constructed something after the manner of an onion or a Chinese
+puzzle-box.
+
+Prof. Petrie, however, who examined the Griza pyramids in 1881, and
+carefully measured them all up and finally settled their trigonometrical
+relation, came to the conclusion that Lepsius's theory was entirely
+erroneous, and that every pyramid was built and now stands as it was
+originally planned. Dr.
+
+[Illustration: 111.jpg THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA DURING THE INUNDATION.]
+
+Borchardt, however, who is an architect by profession, has examined
+the pyramids again, and has come to the conclusion that Prof. Petrie's
+statement is not correct, and that there is an element of truth in
+Lepsius's hypothesis. He has shown that several of the pyramids, notably
+the First and Second at Giza, show unmistakable signs of a modified,
+altered, and enlarged plan; in fact, long-lived kings like Khufu seem
+to have added considerably to their pyramids and even to have entirely
+remodelled them on a larger scale. This has certainly been the case with
+the Great Pyramid. We can, then, accept Lepsius's theory as modified by
+Dr. Borchardt.
+
+Another interesting point has arisen in connection with the Great
+Pyramid. Considerable difference of opinion has always existed between
+Egyptologists and the professors of European archaeology with regard
+to the antiquity of the knowledge of iron in Egypt. The majority of
+the Egyptologists have always maintained, on the authority of the
+inscriptions, that iron was known to the ancient Egyptians from the
+earliest period. They argued that the word for a certain metal in old
+Egyptian was the same as the Coptic word for "iron." They stated that in
+the most ancient religious texts the Egyptians spoke of the firmament
+of heaven as made of this metal, and they came to the conclusion that it
+was because this metal was blue in colour, the hue of iron or steel; and
+they further pointed out that some of the weapons in the tomb-paintings
+were painted blue and others red, some being of iron, that is to
+say, others of copper or bronze. Finally they brought forward as
+incontrovertible evidence an actual fragment of worked iron, which had
+been found between two of the inner blocks, down one of the air-shafts,
+in the Great Pyramid. Here was an actual piece of iron of the time of
+the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C.
+
+This conclusion was never accepted by the students of the development of
+the use of metal in prehistoric Europe, when they came to know of it.
+No doubt their incredulity was partly due to want of appreciation of the
+Egyptological evidence, partly to disinclination to accept a conclusion
+which did not at all agree with the knowledge they had derived from
+their own study of prehistoric Europe. In Southern Europe it was quite
+certain that iron did not come into use till about 1000 B.C.; in Central
+Europe, where the discoveries at Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut exhibit
+the transition from the Age of Bronze to that of Iron, about 800 B.C.
+The exclusively Iron Age culture of La Tene cannot be dated earlier than
+the eighth century, if as early as that. How then was it possible that,
+if iron had been known to the Egyptians as early as 3500 B.C., its
+knowledge should not have been communicated to the Europeans until over
+two thousand years later? No; iron could not have been really known to
+the Egyptians much before 1000 B.C. and the Egyptological evidence was
+all wrong. This line of argument was taken by the distinguished
+Swedish archaeologist, Prof. Oscar Montelius, of Upsala, whose previous
+experience in dealing with the antiquities of Northern Europe, great as
+it was, was hardly sufficient to enable him to pronounce with authority
+on a point affecting far-away African Egypt. And when dealing with Greek
+prehistoric antiquities Prof. Montelius's views have hardly met with
+that ready agreement which all acknowledge to be his due when he is
+giving us the results of his ripe knowledge of Northern antiquities. He
+has, in fact, forgotten, as most "prehistoric" archaeologists do forget,
+that the antiquities of Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, the Semites,
+the bronze-workers of Benin, the miners of Zimbabwe, and the Ohio
+mound-builders are not to be treated all together as a whole, and that
+hard and fast lines of development cannot be laid down for them, based
+on the experience of Scandinavia.
+
+We may perhaps trace this misleading habit of thought to the influence
+of the professors of natural science over the students of Stone Age and
+Bronze Age antiquities. Because nature moves by steady progression and
+develops on even lines--_nihil facit per sal-tum_--it seems to have been
+assumed that the works of man's hands have developed in the same way,
+in a regular and even scheme all over the world. On this supposition it
+would be impossible for the great discovery of the use of iron to have
+been known in Egypt as early as 3500 B.C. for this knowledge to have
+remained dormant there for two thousand years, and then to have
+been suddenly communicated about 1000 B.C. to Greece, spreading with
+lightning-like rapidity over Europe and displacing the use of bronze
+everywhere. Yet, as a matter of fact, the work of man does develop
+in exactly this haphazard way, by fits and starts and sudden leaps of
+progress after millennia of stagnation. Throwsback to barbarism are just
+as frequent. The analogy of natural evolution is completely inapplicable
+and misleading.
+
+Prof. Montelius, however, following the "evolutionary" line of thought,
+believed that because iron was not known in Europe till about 1000 B.C.
+it could not have been known in Egypt much earlier; and in an important
+article which appeared in the Swedish ethnological journal _Ymer_ in
+1883, entitled _Bronsaldrn i Egypten_ ("The Bronze Age in Egypt"), he
+essayed to prove the contrary arguments of the Egyptologists wrong. His
+main points were that the colour of the weapons in the frescoes was of
+no importance, as it was purely conventional and arbitrary, and that the
+evidence of the piece of iron from the Great Pyramid was insufficiently
+authenticated, and therefore valueless, in the absence of other definite
+archaeological evidence in the shape of iron of supposed early date. To
+this article the Swedish Egyptologist, Dr. Piehl, replied in the same
+periodical, in an article entitled _Bronsaldem i Egypten_, in which he
+traversed Prof. Montelius's conclusions from the Egyptological point of
+view, and adduced other instances of the use of iron in Egypt, all,
+it is true, later than the time of the IVth Dynasty. But this protest
+received little notice, owing to the fact that it remained buried in
+a Swedish periodical, while Prof. Montelius's original article was
+translated into French, and so became well-known.
+
+For the time Prof. Montelius's conclusions were generally accepted, and
+when the discoveries of the prehistoric antiquities were made by M. de
+Morgan, it seemed more probable than ever that Egypt had gone through a
+regular progressive development from the Age of Stone through those of
+copper and bronze to that of iron, which was reached about 1100 or 1000
+B.C. The evidence of the iron fragment from the Great Pyramid was put on
+one side, in spite of the circumstantial account of its discovery
+which had been given by its finders. Even Prof. Petrie, who in 1881
+had accepted the pyramid fragment as undoubtedly contemporary with that
+building, and had gone so far as to adduce additional evidence for its
+authenticity, gave way, and accepted Montelius's view, which held its
+own until in 1902 it was directly controverted by a discovery of Prof.
+Petrie at Abydos. This discovery consisted of an undoubted fragment of
+iron found in conjunction with bronze tools of VIth Dynasty date; and it
+settled the matter.* The VIth Dynasty date of this piece of iron, which
+was more probably worked than not (since it was buried with tools), was
+held to be undoubted by its discoverer and by everybody else, and, if
+this were undoubted, the IVth Dynasty date of the Great Pyramid fragment
+was also fully established. The discoverers of the earlier fragment had
+no doubt whatever as to its being contemporary with the pyramid, and
+were supported in this by Prof. Petrie in 1881. Therefore it is now
+known to be the fact that iron was used by the Egyptians as early as
+3500 B.C.**
+
+     * See H. R. Hall's note on "The Early Use of Iron in Egypt,"
+     in _Man_ (the organ of the Anthropological Society of
+     London), iii (1903), No. 86.
+
+     ** Prof. Montelius objected to these conclusions in a review
+     of the British Museum "Guide to the Antiquities of the
+     Bronze Age," which was published in Man, 1005 (Jan.), No 7.
+     For an answer to these objections, see Hall, ibid., No. 40.
+
+It would thus appear that though the Egyptians cannot be said to have
+used iron generally and so to have entered the "Iron Age" before about
+1300 B.C. (reign of Ramses II), yet iron was well known to them and had
+been used more than occasionally by them for tools and building purposes
+as early as the time of the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C. Certainly
+dated examples of its use occur under the IVth, VIth, and XIIIth
+Dynasties. Why this knowledge was not communicated to Europe before
+about 1000 B.C. we cannot say, nor are Egyptologists called upon to find
+the reason. So the Great Pyramid has played an interesting part in the
+settlement of a very important question.
+
+It was supposed by Prof. Petrie that the piece of iron from the Great
+Pyramid had been part of some arrangement employed for raising the
+stones into position. Herodotus speaks of the machines, which were used
+to raise the stones, as made of little pieces of wood. The generally
+accepted explanation of his meaning used to be that a small crane or
+similar wooden machine was used for hoisting the stone by means
+of pulley and rope; but M. Legrain, the director of the works of
+restoration in the Great Temple of Karnak, has explained it differently.
+Among the "foundation deposits" of the XVIIIth Dynasty at Der el-Bahari
+and elsewhere, beside the little plaques with the king's name and the
+model hoes and vases, was usually found an enigmatic wooden object like
+a small cradle, with two sides made of semicircular pieces of wood,
+joined along the curved portion by round wooden bars. M. Legrain has now
+explained this as a model of the machine used to raise heavy stones from
+tier to tier of a pyramid or other building, and illustrations of
+the method of its use may be found in Choisy's _Art de Batir chez les
+anciens Egyptiens_. There is little doubt that this primitive machine
+is that to which Herodotus refers as having been used in the erection of
+the pyramids.
+
+The later historian, Diodorus, also tells us that great mounds or ramps
+of earth were used as well, and that the stones were dragged up these
+to the requisite height. There is no doubt that this statement also is
+correct. We know that the Egyptians did build in this very way, and
+the system has been revived by M. Legrain for his work at Karnak, where
+still exist the remains of the actual mounds and ramps by which the
+great western pylon was erected in Ptolemaic times. Work carried on
+in this way is slow and expensive, but it is eminently suited to the
+country and understood by the people. If they wish to put a great stone
+architrave weighing many tons across the top of two columns, they do not
+hoist it up into position; they rear a great ramp or embankment of earth
+against the two pillars, half-burying them in the process, then drag
+the architrave up the ramp by means of ropes and men, and put it into
+position. Then the ramp is cleared away. This is the ancient system
+which is now followed at Karnak, and it is the system by which, with the
+further aid of the wooden machines, the Great Pyramid and its compeers
+were erected in the days of the IVth Dynasty. _Plus cela change, plus
+c'est la meme chose_.
+
+The brick pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty were erected in the same way,
+for the Egyptians had no knowledge of the modern combination of wooden
+scaffolding and ladders. There was originally a small stone pyramid of
+the same dynasty at Dashur, half-way between the two brick ones, but
+this has now almost disappeared. It belonged to the king Amenemhat II,
+while the others belonged, the northern to Usertsen (Sen-usret) III, the
+southern to Amenemhat III. Both these latter monarchs had other tombs
+elsewhere, Usertsen a great rock-cut gallery and chamber in the cliff at
+Abydos, Amenemhat a pyramid not very far to the south, at Hawara, close
+to the Fayyum. It is uncertain whether the Hawara pyramid or that of
+Dashur was the real burial-place of the king, as at neither place is his
+name found alone. At Hawara it is found in conjunction with that of his
+daughter, the queen-regnant Se-bekneferura (Skemiophris), at Dashur with
+that of a king Auabra Hor, who was buried in a small tomb near that of
+the king, and adjoining the tombs of the king's children. Who King Hor
+was we do not quite know. His name is not given in the lists, and was
+unknown until M. de Morgan's discoveries at Dashur. It is most probable
+that he was a prince who was given royal honours during the lifetime of
+Amenemhat III, whom he predeceased.* In the beautiful wooden statue
+of him found in his tomb, which is now in the Cairo Museum, he is
+represented as quite a youth. Amenemhat III was certainly succeeded by
+Amenemhat IV, and it is impossible to intercalate Hor between them.
+
+     * See below, p. 121. Possibly he was a son of Amenemhat III.
+
+The identification of the owners of the three western pyramids of Dashur
+is due to M. de Morgan and his assistants, Messrs. Legrain and Jequier,
+who excavated them from 1894 till 1896. The northern pyramid, that of
+Usertsen (Senusret) III, is not so well preserved as the southern. It is
+more worn away, and does not present so imposing an appearance. In
+both pyramids the outer casing of white stone has entirely disappeared,
+leaving only the bare black bricks. Each stood in the midst of a great
+necropolis of dignitaries of the period, as was usually the case.
+Many of the mastabas were excavated by M. de Morgan. Some are of older
+periods than the XIIth Dynasty, one belonging to a priest of King
+Snefru, Aha-f-ka ("Ghost-fighter"), who bore the additional titles of
+"director of prophets and general of infantry." There were pluralists
+even in those days. And the distinction between the privy councillor
+(Geheimrat) and real privy councillor (Wirk-licher-Greheimrat) was quite
+familiar; for we find it actually made, many an old Egyptian officially
+priding himself in his tomb on having been a real privy councillor! The
+Egyptian bureaucracy was already ancient and had its survivals and its
+anomalies even as early as the time of the pyramid-builders.
+
+In front of the pyramid of Usertsen (Senusret) III at one time stood the
+usual funerary temple, but it has been totally destroyed. By the side of
+the pyramid were buried some of the princesses of the royal family, in
+a series of tombs opening out of a subterranean gallery, and in this
+gallery were found the wonderful jewels of the princesses Sit-hathor and
+Merit, which are among the greatest treasures of the Cairo Museum. Those
+who have not seen them can obtain a perfect idea of their appearance
+from the beautiful water-colour paintings of them by M. Legrain, which
+are published in M. de Morgan's work on the "Fouilles a Dahchour"
+(Vienna, 1895). Altogether one hundred and seven objects were recovered,
+consisting of all kinds of jewelry in gold and coloured stones. Among
+the most beautiful are the great "pectorals," or breast-ornaments, in
+the shape of pylons, with the names of Usertsen II, Usertsen III, and
+Amenemhat III; the names are surrounded by hawks standing on the sign
+for gold, gryphons, figures of the king striking down enemies, etc., all
+in _cloisonne_ work, with beautiful stones such as lapis lazuli, green
+felspar, and carnelian taking the place of coloured enamels. The massive
+chains of golden beads and cowries are also very remarkable. These
+treasures had been buried in boxes in the floor of the subterranean
+gallery, and had luckily escaped the notice of plunderers, and so by a
+fortunate chance have survived to tell us what the Egyptian jewellers
+could do in the days of the XIIth Dynasty. Here also were found two
+great Nile barges, full-sized boats, with their oars and other gear
+complete. They also may be seen in the Museum of Cairo. It can only be
+supposed that they had served as the biers of the royal mummies, and had
+been brought up in state on sledges. The actual royal chamber was not
+found, although a subterranean gallery was driven beneath the centre of
+the pyramid.
+
+The southern brick pyramid was constructed in the same way as the
+northern one. At the side of it were also found the tombs of members of
+the royal house, including that of the king Hor, already mentioned, with
+its interesting contents. The remains of the mummy of this ephemeral
+monarch, known only from his tomb, were also found. The entrails of the
+king were placed in the usual "canopic jars," which were sealed with the
+seal of Amenemhat III; it is thus that we know that Hor died before him.
+In many of the inscriptions of this king, on his coffin and stelo, a
+peculiarly affected manner of writing the hieroglyphs is found,--the
+birds are without their legs, the snake has no tail, the bee no head.
+Birds are found without their legs in other inscriptions of this period;
+it was a temporary fashion and soon discarded.
+
+In the tomb of a princess named Nubhetep, near at hand, were found more
+jewels of the same style as those of Sit-hathor and Merit. The pyramid
+itself contained the usual passages and chambers, which were reached
+with much difficulty and considerable tunnelling by M. de Morgan. In
+fact, the search for the royal death-chambers lasted from December 5,
+1894, till March 17, 1895, when the excavators' gallery finally struck
+one of the ancient passages, which were found to be unusually extensive,
+contrasting in this respect with the northern pyramid. The royal
+tomb-chamber had, of course, been emptied of what it contained. It must
+be remembered that, in any case, it is probable that the king was not
+actually buried here, but in the pyramid of Hawara.
+
+The pyramid of Amenemhat II, which lies between the two brick pyramids,
+was built entirely of stone. Nothing of it remains above ground, but the
+investigation of the subterranean portions showed that it was remarkable
+for the massiveness of its stones and the care with which the masonry
+was executed. The same characteristics are found in the dependent tombs
+of the princesses Ha and Khnumet, in which more jewelry was found. This
+splendid stonework is characteristic of the Middle Kingdom; we find it
+also in the temple of Mentuhetep III at Thebes.
+
+Some distance south of Dashur is Medum, where the pyramid of Sneferu
+reigns in solitude, and beyond this again is Lisht, where in the
+years 1894-6 MM. Gautier and Jequier excavated the pyramid of Usertsen
+(Sen-usret) I. The most remarkable find was a cache of the seated
+statues of the king in white limestone, in absolutely perfect condition.
+They were found lying on their sides, just as they had been hidden. Six
+figures of the king in the form of Osiris, with the face painted red,
+were also found. Such figures seem to have been regularly set up in
+front of a royal sepulchre; several were found in front of the funerary
+temple of Mentu-hetep III, Thebes, which we shall describe later. A
+fine altar of gray granite, with representations in relief of the nomes
+bringing offerings, was also recovered. The pyramid of Lisht itself is
+not built of bricks, like those of Dashur, but of stone. It was not,
+however, erected in so solid a fashion as those of earlier days at Giza
+or Abusir, and nothing is left of it now but a heap of debris. The XIIth
+Dynasty architects built walls of magnificent masonry, as we have
+seen, and there is no doubt that the stone casing of their pyramids
+was originally very fine, but the interior is of brick or rubble; the
+wonderful system of building employed by kings of the IVth Dynasty at
+Giza was not practised.
+
+South of Lisht is Illahun, and at the entrance to the province of the
+Fayyum, and west of this, nearer the Fayyum, is Hawara, where Prof.
+Petrie excavated the pyramids of Usertsen (Senusret) II and Amenem-hat
+III. His discoveries have already been described by Prof. Maspero in his
+history, so that it will suffice here merely to compare them with the
+results of M. de Morgan's later work at Dashur and that of MM. Gautier
+and Jequier at Lisht, to note recent conclusions in connection with
+them, and to describe the newest discoveries in the same region.
+
+Both pyramids are of brick, lined with stone, like those of Dashur, with
+some differences of internal construction, since stone walls exist in
+the interior. The central chambers and passages leading to them were
+discovered; and in both cases the passages are peculiarly complex, with
+dumb chambers, great stone portcullises, etc., in order to mislead
+and block the way to possible plunderers. The extraordinary sepulchral
+chamber of the Hawara pyramid, which, though it is over twenty-two feet
+long by ten feet wide over all, is hewn out of one solid block of hard
+yellow quartzite, gives some idea of the remarkable facility of dealing
+with huge stones and the love of utilizing them which is especially
+characteristic of the XIIth Dynasty. The pyramid of Hawara was provided
+with a funerary temple the like of which had never been known in Egypt
+before and was never known afterwards. It was a huge building far larger
+than the pyramid itself, and built of fine limestone and crystalline
+white quartzite, in a style eminently characteristic of the XIIth
+Dynasty. In actual superficies this temple covered an extent of ground
+within which the temples of Karnak, Luxor, and the Ramesseum, at Thebes,
+could have stood, but has now almost entirely disappeared, having been
+used as a quarry for two thousand years. In Roman times this destroying
+process had already begun, but even then the building was still
+magnificent, and had been noted with wonder by all the Greek visitors to
+Egypt from the time of Herodotus downwards. Even before his day it
+had received the name of the "Labyrinth," on account of its supposed
+resemblance to the original labyrinth in Crete.
+
+That the Hawara temple was the Egyptian labyrinth was pointed out by
+Lepsius in the 'forties of the last century. Within the last two or
+three years attention has again been drawn to it by Mr. Arthur Evans's
+discovery of the Cretan labyrinth itself in the shape of the Minoan
+or early Mycenaean palace of Knossos, near Candia in Crete. It is
+impossible to enter here into all the arguments by which it has been
+proved that the Knossian palace is the veritable labyrinth of the
+Minotaur legend, nor would it be strictly germane to our subject were we
+to do so; but it may suffice to say here that the word
+
+[Illustration: 125.jpg (Greek word)]
+
+has been proved to be of Greek-or rather of pre-Hellenic-origin, and
+would mean in Karian "Place of the Double-Axe," like La-braunda in
+Karia, where Zeus was depicted with a double axe (labrys) in his hand.
+The non-Aryan, "Asianic," group of languages, to which certainly Lycian
+and probably Karian belong, has been shown by the German philologer
+Kretschmer to have spread over Greece into Italy in the period before
+the Aryan Greeks entered Hellas, and to have left undoubted traces of
+its presence in Greek place-names and in the Greek language itself.
+Before the true Hellenes reached Crete, an Asianic dialect must have
+been spoken there, and to this language the word "labyrinth" must
+originally have belonged. The classical labyrinth was "in the Knossian
+territory." The palace of Knossos was emphatically the chief seat of the
+worship of a god whose emblem was the double-axe; it was the Knossian
+"Place of the Double-Axe," the Cretan "Labyrinth."
+
+It used to be supposed that the Cretan labyrinth had taken its name from
+the Egyptian one, and the, word itself was supposed to be of Egyptian
+origin. An Egyptian etymology was found for it as "_Ro-pi-ro-henet_,"
+"Temple-mouth-canal," which might be interpreted, with some violence to
+Egyptian construction, as "The temple at the mouth of the canal," i.e.
+the Bahr Yusuf, which enters the Fayyum at Hawara. But unluckily this
+word would have been pronounced by the natives of the vicinity as
+"Elphilahune," which is not very much like
+
+[Illustration: 126.jpg (Greek word)]
+
+"_Ro-pi-ro-henet_" is, in fact, a mere figment of the philological
+imagination, and cannot be proved ever to have existed. The element
+_Ro-henet_, "canal-mouth" (according to the local pronunciation of the
+Fayyum and Middle Egypt, called _La-hune_), is genuine; it is the
+origin of the modern Illahun (_el-Lahun_), which is situated at the
+"canal-mouth." However, now that we know that the word labyrinth can be
+explained satisfactorily with the help of Karian, as evidently of Greek
+(pre-Aryan) origin, and as evidently the original name of the Knossian
+labyrinth, it is obvious that there is no need to seek a far-fetched
+explanation of the word in Egypt, and to suppose that the Greeks called
+the Cretan labyrinth after the Egyptian one.
+
+The contrary is evidently the case. Greek visitors to Egypt found a
+resemblance between the great Egyptian building, with its numerous halls
+and corridors, vast in extent, and the Knossian palace. Even if very
+little of the latter was visible in the classical period, as seems
+possible, yet the site seems always to have been kept holy and free from
+later building till Roman times, and we know that the tradition of the
+mazy halls and corridors of the labyrinth was always clear, and was
+evidently based on a vivid reminiscence. Actually, one of the most
+prominent characteristics of the Knossian palace is its mazy and
+labyrinthine system of passages and chambers. The parallel between the
+two buildings, which originally caused the Greek visitors to give the
+pyramid-temple of Hawara the name of "labyrinth," has been traced still
+further. The white limestone walls and the shining portals of "Parian
+marble," described by Strabo as characteristic of the Egyptian
+labyrinth, have been compared with the shining white selenite or gypsum
+used at Knossos, and certain general resemblances between the Greek
+architecture of the Minoan age and the almost contemporary Egyptian
+architecture of the XIIth Dynasty have been pointed out.* Such
+resemblances may go to swell the amount of evidence already known, which
+tells us that there was a close connection between Egyptian and Minoan
+art and civilization, established at least as early as 2500 B.C.
+
+     * See H. R. Hall, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1905 (Pt.
+     ii). The Temple of the Sphinx at Giza may also be compared
+     with those of Hawara and Knossos. It seems most probable
+     that the Temple of the Sphinx is a XIIth Dynasty building.
+
+For it must be remembered that within the last few years we have learned
+from the excavations in Crete a new chapter of ancient history, which,
+it might almost seem, shows us Greece and Egypt in regular communication
+from nearly the beginnings of Egyptian history. As the excavations which
+have told us this were carried on in Crete, not in Egypt, to describe
+them does not lie within the scope of this book, though a short sketch
+of their results, so far as they affect Egyptian history in later days,
+is given in Chapter VII. Here it may suffice to say that, as far as
+the early period is concerned, Egypt and Crete were certainly in
+communication in the time of the XIIth Dynasty, and quite possibly in
+that of the VIth or still earlier. We have IIId Dynasty Egyptian vases
+from Knossos, which were certainly not imported in later days, for no
+ancient nation had antiquarian tastes till the time of the Saites in
+Egypt and of the Romans still later. In fact, this communication seems
+to go so far back in time that we are gradually being led to perceive
+the possibility that the Minoan culture of Greece was in its origin an
+offshoot from that of primeval Egypt, probably in early Neolithic times.
+That is to say, the Neolithic Greeks and Neolithic Egyptians were both
+members of the same "Mediterranean" stock, which quite possibly may have
+had its origin in Africa, and a portion of which may have crossed the
+sea to Europe in very early times, taking with it the seeds of culture
+which in Egypt developed in the Egyptian way, in Greece in the Greek
+way. Actual communication and connection may not have been maintained
+at first, and probably they were not. Prof. Petrie thinks otherwise, and
+would see in the boats painted on the predynastic Egyptian vases (see
+Chapter I) the identical galleys by which, in late Neolithic
+times, commerce between Crete and Egypt was carried on across the
+Mediterranean. It is certain, however, that these boats are ordinary
+little river craft, the usual Nile _felukas_ and _gyassas_ of the time;
+they are depicted together with emblems of the desert and cultivated
+land,-ostriches, antelopes, hills, and palm-trees,-and the thoroughly
+inland and Upper Egyptian character of the whole design springs to the
+eye. There can be no doubt whatever that the predynastic boats were not
+seagoing galleys.
+
+It was probably not till the time of the pyramid-builders that
+connection between the Greek Mediterraneans and the Nilotes was
+re-established. Thence-forward it increased, and in the time of the
+XIIth Dynasty, when the labyrinth of Amenemhat III was built, there
+seems to have been some kind of more or less regular communication
+between the two countries.
+
+It is certain that artistic ideas were exchanged between them at this
+period. How communication was carried on we do not know, but it was
+probably rather by way of Cyprus and the Syrian coast than directly
+across the open sea. We shall revert to this point when we come to
+describe the connection between Crete and Egypt in the time of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, when Cretan ambassadors visited the Egyptian court and
+were depicted in tomb paintings at Thebes. Between the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty and that of the XVIIIth this connection seems to have been very
+considerably strengthened; for at Knossos have been found an Egyptian
+statuette of an Egyptian named Abnub, who from his name must have lived
+about the end of the XIIIth Dynasty, and the top of an alabastron with
+the royal name of Khian, one of the Hyksos kings.
+
+Quite close to Hawara, at Illahun, in the ruins of the town which was
+built by Usertsen's workmen when they were building his pyramid, Prof.
+Petrie found fragments of pottery of types which we now know well from
+excavations in Crete and Cyprus, though they were then unknown. They are
+fragments of the polychrome Cretan ware called, after the name of the
+place where it was first found in Crete, Kamares ware, and of a black
+ware ornamented with small punctures, which are often filled up with
+white. This latter ware has been found elsewhere associated with XIIIth
+Dynasty antiquities. The former is known to belong in Crete to the
+"early Minoan" period, long anterior to the "late Minoan" or "Palace"
+period, which was contemporary with the Egyptian XVIIIth Dynasty.
+We have here another interesting proof of a connection between XIIth
+Dynasty Egypt and early Minoan Crete. The later connection, under the
+XVIIIth and following dynasties, is also illustrated in the same reign
+by Prof. Petrie's finds of late Mycenaean objects and foreign graves at
+Medinet Gurob.*
+
+     * One man who was buried here bore the name An-Tursha,
+     "Pillar of the Tursha." The Tursha were a people of the
+     Mediterranean, possibly Tylissians of Crete.
+
+These excavations at Hawara, Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob were carried out
+in the years 1887-9. Since then Prof. Petrie and his co-workers have
+revisited the same district, and Gurob has been re-examined (in 1904)
+by Messrs. Loat and Ayrton, who discovered there a shrine devoted to
+the worship of fish. This work was carried on at the same time as Prof.
+Petrie's main excavation for the Egypt Exploration Fund at Annas, or
+Ahnas-yet el-Medina, the site of the ancient Henensu, the Herakleopolis
+of the Greeks. Prof. Naville had excavated there for the Egypt
+Exploration Fund in 1892, but had not completely cleared the temple.
+This work was now taken up by Prof. Petrie, who laid the whole building
+bare. It is dedicated to Hershefi, the local deity of Herakleopolis.
+This god, who was called Ar-saphes by the Greeks, and identified with
+Herakles, was in fact a form of Horus with the head of a ram; his name
+means "Terrible-Face." The greater part of the temple dates to the time
+of the XIXth Dynasty, and nothing of the early period is left. We know,
+however, that the Middle Kingdom was the flourishing period of the
+city of Hershefi. For a comparatively brief period, between the age of
+Memphite hegemony and that of Theban dominion, Herakleopolis was the
+capital city of Egypt. The kings of the IXth and Xth Dynasties were
+Herakleopolites, though we know little of them. One, Kheti, is said to
+have been a great tyrant. Another, Nebkaura, is known only as a figure
+in the "Legend of the Eloquent Peasant," a classical story much in vogue
+in later days. Another, Merikara, is a more real personage, for we have
+contemporary records of his days in the inscriptions of the tombs at
+Asyut, from which we see that the princes of Thebes were already wearing
+down the Northerners, in spite of the resistance of the adherents of
+Herakleopolis, among whom the most valiant were the chiefs of Asyut. The
+civil war eventuated in favour of Thebes, and the Theban XIth Dynasty
+assumed the double crown. The sceptre passed from Memphis and the North,
+and Thebes enters upon the scene of Egyptian history.
+
+With this event the Nile-land also entered upon a new era of
+development. The metropolis of the kingdom was once more shifted to the
+South, and, although the kings of the XIIth Dynasty actually resided
+in the North, their Theban origin was never forgotten, and Thebes
+was regarded as the chief city of the country. The XIth Dynasty kings
+actually reigned at Thebes, and there the later kings of the XIIIth
+Dynasty retired after the conquest of the Hyksos. The fact that with
+Thebes were associated all the heroic traditions of the struggle against
+the Hyksos ensured the final stability of the capital there when the
+hated Semites were finally driven out, and the national kingdom
+was re-established in its full extent from north to south. But for
+occasional intervals, as when Akhunaten held his court at Tell el-Amarna
+and Ramses II at Tanis, Thebes remained the national capital for six
+hundred years, till the time of the XXIId Dynasty.
+
+Another great change which differentiates the Middle Kingdom
+(XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) from the Old Kingdom was caused by Egypt's
+coming into contact with other outside nations at this period. During
+the whole history of the Old Kingdom, Egyptian relations with the outer
+world had been nil. We have some inkling of occasional connection
+with the Mediterranean peoples, the _Ha-nebu_ or Northerners; we have
+accounts of wars with the people of Sinai and other Bedawin and negroes;
+and expeditions were also sent to the land of Punt (Somaliland) by way
+of the Upper Nile. But we have not the slightest hint of any connection
+with, or even knowledge of, the great nations of the Euphrates valley
+or the peoples of Palestine. The Babylonian king Naram-Sin invaded the
+Sinaitic peninsula (the land of Magan) as early as 3750 b. c, about
+the time of the IIId Egyptian Dynasty. The great King Tjeser, of that
+dynasty, also invaded Sinai, and so did Snefru, the last king of the
+dynasty. But we have no hint of any collision between Babylonians and
+Egyptians at that time, nor do either of them betray the slightest
+knowledge of one another's existence. It can hardly be that the two
+civilized peoples of the world in those days were really absolutely
+ignorant of each other, but we have no trace of any connection between
+them, other than the possible one before the founding of the Egyptian
+monarchy.
+
+This early connection, however, is very problematical. We have seen that
+there seems to be in early Egyptian civilization an element ultimately
+of Babylonian origin, and that there are two theories as to how it
+reached Egypt. One supposes that it was brought by a Semitic people of
+Arab affinities (represented by the modern Grallas), who crossed the
+Straits of Bab el-Man-deb and reached Egypt either by way of the Wadi
+Hammamat or by the Upper Nile. The other would bring it across the
+Isthmus of Suez to the Delta, where, at Heliopolis, there certainly
+seems to have been a settlement of a Semitic type of very ancient
+culture. In both cases we should have Semites bringing Babylonian
+culture to Egypt. This, as we may remind the reader, was not itself of
+Semitic origin, but was a development due to a non-Semitic people,
+the Sumerians as they are called, who, so far as we know, were the
+aboriginal inhabitants of Babylonia. The Sumerian language was of
+agglutinative type, radically distinct both from the pure Semitic idioms
+and from Egyptian. The Babylonian elements of culture which the early
+Semitic invaders brought with them to Egypt were, then, ultimately of
+Sumerian origin. Sumerian civilization had profoundly influenced the
+Semitic tribes for centuries before the Semitic conquest of Babylonia,
+and when the Sumerians became more and more a conquered race, finally
+amalgamating with their conquerors and losing their racial and
+linguistic individuality, they were conquered by an alien race but not
+by an alien culture. For the culture of the Semites was Sumerian, the
+Semitic races owing their civilization to the Sumerians. That is as
+much as to say that a great deal of what we call Semitic culture is
+fundamentally non-Semitic.
+
+In the earliest days, then, Egypt received elements of Sumerian culture
+through a Semitic medium, which introduced Semitic elements into the
+language of the people, and a Semitic racial strain. It is possible.
+that both theories as to the routes of these primeval conquerors are
+true, and that two waves of Semites entered the Nile valley towards
+the close of the Neolithic period, one by way of the Upper Nile or Wadi
+Hammamat, the other by way of Heliopolis.
+
+After the reconsolidation of the Egyptian people, with perhaps an
+autocratic class of Semitic origin and a populace of indigenous Nilotic
+race, we have no trace of further connection with the far-away centre of
+Semitic culture in Babylonia till the time of the Theban hegemony.
+Under the XIIth Dynasty we see Egyptians in friendly relations with the
+Bedawin of Idumsea and Southern Palestine. Thus Sanehat, the younger son
+of Amenemhat I, when the death of his royal father was announced, fled
+from the new king Usertsen (Senusret) into Palestine, and there married
+the daughter of the chief Ammuanshi and became a Syrian chief himself,
+only finally returning to Egypt as an old man on the assurance of the
+royal pardon and favour. We have in the reign of Usertsen (Senusret) II
+the famous visit of the Arab chief Abisha (Abeshu') with his following
+to the court of Khnumhetep, the prince of the Oryx nome in Middle Egypt,
+as we see it depicted on the walls of Khnumhetep's tomb at Beni Hasan.
+We see Usertsen (Senusret) III invading Palestine to chastise the land
+of Sekmem and the vile Syrians.*
+
+     * We know of this campaign from the interesting historical
+     stele of the general Sebek-khu (who took part in it), which
+     was found during Mr. Garstang's excavations at Abydos, not
+     previously referred to above. They were carried out in 1900,
+     and resulted in the complete clearance of a part of the
+     great cemetery which had been created during the XIIth
+     Dynasty. The group of objects from the tombs of this
+     cemetery, and those of XVIIIth Dynasty tombs also found, is
+     especially valuable as showing the styles of objects in use
+     at these two periods (see Garstang, el-Ardbah, 1901).
+
+The arm of Egypt was growing longer, and its weight was being felt in
+regions where it had previously been entirely unknown. Eventually the
+collision came. Egypt collided with an Asiatic power, and got the worst
+of the encounter. So much the worse that the Theban monarchy of the
+Middle Kingdom was overthrown, and Northern Egypt was actually conquered
+by the Asiatic foreigners and ruled by a foreign house for several
+centuries. Who these conquering Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were no
+recent discovery has told us. An old idea was that they were Mongols. It
+was supposed that the remarkable faces of the sphinxes of Tanis, now
+in the Cairo Museum, which bore the names of Hyksos kings, were of
+Mongolian type, as also those of two colossal royal heads discovered
+by M. Naville at Bubastis. But M. Golenischeff has now shown that these
+heads are really those of XIIth Dynasty kings, and not of Hyksos at all.
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang have lately endeavoured to show that this
+type was foreign, and probably connected with that of the Kheta, or
+Hittites, of Northern Syria, who came into prominence as enemies of
+Egypt at a later period. They think that the type was introduced into
+the Egyptian royal family by Nefret, the queen of Usertsen (Senusret)
+II, whom they suppose to have been a Hittite princess. At the same time
+they think it probable that the type was also that of the Hyksos, whom
+they consider to have been practically Hittites. They therefore revive
+the theory of de Cara, which connects the Hyksos with the Hittites and
+these with the Pelasgi and Tyrseni.
+
+This is a very interesting theory, which, when carried out to its
+logical conclusion, would connect the Hyksos and Hittites racially with
+the pre-Hellenic "Minoan" Mycenseans of Greece, as well as with the
+Etruscans of Italy. But there is little of certainty in it. It is by no
+means impossible that we may eventually come to know that the Hittites
+(_Kheta_, the _Khatte_ of the Assyrians) and other tribes of Asia
+Minor were racially akin to the "Minoans" of Greece, but the connection
+between the Hyksos and the Hittites is to seek. The countenances of the
+Kheta on the Egyptian monuments of Ramses II's time have an angular
+cast, and so have those of the Tanis sphinxes, of Queen Nefret, of
+the Bubastis statues, and the statues of Usertsen (Senusret) III
+and Amenemhat III. We might then suppose, with Messrs. Newberry and
+Garstang, that Nefret was a Kheta princess, who gave her peculiar racial
+traits to her son Usertsen (Senusret) III and his son Amenem-hat, were
+it not far more probable that the resemblance between this peculiar
+XIIth Dynasty type and the Kheta face is purely fortuitous.
+
+There is really no reason to suppose that the type of face presented by
+Nefret, Usertsen, and Amenemhat is not purely Egyptian. It may be seen
+in many a modern fellah, and the truth probably is that the sculptors
+have in the case of these rulers very faithfully and carefully depicted
+their portraits, and that their faces happen to have been of a rather
+hard and forbidding type. But, if we grant the contention of Messrs.
+Newberry and Garstang for the moment, where is the connection between
+these XIIth Dynasty kings and the Hyksos? All the Tanite monuments with
+this peculiar facial type which would be considered Hyksos are certainly
+of the XIIth Dynasty. The only statue of a Hyksos king, which was
+undoubtedly originally made for him and is not one of the XIIth Dynasty
+usurped, is the small one of Khian at Cairo, discovered by M. Naville at
+Bubastis, and this has no head. So that we have not the slightest idea
+of what a Hyksos looked like. Moreover, the evidence of the Hyksos names
+which are known to us points in quite a different direction. The Kheta,
+or Hittites, were certainly not Semites, yet the Hyksos names are
+definitely Semitic. In fact it is most probable that the Hyksos, or
+Shepherd Kings, were, as the classical authorities say they were, and as
+their name (_hiku-semut_ or _hihu-shasu_,) "princes of the deserts" or
+("princes of the Bedawin") also testifies, purely and simply Arabs.
+
+Now it is not a little curious that almost at the same time that a nomad
+Arab race conquered Lower Egypt and settled in it as rulers (just as
+'Amr and the followers of Islam did over two thousand years later),
+another Arab race may have imposed its rule upon Babylonia. Yet this
+may have been the case; for the First Dynasty of Babylon, to which the
+famous Hammurabi belonged, was very probably of Arab origin, to judge by
+the forms of some of the royal names. It is by no means impossible that
+there was some connection between these two conquests, and that both
+Babylonia and Egypt fell, in the period before the year 2000 B.C. before
+some great migratory movement from Arabia, which overran Babylonia,
+Palestine, and even the Egyptian Delta.
+
+In this manner Egypt and Babylonia may have been brought together
+in common subjection to the Arab. We do not know whether any regular
+communication between Egypt, under Semitic rule, and Babylonia was now
+established; but we do know that during the Hyksos period there were
+considerable relations between Egypt and over-sea Crete, and relations
+with Mesopotamia may possibly have been established. At any rate, when
+the war of liberation, which was directed by the princes of Thebes, was
+finally brought to a successful conclusion and the Arabs were expelled,
+we find the Egyptians a much changed nation. They had adopted for war
+the use of horse and chariot, which they learnt from their Semitic
+conquerors, whose victory was in all probability largely gained by their
+use, and, generally speaking, they had become much more like the Western
+Asiatic nations. Egypt was no longer isolated, for she had been forcibly
+brought into contact with the foreign world, and had learned much.
+She was no longer self-contained within her own borders. If the Semites
+could conquer her, so could she conquer the Semites. Armed with horse
+and chariot, the Egyptians went forth to battle, and their revenge was
+complete. All Palestine and Syria were Egyptian domains for five hundred
+years after the conquest by Thothmes I and III, and Ashur and Babel sent
+tribute to the Pharaoh of Egypt.
+
+The reaction came, and Egypt was thrown prostrate beneath the feet of
+Assyria; but her claim to dominion over the Western Asiatics was never
+abandoned, and was revived in all its pomp by Ptolemy Euergetes, who
+brought back in triumph to Egypt the images of the gods which had been
+removed by Assyrians and Babylonians centuries before. This claim was
+never allowed by the Asiatics, it is true, and their kings wrote to the
+proudest Pharaoh as to an absolute equal. Even the King of Cyprus calls
+the King of Egypt his brother. But Palestine was admitted to be
+an Egyptian possession, and the Phoenicians were always energetic
+supporters of the Egyptian regime against the lawless Bedawin tribes,
+who were constantly intriguing with the Kheta or Hittite power to the
+north against Egypt.
+
+The existence of this extra-Egyptian imperial possession meant that the
+eyes of the Egyptians were now permanently turned in the direction of
+Western Asia, with which they were henceforth in constant and intimate
+communication. The first Theban period and the Hyksos invasion,
+therefore, mark a turning-point in Egyptian history, at which we may
+fitly leave it for a time in order to turn our attention to those
+peoples of Western Asia with whom the Egyptians had now come into
+permanent contact.
+
+Just as new discoveries have been made in Egypt, which have modified our
+previous conception of her history, so also have the excavators of
+the ancient sites in the Mesopotamian valley made, during the last few
+years, far-reaching discoveries, which have enabled us to add to and
+revise much of our knowledge of the history of Babylonia and Assyria. In
+Palestine and the Sinaitic peninsula also the spade has been used with
+effect, but a detailed account of work in Sinai and Palestine falls
+within the limits of a description of Biblical discoveries rather than
+of this book. The following chapters will therefore deal chiefly with
+modern discoveries which have told us new facts with regard to the
+history of the ancient Sumerians themselves, and of the Babylonians,
+Elamites, Kassites, and Assyrians, the inheritors of the ancient
+Sumerian civilization, which was older than that of Egypt, and which, as
+we have seen, probably contributed somewhat to its formation. These
+were the two primal civilizations of the ancient world. For two thousand
+years each marched upon a solitary road, without meeting the other.
+Eventually the two roads converged. We have hitherto dealt with the road
+of the Egyptians; we now describe that of the Mesopotamians, up to the
+point of convergence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA AND THE DAWN OF CHALDAEAN HISTORY
+
+
+In the preceding pages it has been shown how recent excavations in Egypt
+have revealed an entirely new chapter in the history of that country,
+and how, in consequence, our theories with regard to the origin of
+Egyptian civilization have been entirely remodelled. Excavations have
+been and are being carried out in Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries
+with no less enthusiasm and energy than in Egypt itself, and, although
+it cannot be said that they have resulted in any sweeping modification
+of our conceptions with regard to the origin and kinship of the early
+races of Western Asia, yet they have lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of the ancient history of the countries in that region of the
+world. This is particularly the case in respect of the Sumerians, who,
+so far as we know at present, were the earliest inhabitants of the
+fertile plains of Mesopotamia. The beginnings of this ancient people
+stretch back into the remote past, and their origin is still shrouded in
+the mists of antiquity. When first we come across them they have already
+attained a high level of civilization. They have built temples and
+palaces and houses of burnt and unburnt brick, and they have reduced
+their system of agriculture to a science, intersecting their country
+with canals for purposes of irrigation and to ensure a good supply of
+water to their cities. Their sculpture and pottery furnish abundant
+evidence that they have already attained a comparatively high level in
+the practice of the arts, and finally they have evolved a complicated
+system of writing which originally had its origin in picture-characters,
+but afterwards had been developed along phonetic lines. To have attained
+to this pitch of culture argues long periods of previous development,
+and we must conclude that they had been settled in Southern Babylonia
+many centuries before the period to which we must assign the earliest of
+their remains at present discovered.
+
+That this people were not indigenous to Babylonia is highly probable,
+but we have little data by which to determine the region from which
+they originally came. Prom the fact that they built their ziggurats, or
+temple towers, of huge masses of unburnt brick which rose high above
+the surrounding plain, and that their ideal was to make each "like a
+mountain," it has been argued that they were a mountain race, and the
+home from which they sprang has been sought in Central Asia. Other
+scholars have detected signs of their origin in their language and
+system of writing, and, from the fact that they spoke an agglutinative
+tongue and at the earliest period arranged the characters of their
+script in vertical lines like the Chinese, it has been urged that
+they were of Mongol extraction. Though a case may be made out for this
+hypothesis, it would be rash to dogmatize for or against it, and it is
+wiser to await the discovery of further material on which a more certain
+decision may be based. But whatever their origin, it is certain that the
+Sumerians exercised an extraordinary influence on all races with
+which, either directly or indirectly, they came in contact. The ancient
+inhabitants of Elam at a very early period adopted in principle
+their method of writing, and afterwards, living in isolation in the
+mountainous districts of Persia, developed it on lines of their own. [*
+See Chap. V, and note.] On their invasion of Babylonia the Semites
+fell absolutely under Sumerian influence, and, although they eventually
+conquered and absorbed the Sumerians, their civilization remained
+Sumerian to the core. Moreover, by means of the Semitic inhabitants of
+Babylonia Sumerian culture continued to exert its influence on other
+and more distant races. We have already seen how a Babylonian element
+probably enters into Egyptian civilization through Semitic infiltration
+across the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb or by way of the Isthmus of Suez,
+and it was Sumerian culture which these Semites brought with them.
+In like manner, through the Semitic Babylonians, the Assyrians, the
+Kassites, and the inhabitants of Palestine and Syria, and of some
+parts of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan, all in turn experienced
+indirectly the influence of Sumerian civilization and continued in a
+greater or less degree to reproduce elements of this early culture.
+
+It will be seen that the influence of the Sumerians furnishes us with
+a key to much that would otherwise prove puzzling in the history of the
+early races of Western Asia. It is therefore all the more striking to
+recall the fact that but a few years ago the very existence of this
+ancient people was called in question. At that time the excavations in
+Mesopotamia had not revealed many traces of the race itself, and its
+previous existence had been mainly inferred from a number of Sumerian
+compositions inscribed upon Assyrian tablets found in the library
+of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh. These compositions were furnished with
+Assyrian translations upon the tablets on which they were inscribed,
+and it was correctly argued by the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, the late M.
+Oppert, Prof. Schrader, Prof. Sayce, and other scholars that they were
+written in the language of the earlier inhabitants of the country whom
+the Semitic Babylonians had displaced. But M. Halevy started a theory to
+the effect that Sumerian was not a language at all, in the proper sense
+of the term, but was a cabalistic method of writing invented by the
+Semitic Babylonian priests.
+
+[Illustration: 147.jpg LIST OF ARCHAIC CUNEIFORM SIGNS.
+
+     Drawn up by an Assyrian scribe to assist him in his studies
+     of early texts. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The argument on which the upholders of this theory mainly relied was
+that many of the phonetic values of the Sumerian signs were obviously
+derived from Semitic equivalents, and they hastily jumped to the
+conclusion that the whole language was similarly derived from Semitic
+Babylonian, and was, in fact, a purely arbitrary invention of the
+Babylonian priests. This theory ignored all questions of inherent
+probability, and did not attempt to explain why the Babylonian priests
+should have troubled themselves to make such an invention and afterwards
+have stultified themselves by carefully appending Assyrian translations
+to the majority of the Sumerian compositions which they copied out.
+Moreover, the nature of these compositions is not such as we should
+expect to find recorded in a cabalistic method of writing. They contain
+no secret lore of the Babylonian priests, but are merely hymns and
+prayers and religious compositions similar to those employed by the
+Babylonians and Assyrians themselves.
+
+But in spite of its inherent improbabilities, M. Halevy succeeded in
+making many converts to his theory, including Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch
+and a number of the younger school of German Assyriologists. More
+conservative scholars, such as Sir Henry Rawlinson, M. Oppert, and Prof.
+Schrader, stoutly opposed the theory, maintaining that Sumerian was a
+real language and had been spoken by an earlier race whom the Semitic
+Babylonians had conquered; and they explained the resemblance of some of
+the Sumerian values to Semitic roots by supposing that Sumerian had
+not been suddenly superseded by the language of the Semitic invaders
+of Babylonia, but that the two tongues had been spoken for long periods
+side by side and that each had been strongly influenced by the other.
+This very probable and sane explanation has been fully corroborated
+by subsequent excavations, particularly those that were carried out at
+Telloh in Southern Babylonia by the late M. de Sarzec. In these mounds,
+which mark the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, were
+found thousands of clay tablets inscribed in archaic characters and in
+the Sumerian language, proving that it had actually been the language of
+the early inhabitants of Babylonia; while the examples of their art and
+the representations of their form and features, which were also afforded
+by the diggings at Telloh, proved once for all that the Sumerians were
+a race of strongly marked characteristics and could not be ascribed to a
+Semitic stock.
+
+The system of writing invented by the ancient Sumerians was adopted by
+the Semitic Babylonians, who modified it to suit their own language.
+Moreover, the archaic forms of the characters, many of which under the
+Sumerians still retained resemblances to the pictures of objects from
+which they were descended, were considerably changed. The lines, of
+which they were originally composed, gave way to wedges, and the number
+of the wedges of which each sign consisted was gradually diminished, so
+that in the time of the Assyrians and the later Babylonians many of the
+characters bore small resemblance to the ancient Sumerian forms
+from which they had been derived. The reading of Sumerian and early
+Babylonian inscriptions by the late Assyrian scribes was therefore an
+accomplishment only to be acquired as the result of long study, and it
+is interesting to note that as an assistance to the reading of these
+early texts the scribes compiled lists of archaic signs. Sometimes
+opposite each archaic character they drew a picture of the object from
+which they imagined it was derived. This fact is significant as proving
+that the Assyrian scribes recognized the pictorial origin of cuneiform
+writing, but the pictures they drew opposite the signs are rather
+fanciful, and it cannot be said that their guesses were very successful.
+That we are able to criticize the theories of the Assyrians as to the
+origin and forms of the early characters is in the main due to M. de
+Sarzec's labours, from whose excavations many thousands of inscriptions
+of the Sumerians have been recovered.
+
+The main results of M. de Sarzec's diggings at Telloh have already been
+described by M. Maspero in his history, and therefore we need not go
+over them again, but will here confine ourselves to the results which
+have been obtained from recent excavations at Telloh and at other sites
+in Western Asia. With the death of M. de Sarzec, which occurred in his
+sixty-fifth year, on May 31, 1901, the wonderfully successful series of
+excavations which he had carried out at Telloh was brought to an end. In
+consequence it was feared at the time that the French diggings on this
+site might be interrupted for a considerable period. Such an event would
+have been regretted by all those who are interested in the early history
+of the East, for, in spite of the treasures found by M. de Sarzec in the
+course of his various campaigns, it was obvious that the site was far
+from being exhausted, and that the tells as yet unexplored contained
+inscriptions and antiquities extending back to the very earliest periods
+of Sumerian history.
+
+[Illustration: 150.jpg FRAGMENT OF A LIST OF ARCHAIC CUNEIFORM SIGNS.]
+
+     Opposite each the scribe has drawn a picture of the object
+     from which he imagined it was derived. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell & Co.
+
+The announcement which was made in 1902, that the French government had
+appointed Capt. Gaston Cros as the late M. de Sarzec's successor, was
+therefore received with general satisfaction. The fact that Capt. Cros
+had already successfully carried out several difficult topographical
+missions in the region of the Sahara was a sufficient guarantee that the
+new diggings would be conducted on a systematic and exhaustive scale.
+
+The new director of the French mission in Chaldaea arrived at Telloh in
+January, 1903, and one of his first acts was to shift the site of the
+mission's settlement from the bank of the Shatt el-Hai, where it had
+always been established in the time of M. de Sarzec, to the mounds where
+the actual digging took place. The Shatt el-Hai had been previously
+chosen as the site of the settlement to ensure a constant supply of
+water, and as it was more easily protected against attack by night.
+But the fact that it was an hour's ride from the diggings caused an
+unnecessary loss of time, and rendered the strict supervision of the
+diggers a matter of considerable difficulty. During the first season's
+work rough huts of reeds, surrounded by a wall of earth and a ditch,
+served the new expedition for its encampment among the mounds of Telloh,
+but last year these makeshift arrangements were superseded by a regular
+house built out of the burnt bricks which are found in abundance on the
+site. A reservoir has also been built, and caravans of asses bring water
+in skins from the Shatt el-Hai to keep it filled with a constant supply
+of water, while the excellent relations which Capt. Cros has established
+with the Karagul Arabs, who occupy Telloh and its neighbourhood, have
+proved to be the best kind of protection for the mission engaged in
+scientific work upon the site.
+
+The group of mounds and hillocks, known as Telloh, which marks the site
+of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, is easily distinguished from
+the flat surrounding desert. The mounds extend in a rough oval formation
+running north and south, about two and a half miles long and one and a
+quarter broad. In the early spring, when the desert is covered with a
+light green verdure, the ruins are clearly marked out as a yellow spot
+in the surrounding green, for vegetation does not grow upon them. In the
+centre of this oval, which approximately marks the limits of the ancient
+city and its suburbs, are four large tells or mounds running, roughly,
+north and south, their sides descending steeply on the east, but with
+their western slopes rising by easier undulations from the plain. These
+four principal tells are known as the "Palace Tell," the "Tell of the
+Fruit-house," the "Tell of the Tablets," and the "Great Tell," and,
+rising as they do in the centre of the site, they mark the position of
+the temples and the other principal buildings of the city.
+
+An indication of the richness of the site in antiquities was afforded
+to the new mission before it had started regular excavation and while
+it was yet engaged in levelling its encampment and surrounding it with a
+wall and ditch. The spot selected for the camp was a small mound to the
+south of the site of Telloh, and here, in the course of preparing the
+site for the encampment and digging the ditch, objects were found at
+a depth of less than a foot beneath the surface of the soil. These
+included daggers, copper vases, seal-cylinders, rings of lapis and
+cornelian, and pottery. M. de Sarzec had carried out his latest
+diggings in the Tell of the Tablets, and here Capt. Cros continued
+the excavations and came upon the remains of buildings and recovered
+numerous objects, dating principally from the period of Gudea and
+the kings of Ur. The finds included small terra-cotta figures, a
+boundary-stone of Gamil-Sin, and a new statue of Gudea, to which we will
+refer again presently.
+
+In the Tell of the Fruit-house M. de Sarzec had already discovered
+numbers of monuments dating from the earlier periods of Sumerian history
+before the conquest and consolidation of Babylonia under Sargon of
+Agade, and had excavated a primitive terrace built by the early king
+Ur-Nina. Both on and around this large mound Capt. Cros cut an extensive
+series of trenches, and in digging to the north of the mound he found a
+number of objects, including an alabaster tablet of Ente-mena which had
+been blackened by fire. At the foot of the tell he found a copper helmet
+like those represented on the famous Stele of Vultures discovered by
+M. de Sarzec, and among the tablets here recovered was one with an
+inscription of the time of Urukagina, which records the complete
+destruction of the city of Shirpurla during his reign, and will be
+described in greater detail later on in this chapter. On the mound
+itself a considerable area was uncovered with remains of buildings
+still in place, the use of which appears to have been of an industrial
+character. They included flights of steps, canals with raised banks,
+and basins for storing water. Not far off are the previously discovered
+wells of Bannadu, so that it is legitimate to suppose that Capt. Cros
+has here come upon part of the works which were erected at a very early
+period of Sumerian history for the distribution of water to this portion
+of the city.
+
+[Illustration: 154.jpg Obelisk of Manishtusu.]
+
+     An early Semitic king of the city of Kish in Babylonia. The
+     photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's Delegation en Perse,
+     M'em., t. i, pi. ix.
+
+In the Palace Tell Capt. Cros has sunk a series of deep shafts to
+determine precisely the relations which the buildings of Ur-Bau and
+Gudea, found already on this part of the site, bear to each other, and
+to the building of Adad-nadin-akhe, which had been erected there at
+a much later period. Prom this slight sketch of the work carried out
+during the last two years at Telloh it will have been seen that the
+Prench mission in Chaldaea is at present engaged in excavations of a
+most important character, which are being conducted in a regular and
+scientific manner. As the area of the excavations marks the site of the
+chief city of the Sumerians, the diggings there have yielded and
+are yielding material of the greatest interest and value for the
+reconstruction of the early history of Chaldaea. After briefly describing
+the character and results of other recent excavations in Mesopotamia and
+the neighbouring lands, we will return to the discoveries at Telloh and
+sketch the new information they supply on the history of the earliest
+inhabitants of the country.
+
+Another French mission that is carrying out work of the very greatest
+interest to the student of early Babylonian history is that which is
+excavating at Susa in Persia, under the direction of M. J. de Morgan,
+whose work on the prehistoric and early dynastic sites in Egypt has
+already been described. M. de Morgan's first season's digging at Susa
+was carried out in the years 1897-8, and the success with which he met
+from the very first, when cutting trenches in the mound which marks
+the acropolis of the ancient city, has led him to concentrate his main
+efforts in this part of the ruins ever since. Provisional trenches cut
+in the part of the ruins called "the Royal City," and in others of the
+mounds at Susa, indicate that many remains may eventually be found there
+dating from the period of the Achaemenian Kings of Persia. But it is in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa that M. de Morgan has found monuments
+of the greatest historical interest and value, not only in the history
+of ancient Elam, but also in that of the earliest rulers of Chaldaea.
+
+In the diggings carried out during the first season's work on the site,
+an obelisk was found inscribed on four sides with a long text of some
+sixty-nine columns, written in Semitic Babylonian by the orders
+of Manishtusu, a very early Semitic king of the city of Kish in
+Babylonia.[* See illustration.] The text records the purchase by the
+King of Kish of immense tracts of land situated at Kish and in
+its neighbourhood, and its length is explained by the fact that it
+enumerates full details of the size and position of each estate, and the
+numbers and some of the names of the dwellers on the estates who were
+engaged in their cultivation. After details have been given of a number
+of estates situated in the same neighbourhood, a summary is appended
+referring to the whole neighbourhood, and the fact is recorded that the
+district dealt with in the preceding catalogue and summary had been duly
+acquired by purchase by Manishtusu, King of Kish. The long text upon
+the obelisk is entirely taken up with details of the purchase of the
+territory, and therefore its subject has not any great historical value.
+Mention is made in it of two personages, one of whom may possibly
+be identified with a Babylonian ruler whose name is known from other
+sources. If the proposed identification t should prove to be correct,
+it would enable us to assign a more precise date to Manishtusu than has
+hitherto been possible. One of the personages in question was a certain
+Urukagina, the son of Engilsa, patesi of Shirpurla, and it has been
+suggested that he is the same Urukagina who is known to have occupied
+the throne of Shirpurla, though this identification would bring
+Manishtusu down somewhat later than is probable from the general
+character of his inscriptions. The other personage mentioned in the text
+is the son of Manishtusu, named Mesalim, and there is more to be said
+for the identification of this prince with Mesilim, the early King of
+Kish, who reigned at a period anterior to that of Eannadu, patesi of
+Shirpurla.
+
+The mere fact of so large and important an obelisk, inscribed with a
+Semitic text by an early Babylonian king, being found at Susa was
+an indication that other monuments of even greater interest might be
+forthcoming from the same spot; and this impression was intensified when
+a stele of victory was found bearing an inscription of Naram-Sin, the
+early Semitic King of Agade, who reigned about 3750 B.C. One face of
+this stele is sculptured with a representation of the king conquering
+his enemies in a mountainous country. [* See illustration.] The king
+himself wears a helmet adorned with the horns of a bull, and he carries
+his battle-axe and his bow and an arrow. He is nearly at the summit of
+a high mountain, and up its steep sides, along paths through the
+trees which clothe the mountain, climb his allies and warriors bearing
+standards and weapons. The king's enemies are represented suing for
+mercy as they turn to fly before him. One grasps a broken spear, while
+another, crouching before the king, has been smitten in the throat by an
+arrow from the king's bow. On the plain surface of the stele above the
+king's head may be seen traces of an inscription of Naram-Sin engraved
+in three columns in the archaic characters of his period. From the few
+signs of the text that remain, we gather that Naram-Sin had conducted
+a campaign with the assistance of certain allied princes, including the
+Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and Lulubi, and it is not improbable that
+they are to be identified with the warriors represented on the stele as
+climbing the mountain behind Naram-Sin.
+
+In reference to this most interesting stele of Naram-Sin we may here
+mention another inscription of this king, found quite recently at
+Susa and published only this year, which throws additional light on
+Naram-Sin's allies and on the empire which he and his father Sargon
+founded. The new inscription was engraved on the base of a diorite
+statue, which had been broken to pieces so that only the base with
+a portion of the text remained. From this inscription we learn that
+Naram-Sin was the head of a confederation of nine chief allies, or
+vassal princes, and waged war on his enemies with their assistance.
+Among these nine allies of course the Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and
+Lulubi are to be included. The new text further records that Naram-Sin
+made an expedition against Magan (the Sinaitic peninsula), and defeated
+Manium, the lord of that region, and that he cut blocks of stone in the
+mountains there and transported them to his city of Agade, where
+from one of them he made the statue on the base of which the text was
+inscribed. It was already known from the so-called "Omens of Sargon
+and Naram-Sin" (a text inscribed on a clay tablet from Ashur-bani-pal's
+library at Nineveh which associates the deeds of these two early rulers
+with certain augural phenomena) that Naram-Sin had made an expedition
+to Sinai in the course of his reign and had conquered the king of the
+country. The new text gives contemporary confirmation of this assertion
+and furnishes us with additional information with regard to the name of
+the conquered ruler of Sinai and other details of the campaign.
+
+That monuments of such great interest to the early history of Chaldaea
+should have been found at Susa in Persia was sufficiently startling,
+but an easy explanation was at first forthcoming from the fact that
+Naram-Sin's stele of victory had been used by the later Elamite king,
+Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, for an inscription of his own; this he had engraved
+in seven long lines along the great cone in front of Naram-Sin, which is
+probably intended to represent the peak of the mountain. From the fact
+that it had been used in this way by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, it seemed
+permissible to infer that it had been captured in the course of a
+campaign and brought to Susa as a trophy of war. But we shall see later
+on that the existence of early Babylonian inscriptions and monuments in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa is not to be explained in this way,
+but was due to the wide extension of both Sumerian and Semitic influence
+throughout Western Asia from the very earliest periods. This subject
+will be treated more fully in the chapter dealing with the early history
+of Blam.
+
+The upper surface of the tell of the acropolis at Susa for a depth of
+nearly two metres contains remains of the buildings and antiquities
+of the Achaemenian kings and others of both later and earlier dates.
+In these upper strata of the mound are found remains of the
+Arab, Sassanian, Parthian, Seleucian, and Persian periods, mixed
+indiscriminately with one another and with Elamite objects and materials
+of all ages, from that of the earliest patesis down to that of the
+Susian kings of the seventh century B.C.
+
+[Illustration: 160.jpg BABIL.]
+
+     The most northern of the mounds which now mark the site of
+     the ancient city of Babylon; used for centuries as a quarry
+     for building materials.
+
+The reason of this mixture of the remains of many races and periods is
+that the later builders on the mound made use of the earlier building
+materials which they found preserved within it. Along the skirts of the
+mound may still be seen the foundations of the wall which formed the
+principal defence of the acropolis in the time of Xerxes, and in many
+places not only are the foundations preserved but large pieces of the
+wall itself still rise above the surface of the soil.
+
+[Illustration: 160a.jpg "STELE OF VICTORY"]
+
+[Illustration: 160a-text.jpg TEXT FOR "STELE OF VICTORY"]
+
+     Stele of Naram-Sin, an early Semitic King of Agade in
+     Babylonia, who reigned about B. C. 3750. From the photograph
+     by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The plan of the wall is quite irregular, following the contours of the
+mound, and, though it is probable that the wall was strengthened and
+defended at intervals by towers, no trace of these now remains. The
+wall is very thick and built of unburnt bricks, and the system of
+fortification seems to have been extremely simple at this period.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: 161.jpg ROUGHLY HEWN SCULPTURE OF A LION STANDING OVER A
+FALLEN MAN, FOUND AT BABYLON.]
+
+     The group probably represents Babylon or the Babylonian king
+     triumphing over the country's enemies. The Arabs regard the
+     figure as an evil spirit, and it is pitted with the marks of
+     bullets shot at it. They also smear it with filth when they
+     can do so unobserved; in the photograph some newly smeared
+     filth may be seen adhering to the side of the lion.
+
+The earlier citadel or fortress of the city of Susa was built at the top
+of the mound and must have been a more formidable stronghold than that
+of the Achaemenian kings, for, besides its walls, it had the additional
+protection of the steep slopes of the mound.
+
+Below the depth of two metres from the surface of the mound are found
+strata in which Elamite objects and materials are, no longer mixed with
+the remains of later ages, but here the latest Elamite remains are found
+mingled with objects and materials dating from the earliest periods of
+Elam's history. The use of un-burnt bricks as the principal material
+for buildings erected on the mound in all ages has been another cause
+of this mixture of materials, for it has little power of resistance to
+water, and a considerable rain-storm will wash away large portions
+of the surface and cause the remains of different strata to be mixed
+indiscriminately with one another. In proportion as the trenches were
+cut deeper into the mound the strata which were laid bare showed remains
+of earlier ages than those in the upper layers, though here also remains
+of different periods are considerably mixed. The only building that has
+hitherto been discovered at Susa by M. de Morgan, the ground plan of
+which was in a comparatively good state of preservation, was a small
+temple of the god Shu-shinak, and this owed its preservation to the
+fact that it was not built of unburnt brick, but was largely composed of
+burnt brick and plaques and tiles of enamelled terra-cotta.
+
+But although the diggings of M. de Morgan at Susa have so far afforded
+little information on the subject of Elamite architecture, the separate
+objects found have enabled us to gain considerable knowledge of the
+artistic achievements of the race during the different periods of
+its existence. Moreover, the stelae and stone records that have been
+recovered present a wealth of material for the study of the long history
+of Elam and of the kings who ruled in Babylonia during the earliest
+ages.
+
+[Illustration: 163.jpg GENERAL VIEW OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE KASR AT
+BABYLON.]
+
+     Showing the depth in the mound to which the diggings are
+     carried.
+
+The most famous of M. de Morgan's recent finds is the long code of
+laws drawn up by Hammurabi, the greatest king of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon.* This was engraved upon a huge block of black diorite, and
+was found in the tell of the acropolis in the winter of 1901-2. This
+document in itself has entirely revolutionized current theories as to
+the growth and origin of the principal ancient legal codes. It proves
+that Babylonia was the fountainhead from which many later races borrowed
+portions of their legislative systems. Moreover, the subjects dealt
+with in this code of laws embrace most of the different classes of the
+Babylonian people, and it regulates their duties and their relations
+to one another in their ordinary occupations and pursuits. It therefore
+throws much light upon early Babylonian life and customs, and we shall
+return to it in the chapter dealing with these subjects.
+
+     * It will be noted that the Babylonian dynasties are
+     referred to throughout this volume as "First Dynasty,"
+     "Second Dynasty," "Third Dynasty," etc. They are thus
+     distinguished from the Egyptian dynasties, the order of
+     which is indicated by Roman numerals, e.g. "Ist Dynasty,"
+     "IId Dynasty," "IIId Dynasty."
+
+The American excavators at Nippur, under the direction of Mr. Haynes,
+have done much in the past to increase our knowledge of Sumerian and
+early Babylonian history, but the work has not been continued in
+recent years, and, unfortunately, little progress has been made in the
+publication of the material already accumulated. In fact, the leadership
+in American excavation has passed from the University of Pennsylvania to
+that of Chicago. This progressive university has sent out an expedition,
+under the general direction of Prof. R. F. Harper (with Dr. E. J. Banks
+as director of excavations), which is doing excellent work at Bismya,
+and, although it is too early yet to expect detailed accounts of their
+achievements, it is clear that they have already met with considerable
+success. One of their recent finds consists of a white marble statue of
+an early Sumerian king named Daudu, which was set up in the temple of
+E-shar in the city of Udnun, of which he was ruler. From its archaic
+style of workmanship it may be placed in the earliest period of Sumerian
+history, and may be regarded as an earnest of what may be expected to
+follow from the future labours of Prof. Harper's expedition.
+
+[Illustration: 165.jpg WITHIN THE PALACE OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR II.]
+
+At Fara and at Abu Hatab in Babylonia, the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft,
+under Dr. Koldewey's direction, has excavated Sumerian and Babylonian
+remains of the early period. At the former site they unearthed the
+remains of many private houses and found some Sumerian tablets of
+accounts and commercial documents, but little of historical interest;
+and an inscription, which seems to have come from Abu Hatab, probably
+proves that the Sumerian name of the city whose site it marks was
+Kishurra. But the main centre of German activity in Babylonia is the
+city of Babylon itself, where for the last seven years Dr. Koldewey has
+conducted excavations, unearthing the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on
+the mound termed the Kasr, identifying the temple of E-sagila under the
+mound called Tell Amran ibn-Ali, tracing the course of the sacred way
+between E-sagila and the palace-mound, and excavating temples dedicated
+to the goddess Ninmakh and the god Ninib.
+
+[Illustration: 166.jpg EXCAVATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OP NINIB AT BABYLON.]
+
+     In the middle distance may be seen the metal trucks running
+     on light rails which are employed on the work for the
+     removal of the debris from the diggings.
+
+Dr. Andrae, Dr. Koldewey's assistant, has also completed the excavation
+of the temple dedicated to Nabu at Birs Nimrud. On the principal mound
+at this spot, which marks the site of the ancient city of Borsippa,
+traces of the ziggurat, or temple tower, may still be seen rising from
+the soil, the temple of Nabu lying at a lower level below the steep
+slope of the mound, which is mainly made up of debris from the
+ziggurat. Dr. Andrae has recently left Babylonia for Assyria, where
+his excavations at Sher-ghat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of
+Ashur, are confidently expected to throw considerable light on the early
+history of that country and the customs of the people, and already he
+has made numerous finds of considerable interest.
+
+[Illustration: 167.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND OF BIRS NIMRUD, WHICH MARKS
+THE SITE OP THE ANCIENT CITY OP BORSIPPA.]
+
+Since the early spring of 1903 excavations have been conducted at
+Kuyunjik, the site of the city of Nineveh, by Messrs. L. W. King and R.
+C. Thompson on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, and have
+resulted in the discovery of many early remains in the lower strata of
+the mound, in addition to the finding of new portions of the two palaces
+already known and partly excavated, the identification of a third
+palace, and the finding of an ancient temple dedicated to Nabu, whose
+existence had already been inferred from a study of the Assyrian
+inscriptions.* All these diggings at Babylon, at Ashur, and at Nineveh
+throw more light upon the history of the country during the Assyrian and
+Neo-Babylonian periods, and will be referred to later in the volume.
+
+     * It may be noted that excavations are also being actively
+     carried on in Palestine at the present time. Mr. Macalister
+     has for some years been working for the Palestine
+     Exploration Fund at Gezer; Dr. Schumacher is digging at
+     Megiddo for the German Palestine Society; and Prof. Sellin
+     is at present excavating at Taanach (Ta'annak) and will
+     shortly start work at Dothan. Good work on remains of later
+     historical periods is also being carried on under the
+     auspices of the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft at Ba'albek and
+     in Galilee. It would be tempting to include here a summary
+     of the very interesting results that have recently been
+     achieved in this fruitful field of archaeological research,
+     for it is true that these excavations may strictly be said
+     to bear on the history of a portion of Western Asia. But the
+     problems which they raise would more naturally be discussed
+     in a work dealing with recent excavation and research in
+     relation to the Bible, and to have summarized them
+     adequately would have increased the size of the present
+     volume considerably beyond its natural limits. They have
+     therefore not been included within the scope of the present
+     work.
+
+[Illustration: 168.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND AT SHEKGHAT, WHICH MARKS THE
+SITE OF ASHUK, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE ASSYRIANS.]
+
+Meanwhile, we will return to the diggings described at the beginning
+of this chapter, as affording new information concerning the earliest
+periods of Chaldaean history.
+
+A most interesting inscription has recently been discovered by Capt.
+Cros at Telloh, which throws considerable light on the rivalry which
+existed between the cities of Shirpurla and Gishkhu, and at the same
+time furnishes valuable material for settling the chronology of the
+earliest rulers whose inscriptions have been found at Mppur and their
+relations to contemporary rulers in Shirpurla.
+
+[Illustration: 169.jpg THE MOUND OF KUYUNJIK, WHICH FORMED ONE OF THE
+PALACE MOUNDS OF THE ANCIENT ASSYRIAN CITY OF NINEVEH.]
+
+The cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla were probably situated not far from
+one another, and their rivalry is typical of the history of the early
+city-states of Babylonia. The site of the latter city, as has already
+been said, is marked by the mounds of Telloh on the east bank of the
+Shatt el-Hai, the natural stream joining the Tigris and Euphrates, which
+has been improved and canalized by the dwellers in Southern Babylonia
+from the earliest period.
+
+[Illustration: 170.jpg WINGED BULL IN THE PALACE OF SENNACHERIB ON
+KUYUNJIK, THE PRINCIPAL MOUND MARKING THE SITE OF NINEVEH.]
+
+The site of Gishkhu may be set with considerable probability not far to
+the north of Telloh on the opposite bank of the Shatt el-Hai. These
+two cities, situated so close to one another, exercised considerable
+political influence, and though less is known of Gishkhu than of
+the more famous Babylonian cities such as Ur, Brech, and Larsam, her
+proximity to Shirpurla gave her an importance which she might not
+otherwise have possessed. The earliest knowledge we possess of the
+relations existing between Gishkhu and Shirpurla refers to the reign of
+Mesilim, King of Kish, the period of whose rule may be provisionally set
+before that of Sargon of Agade, i.e, about 4000 B.C.
+
+At this period there was rivalry between the two cities, in consequence
+of which Mesilim, King of Kish, was called in as arbitrator. A record of
+the treaty of delimitation that was drawn up on this occasion has been
+preserved upon the recently discovered cone of Entemena. This document
+tells us that at the command of the god Enlil, described as "the king
+of the countries," Ningirsu, the chief god of Shirpurla, and the god of
+Gishkhu decided to draw up a line of division between their respective
+territories, and that Mesilim, King of Kish, acting under the direction
+of his own god Kadi, marked out the frontier and set up a stele between
+the two territories to commemorate the fixing of the boundary.
+
+This policy of fixing the boundary by arbitration seems to have been
+successful, and to have secured peace between Shirpurla and Gishkhu
+for some generations. But after a period which cannot be accurately
+determined a certain patesi of Gishkhu, named Ush, was filled with
+ambition to extend his territory at the expense of Shirpurla. He
+therefore removed the stele which Mesilim had set up, and, invading the
+plain of Shirpurla, succeeded in conquering and holding a district named
+Gu-edin. But Ush's successful raid was not of any permanent benefit to
+his city, for he was in his turn defeated by the forces of Shirpurla,
+and his successor upon the throne, a patesi named Enakalli, abandoned a
+policy of aggression, and concluded with Eannadu, patesi of Shirpurla, a
+solemn treaty concerning the boundary between their realms, the text of
+which has been preserved to us upon the famous Stele of Vultures in the
+Louvre.*
+
+     * A fragment of this stele is also preserved in the British
+     Museum. It is published in Cuneiform Texts in the British
+     Museum, Pt. vii.
+
+According to this treaty Gu-edin was restored to Shirpurla, and a deep
+ditch was dug between the two territories which should permanently
+indicate the line of demarcation. The stele of Mesilim was restored to
+its place, and a second stele was inscribed and set up as a memorial
+of the new treaty. Enakalli did not negotiate the treaty on equal terms
+with Eannadu, for he only secured its ratification by consenting to pay
+heavy tribute in grain for the supply of the great temples of Nin-girsu
+and Nina in Shirpurla. It would appear that under Eannadu the power
+and influence of Shirpurla were extended over the whole of Southern
+Babylonia, and reached even to the borders of Elam. At any rate, it is
+clear that during his lifetime the city of Gishkhu was content to remain
+in a state of subjection to its more powerful neighbour. But it was
+always ready to seize any opportunity of asserting itself and of
+attempting to regain its independence.
+
+[Illustration: 172.jpg CLAY MEMORIAL-TABLET OF EANNADU.]
+
+     The characters of the inscription well illustrate the
+     pictorial origin of the Sumerian system of writing.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+Accordingly, after Eannadu's death the men of Gishkhu again took the
+offensive. At this time Urlumma, the son and successor of Enakalli, was
+on the throne of Gishkhu, and he organized the forces of the city
+and led them out to battle. His first act was to destroy the frontier
+ditches named after Ningirsu and Nina, the principal god and goddess of
+Shirpurla, which Eannadu, the powerful foe of Gishkhu, had caused to be
+dug. He then tore down the stele on which the terms of Eannadu's treaty
+had been engraved and broke it into pieces by casting it into the fire,
+and the shrines which Eannadu had built near the frontier, and had
+consecrated to the gods of Shirpurla, he razed to the ground. But
+again Shirpurla in the end proved too strong for Gishkhu. The ruler
+in Shirpurla at this time was Enannadu, who had succeeded his brother
+Eannadu upon the throne. He marched out to meet the invading forces
+of the men of Gishkhu, and a battle was fought in the territory of
+Shirpurla. According to one account, the forces of Shirpurla were
+victorious, while on the cone of Ente-mena no mention is made of
+the issue of the combat. The result may not have been decisive, but
+Enannadu's action at least checked Urlumma's encroachments for the time.
+
+It would appear that the death of the reigning patesi in Shirpurla was
+always the signal for an attack upon that city by the men of Gishkhu.
+They may have hoped that the new ruler would prove a less successful
+leader than the last, or that the accession of a new monarch might give
+rise to internal dissensions in the city which would weaken Shirpurla's
+power of resisting a sudden attack. As Eannadu's death had encouraged
+Urlumma to lead out the men of Gishkhu, so the death of Enannadu seemed
+to him a good opportunity to make another bid for victory. But this time
+the result of the battle was not indecisive. Entemena had succeeded his
+father Enannadu, and he led out to victory the forces of Shir-purla. The
+battle was fought near the canal Lumma-girnun-ta, and when the men of
+Gishkhu were put to flight they left sixty of their fellows lying dead
+upon the banks of the canal. Entemena tells us that the bones of these
+warriors were left to bleach in the open plain, but he seems to have
+buried those of the men of Gishkhu who fell in the pursuit, for he
+records that in five separate places he piled up burial-mounds in which
+the bodies of the slain were interred. Entemena was not content with
+merely inflicting a defeat upon the army of Gishkhu and driving it back
+within its own borders, for he followed up his initial advantage and
+captured the capital itself. He deposed and imprisoned Urlumma, and
+chose one of his own adherents to rule as patesi of Gishkhu in his
+stead. The man he appointed for this high office was named Hi, and he
+had up to that time been priest in Ninab. Entemena summoned him to his
+presence, and, after marching in a triumphal procession from Girsu
+in the neighbourhood of Shirpurla to the conquered city, proceeded to
+invest him with the office of patesi of Gishkhu.
+
+Entemena also repaired the frontier ditches named after Ningirsu and
+Nina, which had been employed for purposes of irrigation as well as for
+marking the frontier; and he gave instructions to Hi to employ the men
+dwelling in the district of Karkar on this work, as a punishment for
+the active part they had taken in the recent raid into the territory of
+Shirpurla. Entemena also restored and extended the system of canals
+in the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates, lining one of the
+principal channels with stone.
+
+[Illustration: 175.jpg MARBLE GATE]
+
+     Socket Bearing An Inscription Of Entemena, A Powerful
+     Patesi, Or Viceroy, Of Shirpurla. In the photograph the
+     gate-socket is resting on its side so as to show the
+     inscription, but when in use it was set flat upon the ground
+     and partly buried below the level of the pavement of the
+     building in which it was used. It was fixed at the side of a
+     gateway and the pivot of the heavy gate revolved in the
+     shallow hole or depression in its centre. As stone is not
+     found in the alluvial soil of Babylonia, the blocks for
+     gate-sockets had to be brought from great distances and they
+     were consequently highly prized. The kings and patesis who
+     used them in their buildings generally had their names and
+     titles engraved upon them, and they thus form a valuable
+     class of inscriptions for the study of the early history.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Man-sell & Co.
+
+He thus added greatly to the wealth of Shirpurla by increasing the area
+of territory under cultivation, and he continued to exercise authority
+in Gishkhu by means of officers appointed by himself. A record of his
+victory over Gishkhu was inscribed by Entemena upon a number of clay
+cones, that the fame of it might be preserved in future days to the
+honour of Ningirsu and the goddess Nina. He ends this record with a
+prayer for the preservation of the frontier. If ever in time to come the
+men of Gishkhu should break out across the frontier-ditch of Ningirsu,
+or the frontier-ditch of Nina, in order to seize or lay waste the lands
+of Shirpurla, whether they be men of the city of Gishkhu itself or men
+of the mountains, he prays that Enlil may destroy them and that Ningirsu
+may lay his curse upon them; and if ever the warriors of his own city
+should be called upon to defend it, he prays that they may be full of
+courage and ardour for their task.
+
+The greater part of this information with regard to the struggles
+between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, between the period of Mesilim, King of
+Kish, and that of Entemena, is supplied by the inscription of the latter
+ruler which has been found written around a small cone of clay. There is
+little doubt that the text was also engraved by the orders of Entemena
+upon a stone stele which was set up, like those of Mesilim and Eannadu,
+upon the frontier. Other copies of the inscription were probably
+engraved and erected in the cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla, and to
+ensure the preservation of the record Entemena probably had numerous
+copies of it made upon small cones of clay which were preserved and
+possibly buried in the structure of the temples of Shirpurla. Entemena's
+foresight in this matter has been justified by results, for, while his
+great memorials of stone have perished, the preservation of one of his
+small cones has sufficed to make known to later ages his own and his
+forefathers' prowess in their continual contests with their ancient rival
+Gishkhu.
+
+After the reign of Entemena we have little information with regard to
+the relations between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, though it is probable that
+the effects of his decisive victory continued to exercise a moderating
+influence on Gishkhu's desire for expansion and secured a period
+of peaceful development for Shirpurla without the continual fear of
+encroachments on the part of her turbulent neighbour. We may assume that
+this period of tranquillity continued during the reigns of Enannadu II,
+Enlitarzi, and Lugal-anda, but, when in the reign of Urukagina the men
+of Gishkhu once more emerge from their temporary obscurity, they appear
+as the authors of deeds of rapine and bloodshed committed on a scale
+that was rare even in that primitive age.
+
+In the earlier stages of their rivalry Gishkhu had always been defeated,
+or at any rate checked, in her actual conflicts with Shirpurla. When
+taking the aggressive the men of Gishkhu seem generally to have confined
+themselves to the seizure of territory, such as the district of Gu-edin,
+which was situated on the western bank of the Shaft el-Hai and divided
+from their own lands only by the frontier-ditch. If they ever actually
+crossed the Shaft el-Hai and raided the lands on its eastern bank, they
+never ventured to attack the city of Shirpurla itself. And, although
+their raids were attended with some success in their initial stages, the
+ruling patesis of Shirpurla were always strong enough to check them; and
+on most occasions they carried the war into the territory of Gishkhu,
+with the result that they readjusted the boundary on their own terms.
+But it would appear that all these primitive Chalaean cities were subject
+to alternate periods of expansion and defeat, and Shirpurla was not an
+exception to the rule. It was probably not due so much to Urukagina's
+personal qualities or defects as a leader that Shirpurla suffered
+the greatest reverse in her history during his reign, but rather to
+Gishkhu's gradual increase in power at a time when Shirpurla herself
+remained inactive, possibly lulled into a false sense of security by the
+memory of her victories in the past. Whatever may have been the cause of
+Gishkhu's final triumph, it is certain that it took place in Urukagina's
+reign, and that for many years afterwards the hegemony of Southern
+Babylonia remained in her hands, while Shirpurla for a long period
+passed completely out of existence as an independent or semi-independent
+state.
+
+The evidence of the catastrophe that befell Shirpurla at this period is
+furnished by a small clay tablet recently found at Telloh during Captain
+Cros's excavations on that site. The document on which the facts in
+question are recorded had no official character, and in all probability
+it had not been stored in any library or record chamber. The actual spot
+at Telloh where it was found was to the north of the mound in which
+the most ancient buildings have been recovered, and at the depth of two
+metres below the surface. No other tablets appear to have been found
+near it, but that fact in itself would not be sufficient evidence on
+which to base any theory as to its not having originally formed part of
+the archives of the city. Its unofficial character is attested by the
+form of the tablet and the manner in which the information upon it is
+arranged. In shape there is little to distinguish the document from the
+tablets of accounts inscribed in the reign of Urukagina, great numbers
+of which have been found recently at Telloh. Roughly square in shape,
+its edges are slightly convex, and the text is inscribed in a series of
+narrow columns upon both the obverse and the reverse. The text itself
+is not a carefully arranged composition, such as are the votive and
+historical inscriptions of early Sumerian rulers. It consists of a
+series of short sentences enumerating briefly and without detail the
+separate deeds of violence and sacrilege performed by the men of Gishkhu
+after their capture of the city. It is little more than a catalogue or
+list of the shrines and temples destroyed during the sack of the city,
+or defiled by the blood of the men of Shirpurla who were slain therein.
+No mention is made in the list of the palace of the Urukagina, or of any
+secular building, or of the dwellings of the citizens themselves. There
+is little doubt that these also were despoiled and destroyed by the
+victorious enemy, but the writer of the tablet is not concerned for the
+moment with the fate of his city or his fellow citizens. He appears to
+be overcome with the thought of the deeds of sacrilege committed against
+his gods; his mind is entirely taken up with the magnitude of the
+insult offered to the god Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla. His bare
+enumeration of the deeds of sacrilege and violence loses little by its
+brevity, and, when he has ended the list of his accusations against the
+men of Gishkhu, he curses the goddess to whose influence he attributes
+their success.
+
+No composition at all like this document has yet been recovered, and as
+it is not very long we may here give a translation of the text. It will
+be seen that the writer plunges at once into the subject of his
+charges against the men of Gishkhu. No historical _resume_ prefaces
+his accusations, and he gives no hint of the circumstances that have
+rendered their delivery possible. The temples of his city have been
+profaned and destroyed, and his indignation finds vent in a mere
+enumeration of their titles. To his mind the facts need no comment,
+for to him it is barely conceivable that such sacred places of ancient
+worship should have been defiled. He launches his indictment against
+Gishkhu in the following terms: "The men of Gishkhu have set fire to the
+temple of E-ki [... ], they have set fire to Antashura, and they have
+carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have
+shed blood in the palace of Tirash, they have shed blood in Abzubanda,
+they have shed blood in the shrine of Enlil and in the shrine of the
+Sun-god, they have shed blood in Akhush, and they have carried away the
+silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood in the
+Gikana of the sacred grove of the goddess Ninmakh, and they have carried
+away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood
+in Baga, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have shed blood in Abzu-ega, they have set fire to
+the temple of Gatumdug, and they have carried away the silver and the
+precious stones therefrom, and have destroyed her statue! They have set
+fire to the.... of the temple E-anna of the goddess Ninni, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom, and have
+destroyed her statue! They have shed blood in Shapada, and they have
+carried away the silver and precious stones therefrom! They have....
+in Khenda, they have shed blood in the temple of Nindar in the town
+of Kiab, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Dumuzi-abzu in the town
+of Kinunir, and they have carried away the silver and the precious
+stones therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Lugaluru, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in E-engura, the temple of the goddess Nina, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in Sag..., the temple of Amageshtin, and the silver
+and the precious stones of Amageshtin have they carried away! They have
+removed the grain from Ginarbaniru, the field of the god Ningirsu,
+so much of it as was under cultivation! The men of Gishkhu, by the
+despoiling of Shirpurla, have committed a transgression against the god
+Ningirsu! The power that is come unto them, from them shall be taken
+away! Of transgression on the part of Urukagina, King of Girsu, there
+is none. As for Lugalzaggisi, patesi of Gishkhu, may his goddess Ni-daba
+bear on her head (the weight of) this transgression!"
+
+Such is the account, which has come down to us from the rough tablet of
+some unknown scribe, of the greatest misfortune experienced by Shirpurla
+during the long course of her history. Many of the great temples
+mentioned in the text as among those which were burnt down and despoiled
+of their treasures are referred to more than once in the votive and
+historical inscriptions of earlier rulers of Shirpurla, who occupied the
+throne before the ill-fated Urukagina. The names of some of them, too,
+are to be found in the texts of the later pate-sis of that city, so
+that it may be concluded that in course of time they were rebuilt and
+restored to their former splendour. But there is no doubt that the
+despoiling and partial destruction of Shirpurla in the reign of
+Urukagina had a lasting effect upon the fortunes of that city, and
+effectively curtailed her influence among the greater cities of Southern
+Babylonia.
+
+We may now turn our attention to the leader of the men of Gishkhu, under
+whose direction they achieved their final triumph over their ancient,
+and for long years more powerful, rival Shirpurla. The writer of our
+tablet mentions his name in the closing words of his text when he curses
+him and his goddess for the destruction and sacrilege that they have
+wrought. "As for Lugalzaggisi," he says, "patesi of Gishkhu, may his
+goddess Nidaba bear on her head (the weight of ) this transgression!"
+Now the name of Lugalzaggisi has been found upon a number of fragments
+of vases made of white calcite stalagmite which were discovered by Mr.
+Haynes during his excavations at Nippur. All the vases were engraved
+with the same inscription, so that it was possible by piecing the
+fragments of text together to obtain a more or less complete copy of
+the records which were originally engraved upon each of them. From
+these records we learned for the first time, not only the name of
+Lugalzaggisi, but the fact that he founded a powerful coalition of
+cities in Babylonia at what was obviously a very early period in the
+history of the country. In the text he describes himself as "King of
+Erech, king of the world, the priest of Ana, the hero of Nidaba, the
+son of Ukush, patesi of Gishkhu, the hero of Nidaba, the man who was
+favourably regarded by the sure eye of the King of the Lands (i.e.
+the god Enlil), the great patesi of Enlil, unto whom understanding was
+granted by Enki, the chosen of the Sun-god, the exalted minister of
+Enzu, endowed with strength by the Sun-god, the worshipper of Ninni, the
+son who was conceived by Nidaba, who was nourished by Ninkharsag with
+the milk of life, the attendant of Umu, priestess of Erech, the servant
+who was trained by Ninagidkhadu, the mistress of Erech, the great
+minister of the gods." Lugalzaggisi then goes on to describe the extent
+of his dominion, and he says: "When the god Enlil, the lord of the
+countries, bestowed upon Lugalzaggisi the kingdom of the world, and
+granted unto him success in the sight of the world, when he filled the
+lands with his power, and conquered them from the rising of the sun unto
+the setting of the same, at that time he made straight his path from the
+Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates unto the Upper Sea, and he granted
+him dominion over all from the rising of the sun unto the setting of the
+same, so that he caused the lands to dwell in peace."
+
+Now when first the text of this inscription was published there existed
+only vague indications of the date to be assigned to Lugalzaggisi and
+the kingdom that he founded. It was clear from the titles which he bore,
+that, though Gishkhu was his native place, he had extended his authority
+far beyond that city and had chosen Erech as his capital. Moreover,
+he claimed an empire extending from "the Lower Sea of the Tigris and
+Euphrates unto the Upper Sea." There is no doubt that the Lower Sea here
+mentioned is the Persian Gulf, and it has been suggested that the Upper
+Sea may be taken to be the Mediterranean, though it may possibly have
+been Lake Van or Lake Urmi. But whichever of these views might be
+adopted, it was clear that Lugalzaggisi was a great conqueror, and had
+achieved the right to assume the high-sounding title of lugal halama,
+"king of the world." In these circumstances it was of the first
+importance for the study of primitive Chaldaean history and chronology
+to ascertain approximately the period at which Lugalzaggisi reigned.
+
+The evidence on which such a question could be provisionally settled was
+of the vaguest and most uncertain character, but such as it was it
+had to suffice, in the absence of more reliable data. In settling all
+problems connected with early Chaldaean chronology, the starting-point
+was, and in fact still is, the period of Sargon I, King of Agade,
+inasmuch as the date of his reign is settled, according to the reckoning
+of the scribes of Nabonidus, as about 3800 B.C. It is true that this
+date has been called in question, and ingenious suggestions for amending
+it have been made by some writers, while others have rejected it
+altogether, holding that it merely represented a guess on the part of
+the late Babylonians and could be safely ignored in the chronological
+schemes which they brought forward. But nearly every fresh discovery
+made in the last few years has tended to confirm some point in the
+traditions current among the later Babylonians with regard to the
+earlier history of their country. Consequently, reliance may be placed
+with increased confidence on the truth of such traditions as a
+whole, and we may continue to accept those statements which yet await
+confirmation from documents more nearly contemporary with the early
+period to which they refer. It is true that such a date as that assigned
+by Nabonidus to Sargon is not to be regarded as absolutely fixed, for
+Nabonidus is obviously speaking in round numbers, and we may allow for
+some minor inaccuracies in the calculations of his scribes. But it is
+certain that the later Babylonian priests and scribes had a wealth of
+historical material at their disposal which has not come down to us. We
+may therefore accept the date given by Nabonidus for Sargon of Agade
+and his son Naram-Sin as approximately accurate, and this is also the
+opinion of the majority of writers on early Babylonian history.
+
+The diggings at Nippur furnished indications that certain inscriptions
+found on that site and written in a very archaic form of script were
+to be assigned to a period earlier than that of Sargon. One class of
+evidence was obtained from a careful study of the different levels at
+which the inscriptions and the remains of buildings were found. At a
+comparatively deep level in the mound inscriptions of Sargon himself
+were recovered, along with bricks stamped with the name of Naram-Sin,
+his son. It was, therefore, a reasonable conclusion roughly to date the
+particular stratum in which these objects were found to the period of
+the empire established by Sargon, with its centre at Agade. Later on
+excavations were carried to a lower level, and remains of buildings
+were discovered which appeared to belong to a still earlier period
+of civilization. An altar was found standing in a small enclosure
+surrounded by a kind of curb. Near by were two immense clay vases which
+appeared to have been placed on a ramp or inclined plane leading up to
+the altar, and remains were also found of a massive brick building in
+which was an arch of brick. No inscriptions were actually found at this
+level, but in the upper level assigned to Sargon were a number of texts
+which might very probably be assigned to the pre-Sargonic period. None
+of these were complete, and they had the appearance of having been
+intentionally broken into small fragments. There was therefore something
+to be said for the theory that they might have been inscribed by the
+builders of the construction in the lowest levels of the mound, and that
+they were destroyed and scattered by some conqueror who had laid their
+city in ruins.
+
+But all such evidence derived from noting the levels at which
+inscriptions are found is in its nature extremely uncertain and liable
+to many different interpretations, especially if the strata show signs
+of having been disturbed. Where a pavement or building is still intact,
+with the inscribed bricks of the builder remaining in their original
+positions, conclusions may be confidently drawn with regard to the age
+of the building and its relative antiquity to the strata above and below
+it. But the strata in the lowest levels at Nippur, as we have seen, were
+not in this condition, and such evidence as they furnished could only be
+accepted if confirmed by independent data. Such confirmation was to be
+found by examination of the early inscriptions themselves.
+
+It has been remarked that most of them were broken into small pieces,
+as though by some invader of the country; but this was not the case with
+certain gate-sockets and great blocks of diorite which were too hard
+and big to be easily broken. Moreover, any conqueror of a city would be
+unlikely to spend time and labour in destroying materials which might
+be usefully employed in the construction of other buildings which he
+himself might erect. Stone could not be obtained in the alluvial plains
+of Babylonia and had to be quarried in the mountains and brought great
+distances.
+
+[Illustration: 188.jpg STONE GATE]
+
+     Socket Bearing An Inscription of Uk-Engur, An Early King
+     of The City Of Ur. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+From any building of his predecessors which he razed to the ground, an
+invader would therefore remove the gate-sockets and blocks of stone for
+his own use, supposing he contemplated building on the site. If he left
+the city in ruins and returned to his own country, some subsequent king,
+when clearing the ruined site for building operations, might come across
+the stones, and he would not leave them buried, but would use them for
+his own construction. And this is what actually did happen in the case
+of some of the building materials of one of these early kings, from the
+lower strata of Nippur. Certain of the blocks which bore the name of
+Lugalkigubnidudu had been used again by Sargon, King of Agade, who
+engraved his own name upon them without obliterating the name of the
+former king.
+
+It followed that Lugalkigubnidudu belonged to the pre-Sargonic period,
+and, although the same conclusive evidence was not forthcoming in the
+case of Lugalzag-gisi, he also without much hesitation was set in
+this early period, mainly on the strength of the archaic forms of the
+characters employed in his inscriptions. In fact, they were held to be
+so archaic that, not only was he said to have reigned before Sargon of
+Agade, but he was set in the very earliest period of Chaldaean history,
+and his empire was supposed to have been contemporaneous with the very
+earliest rulers of Shirpurla. The new inscription found by Captain
+Cros will cause this opinion to be considerably modified. While it
+corroborates the view that Lugalzaggisi is to be set in the pre-Sargonic
+period, it proves that he lived and reigned very shortly before him. As
+we have already seen, he was the contemporary of Urukagina, who belongs
+to the middle period of the history of Shirpurla. Lugalzaggisi's capture
+and sack of the city of Shirpurla was only one of a number of conquests
+which he achieved. His father Ukush had been merely patesi of the city
+of Gish-khu, but he himself was not content with the restricted sphere
+of authority which such a position implied, and he eventually succeeded
+in enforcing his authority over the greater part of Babylonia. From
+the fact that he styles himself King of Erech, we may conclude that
+he removed his capital from Ukush to that city, after having probably
+secured its submission by force of arms. In fact, his title of "king of
+the world" can only have been won as the result of many victories, and
+Captain Cros's tablet gives us a glimpse of the methods by which he
+managed to secure himself against the competition of any rival. The
+capture of Shirpurla must have been one of his earliest achievements,
+for its proximity to Gish-khu rendered its reduction a necessary
+prelude to any more extensive plan of conquest. But the kingdom which
+Lugalzaggisi founded cannot have endured long.
+
+Under Sargon of Agade, the Semites gained the upper hand in Babylonia,
+and Erech, Grishkhu, and Shirpurla, as well as the other ancient cities
+in the land, fell in turn under his domination and formed part of the
+extensive empire which he ruled.
+
+Concerning the later rulers of city-states of Babylonia which succeeded
+the disruption of the empire founded by Sargon of Agade and consolidated
+by Naram-Sin, his son, the excavations have little to tell us which has
+not already been made use of by Prof. Maspero in his history of this
+period.*
+
+     * The tablets found at Telloh by the late M. de Sarzec, and
+     published during his lifetime, fall into two main classes,
+     which date from different periods in early Chaldaean
+     history. The great majority belong to the period when the
+     city of Ur held pre-eminence among the cities of Southern
+     Babylonia, and they are dated in the reigns of Dungi, Bur-
+     Sin, Gamil-Sin, and Ine-Sin. The other and smaller
+     collection belongs to the earlier period of Sargon and
+     Naram-Sin; while many of the tablets found in M. de Sarzec's
+     last diggings, which were published after his death, are to
+     be set in the great gap between these two periods. Some of
+     those recently discovered, which belong to the period of
+     Dungi, contain memoranda concerning the supply of food for
+     the maintenance of officials stopping at Shirpurla in the
+     course of journeys in Babylonia and Elam, and they throw an
+     interesting light on the close and constant communication
+     which took place at this time between the great cities of
+     Mesopotamia and the neighbouring countries.
+
+[Illustration: 190.jpg STATUE OF GUDEA.]
+
+     The most famous of the later patesis, or viceroys, of
+     Shirpurla, the Sumerian city in Southern Babylonia now
+     marked by the mounds of Telloh. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell & Co.
+
+Ur, Isin, and,Larsam succeeded one another in the position of leading
+city in Babylonia, holding Mppur, Eridu, Erech, Shirpurla, and the other
+chief cities in a condition of semi-dependence upon themselves. We may
+note that the true reading of the name of the founder of the dynasty
+of Ur has now been ascertained from a syllabary to be Ur-Engur; and an
+unpublished chronicle in the British Museum relates that his son Dungi
+cared greatly for the city of Eridu, but sacked Babylon and carried off
+its spoil, together with the treasures from E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk. Such episodes must have been common at this period when each
+city was striving for hegemony. Meanwhile, Shirpurla remained the centre
+of Sumerian influence in Babylonia, and her patesis were content to owe
+allegiance to so powerful a ruler as Dungi, King of Ur, while at all
+times exercising complete authority within their own jurisdiction.
+
+During the most recent diggings that have been carried out at Telloh a
+find of considerable value to the history of Sumerian art has been
+made. The find is also of great general interest, since it enables us
+to identify a portrait of Gudea, the most famous of the later Sumerian
+patesis. In the course of excavating the Tell of Tablets Captain Cros
+found a little seated statue made of diorite. It was not found in place,
+but upside down, and appeared to have been thrown with other debris
+scattered in that portion of the mound. On lifting it from the trench it
+was seen that the head of the statue was broken off, as is the case
+with all the other statues of Gudea found at Telloh. The statue bore an
+inscription of Gudea, carefully executed and well preserved, but it
+was smaller than other statues of the same ruler that had been
+already recovered, and the absence of the head thus robbed it of any
+extraordinary interest. On its arrival at the Louvre, M. Leon Heuzey was
+struck by its general resemblance to a Sumerian head of diorite formerly
+discovered by M. de Sarzec at Telloh, which has been preserved in the
+Louvre for many years. On applying the head to the newly found statue,
+it was found to fit it exactly, and to complete the monument, and we
+are thus enabled to identify the features of Gudea. Prom a photographic
+reproduction of this statue, it is seen that the head is larger than
+it should be, in proportion to the body, a characteristic which is also
+apparent in a small Sumerian statue preserved in the British Museum.
+
+[Illustration: 192.jpg TABLET INSCRIBED IN SUMERIAN WITH DETAILS OF A
+SURVEY OF CERTAIN PROPERTY.]
+
+     Probably situated in the neighbourhood of Telloh. The
+     circular shape is very unusual, and appears to have been
+     used only for survey-tablets. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     & Co.
+
+Gudea caused many statues of himself to be made out of the hard diorite
+which he brought for that purpose from the Sinaitic peninsula, and from
+the inscriptions preserved upon them it is possible to ascertain the
+buildings in which they were originally placed. Thus one of the statues
+previously found was set up in the temple of Ninkharsag, two others in
+E-ninnu, the temple of the god Ningirsu, three more in the temple of the
+goddess Bau, one in E-anna, the temple of the goddess Ninni, and another
+in the temple of Gatumdug. The newly found statue of the king was made
+to be set up in the temple erected by Gudea at Girsu in honour of the
+god Ningishzida, as is recorded in the inscription engraved on the front
+of the king's robe, which reads as follows:
+
+"In the day when the god Ningirsu, the strong warrior of Enlil, granted
+unto the god Ningishzida, the son of Ninazu, the beloved of the gods,
+(the guardianship of) the foundation of the city and of the hills and
+valleys, on that day Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla, the just man who
+loveth his god, who for his master Ningirsu hath constructed his temple
+E-ninnu, called the shining Imgig, and his temple E-pa, the temple
+of-the seven zones of heaven, and for the goddess Nina, the queen, his
+lady, hath constructed the temple Sirara-shum, which riseth higher than
+(all) the temples in the world, and hath constructed their temples for
+the great gods of Lagash, built for his god Ningishzida his temple in
+Girsu. Whosoever shall proclaim the god Ningirsu as his god, even as
+I proclaim him, may he do no harm unto the temple of my god! May he
+proclaim the name of this temple! May that man be my friend, and may he
+proclaim my name! Gudea hath made the statue, and 'Unto - Gudea - the
+- builder - of - the - temple - hath life-been-given hath he called its
+name, and he hath brought it into the temple."
+
+The long name which Gudea gave to the statue, "Unto - Gudea - the -
+builder - of - the - temple - hath - life-been-given," is characteristic
+of the practice of the Sumerian patesis, who always gave long and
+symbolical names to statues, stelae, and sacred objects dedicated and
+set up in their temples. The occasion on which the temple was built, and
+this statue erected within it, seems to have been the investiture of
+the god Ningishzida with special and peculiar powers, and it possibly
+inaugurated his introduction into the pantheon of Shirpurla. Ningishzida
+is called in the inscription the son of Ninazu, who was the husband of
+the Queen of the Underworld.
+
+In one of his aspects he was therefore probably a god of the underworld
+himself, and it is in this character that he was appointed by Ningirsu
+as guardian of the city's foundations. But "the hills and valleys"
+(i.e. the open country) were also put under his jurisdiction, so that
+in another aspect he was a god of vegetation. It is therefore not
+improbable that, like the god Dumuzi, or Tammuz, he was supposed to
+descend into the underworld in winter, ascending to the surface of the
+earth with the earliest green shoots of vegetation in the spring.*
+
+     * Cf. Thureau-Dangin, Rev. d'Assyr., vol. vi. (1904), p. 24.
+
+A most valuable contribution has recently been made to our knowledge of
+Sumerian religion and of the light in which these early rulers regarded
+the cult and worship of their gods, by the complete interpretation of
+the long texts inscribed upon the famous cylinders of Gudea, the patesi
+of Shirpurla, which have been preserved for many years in the Louvre.
+These two great cylinders of baked clay were discovered by the late M.
+de Sarzec so long ago as the year 1877, during the first period of his
+diggings at Telloh, and, although the general nature of their contents
+has long been recognized, no complete translation of the texts inscribed
+upon them had been published until a few months ago. M. Thureau-Dangin,
+who has made the early Sumerian texts his special study, has devoted
+himself to their interpretation for some years past, and he has just
+issued the first part of his monograph upon them. In view of the
+importance of the texts and of the light they throw upon the religious
+beliefs and practices of the early Sumerians, a somewhat detailed
+account of their contents may here be given.
+
+The occasion on which the cylinders were made was the rebuilding by
+Gudea of E-ninnu, the great temple of the god Ningirsu, in the city of
+Shirpurla. The two cylinders supplement one another, one of them having
+been inscribed while the work of construction was still in progress, the
+other after the completion of the temple, when the god Ningirsu had been
+installed within his shrine with due pomp and ceremony. It would appear
+that Southern Babylonia had been suffering from a prolonged drought, and
+that the water in the rivers and canals had fallen, so that the crops
+had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. Gudea was at a
+loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country,
+when one night he had a dream, and it was in consequence of this dream
+that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of
+Sumerian temples. By this means he secured the return of Ningirsu's
+favour and that of the other gods, and his country once more enjoyed the
+blessings of peace and prosperity.
+
+In the opening words of the first of his cylinders Gudea describes how
+the great gods themselves took counsel and decreed that he should build
+the temple of E-ninnu and thereby restore to his city the supply of
+water it had formerly enjoyed. He records that on the day on which the
+destinies were fixed in heaven and upon earth, Enlil, the chief of the
+gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla, held converse. And Enlil,
+turning to Ningirsu, said: "In my city that which is fitting is not
+done. The stream doth not rise. The stream of Enlil doth not rise. The
+high waters shine not, neither do they show their splendour. The stream
+of Enlil bringeth not good water like the Tigris. Let the King (i.e.
+Ningirsu) therefore proclaim the temple. Let the decrees of the temple
+E-ninnu be made illustrious in heaven and upon earth!" The great gods
+did not communicate their orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed their
+wishes to him by means of a dream. And while the patesi slept a vision
+of the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great
+that it equalled the heavens and the earth. And by the crown he wore
+upon his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. And by his side
+was the divine eagle, the emblem of Shirpurla, and his feet rested upon
+the whirlwind, and a lion was crouching upon his right hand and upon his
+left. And the figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the
+meaning of the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the sun rose from
+the earth and he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she
+carried also a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed
+to take counsel with herself. And while Gudea was gazing he seemed to
+see a second man who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis
+lazuli and on it he drew out the plan of a temple. And before the patesi
+himself it seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion
+was set a mould, and within the mould was a brick, the brick of destiny.
+And on the right hand the patesi beheld an ass which lay upon the
+ground.
+
+Such was the dream which Gudea beheld in a vision of the night, and he
+was troubled because he could not interpret it. So he decided to go
+to the goddess Nina, who could divine all mysteries of the gods, and
+beseech her to tell him the meaning of the vision. But before applying
+to the goddess for her help, he thought it best to secure the mediation
+of the god Ningirsu and the goddess Gatumdug, in order that they should
+use their influence with Nina to induce her to reveal the interpretation
+of the dream. So the patesi set out to the temple of Ningirsu, and,
+having offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water, he prayed to the
+god that his sister, Nina, the child of Eridu, might be prevailed upon
+to give him help. And the god hearkened to his prayer. Then Gudea made
+offerings, and before the sleeping-chamber of the goddess Gatumdug he
+offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water. And he prayed to the
+goddess, calling her his queen and the child of the pure heaven, who
+gave life to the countries and befriended and preserved the people or
+the man on whom she looked with favour.
+
+"I have no mother," cried Gudea, "but thou art my mother! I have no
+father, but thou art a father to me!" And the goddess Gatumdug gave
+ear to the patesi's prayer. Thus encouraged by her favour and that of
+Ningirsu, Gudea set out for the temple of the goddess Nina.
+
+On his arrival at the temple, the patesi offered a sacrifice and poured
+out fresh water, as he had already done when approaching the presence of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug. And he prayed to Nina, as the goddess who divines
+the secrets of the gods, beseeching her to interpret the vision that had
+been sent to him; and he then recounted to her the details of his dream.
+When the patesi had finished his story, the goddess addressed him and
+told him that she would explain the meaning of his dream to him. And
+this was the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so
+great that it equalled the heavens and the earth, whose head was that
+of a god, at whose side was the divine eagle, whose feet rested on the
+whirlwind, while a lion couched on his right hand and on his left, was
+her brother, the god Ningirsu. And the words which he uttered were an
+order to the patesi that he should build the temple E-ninnu. And the sun
+which rose from the earth before the patesi was the god Ningishzida,
+for like the sun he goes forth from the earth. And the maiden who held
+a pure reed in her hand, and carried the tablet with the star, was her
+sister, the goddess Nidaba: the star was the pure star of the temple's
+construction, which she proclaimed. And the second man, who was like a
+warrior and carried the slab of lapis lazuli, was the god Nindub, and the
+plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of E-ninnu. And the brick
+which rested in its mould upon the cushion was the sacred brick of
+E-ninnu. And as for the ass which lay upon the ground, that, the goddess
+said, was the patesi himself.
+
+Having interpreted the meaning of the dream, the goddess Nina proceeded
+to give Gudea instruction as to how he should go to work to build the
+temple. She told him first of all to go to his treasure-house and bring
+forth his treasures from their sealed cases, and out of these to make
+certain offerings which he was to place near the god Ningirsu, in the
+temple in which he was dwelling at that time. The offerings were to
+consist of a chariot, adorned with pure metal and precious stones;
+bright arrows in a quiver; the weapon of the god, his sacred emblem, on
+which Gudea was to inscribe his own name; and finally a lyre, the music
+of which was wont to soothe the god when he took counsel with himself.
+Nina added that if the patesi carried out her instructions and made the
+offerings she had specified, Ningirsu would reveal to him the plan on
+which the temple was to be built, and would also bless him. Gudea bowed
+himself down in token of his submission to the commands of the goddess,
+and proceeded to execute them forthwith. He brought out his treasures,
+and from the precious woods and metals which he possessed his craftsmen
+fashioned the objects he was to present, and he set them in Ningirsu's
+temple near to the god. He worked day and night, and, having prepared a
+suitable spot in the precincts of the temple at the place of judgment,
+he spread out upon it as offerings a fat sheep and a kid and the skin of
+a young female kid. Then he built a fire of cypress and cedar and other
+aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour, and, entering the inner chamber
+of the temple, he offered a prayer to Ningirsu. He said that he wished
+to build the temple, but he had received no sign that this was the will
+of the god, and he prayed for a sign.
+
+While he prayed the patesi was stretched out upon the ground, and the
+god, standing near his head, then answered him. He said that he who
+should build his temple was none other than Gudea, and that he would
+give him the sign for which he asked. But first he described the plan
+on which the temple was to be built, naming its various shrines and
+chambers and describing the manner in which they were to be fashioned
+and adorned. And the god promised that when Gudea should build the
+temple, the land would once more enjoy abundance, for Ningirsu would
+send a wind which should proclaim to the heavens the return of the
+waters. And on that day the waters would fall from the heavens, the
+water in the ditches and canals would rise, and water would gush out
+from the dry clefts in the ground. And the great fields would once
+more produce their crops, and oil would be poured out plenteously in
+Sumer[sp.] and wool would again be weighed in great abundance. In that
+day the god would go to the mountain where dwelt the whirlwind, and he
+would himself direct the wind which should give the land the breath of
+life. Gudea must therefore work day and night at the task of building
+the temple. One company of men was to relieve another at its toil, and
+during the night the men were to kindle lights so that the plain should
+be as bright as day. Thus the builders would build continuously. Men
+were also to be sent to the mountains to cut down cedars and pines and
+other trees and bring their trunks to the city, while masons were to go
+to the mountains and were to cut and transport huge blocks of stone to
+be used in the construction of the temple. Finally the god gave Gudea
+the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side
+touched as by a flame, and thereby he should know that he was the man
+chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands.
+
+Gudea bowed his head in submission, and his first act was to consult the
+omens, and the omens were favourable. He then proceeded to purify the
+city by special rites, so that the mother when angered did not chide her
+son, and the master did not strike his servant's head, and the mistress,
+though provoked by her handmaid, did not smite her face. And Gudea drove
+all the evil wizards and sorcerers from the city, and he purified and
+sanctified the city completely. Then he kindled a great fire of cedar
+and other aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour for the gods, and
+prayers were offered day and night; and the patesi addressed a prayer
+to the Anun-naki, or Spirits of the Earth, who dwelt in Shirpurla,
+and assigned a place to them in the temple. Then, having completed
+his purification of the city itself, he consecrated its immediate
+surroundings. Thus he consecrated the district of Gu-edin, whence the
+revenues of Ningirsu were derived, and the lands of the goddess Nina
+with their populous villages. And he consecrated the wild and savage
+bulls which no man could turn aside, and the cedars which were sacred
+to Ningirsu, and the cattle of the plains. And he consecrated the armed
+men, and the famous warriors, and the warriors of the Sun-god. And the
+emblems of the god Ningirsu, and of the two great goddesses, Nina and
+Ninni, he installed before them in their shrines.
+
+Then Gudea sent far and wide to fetch materials for the construction of
+the temple. And the Elamite came from Elani, and men of Susa came from
+Susa, and men brought wood from the mountains of Sinai and Melukh-kha.
+And into the mountain of cedars, where no man before had penetrated,
+the patesi cut a road, and he brought cedars and beams of other precious
+woods in great quantities to the city. And he also made a road into the
+mountain where stone was quarried, into places where no man before had
+penetrated. And he carried great blocks of stone down from the mountain
+and loaded them into barges and brought them to the city. And the barges
+brought bitumen and plaster, and they were loaded as though they were
+carrying grain, and all manner of great things were brought to the
+city. Copper ore was brought from the mountain of copper in the land of
+Kimash, and gold was brought in powder from the mountains, and silver
+was brought from the mountains and porphyry from the land of Melukhkha,
+and marble from the mountain of marble. And the patesi installed
+goldsmiths and silversmiths, who wrought in these precious metals, for
+the adornment of the temple; and he brought smiths who worked in copper
+and lead, who were priests of Nin-tu-kalama. In his search for fitting
+materials for the building of the temple, Gudea journeyed from the lower
+country to the upper country, and from the upper country to the lower
+country he returned.
+
+The only other materials now wanting for the construction of the temple
+were the sun-dried bricks of clay, of which the temple platform and
+the structure of the temple itself were in the main composed. Their
+manufacture was now inaugurated by a symbolical ceremony carried out by
+the patesi in person. At dawn he performed an ablution with the fitting
+rites that accompanied it, and when the day was more advanced he slew
+a bull and a kid as sacrifices, and he then entered the temple of
+Ningirsu, where he prostrated himself. And he took the sacred mould
+and the fair cushion on which it rested in the temple, and he poured a
+libation into the mould. Afterwards, having made offerings of honey and
+butter, and having burnt incense, he placed the cushion and the mould
+upon his head and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed
+clay in the mould, shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its
+mould within the temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood
+around.
+
+The next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
+And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And
+Gudea took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he
+carried the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
+manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick
+which he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks
+to be used in its construction. He then marked out the plan of the
+temple, and the text states that he devoted himself to the building of
+the temple like a young man who has begun building a house and allows
+no pleasure to interfere with his task. And he chose out skilled workmen
+and employed them on the building, and he was filled with joy. The gods,
+too, are stated to have helped with the building, for Enki fixed the
+temennu of the temple, and the goddess Nina looked after its oracles,
+and Gatumdug, the mother of Shir-purla, fashioned bricks for it morning
+and evening, while the goddess Bau sprinkled aromatic oil of cedar-wood.
+Gudea himself laid its foundations, and as he did so he blessed the
+temple seven times, comparing it to the sacred brick, to the holy
+libation-vase, to the divine eagle of Shirpurla, to a terrible couching
+panther, to the beautiful heavens, to the day of offerings, and to the
+morning light which brightens the land. He caused the temple to rise
+towards heaven like a mountain, or like a cedar growing in the desert.
+He built it of bricks of Sumer, and the timbers which he set in place
+were as strong as the dragon of the deep.
+
+While he was engaged on the building Gudea took counsel of the god Enki,
+and he built a fountain for the gods, where they might drink. With the
+great stones which he had brought and fashioned he built a reservoir
+and a basin for the temple. And seven of the great stones he set up as
+stelae, and he gave them favourable names. The text then recounts
+the various parts and shrines of the temple, and it describes their
+splendours in similes drawn from the heavens and the earth and the
+abyss, or deep, beneath the earth. The temple itself is described as,
+being like the crescent of the new moon, or like the sun in the midst
+of the stars, or like a mountain of lapis lazuli, or like a mountain of
+shining marble. Parts of it are said to have been terrible and strong as
+a savage bull, or a lion, or the antelope of the abyss, or the monster
+Lakhamu who dwells in the abyss, or the sacred leopard that inspires
+terror. One of the doors of the temple was guarded by a figure of the
+hero who slew the monster with six heads, and at another door was a good
+dragon, and at another a lion; opposite the city were set figures of
+the seven heroes, and facing the rising sun was fixed the emblem of the
+Sun-god. Figures of other heroes and favourable monsters were set up as
+guardians of other portions of the temple. The fastenings of the main
+entrance were decorated with dragons shooting out their tongues, and the
+bolt of the great door was fashioned like a raging hound.
+
+After this description of the construction and adornment of the
+temple the text goes on to narrate how Gudea arranged for its material
+endowment. He stalled oxen and sheep, for sacrifice and feasting, in the
+outhouses and pens within the temple precincts, and he heaped up grain
+in its granaries. Its storehouses he filled with spices so that
+they were like the Tigris when its waters are in flood, and in its
+treasure-chambers he piled up precious stones, and silver, and lead in
+abundance. Within the temple precincts he planted a sacred garden which
+was like a mountain covered with vines; and on the terrace he built
+a great reservoir, or tank, lined with lead, in addition to the great
+stone reservoir within the temple itself. He constructed a special
+dwelling-place for the sacred doves, and among the flowers of the temple
+garden and under the shade of the great trees the birds of heaven flew
+about unmolested.
+
+The first of the two great cylinders of Gudea ends at this point in the
+description of the temple, and it is evident that its text was composed
+while the work of building was still in progress. Moreover, the writing
+of the cylinder was finished before the actual work of building the
+temple was completed, for the last column of the text concludes with a
+prayer to Ningirsu to make it glorious during the progress of the work,
+the prayer ending with the words, "O Ningirsu, glorify it! Glorify the
+temple of Ningirsu during its construction!" The text of the second of
+the two great cylinders is shorter than that of the first, consisting
+of twenty-four instead of thirty columns of writing, and it was composed
+and written after the temple was completed. Like the first of the
+cylinders, it concludes with a prayer to Ningirsu on behalf of the
+temple, ending with the similar refrain, "O Ningirsu, glorify it!
+Glorify the temple of Ningirsu after its construction!" The first
+cylinder, as we have seen, records how it came about that Gudea decided
+to rebuild the temple E-ninnu in honour of Ningirsu. It describes how,
+when the land was suffering from drought and famine, Gudea had a dream,
+how Nina interpreted the dream to mean that he must rebuild the temple,
+and how Ningirsu himself promised that this act of piety would restore
+abundance and prosperity to the land. Its text ends with the long
+description of the sumptuous manner in which the patesi carried out the
+work, the most striking points of which we have just summarized. The
+narrative of the second cylinder begins at the moment when the building
+of the temple was finished, and when all was ready for the great god
+Nin-girsu to be installed therein, and its text is taken up with a
+description of the ceremonies and rites with which this solemn function
+was carried out. It presents us with a picture, drawn from life, of the
+worship and cult of the ancient Sumerians in actual operation. In view
+of its importance from the point of view of the study and comparison of
+the Sumerian and Babylonian religious systems, its contents also may be
+summarized. We will afterwards discuss briefly the information furnished
+by both the cylinders on the Sumerian origin of many of the religious
+beliefs and practices which were current among the later Semitic
+inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria.
+
+When Gudea had finished building the new temple of E-ninnu, and had
+completed the decoration and adornment of its shrines, and had planted
+its gardens and stocked its treasure-chambers and storehouses, he
+applied himself to the preliminary ceremonies and religious preparations
+which necessarily preceded the actual function of transferring the
+statue of the god Ningirsu from his old temple to his new one. Gudea's
+first act was to install the Anunnaki, or Spirits of the Earth, in the
+new temple, and when he had done this, and had supplied additional
+sheep for their sacrifices and food in abundance for their offerings, he
+prayed to them to give him their assistance and to pronounce a prayer at
+his side when he should lead Ningirsu into his new dwelling-place.
+The text then describes how Gudea went to the old temple of Ningirsu,
+accompanied by his protecting spirits who walked before him and behind
+him. Into the old temple he carried sumptuous offerings, and when he
+had set them before the god, he addressed him in prayer and said: "O
+my King, Ningirsu! O Lord, who curbest the raging waters! O Lord, whose
+word surpasseth all others! O Son of Enlil, O warrior, what commands
+shall I faithfully carry out? O Ningirsu, I have built thy temple, and
+with joy would I lead thee therein, and my goddess Bau would install at
+thy side." We are told that the god accepted Gudea's prayer, and thereby
+he gave his consent to be removed from the old temple of E-ninnu to his
+new one which bore the same name.
+
+But the ceremony of the god's removal was not carried out at once, for
+the due time had not arrived. The year ended, and the new year came,
+and then "the month of the temple" began. The third day of the month
+was that appointed for the installation of Ningirsu. Gudea meanwhile had
+sprinkled the ground with oil, and set out offerings of honey and butter
+and wine, and grain mixed with milk, and dates, and food untouched
+by fire, to serve as food for the gods; and the gods themselves had
+assisted in the preparations for the reception of Ningirsu. The god
+Asaru made ready the temple itself, and Ninmada performed the ceremony
+of purification. The god Enki issued oracles, and the god Nindub, the
+supreme priest of Eridu, brought incense. Nina performed chants within
+the temple, and brought black sheep and holy cows to its folds and
+stalls. This record of the help given by the other gods we may interpret
+as meaning that the priests attached to the other great Sumerian
+temples took part in the preparation of the new temple, and added their
+offerings to the temple stores. To many of the gods, also, special
+shrines within the temple were assigned.
+
+When the purification of E-ninnu was completed and the way between
+the old temple and the new made ready, all the inhabitants of the city
+prostrated themselves on the ground. "The city," says Gudea, "was like
+the mother of a sick man who prepareth a potion for him, or like the
+cattle of the plain which lie down together, or like the fierce lion,
+the master of the plain, when he coucheth." During the day and the night
+before the ceremony of removal, prayers and supplications were uttered,
+and at the first light of dawn on the appointed day the god Ningirsu
+went into his new temple "like a whirlwind," the goddess Bau entering
+at his side "like the sun rising over Shirpurla." She entered beside his
+couch, like a faithful wife, whose cares are for her own household, and
+she dwelt beside his ear and bestowed abundance upon Shirpurla.
+
+As the day began to brighten and the sun rose, Gudea set out as
+offerings in the temple a fat ox and a fat sheep, and he brought a vase
+of lead and filled it with wine, which he poured out as a libation, and
+he performed incantations. Then, having duly established Ningirsu and
+Bau in the chief shrine, he turned his attention to the lesser gods and
+installed them in their appointed places in the temple, where they would
+be always ready to assist Ningirsu in the temple ceremonies and in the
+issue of his decrees for the welfare of the city and its inhabitants.
+Thus he established the god Galalim, the son of Ningirsu, in a chosen
+spot in the great court in front of the temple, where, under the orders
+of his father, he should direct the just and curb the evil-doer; he
+would also by his presence strengthen and preserve the temple, while
+his special duty was to guard the throne of destiny and, on behalf of
+Ningirsu, to place the sceptre in the hands of the reigning patesi.
+Near to Ningirsu and under his orders Gudea also established the god
+Dunshaga, whose function it was to sanctify the temple and to look after
+its libations and offerings, and to see to the due performance of the
+ceremonies of ablution. This god would offer water to Ningirsu with a
+pure hand, he would pour out libations of wine and strong drink, and
+would tend the oxen, sheep, kids, and other offerings which were brought
+to the temple night and day. To the god Lugalkurdub, who was also
+installed in the temple, was assigned the privilege of holding in his
+hand the mace with the seven heads, and it was his duty to open the door
+of the Gate of Combat. He guarded the sacred weapons of Ningirsu and
+destroyed the countries of his enemies. He was Ningirsu's chief leader
+in battle, and another god with lesser powers was associated with him as
+his second leader.
+
+Ningirsu's counsellor was the god Lugalsisa, and he also had his
+appointed place in E-ninnu. It was his duty to receive the prayers
+of Shirpurla and render them propitious; he superintended and blessed
+Ningirsu's journey when he visited Eridu or returned from that city,
+and he made special intercessions for the life of Gudea. The minister of
+Ningirsu's harim was the god Shakanshabar, and he was installed near to
+Nin-girsu that he might issue his commands, both great and small. The
+keeper of the harim was the god Urizu, and it was his duty to purify the
+water and sanctify the grain, and he tended Ningirsu's sleeping-chamber
+and saw that all was arranged therein as was fitting. The driver of
+Ningirsu's chariot was the god Ensignun; it was his duty to keep the
+sacred chariot as bright as the stars of heaven, and morning and evening
+to tend and feed Ningirsu's sacred ass, called Ug-kash, and the ass
+of Eridu. The shepherd of Ningirsu's kids was the god Enlulim, and he
+tended the sacred she-goat who suckled the kids, and he guarded her so
+that the serpent should not steal her milk. This god also looked
+after the oil and the strong drink of E-ninnu, and saw that its store
+increased.
+
+Ningirsu's beloved musician was the god Ushum-gabkalama, and he was
+installed in E-ninnu that he might take his flute and fill the temple
+court with joy. It was his privilege to play to Ningirsu as he listened
+in his harim, and to render the life of the god pleasant in E-ninnu.
+Ningirsu's singer was the god Lugaligi-khusham, and he had his appointed
+place in E-ninnu, for he could appease the heart and soften anger; he
+could stop the tears which flowed from weeping eyes, and could lessen
+sorrow in the sighing heart. Gudea also installed in E-ninnu the seven
+twin-daughters of the goddess Bau, all virgins, whom Ningirsu had
+begotten. Their names were Zarzaru, Impae, Urenuntaea, Khegir-nuna,
+Kheshaga, Gurmu, and Zarmu. Gudea installed them near their father that
+they might offer favourable prayers.
+
+The cultivator of the district of Gu-edin was the god Gishbare, and he
+was installed in the temple that he might cause the great fields to be
+fertile, and might make the wheat glisten in Gu-edin, the plain assigned
+to Ningirsu for his revenues. It was this god's duty also to tend the
+machines for irrigation, and to raise the water into the canals and
+ditches of Shirpurla, and thus to keep the city's granaries well filled.
+The god Kal was the guardian of the fishing in Gu-edin, and his chief
+duty was to place fish in the sacred pools. The steward of Gu-edin was
+the god Dimgalabzu, whose duty it was to keep the plain in good order,
+so that the birds might abound there and the beasts might raise their
+young in peace; he also guarded the special privilege, which the plain
+enjoyed, of freedom from any tax levied upon the increase of the
+cattle pastured there. Last of all Gudea installed in E-ninnu the god
+Lugalenurua-zagakam, who looked after the construction of houses in the
+city and the building of fortresses upon the city wall; in the temple it
+was his privilege to raise on high a battle-axe made of cedar.
+
+All these lesser deities, having close relations to the god Ningirsu,
+were installed by Gudea in his temple in close proximity to him, that
+they might be always ready to perform their special functions. But the
+greater deities also had their share in the inauguration of the temple,
+and of these Gudea specially mentions Ana, Enlil, Ninkharsag, Enki, and
+Enzu, who all assisted in rendering the temple's lot propitious. For at
+least three of the greater gods (Ana, Enlil, and the goddess Nin-makh)
+Gudea erected shrines near one another and probably within the temple's
+precincts, and, as the passage which records this fact is broken, it is
+possible that the missing portion of the text recorded the building of
+shrines to other deities. In any case, it is clear that the composer
+of the text represents all the great gods as beholding the erection and
+inauguration of Ningirsu's new temple with favour.
+
+After the account of the installation of Ningirsu, and his spouse Bau,
+and his attendant deities, the text records the sumptuous offerings
+which Gudea placed within Ningirsu's shrine. These included another
+chariot drawn by an ass, a seven-headed battle-axe, a sword with nine
+emblems, a bow with terrible arrows and a quiver decorated with wild
+beasts and dragons shooting out their tongues, and a bed which was
+set within the god's sleeping-chamber. On the couch in the shrine the
+goddess Bau reclined beside her lord Ningirsu, and ate of the great
+victims which were sacrificed in their honour.
+
+When the ceremony of installation had been successfully performed, Gudea
+rested, and for seven days he feasted with his people. During this time
+the maid was the equal of her mistress, and master and servant consorted
+together as friends. The powerful and the humble man lay down side by
+side, and in place of evil speech only propitious words were heard. The
+rich man did not wrong the orphan and the strong man did not oppress the
+widow. The laws of Nina and Ningirsu were observed, justice was bright
+in the sunlight, and the Sun-god trampled iniquity under foot. The
+building of the temple also restored material prosperity to the land,
+for the canals became full of water and fish swarmed in the pools, the
+granaries were filled with grain and the flocks and herds brought forth
+their increase. The city of Shirpurla was satiated with abundance.
+
+Such is a summary of the account which Gudea has left us of his
+rebuilding of the temple E-ninnu, of the reasons which led him to
+undertake the work, and of the results which followed its completion. It
+has often been said that the inscriptions of the ancient Sumerians are
+without much intrinsic value, that they mainly consist of dull votive
+formulae, and that for general interest the best of them cannot be
+compared with the later inscriptions of the Semitic inhabitants
+of Mesopotamia. This reproach, for which until recently there was
+considerable justification, has been finally removed by the working
+out of the texts upon Gudea's cylinders. For picturesque narrative, for
+wealth of detail, and for striking similes, it would be hard to find
+their superior in Babylonian and Assyrian literature. They are, in fact,
+very remarkable compositions, and in themselves justify the claim that
+the Sumerians were possessed of a literature in the proper sense of the
+term.
+
+But that is not their only value, for they give a vivid picture of
+ancient Sumerian life and of the ideals and aims which actuated the
+people and their rulers. The Sumerians were essentially an unmilitary
+race. That they could maintain a stubborn fight for their territory is
+proved by the prolonged struggle maintained by Shirpurla against her
+rival Gishkhu, but neither ruler nor people was inflamed by love of
+conquest for its own sake. They were settled in a rich and fertile
+country, which supplied their own wants in abundance, and they were
+content to lead a peaceful life therein, engaged in agricultural and
+industrial pursuits, and devoted wholly to the worship of their gods.
+Gudea's inscriptions enable us to realize with what fervour they carried
+out the rebuilding of a temple, and how the whole resources of the
+nation were devoted to the successful completion of the work. It is true
+that the rebuilding of E-ninnu was undertaken in a critical period when
+the land was threatened with famine, and the peculiar magnificence with
+which the work was carried out may be partly explained as due to the
+belief that such devotion would ensure a return of material prosperity.
+But the existence of such a belief is in itself an index to the people's
+character, and we may take it that the record faithfully represents the
+relations of the Sumerians to their gods, and the important place which
+worship and ritual occupied in the national life.
+
+Moreover, the inscriptions of Gudea furnish much valuable information
+with regard to the details of Sumerian worship and the elaborate
+organization of the temples. From them we can reconstruct a picture of
+one of these immense buildings, with its numerous shrines and courts,
+surrounded by sacred gardens and raising its ziggurat, or temple tower,
+high above the surrounding city. Within its dark chambers were the
+mysterious figures of the gods, and what little light could enter would
+have been reflected in the tanks of sacred water sunk to the level of
+the pavement. The air within the shrines must have been heavy with the
+smell of incense and of aromatic woods, while the deep silence would
+have been broken only by the chanting of the priests and the feet of
+those that bore offerings. Outside in the sunlight cedars and other rare
+trees cast a pleasant shade, and birds flew about among the flowers and
+bushes in the outer courts and on the garden terraces. The area covered
+by the temple buildings must have been enormous, for they included the
+dwellings of the priests, stables and pens for the cattle, sheep, and
+kids employed for sacrifice, and treasure-chambers and storehouses and
+granaries for the produce from the temple lands.
+
+We also get much information with regard to the nature of the offerings
+and the character of the ceremonies which were performed. We may mention
+as of peculiar interest Gudea's symbolical rite which preceded the
+making of the sun-dried bricks, and the ceremony of the installation of
+Ningirsu in the presence of the prostrate city. The texts also throw
+an interesting light on the truly Oriental manner in which, when
+approaching one deity for help, the cooperation and assistance of other
+deities were first secured. Thus Gudea solicited the intercession of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug before applying to the goddess Nina to interpret
+his dream. The extremely human character of the gods themselves is also
+well illustrated. Thus we gather from the texts that Ningirsu's temple
+was arranged like the palace of a Sumerian ruler and that he was
+surrounded by gods who took the place of the attendants and ministers
+of his human counterpart. His son was installed in a place of honour and
+shared with him the responsibility of government. Another god was his
+personal attendant and cupbearer, who offered him fair water and looked
+after the ablutions. Two more were his generals, who secured his country
+against the attacks of foes. Another was his counsellor, who received
+and presented petitions from his subjects and superintended his
+journeys. Another was the head of his harim, a position of great
+trust and responsibility, while a keeper of the harim looked after the
+practical details. Another god was the driver of his chariot, and it
+is interesting to note that the chariot was drawn by an ass, for horses
+were not introduced into Western Asia until a much later period. Other
+gods performed the functions of head shepherd, chief musician, chief
+singer, head cultivator and inspector of irrigation, inspector of the
+fishing, land steward, and architect. His household also included his
+wife and his seven virgin daughters. In addition to the account of the
+various functions performed by these lesser deities, the texts also
+furnish valuable facts with regard to the characters and attributes
+of the greater gods and goddesses, such as the attributes of Ningirsu
+himself, and the character of Nina as the goddess who divined and
+interpreted the secrets of the gods.
+
+But perhaps the most interesting conclusions to be drawn from the texts
+relate to the influence exerted by the ancient Sumerians upon Semitic
+beliefs and practices. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
+later Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria drew most of their
+culture from the Sumerians, whom they displaced and absorbed. Their
+system of writing, the general structure of their temples, the ritual of
+their worship, the majority of their religious compositions, and many of
+their gods themselves are to be traced to a Sumerian origin, and much of
+the information obtained from the cylinders of Gudea merely confirms
+or illustrates the conclusions already deduced from other sources. As
+instances we may mention the belief in spirits, which is illustrated by
+the importance attached to the placating of the Anunnaki, or Spirits of
+the Earth, to whom a special place and special offerings were assigned
+in E-ninnu. The Sumerian origin of ceremonies of purification is
+confirmed by Gudea's purification of the city before beginning the
+building of the temple, and again before the transference of the god
+from his old temple to the new one. The consultation of omens, which was
+so marked a feature of Babylonian and Assyrian life, is seen in actual
+operation under the Sumerians; for, even after Gudea had received direct
+instructions from Ningirsu to begin building his temple, he did not
+proceed to carry them out until he had consulted the omens and found
+that they were favourable. Moreover, the references to mythological
+beings, such as the seven heroes, the dragon of the deep, and the god
+who slew the dragon, confirm the opinion that the creation legends and
+other mythological compositions of the Babylonians were derived by them
+from Sumerian sources. But there are two incidents in the narrative
+which are on a rather different plane and are more startling in their
+novelty. One is the story of Gudea's dream, and the other the sign
+which he sought from his god. The former is distinctly apocalyptic in
+character, and both may be parallelled in what is regarded as purely
+Semitic literature. That such conceptions existed among the Sumerians is
+a most interesting fact, and although the theory of independent origin
+is possible, their existence may well have influenced later Semitic
+beliefs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--ELAM AND BABYLON, THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE KASSITES
+
+
+Up to five years ago our knowledge of Elam and of the part she played in
+the ancient world was derived, in the main, from a few allusions to the
+country to be found in the records of Babylonian and Assyrian kings. It
+is true that a few inscriptions of the native rulers had been found in
+Persia, but they belonged to the late periods of her history, and the
+majority consisted of short dedicatory formulae and did not supply us
+with much historical information. But the excavations carried on since
+then by M. de Morgan at Susa have revealed an entirely new chapter of
+ancient Oriental history, and have thrown a flood of light upon the
+position occupied by Elam among the early races of the East.
+
+Lying to the north of the Persian Gulf and to the east of the Tigris,
+and rising from the broad plains nearer the coast to the mountainous
+districts within its borders on the east and north, Elam was one of the
+nearest neighbours of Chaldaea. A few facts concerning her relations with
+Babylonia during certain periods of her history have long been known,
+and her struggles with the later kings of Assyria are known in some
+detail; but for her history during the earliest periods we have had to
+trust mainly to conjecture. That in the earlier as in the later periods
+she should have been in constant antagonism with Babylonia might
+legitimately be suspected, and it is not surprising that we should find
+an echo of her early struggles with Chaldaea in the legends which were
+current in the later periods of Babylonian history. In the fourth and
+fifth tablets, or sections, of the great Babylonian epic which describes
+the exploits of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, a story is told of an
+expedition undertaken by Gilgamesh and his friend Ba-bani against an
+Elamite despot named Khum-baba. It is related in the poem that Khumbaba
+was feared by all who dwelt near him, for his roaring was like the
+storm, and any man perished who was rash enough to enter the cedar-wood
+in which he dwelt. But Gilgamesh, encouraged by a dream sent him by
+Sha-mash, the Sun-god, pressed on with his friend, and, having entered
+the wood, succeeded in slaying Khumbaba and in cutting off his head.
+This legend is doubtless based on episodes in early Babylonian and
+Elamite history. Khumbaba may not have been an actual historical ruler,
+but at least he represents or personifies the power of Elam, and the
+success of Gilgamesh no doubt reflects the aspirations with which many a
+Babylonian expedition set out for the Elamite frontier.
+
+Incidentally it may be noted that the legend possibly had a still closer
+historical parallel, for the name of Khumbaba occurs as a component in
+a proper name upon one of the Elamite contracts found recently by M. de
+Morgan at Mai-Amir. The name in question is written _Khumbaba-arad-ili_,
+"Khumbaba, the servant of God," and it proves that at the date at which
+the contract was written (about 1300-1000 B.C.) the name of Khumbaba was
+still held in remembrance, possibly as that of an early historical ruler
+of the country.
+
+In her struggles with Chaldaea, Elam was not successful during the
+earliest historical period of which we have obtained information; and,
+so far as we can tell at present, her princes long continued to own
+allegiance to the Semitic rulers whose influence was predominant from
+time to time in the plains of Lower Mesopotamia. Tradition relates that
+two of the earliest Semitic rulers whose names are known to us, Sargon
+and Naram-Sin, kings of Agade, held sway in Elam, for in the "Omens"
+which were current in a later period concerning them, the former is
+credited with the conquest of the whole country, while of the latter it
+is related that he conquered Apirak, an Elamite district, and captured
+its king. Some doubts were formerly cast upon these traditions inasmuch
+as they were found in a text containing omens or forecasts, but these
+doubts were removed by the discovery of contemporary documents by which
+the later traditions were confirmed. Sargon's conquest of Elam, for
+instance, was proved to be historical by a reference to the event in a
+date-formula upon tablets belonging to his reign. Moreover, the event
+has received further confirmation from an unpublished tablet in the
+British Museum, containing a copy of the original chronicle from which
+the historical extracts in the "Omens" were derived. The portion of
+the composition inscribed upon this tablet does not contain the lines
+referring to Sargon's conquest of Elam, for these occurred in an earlier
+section of the composition; but the recovery of the tablet puts beyond
+a doubt the historical character of the traditions preserved upon the
+omen-tablet as a whole, and the conquest of Elam is thus confirmed
+by inference. The new text does recount the expedition undertaken by
+Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon, against Apirak, and so furnishes a direct
+confirmation of this event.
+
+Another early conqueror of Elam, who was probably of Semitic origin,
+was Alu-usharshid, king of the city of Kish, for, from a number of his
+inscriptions found near those of Sargon at Nippur in Babylonia, we learn
+that he subdued Elam and Para'se, the district in which the city of Susa
+was probably situated. From a small mace-head preserved in the British
+Museum we know of another conquest of Elam by a Semitic ruler of this
+early period. The mace-head was made and engraved by the orders of
+Mutabil, an early governor of the city of Dur-ilu, to commemorate his
+own valour as the man "who smote the head of the hosts" of Elam. Mutabil
+was not himself an independent ruler, and his conquest of Elam must have
+been undertaken on behalf of the suzerain to whom he owed allegiance,
+and thus his victory cannot be classed in the same category as those of
+his predecessors. A similar remark applies to the success against
+the city of Anshan in Elam, achieved by Grudea, the Sumerian ruler
+of Shirpurla, inasmuch as he was a patesi, or viceroy, and not an
+independent king. Of greater duration was the influence exercised over
+Elam by the kings of Ur, for bricks and contract-tablets have been found
+at Susa proving that Dungi, one of the most powerful kings of Ur, and
+Bur-Sin, Ine-Sin, and Oamil-Sin, kings of the second dynasty in that
+city, all in turn included Elam within the limits of their empire.
+
+Such are the main facts which until recently had been ascertained
+with regard to the influence of early Babylonian rulers in Elam. The
+information is obtained mainly from Babylonian sources, and until
+recently we have been unable to fill in any details of the picture
+from the Elamite side. But this inability has now been removed by M.
+de Morgan's discoveries. From the inscribed bricks, cones, stelae, and
+statues that have been brought to light in the course of his excavations
+at Susa, we have recovered the name of a succession of native Elamite
+rulers. All those who are to be assigned to this early period, during
+which Elam owed allegiance to the kings of Babylonia, ascribe to
+themselves the title of _patesi_, or viceroy, of Susa, in acknowledgment
+of their dependence. Their records consist principally of building
+inscriptions and foundation memorials, and they commemorate the
+construction or repair of temples, the cutting of canals, and the like.
+They do not, therefore, throw much light upon the problems connected
+with the external history of Elam during this early period, but we
+obtain from them a glimpse of the internal administration of the
+country. We see a nation without ambition to extend its boundaries, and
+content, at any rate for the time, to owe allegiance to foreign rulers,
+while the energies of its native princes are devoted exclusively to the
+cultivation of the worship of the gods and to the amelioration of the
+conditions of the life of the people in their charge.
+
+A difficult but interesting problem presents itself for solution at the
+outset of our inquiry into the history of this people as revealed by
+their lately recovered inscriptions,--the problem of their race and
+origin. Found at Susa in Elam, and inscribed by princes bearing purely
+Elamite names, we should expect these votive and memorial texts to be
+written entirely in the Elamite language. But such is not the case,
+for many of them are written in good Semitic Babylonian. While some
+are entirely composed in the tongue which we term Elamite or Anzanite,
+others, so far as their language and style is concerned, might have been
+written by any early Semitic king ruling in Babylonia. Why did early
+princes of Susa make this use of the Babylonian tongue?
+
+At first sight it might seem possible to trace a parallel in the use of
+the Babylonian language by kings and officials in Egypt and Syria
+during the fifteenth century B.C., as revealed in the letters from
+Tell el-Amarna. But a moment's thought will show that the cases are not
+similar. The Egyptian or Syrian scribe employed Babylonian as a medium
+for his official foreign correspondence because Babylonian at that
+period was the _lingua franca_ of the East. But the object of the
+early Elamite rulers was totally different. Their inscribed bricks and
+memorial stelae were not intended for the eyes of foreigners, but for
+those of their own descendants. Built into the structure of a temple,
+or buried beneath the edifice, one of their principal objects was to
+preserve the name and deeds of the writer from oblivion. Like similar
+documents found on the sites of Assyrian and Babylonian cities, they
+sometimes include curses upon any impious man, who, on finding the
+inscription after the temple shall have fallen into ruins, should in
+any way injure the inscription or deface the writer's name. It will be
+obvious that the writers of these inscriptions intended that they should
+be intelligible to those who might come across them in the future. If,
+therefore, they employed the Babylonian as well as the Elamite language,
+it is clear that they expected that their future readers might be either
+Babylonian or Elamite; and this belief can only be explained on the
+supposition that their own subjects were of mixed race.
+
+It is therefore certain that at this early period of Elamite history
+Semitic Babylonians and Elamites dwelt side by side in Susa and retained
+their separate languages. The problem therefore resolves itself into the
+inquiry: which of these two peoples occupied the country first? Were the
+Semites at first in sole possession, which was afterwards disputed by
+the incursion of Elamite tribes from the north and east? Or were the
+Elamites the original inhabitants of the land, into which the Semites
+subsequently pressed from Babylonia?
+
+A similar mixture of races is met with in Babylonia itself in the
+early period of the history of that country. There the early Sumerian
+inhabitants were gradually dispossessed by the invading Semite, who
+adopted the civilization of the conquered race, and took over the system
+of cuneiform writing, which he modified to suit his own language. In
+Babylonia the Semites eventually predominated and the Sumerians as a
+race disappeared, but during the process of absorption the two languages
+were employed indiscriminately. The kings of the First Babylonian
+Dynasty wrote their votive inscriptions sometimes in Sumerian, sometimes
+in Semitic Babylonian; at other times they employed both languages
+for the same text, writing the record first in Sumerian and afterwards
+appending a Semitic translation by the side; and in the legal and
+commercial documents of the period the old Sumerian legal forms and
+phrases were retained intact. In Elam we may suppose that the use of the
+Sumerian and Semitic languages was the same.
+
+It may be surmised, however, that the first Semitic incursions into Elam
+took place at a much later period than those into Babylonia, and under
+very different conditions. When overrunning the plains and cities of the
+Sumerians, the Semites were comparatively uncivilized, and, so far as we
+know, without a system of writing of their own. The incursions into
+Elam must have taken place under the great Semitic conquerors, such as
+Sar-gon and Naram-Sin and Alu-usharshid. At this period they had fully
+adopted and modified the Sumerian characters to express their own
+Semitic tongue, and on their invasion of Elam they brought their system
+of writing with them. The native princes of Elam, whom they conquered,
+adopted it in turn for many of their votive texts and inscribed
+monuments when they wished to write them in the Babylonian language.
+
+Such is the most probable explanation of the occurrence in Elam of
+inscriptions in the Old Babylonian language, written by native princes
+concerning purely domestic matters. But a further question now suggests
+itself. Assuming that this was the order in which events took place,
+are we to suppose that the first Semitic invaders of Elam found there a
+native population in a totally undeveloped stage of civilization? Or did
+they find a population enjoying a comparatively high state of culture,
+different from their own, which they proceeded to modify and transform!
+Luckily, we have not to fall back on conjecture for an answer to these
+questions, for a recent discovery at Susa has furnished material from
+which it is possible to reconstruct in outline the state of culture of
+these early Elamites.
+
+This interesting discovery consists of a number of clay tablets
+inscribed in the proto-Elamite system of writing, a system which was
+probably the only one in use in the country during the period before the
+Semitic invasion. The documents in question are small, roughly formed
+tablets of clay very similar to those employed in the early periods of
+Babylonian history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them
+offer the greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian
+characters with which we are familiar. Although they cannot be fully
+deciphered at present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts,
+the signs upon them consisting of lists of figures and what are
+probably ideographs for things. Some of the ideographs, such as that for
+"tablet," with which many of the texts begin, are very similar to the
+Sumerian or Babylonian signs for the same objects; but the majority are
+entirely different and have been formed and developed upon a system of
+their own.
+
+[Illustration: 230.jpg CLAY TABLET, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN
+INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]
+
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's _Delegation en
+     Perse, Mem._, t. vi, pi. 23.
+
+On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in
+an early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial
+character of the ideographs was still prominent.
+
+[Illustration: 231.jpg CLAY TABLET, RECENTLY FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN
+INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]
+
+     The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan's _Delegation
+     en Perse, Mem._, t. vi, pi. 22.
+
+Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet
+been identified, Pere Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded
+in making out the system of numeration. He has identified the signs for
+unity, 10, 100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for
+these figures are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.
+
+[Illustration: 231a.jpg Fractions]
+
+The system, too, is different, for it is a decimal, and not a
+sexagesimal, system of numeration.
+
+That in its origin this form of writing had some connection with that
+employed and, so far as we know, invented by the ancient Sumerians
+is possible.* But it shows small trace of Sumerian influence, and the
+disparity in the two systems of numeration is a clear indication that,
+at any rate, it broke off and was isolated from the latter at a very
+early period. Having once been adopted by the early Elamites, it
+continued to be used by them for long periods with but small change or
+modification. Employed far from the centre of Sumerian civilization, its
+development was slow, and it seems to have remained in its ideographic
+state, while the system employed by the Sumerians, and adopted by the
+Semitic Babylonians, was developed along syllabic lines.
+
+     * It is, of course, also possible that the system of writing
+     had no connection in its origin with that of the Sumerians,
+     and was invented independently of the system employed in
+     Babylonia. In that case, the signs which resemble certain of
+     the Sumerian characters must have been adopted in a later
+     stage of its development. Though it would be rash to
+     dogmatize on the subject, the view that connects its origin
+     with the Sumerians appears on the whole to fit in best with
+     the evidence at present available.
+
+It was without doubt this proto-Elamite system of writing which the
+Semites from Babylonia found employed in Elam on their first incursions
+into that country. They brought with them their own more convenient form
+of writing, and, when the country had once been finally subdued, the
+subject Elamite princes adopted the foreign system of writing and
+language from their conquerors for memorial and monumental inscriptions.
+But the ancient native writing was not entirely ousted, and continued
+to be employed by the common people of Elam for the ordinary purposes
+of daily life. That this was the case at least until the reign of
+Karibu-sha-Shu-shinak, one of the early subject native rulers, is clear
+from one of his inscriptions engraved upon a block of limestone to
+commemorate the dedication of what were probably some temple furnishings
+in honour of the god Shu-shinak.
+
+[Illustration: 233.jpg BLOCK OF LIMESTONE, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING
+INSCRIPTIONS OF KARIBU-SHA-SHUSHINAK.]
+
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's _Delegation en
+     Perse_, Mem., t. vi, pi. 2.
+
+The main part of the inscription is written in Semitic Babylonian,
+and below there is an addition to the text written in proto-Elamite
+characters, probably enumerating the offerings which the
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak decreed should be made for the future in honour
+of the god.* In course of time this proto-Elamite system of writing by
+means of ideographs seems to have died out, and a modified form of the
+Babylonian system was adopted by the Elamites for writing their own
+language phonetically. It is in this phonetic character that the
+so-called "Anzanite" texts of the later Elamite princes were composed.
+
+     *We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of
+     Karibu-sha-Shushinak. But it is also possible that the
+     second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later
+     period. From its position on the stone it is clear that it
+     was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak's
+     inscription in Semitic Babylonian. See the photographic
+     reproduction.
+
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription
+has been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject
+princes of Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C.
+3000. He styles himself "patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,"
+but we do not know at present to what contemporary king in Babylonia
+he owed allegiance. The longest of his inscriptions that have been
+recovered is engraved upon a stele of limestone and records the building
+of the Gate of Shushinak at Susa and the cutting of a canal; it also
+recounts the offerings which Karibu-sha-Shushinak dedicated on the
+completion of the work. It may here be quoted as an example of the
+class of votive inscriptions from which the names of these early Elamite
+rulers have been recovered. The inscription runs as follows: "For
+the god Shushinak, his lord, Karibu-sha-Shushinak, the son of
+Shimbi-ish-khuk, patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,--when
+he set the (door) of his Gate in place,... in the Gate of the god
+Shushinak, his lord, and when he had opened the canal of Sidur, he set
+up in face thereof his canopy, and he set planks of cedar-wood for its
+gate. A sheep in the interior thereof, and sheep without, he appointed
+(for sacrifice) to him each day. On days of festival he caused the
+people to sing songs in the Gate of the god Shushinak. And twenty
+measures of fine oil he dedicated to make his gate beautiful. Four
+_magi_ of silver he dedicated; a censer of silver and gold he dedicated
+for a sweet odour; a,sword he dedicated; an axe with four blades
+he dedicated, and he dedicated silver in addition for the mounting
+thereof.... A righteous judgment he judged in the city! As for the man
+who shall transgress his judgment or shall remove his gift, may the
+gods Shushinak and Shamash, Bel and Ea, Ninni and Sin, Mnkharsag and
+Nati--may all the gods uproot his foundation, and his seed may they
+destroy!"
+
+It will be seen that Karibu-sha-Shushinak takes a delight in enumerating
+the details of the offerings he has ordained in honour of his city-god
+Shushinak, and this religious temper is peculiarly characteristic of the
+princes of Elam throughout the whole course of their history. Another
+interesting point to notice in the inscription is that, although the
+writer invokes Shushinak, his own god, and puts his name at the head
+of the list of deities whose vengeance he implores upon the impious, he
+also calls upon the gods of the Babylonians. As he wrote the inscription
+itself in Babylonian, in the belief that it might be recovered by
+some future Semitic inhabitant of his country, so he included in his
+imprecations those deities whose names he conceived would be most
+reverenced by such a reader. In addition to Karibu-sha-Shushinak the
+names of a number of other patesis, or viceroys, have recently
+been recovered, such as Khutran-tepti, and Idadu I and his son
+Kal-Rukhu-ratir, and his grandson Idadu II. All these probably ruled
+after Karibu-sha-Shushinak, and may be set in the early period of
+Babylonian supremacy in Elam.
+
+It has been stated above that the allegiance which these early Elamite
+princes owed to their overlords in Babylonia was probably reflected in
+the titles which they bear upon their inscriptions recently found at
+Susa. These titles are "_patesi_ of Susa, _shakkannak_ of Elam," which
+may be rendered as "viceroy of Susa, governor of Elam." But inscriptions
+have been found on the same site belonging to another series of rulers,
+to whom a different title is applied. Instead of referring to themselves
+as viceroys of Susa and governors of Elam, they bear the title of
+_sukkal_ of Elam, of Siparki, and of Susa. Siparki, or Sipar, was
+probably the name of an important section of Elamite territory, and
+the title _sukkalu_, "ruler," probably carries with it an idea of
+independence of foreign control which is absent from the title of
+_patesi_. It is therefore legitimate to trace this change of title to
+a corresponding change in the political condition of Elam; and there is
+much to be said for the view that the rulers of Elam who bore the title
+of _sukkalu_ reigned at a period when Elam herself was independent, and
+may possibly have exercised a suzerainty over the neighbouring districts
+of Babylonia.
+
+The worker of this change in the political condition of Elam and
+the author of her independence was a king named Kutir-Nakhkhunte or
+Kutir-Na'khunde, whose name and deeds have been preserved in
+later Assyrian records, where he is termed Kudur-Nankhundi and
+Kudur-Nakhundu.* This ruler, according to the Assyrian king
+Ashur-bani-pal, was not content with throwing off the yoke under which
+his land had laboured for so long, but carried war into the country of
+his suzerain and marched through Babylonia devastating and despoiling
+the principal cities. This successful Elamite campaign took place,
+according to the computation of the later Assyrian scribes, about the
+year 2280 B. c, and it is probable that for many years afterwards the
+authority of the King of Elam extended over the plains of Babylonia.
+It has been suggested that Kutir-Nakh-khunte, after including Babylonia
+within his empire, did not remain permanently in Elam, but may have
+resided for a part of each year, at least, in Lower Mesopotamia.
+His object, no doubt, would have been to superintend in person the
+administration of his empire and to check any growing spirit of
+independence among his local governors. He may thus have appointed in
+Susa itself a local governor who would carry on the business of the
+country during his absence, and, under the king himself, would wield
+supreme authority. Such governors may have been the sukkali, who, unlike
+the patesi, were independent of foreign control, but yet did not enjoy
+the full title of "king."
+
+     * For references to the passages where the name occurs, see
+     King, _Letters of Hammurabi_, vol. i, p. Ivy.
+
+It is possible that the sukkalu who ruled in Elam during the reign of
+Kutir-Nakhkhunte was named Temti-agun, for a short inscription of
+this ruler has been recovered, in which he records that he built and
+dedicated a certain temple with the object of ensuring the preservation
+of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi. If we may identify the Kutir-Va'khundi
+of this text with the great Elamite conqueror, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, it
+follows that Temti-agun, the sukkal of Susa, was his subordinate. The
+inscription mentions other names which are possibly those of rulers of
+this period, and reads as follows: "Temti-agun, sukkal of Susa, the son
+of the sister of Sirukdu', hath built a temple of bricks at Ishme-karab
+for the preservation of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi, and for the
+preservation of the life of Lila-irtash, and for the preservation of his
+own life, and for the preservation of the life of Temti-khisha-khanesh
+and of Pil-kishamma-khashduk." As Lila-irtash is mentioned immediately
+after Kutir-Na'khundi, he was possibly his son, and he may have
+succeeded him as ruler of the empire of Elam and Babylonia, though no
+confirmation of this view has yet been discovered. Temti-khisha-khanesh
+is mentioned immediately after the reference to the preservation of the
+life of Temti-agun himself, and it may be conjectured that the name was
+that of Temti-agun's son, or possibly that of his wife, in which event
+the last two personages mentioned in the text may have been the sons of
+Temti-agun.
+
+This short text affords a good example of one class of votive
+inscriptions from which it is possible to recover the names of Elamite
+rulers of this period, and it illustrates the uncertainty which at
+present attaches to the identification of the names themselves and the
+order in which they are to be arranged. Such uncertainty necessarily
+exists when only a few texts have been recovered, and it will disappear
+with the discovery of additional monuments by which the results already
+arrived at may be checked. We need not here enumerate all the names of
+the later Elamite rulers which have been found in the numerous votive
+inscriptions recovered during the recent excavations at Susa. The order
+in which they should be arranged is still a matter of considerable
+uncertainty, and the facts recorded by them in such inscriptions as we
+possess mainly concern the building and restoration of Elamite temples
+and the decoration of shrines, and they are thus of no great historical
+interest. These votive texts are well illustrated by a remarkable find
+of foundation deposits made last year by M. de Morgan in the temple of
+Shushinak at Susa, consisting of figures and jewelry of gold and silver,
+and objects of lead, bronze, iron, stone, and ivory, cylinder-seals,
+mace-heads, vases, etc. This is the richest foundation deposit that has
+been recovered on any ancient site, and its archaeological interest in
+connection with the development of Elamite art is great. But in no other
+way does the find affect our conception of the history of the country,
+and we may therefore pass on to a consideration of such recent
+discoveries as throw new light upon the course of history in Western
+Asia.
+
+With the advent of the First Dynasty in Babylon Elam found herself
+face to face with a power prepared to dispute her claims to exercise a
+suzerainty over the plains of Mesopotamia. It is held by many writers
+that the First Dynasty of Babylon was of Arab origin, and there is much
+to be said for this view. M. Pognon was the first to start the theory
+that its kings were not purely Babylonian, but were of either Arab or
+Aramaean extraction, and he based his theory on a study of the forms of
+the names which some of them bore. The name of Samsu-imna, for instance,
+means "the sun is our god," but the form of the words of which the name
+is composed betray foreign influence. Thus in Babylonian the name for
+"sun" or the Sun-god would be _Shamash_ or _Shamshu_, not _Samsu_; in
+the second half of the name, while _ilu_ ("god") is good Babylonian, the
+ending _na_, which is the pronominal suffix of the first person plural,
+is not Babylonian, but Arabic. We need not here enter into a long
+philological discussion, and the instance already cited may suffice to
+show in what way many of the names met in the Babylonian inscriptions
+of this period betray a foreign, and possibly an Arabic, origin. But
+whether we assign the forms of these names to Arabic influence or not,
+it may be regarded as certain that, the First Dynasty of Babylon had
+its origin in the incursion into Babylonia of a new wave of Semitic
+immigration.
+
+[Illustration: 240.jpg BRICK STAMPED WITH AN INSCRIPTION OF
+KUDUR-MABURG]
+
+The invading Semites brought with them fresh blood and unexhausted
+energy, and, finding many of their own race in scattered cities and
+settlements throughout the country, they succeeded in establishing a
+purely Semitic dynasty, with its capital at Babylon, and set about the
+task of freeing the country from any vestiges of foreign control. Many
+centuries earlier Semitic kings had ruled in Babylonian cities, and
+Semitic empires had been formed there. Sargon and Naram-Sin,
+having their capital at Agade, had established their control over a
+considerable area of Western Asia and had held Elam as a province. But
+so far as Elam was concerned Kutir-Nakhkhunte had reversed the balance
+and had raised Elam to the position of the predominant power.
+
+Of the struggles and campaigns of the earlier kings of the First Dynasty
+of Babylon we know little, for, although we possess a considerable
+number of legal and commercial documents of the period, we have
+recovered no strictly historical inscriptions. Our main source of
+information is the dates upon these documents, which are not dated by
+the years of the reigning king, but on a system adopted by the early
+Babylonian kings from their Sumerian predecessors. In the later periods
+of Babylonian history tablets were dated in the year of the king who was
+reigning at the time the document was drawn up, but this simple system
+had not been adopted at this early period. In place of this we find that
+each year was cited by the event of greatest importance which occurred
+in that year. This event might be the cutting of a canal, when the year
+in which this took place might be referred to as "the year in which
+the canal named Ai-khegallu was cut;" or it might be the building of a
+temple, as in the date-formula, "the year in which the great temple of
+the Moon-god was built;" or it might be "the conquest of a city, such
+as the year in which the city of Kish was destroyed." Now it will be
+obvious that this system of dating had many disadvantages. An event
+might be of great importance for one city, while it might never have
+been heard of in another district; thus it sometimes happened that the
+same event was not adopted throughout the whole country for designating
+a particular year, and the result was that different systems of
+dating were employed in different parts of Babylonia. Moreover, when a
+particular system had been in use for a considerable time, it required
+a very good memory to retain the order and period of the various events
+referred to in the date-formulae, so as to fix in a moment the date of a
+document by its mention of one of them. In order to assist themselves
+in their task of fixing dates in this manner, the scribes of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon drew up lists of the titles of the years, arranged
+in chronological order under the reigns of the kings to which they
+referred. Some of these lists have been recovered, and they are of the
+greatest assistance in fixing the chronology, while at the same time
+they furnish us with considerable information concerning the history of
+the period of which we should otherwise have been in ignorance.
+
+From these lists of date-formulae, and from the dates themselves which
+are found upon the legal and commercial tablets of the period, we learn
+that Kish, Ka-sallu, and Isin all gave trouble to the earlier kings of
+the First Dynasty, and had in turn to be subdued. Elam did not watch the
+diminution of her influence in Babylonia without a struggle to retain
+it. Under Kudur-mabug, who was prince or governor of the districts lying
+along the frontier of Elam, the Elamites struggled hard to maintain
+their position in Babylonia, making the city of Ur the centre from which
+they sought to check the growing power of Babylon. From bricks that have
+been recovered from Mukayyer, the site of the city of Ur, we learn that
+Kudur-mabug rebuilt the temple in that city dedicated to the Moon-god,
+which is an indication of the firm hold he had obtained upon the city.
+It was obvious to the new Semitic dynasty in Babylon that, until Ur and
+the neighbouring city of Larsam had been captured, they could entertain
+no hope of removing the Elamite yoke from Southern Babylonia. It is
+probable that the earlier kings of the dynasty made many attempts to
+capture them, with varying success. An echo of one of their struggles in
+which they claimed the victory may be seen in the date-formula for the
+fourteenth year of the reign of Sin-muballit, Hammurabi's father and
+predecessor on the throne of Babylon. This year was referred to in the
+documents of the period as "the year in which the people of Ur were
+slain with the sword." It will be noted that the capture of the city
+is not commemorated, so that we may infer that the slaughter of the
+Elamites which is recorded did not materially reduce their influence,
+as they were left in possession of their principal stronghold. In fact,
+Elam was not signally defeated in the reign of Kudur-mabug, but in that
+of his son Rim-Sin. From the date-formulae of Hammurabi's reign we learn
+that the struggle between Elam and Babylon was brought to a climax in
+the thirtieth year of his reign, when it is recorded in the formulas
+that he defeated the Elamite army and overthrew Rim-Sin, while in the
+following year we gather that he added the land of E'mutbal, that is,
+the western district of Elam, to his dominions.
+
+An unpublished chronicle in the British Museum gives us further details
+of Hammurabi's victory over the Elamites, and at the same time makes it
+clear that the defeat and overthrow of Rim-Sin was not so crushing
+as has hitherto been supposed. This chronicle relates that Hammurabi
+attacked Rim-Sin, and, after capturing the cities of Ur and Larsam,
+carried their spoil to Babylon. Up to the present it has been supposed
+that Hammurabi's victory marked the end of Elamite influence in
+Babylonia, and that thenceforward the supremacy of Babylon was
+established throughout the whole of the country. But from the
+new chronicle we gather that Hammurabi did not succeed in finally
+suppressing the attempts of Elam to regain her former position. It is
+true that the cities of Ur and Larsam were finally incorporated in the
+Babylonian empire, and the letters of Hammurabi to Sin-idinnam, the
+governor whom he placed in authority over Larsam, afford abundant
+evidence of the stringency of the administrative control which he
+established over Southern Babylonia. But Rim-Sin was only crippled for
+the time, and, on being driven from Ur and Larsam, he retired beyond
+the Elamite frontier and devoted his energies to the recuperation of his
+forces against the time when he should feel himself strong enough again
+to make a bid for victory in his struggle against the growing power of
+Babylon. It is probable that he made no further attempt to renew the
+contest during the life of Hammurabi, but after Samsu-iluna, the son
+of Hammurabi, had succeeded to the Babylonian throne, he appeared in
+Babylonia at the head of the forces he had collected, and attempted to
+regain the cities and territory he had lost.
+
+[Illustration: 245.jpg SEMITIC BABYLONIAN CONTRACT-TABLET]
+
+     Inscribed in the reign of Hammurabi with a deed recording
+     the division of property. The actual tablet is on the right;
+     that which appears to be another and larger tablet on the
+     left is the hollow clay case in which the tablet on the
+     right was originally enclosed. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     & Co.
+
+The portion of the text of the chronicle relating to the war between
+Rim-Sin and Samsu-iluna is broken so that it is not possible to follow
+the campaign in detail, but it appears that Samsu-iluna defeated
+Rim-Sin, and possibly captured him or burnt him alive in a palace in
+which he had taken refuge.
+
+With the final defeat of Rim-Sin by Samsu-iluna it is probable that Elam
+ceased to be a thorn in the side of the kings of Babylon and that
+she made no further attempts to extend her authority beyond her own
+frontiers. But no sooner had Samsu-iluna freed his country from all
+danger from this quarter than he found himself faced by a new foe,
+before whom the dynasty eventually succumbed. This fact we learn from
+the unpublished chronicle to which reference has already been made, and
+the name of this new foe, as supplied by the chronicle, will render
+it necessary to revise all current schemes of Babylonian chronology.
+Samsu-iluna's new foe was no other than Iluma-ilu, the first king of the
+Second Dynasty, and, so far from having been regarded as Samsu-iluna's
+contemporary, hitherto it has been imagined that he ascended the throne
+of Babylon one hundred and eighteen years after Samsu-iluna's death.
+The new information supplied by the chronicle thus proves two important
+facts: first, that the Second Dynasty, instead of immediately succeeding
+the First Dynasty, was partly contemporary with it; second, that during
+the period in which the two dynasties were contemporary they were at
+war with one another, the Second Dynasty gradually encroaching on
+the territory of the First Dynasty, until it eventually succeeded in
+capturing Babylon and in getting the whole of the country under its
+control. We also learn from the new chronicle that this Second Dynasty
+at first established itself in "the Country of the Sea," that is to say,
+the districts in the extreme south of Babylonia bordering on the Persian
+Gulf, and afterwards extended its borders northward until it gradually
+absorbed the whole of Babylonia. Before discussing the other facts
+supplied by the new chronicle, with regard to the rise and growth of the
+Country of the Sea, whose kings formed the so-called "Second Dynasty,"
+it will be well to refer briefly to the sources from which the
+information on the period to be found in the current histories is
+derived.
+
+All the schemes of Babylonian chronology that have been suggested during
+the last twenty years have been based mainly on the great list of kings
+which is preserved in the British Museum. This document was drawn up in
+the Neo-Babylonian or Persian period, and when complete it gave a list
+of the names of all the Babylonian kings from the First Dynasty of
+Babylon down to the time in which it was written. The names of the kings
+are arranged in dynasties, and details are given as to the length of
+their reigns and the total number of years each dynasty lasted. The
+beginning of the list which gave the names of the First Dynasty is
+wanting, but the missing portion has been restored from a smaller
+document which gives a list of the kings of the First and Second
+Dynasties only. In the great list of kings the dynasties are arranged
+one after the other, and it was obvious that its compiler imagined that
+they succeeded one another in the order in which he arranged them.
+But when the total number of years the dynasties lasted is learned, we
+obtain dates for the first dynasties in the list which are too early to
+agree with other chronological information supplied by the historical
+inscriptions. The majority of writers have accepted the figures of the
+list of kings and have been content to ignore the discrepancies; others
+have sought to reconcile the available data by ingenious emendations of
+the figures given by the list and the historical inscriptions, or have
+omitted the Second Dynasty entirely from their calculations. The new
+chronicle, by showing that the First and Second Dynasties were partly
+contemporaneous, explains the discrepancies that have hitherto proved so
+puzzling.
+
+It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed discussion of
+Babylonian chronology, and therefore we will confine ourselves to a
+brief description of the sequence of events as revealed by the new
+chronicle. According to the list of kings, Iluma-ilu's reign was a long
+one, lasting for sixty years, and the new chronicle gives no indication
+as to the period of his reign at which active hostilities with Babylon
+broke out. If the war occurred in the latter portion of his reign, it
+would follow that he had been for many years organizing the forces of
+the new state he had founded in the south of Babylonia before making
+serious encroachments in the north; and in that case the incessant
+campaigns carried on by Babylon against Blam in the reigns of Hammurabi
+and Samsu-iluna would have afforded him the opportunity of establishing
+a firm foothold in the Country of the Sea without the risk of Babylonian
+interference. If, on the other hand, it was in the earlier part of his
+reign that hostilities with Babylon broke out, we may suppose that,
+while Samsu-iluna was devoting all his energies to crush Bim-Sin, the
+Country of the Sea declared her independence of Babylonian control. In
+this case we may imagine Samsu-iluna hurrying south, on the conclusion
+of his Elamite campaign, to crush the newly formed state before it had
+had time to organize its forces for prolonged resistance.
+
+Whichever of these alternatives eventually may prove to be correct, it
+is certain that Samsu-iluna took the initiative in Babylon's struggle
+with the Country of the Sea, and that his action was due either to her
+declaration of independence or to some daring act of aggression on the
+part of this small state which had hitherto appeared too insignificant
+to cause Babylon any serious trouble. The new chronicle tells us that
+Samsu-iluna undertook two expeditions against the Country of the Sea,
+both of which proved unsuccessful. In the first of these he penetrated
+to the very shores of the Persian Gulf, where a battle took place in
+which Samsu-iluna was defeated, and the bodies of many of the Babylonian
+soldiers were washed away by the sea. In the second campaign Iluma-ilu
+did not await Samsu-iluna's attack, but advanced to meet him, and again
+defeated the Babylonian army. In the reign of Abeshu', Samsu-iluna's
+son and successor, Iluma-ilu appears to have undertaken fresh acts of
+aggression against Babylon; and it was probably during one of his raids
+in Babylonian territory that Abeshu' attempted to crush the growing power
+of the Country of the Sea by the capture of its daring leader, Iluma-ilu
+himself. The new chronicle informs us that, with this object in
+view, Abeshu' dammed the river Tigris, hoping by this means to cut off
+Iluma-ilu and his army, but his stratagem did not succeed, and Iluma-ilu
+got back to his own territory in safety.
+
+The new chronicle does not supply us with further details of the
+struggle between Babylon and the Country of the Sea, but we may conclude
+that all similar attempts on the part of the later kings of the First
+Dynasty to crush or restrain the power of the new state were useless. It
+is probable that from this time forward the kings of the First Dynasty
+accepted the independence of the Country of the Sea upon their southern
+border as an evil which they were powerless to prevent. They must have
+looked back with regret to the good times the country had enjoyed under
+the powerful sway of Hammurabi, whose victorious arms even their ancient
+foes, the Blamites, had been unable to withstand. But, although the
+chronicle does not recount the further successes achieved by the Country
+of the Sea, it records a fact which undoubtedly contributed to hasten
+the fall of Babylon and bring the First Dynasty to an end. It tells us
+that in the reign of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty,
+the men of the land of Khattu (the Hittites from Northern Syria) marched
+against him in order to conquer the land of Akkad; in other words, they
+marched down the Euphrates and invaded Northern Babylonia. The chronicle
+does not state how far the invasion was successful, but the appearance
+of a new enemy from the northwest must have divided the Babylonian
+forces and thus have reduced their power of resisting pressure from the
+Country of the Sea. Samsu-ditana may have succeeded in defeating the
+Hittites and in driving them from his country; but the fact that he
+was the last king of the First Dynasty proves that in his reign Babylon
+itself fell into the hands of the king of the Country of the Sea.
+
+The question now arises, To what race did the people of the Country
+of the Sea belong? Did they represent an advance-guard of the Kassite
+tribes, who eventually succeeded in establishing themselves as the Third
+Dynasty in Babylon? Or were they the Elamites who, when driven from Ur
+and Larsam, retreated southwards and maintained their independence on
+the shores of the Persian Gulf? Or did they represent some fresh wave of
+Semitic immigration'? That they were not Kassites is proved by the new
+chronicle which relates how the Country of the Sea was conquered by the
+Kassites, and how the dynasty founded by Iluma-ilu thus came to an end.
+There is nothing to show that they were Elamites, and if the Country of
+the Sea had been colonized by fresh Semitic tribes, so far from opposing
+their kindred in Babylon, most probably they would have proved to them
+a source of additional strength and support. In fact, there are
+indications that the people of the Country of the Sea are to be referred
+to an older stock than the Elamites, the Semites, or the Kassites. In
+the dynasty of the Country of the Sea there is no doubt that we may
+trace the last successful struggle of the ancient Sumerians to retain
+possession of the land which they had held for so many centuries before
+the invading Semites had disputed its possession with them.
+
+Evidence of the Sumerian origin of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea may be traced in the names which several of them bear. Ishkibal,
+Grulkishar, Peshgal-daramash, A-dara-kalama, Akur-ul-ana, and
+Melam-kur-kura, the names of some of them, are all good Sumerian names,
+and Shushshi, the brother of Ishkibal, may also be taken as a Sumerian
+name. It is true that the first three kings of the dynasty, Iluma-ilu,
+Itti-ili-nibi, and Damki-ilishu, and the last king of the dynasty,
+Ea-gamil, bear Semitic Babylonian names, but there is evidence that
+at least one of these is merely a Semitic rendering of a Sumerian
+equivalent. Iluma-ilu, the founder of the dynasty, has left inscriptions
+in which his name is written in its correct Sumerian form as
+Dingir-a-an, and the fact that he and some of his successors either bore
+Semitic names or appear in the late list of kings with their Sumerian
+names translated into Babylonian form may be easily explained by
+supposing that the population of the Country of the Sea was mixed and
+that the Sumerian and Semitic tongues were to a great extent employed
+indiscriminately. This supposition is not inconsistent with the
+suggestion that the dynasty of the Country of the Sea was Sumerian, and
+that under it the Sumerians once more became the predominant race in
+Babylonia.
+
+The new chronicle also relates how the dynasty of the Country of the
+Sea succumbed in its turn before the incursions of the Kassites. We know
+that already under the First Dynasty the Kassite tribes had begun to
+make incursions into Babylonia, for the ninth year of Samsu-iluna was
+named in the date-formulae after a Kassite invasion, which, as it
+was commemorated in this manner by the Babylonians, was probably
+successfully repulsed. Such invasions must have taken place from time to
+time during the period of supremacy attained by the Country of the Sea,
+and it was undoubtedly with a view to stopping such incursions--for the
+future that Ea-gamil--the last king of the Second Dynasty, decided to
+invade Elam and conquer the mountainous districts in which the Kassite
+tribes had built their strongholds. This Elamite campaign of Ea-gamil
+is recorded by the new chronicle, which relates how he was defeated and
+driven from the country by Ulam-Buriash, the brother of Bitiliash the
+Kassite. Ulam-Buriash did not rest content with repelling Ea-gamil's
+invasion of his land, but pursued him across the border and succeeded
+in conquering the Country of the Sea and in establishing there his own
+administration. The gradual conquest of the whole of Babylonia by the
+Kassites no doubt followed the conquest of the Country of the Sea,
+for the chronicle relates how the process of subjugation, begun by
+Ulam-Buriash, was continued by his nephew Agum, and we know from the
+lists of kings that Ea-gamil was the last king of the dynasty founded by
+Iluma-ilu. In this fashion the Second Dynasty was brought to an end, and
+the Sumerian element in the mixed population of Babylonia did not again
+succeed in gaining control of the government of the country.
+
+It will be noticed that the account of the earliest Kassite rulers of
+Babylonia which is given by the new chronicle does not exactly tally
+with the names of the kings of the Third Dynasty as found upon the
+list of kings. On this document the first king of the dynasty is named
+Gandash, with whom we may probably identify Ulam-Buriash, the Kassite
+conqueror of the Country of the Sea; the second king is Agum, and the
+third is Bitiliashi. According to the new chronicle Agum was the son
+of Bitiliashi, and it would be improbable that he should have ruled in
+Babylonia before his father. But this difficulty is removed by supposing
+that the two names were transposed by some copyist. The different
+names assigned to the founder of the Kassite dynasty may be due to
+the existence of variant traditions, or Ulam-Buriash may have assumed
+another name on his conquest of Babylonia, a practice which was usual
+with the later kings of Assyria when they occupied the Babylonian
+throne.
+
+The information supplied by the new chronicle with regard to the
+relations of the first three dynasties to one another is of the greatest
+possible interest to the student of early Babylonian history. We see
+that the Semitic empire founded at Babylon by Sumu-abu, and consolidated
+by Hammurabi, was not established on so firm a basis as has hitherto
+been believed. The later kings of the dynasty, after Elam had been
+conquered, had to defend their empire from encroachments on the south,
+and they eventually succumbed before the onslaught of the Sumerian
+element, which still remained in the population of Babylonia and had
+rallied in the Country of the Sea. This dynasty in its turn succumbed
+before the invasion of the Kassites from the mountains in the western
+districts of Elam, and, although the city of Babylon retained her
+position as the capital of the country throughout these changes of
+government, she was the capital of rulers of different races, who
+successively fought for and obtained the control of the fertile plains
+of Mesopotamia.
+
+It is probable that the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty exercised
+authority not only over Babylonia but also over the greater part of
+Elam, for a number of inscriptions of Kassite kings of Babylonia have
+been found by M. de Morgan at Susa. These inscriptions consist of
+grants of land written on roughly shaped stone stelae, a class which the
+Babylonians themselves called _kudurru_, while they have been frequently
+referred to by modern writers as "boundary-stones." This latter term
+is not very happily chosen, for it suggests that the actual monuments
+themselves were set up on the limits of a field or estate to mark its
+boundary. It is true that the inscription on a kudurru enumerates the
+exact position and size of the estate with which it is concerned,
+but the kudurru was never actually used to mark the boundary. It was
+preserved as a title-deed, in the house of the owner of the estate or
+possibly in the temple of his god, and formed his charter or title-deed
+to which he could appeal in case of any dispute arising as to his right
+of ownership. One of the kudurrus found by M. de Morgan records the
+grant of a number of estates near Babylon by Nazimaruttash, a king of
+the Third or Kassite Dynasty, to the god Marduk, that is to say they
+were assigned by the king to the service of E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk at Babylon.
+
+[Illustration: 256.jpg A KUDURRU OR "BOUNDARY-STONE."]
+
+     Inscribed with a text of Nazimaruttash, a king of the Third
+     or Kassite Dynasty, conferring certain estates near Babylon
+     on the temple of Marduk and on a certain man named Kashakti-
+     Shugab. The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan's
+     Delegation en Perse, Mem., t. ii, pi, 18.
+
+All the crops and produce from the land were granted for the supply of
+the temple, which was to enjoy the property without the payment of any
+tax or tribute. The text also records the gift of considerable tracts of
+land in the same district to a private individual named Kashakti-Shugab,
+who was to enjoy a similar freedom from taxation so far as the lands
+bestowed upon him were concerned.
+
+This freedom from taxation is specially enacted by the document in
+the words: "Whensoever in the days that are to come the ruler of the
+country, or one of the governors, or directors, or wardens of these
+districts, shall make any claim with regard to these estates, or shall
+attempt to impose the payment of a tithe or tax upon them, may all the
+great gods whose names are commemorated, or whose arms are portrayed, or
+whose dwelling-places are represented, on this stone, curse him with an
+evil curse and blot out his name!"
+
+Incidentally, this curse illustrates one of the most striking
+characteristics of the kudurrus, or "boundary-stones," viz. the carved
+figures of gods and representations of their emblems, which all of them
+bare in addition to the texts inscribed upon them. At one time it was
+thought that these symbols were to be connected with the signs of the
+zodiac and various constellations and stars, and it was suggested that
+they might have been intended to represent the relative positions of the
+heavenly bodies at the time the document was drawn up. But this text
+of Nazimaruttash and other similar documents that have recently been
+discovered prove that the presence of the figures and emblems of the
+gods upon the stones is to be explained on another and far more simple
+theory. They were placed there as guardians of the property to which the
+kudurru referred, and it was believed that the carving of their figures
+or emblems upon the stone would ensure their intervention in case of
+any attempted infringement of the rights and privileges which it was
+the object of the document to commemorate and preserve. A photographic
+reproduction of one side of the kudurru of Nazi-maruttash is shown in
+the accompanying illustration. There will be seen a representation of
+Gula or Bau, the mother of the gods, who is portrayed as seated on
+her throne and wearing the four-horned head-dress and a long robe
+that reaches to her feet. In the field are emblems of the Sun-god, the
+Moon-god, Ishtar, and other deities, and the representation of divine
+emblems and dwelling-places is continued on another face of the stone
+round the corner towards which Grula is looking. The other two faces of
+the document are taken up with the inscription.
+
+An interesting note is appended to the text inscribed upon the stone,
+beginning under the throne and feet of Marduk and continuing under the
+emblems of the gods upon the other side. This note relates the history
+of the document in the following words: "In those days Kashakti-Shugab,
+the son of Nusku-na'id, inscribed (this document) upon a memorial
+of clay, and he set it before his god. But in the reign of
+Marduk-aplu-iddina, king of hosts, the son of Melishikhu, King
+of Babylon, the wall fell upon this memorial and crushed it.
+Shu-khuli-Shugab, the son of Nibishiku, wrote a copy of the ancient
+text upon a new stone stele, and he set it (before the god)." It will be
+seen, therefore, that this actual stone that has been recovered was not
+the document drawn up in the reign of Nazimaruttash, but a copy made
+under Marduk-aplu-iddina, a later king of the Third Dynasty. The
+original deed was drawn up to preserve the rights of Kashakti-Shugab,
+who shared the grant of land with the temple of Marduk. His share was
+less than half that of the temple, but, as both were situated in the
+same district, he was careful to enumerate and describe the temple's
+share, to prevent any encroachment on his rights by the Babylonian
+priests.
+
+It is probable that such grants of land were made to private individuals
+in return for special services which they had rendered to the king. Thus
+a broken kudurru among M. de Morgan's finds records the confirmation of
+a man's claims to certain property by Biti-liash II, the claims being
+based on a grant made to the man's ancestor by Kurigalzu for services
+rendered to the king during his war with Assyria. One of the finest
+specimens of this class of charters or title-deeds has been found at
+Susa, dating from the reign of Melishikhu, a king of the Third Dynasty.
+The document in question records a grant of certain property in the
+district of Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu, near the cities Agade and Dur-Kurigalzu,
+made by Melishikhu to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son, who succeeded him
+upon the throne of Babylon. The text first gives details with regard to
+the size and situation of the estates included in the grant of land, and
+it states the names of the high officials who were entrusted with the
+duty of measuring them. The remainder of the text defines and secures
+the privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina together with the land,
+and, as it throws considerable light upon the system of land tenure at
+the period, an extract from it may here be translated:
+
+"To prevent the encroachment on his land," the inscription runs, "thus
+hath he (i.e. the king) established his (Marduk-aplu-iddina's) charter.
+On his land taxes and tithes shall they not impose; ditches, limits, and
+boundaries shall they not displace; there shall be no plots, stratagems,
+or claims (with regard to his possession); for forced labour or public
+work for the prevention of floods, for the maintenance and repair of
+the royal canal under the protection of the towns of Bit-Sikkamidu
+and Damik-Adad, among the gangs levied in the towns of the district of
+Nina-Agade, they shall not call out the people of his estate; they are
+not liable to forced labour on the sluices of the royal canal, nor
+are they liable for building dams, nor for closing the canal, nor for
+digging out the bed thereof."
+
+[Illustration: 260.jpg KUOTTRRU, OR "BOUNDARY-STONE."]
+
+     Inscribed with a text of Melishikhu, one of the kings of the
+     Third or Kassite Dynasty of Babylon, recording a grant of
+     certain property to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son The
+     photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan's Delegation en
+     Perse, Mem., t. ii, pi. 24.
+
+"A cultivator of his lands, whether hired or belonging to the estate,
+and the men who receive his instructions (i.e. his overseers) shall no
+governor of Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu cause to leave his lands, whether by the
+order of the king, or by the order of the governor, or by the order of
+whosoever may be at Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu. On wood, grass, straw, corn,
+and every other sort of crop, on his carts and yoke, on his ass and
+man-servant, shall they make no levy. During the scarcity of water in
+the canal running between the Bati-Anzanim canal and the canal of the
+royal district, on the waters of his ditch for irrigation shall they
+make no levy; from the ditch of his reservoir shall they not draw water,
+neither shall they divert (his water for) irrigation, and other land
+shall they not irrigate nor water therewith. The grass of his lands
+shall they not mow; the beasts belonging to the king or to a governor,
+which may be assigned to the district of Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu, shall they
+not drive within his boundary, nor shall they pasture them on his grass.
+He shall not be forced to build a road or a bridge, whether for the
+king, or for the governor who may be appointed in the district of
+Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu, neither shall he be liable for any new form of
+forced labour, which in the days that are to come a king, or a governor
+appointed in the district of Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu, shall institute and
+exact, nor for forced labour long fallen into disuse which may be
+revived anew. To prevent encroachment on his land the king hath fixed
+the privileges of his domain, and that which appertaineth unto it, and
+all that he hath granted unto him; and in the presence of Shamash, and
+Marduk, and Anunitu, and the great gods of heaven and earth, he hath
+inscribed them upon a stone, and he hath left it as an everlasting
+memorial with regard to his estate."
+
+The whole of the text is too long to quote, and it will suffice to note
+here that Melishikhu proceeds to appeal to future kings to respect the
+land and privileges which he has granted to his son, Marduk-aplu-iddina,
+even as he himself has respected similar grants made by his predecessors
+on the throne; and the text ends with some very vivid curses against
+any one, whatever his station, who should make any encroachments on the
+privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina, or should alter or do any harm
+to the memorial-stone itself. The emblems of the gods whom Melishikhu
+invokes to avenge any infringement of his grant are sculptured upon one
+side of the stone, for, as has already been remarked, it was believed
+that by carving them upon the memorial-stone their help in guarding the
+stone itself and its enactments was assured.
+
+From the portion of the text inscribed upon the stone which has just
+been translated it is seen that the owner of land in Babylonia in the
+period of the Kassite kings, unless he was granted special exemption,
+was liable to furnish forced labour for public works to the state or to
+his district, to furnish grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of
+the king or governor, and to pay various taxes and tithes on his land,
+his water for irrigation, and his crops. From the numerous documents
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon that have been recovered and published
+within the last few years we know that similar customs were prevalent at
+that period, so that it is clear that the successive conquests to which
+the country was subjected, and the establishment of different dynasties
+of foreign kings at Babylon, did not to any appreciable extent affect
+the life and customs of the inhabitants of the country or even the
+general character of its government and administration. Some documents
+of a commercial and legal nature, inscribed upon clay tablets during the
+reigns of the Kassite kings of Babylon, have been found at Nippur,
+but they have not yet been published, and the information we possess
+concerning the life of the people in this period is obtained indirectly
+from kudurrus or boundary-stones, such as those of Nazimaruttash and
+Melishikhu which have been already described. Of documents relating to
+the life of the people under the rule of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea we have none, and, with the exception of the unpublished chronicle
+which has been described earlier in this chapter, our information for
+this period is confined to one or two short votive inscriptions. But the
+case is very different with regard to the reigns of the Semitic kings of
+the First Dynasty of Babylon. Thousands of tablets relating to legal and
+commercial transactions during this period have been recovered, and more
+recently a most valuable series of royal letters, written by Hammurabi
+and other kings of his dynasty, has been brought to light.
+
+[Illustration: 264.jpg Upper Part of the Stele of Hammurabi, King of
+Babylon.]
+
+     The stele is inscribed with his great code of laws. The Sun-
+     god is represented as seated on a throne in the form of a
+     temple facade, and his feet are resting upon the mountains.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+Moreover, the recently discovered code of laws drawn up by Hammurabi
+contains information of the greatest interest with regard to the
+conditions of life that were prevalent in Babylonia at that period.
+From these three sources it is possible to draw up a comparatively full
+account of early Babylonian life and customs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+
+
+In tracing the ancient history of Mesopotamia and the surrounding
+countries it is possible to construct a narrative which has the
+appearance of being comparatively full and complete. With regard to
+Babylonia it may be shown how dynasty succeeded dynasty, and for long
+periods together the names of the kings have been recovered and the
+order of their succession fixed with certainty. But the number and
+importance of the original documents on which this connected narration
+is based vary enormously for different periods. Gaps occur in our
+knowledge of the sequence of events, which with some ingenuity may be
+bridged over by means of the native lists of kings and the genealogies
+furnished by the historical inscriptions. On the other hand, as if to
+make up for such parsimony, the excavations have yielded a wealth of
+material for illustrating the conditions of early Babylonian life which
+prevailed in such periods. The most fortunate of these periods, so far
+as the recovery of its records is concerned, is undoubtedly the period
+of the Semitic kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and in particular
+the reign of its greatest ruler, Hammurabi. When M. Maspero wrote his
+history, thousands of clay tablets, inscribed with legal and commercial
+documents and dated in the reigns of these early kings, had already been
+recovered, and the information they furnished was duly summarized by
+him.* But since that time two other sources of information have been
+made available which have largely increased our knowledge of
+the constitution of the early Babylonian state, its system of
+administration, and the conditions of life of the various classes of the
+population.
+
+     * Most of these tablets are preserved in the British Museum.
+     The principal?works in which they have been published are
+     Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum (1896, etc.),
+     Strassmaier's Altbabylonischen Vertrage aus Warka, and
+     Meissner's Beitrage zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht. A
+     number of similar tablets of this period, preserved in the
+     Pennsylvania Museum, will shortly be published by Dr. Ranke.
+
+One of these new sources of information consists of a remarkable series
+of royal letters, written by kings of the First Dynasty, which has been
+recovered and is now preserved in the British Museum. The letters were
+addressed to the governors and high officials of various great cities in
+Babylonia, and they contain the king's orders with regard to details of
+the administration of the country which had been brought to his notice.
+The range of subjects with which they deal is enormous, and there is
+scarcely one of them which does not add to our knowledge of the period.*
+The other new source of information is the great code of laws, drawn up
+by Hammurabi for the guidance of his people and defining the duties and
+privileges of all classes of his subjects, the discovery of which at
+Susa has been described in a previous chapter. The laws are engraved on
+a great stele of diorite in no less than forty-nine columns of writing,
+of which forty-four are preserved,* and at the head of the stele is
+sculptured a representation of the king receiving them from Shamash, the
+Sun-god.
+
+     * See King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, 3 vols.
+     (1898-1900).
+
+This code shows to what an extent the administration of law and justice
+had been developed in Babylonia in the time of the First Dynasty. From
+the contracts and letters of the period we already knew that regular
+judges and duly appointed courts of law were in existence, and the code
+itself was evidently intended by the king to give the royal sanction to
+a great body of legal decisions and enactments which already possessed
+the authority conferred by custom and tradition. The means by which such
+a code could have come into existence are illustrated by the system of
+procedure adopted in the courts at this period. After a case had been
+heard and judgment had been given, a summary of the case and of the
+evidence, together with the judgment, was drawn up and written out on
+tablets in due legal form and phraseology. A list of the witnesses was
+appended, and, after the tablet had been dated and sealed, it was stored
+away among the legal archives of the court, where it was ready for
+production in the event of any future appeal or case in which the
+recorded decision was involved. This procedure represents an advanced
+stage in the system of judicial administration, but the care which
+was taken for the preservation of the judgments given was evidently
+traditional, and would naturally give rise in course of time to the
+existence of a recognized code of laws.
+
+Moreover, when once a judgment had been given and had been duly recorded
+it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision
+he was severely punished. For not only was he expelled from his
+judgment-seat, and debarred from exercising judicial functions in the
+future, but, if his judgment had involved the infliction of a penalty,
+he was obliged to pay twelve times the amount to the man he had
+condemned. Such an enactment must have occasionally given rise to
+hardship or injustice, but at least it must have had the effect
+of imbuing the judges with a sense of their responsibility and of
+instilling a respect for their decisions in the minds of the people. A
+further check upon injustice was provided by the custom of the elders of
+the city, who sat with the judge and assisted him in the carrying out
+of his duties; and it was always open to a man, if he believed that he
+could not get justice enforced, to make an appeal to the king. It is not
+our present purpose to give a technical discussion of the legal contents
+of the code, but rather to examine it with the object of ascertaining
+what light it throws upon ancient Babylonian life and customs, and the
+conditions under which the people lived.
+
+The code gives a good deal of information with regard to the family life
+of the Babylonians, and, above all, proves the sanctity with which the
+marriage-tie was invested. The claims that were involved by marriage
+were not lightly undertaken. Any marriage, to be legally binding, had to
+be accompanied by a duly executed and attested marriage-contract. If a
+man had taken a woman to wife without having carried out this necessary
+preliminary, the woman was not regarded as his wife in the legal sense.
+On the other hand, when once such a marriage-contract had been drawn up,
+its inviolability was stringently secured. A case of proved adultery
+on the part of a man's wife was punished by the drowning of the guilty
+parties, though the husband of the woman, if he wished to save his wife,
+could do so by an appeal to the king. Similarly, death was the penalty
+for a man who ravished another man's betrothed wife while she was still
+living in her father's house, but in this case the girl's innocence
+and inexperience were taken into account, and no penalty was enforced
+against her and she was allowed to go free. Where the adultery of a wife
+was not proved, and only depended on the accusation of the husband, the
+woman could clear herself by swearing her own innocence; if, however,
+the accusation was not brought by the husband himself, but by others,
+the woman could clear herself by submitting to the ordeal by water; that
+is to say, she would plunge into the Euphrates; if the river carried her
+away and she were drowned, it was regarded as proof that the accusation
+was well founded; if, on the contrary, she survived and got safely
+to the bank, she was considered innocent and was forthwith allowed to
+return to her household completely vindicated.
+
+It will have been seen that the duty of chastity on the part of a
+married woman was strictly enforced, but the husband's responsibility to
+properly maintain his wife was also recognized, and in the event of
+his desertion she could under certain circumstances become the wife of
+another man. Thus, if he left his city and fled from it of his own free
+will and deserted his wife, he could not reclaim her on his return,
+since he had not been forced to leave the city, but had done so because
+he hated it. This rule did not apply to the case of a man who was taken
+captive in battle. In such circumstances the wife's action was to be
+guided by the condition of her husband's affairs. If the captive husband
+possessed sufficient property on which his wife could be maintained
+during his captivity in a strange land, she had no reason nor excuse
+for seeking another marriage. If under these circumstances she became
+another man's wife, she was to be prosecuted at law, and, her action
+being the equivalent of adultery, she was to be drowned. But the case
+was regarded as altered if the captive husband had not sufficient means
+for the maintenance of his wife during his absence. The woman would then
+be thrown on her own resources, and if she became the wife of another
+man she incurred no blame. On the return of the captive he could reclaim
+his wife, but the children of the second marriage would remain with
+their own father. These regulations for the conduct of a woman, whose
+husband was captured in battle, give an intimate picture of the manner
+in which the constant wars of this early period affected the lives of
+those who took part in them.
+
+Under the Babylonians at the period of the First Dynasty divorce was
+strictly regulated, though it was far easier for the man to obtain one
+than for the woman. If we may regard the copies of Sumerian laws, which
+have come down to us from the late Assyrian period, as parts of the code
+in use under the early Sumerians, we must conclude that at this earlier
+period the law was still more in favour of the husband, who could
+divorce his wife whenever he so desired, merely paying her half a mana
+as compensation. Under the Sumerians the wife could not obtain a
+divorce at all, and the penalty for denying her husband was death. These
+regulations were modified in favour of the woman in Hammurabi's code;
+for under its provisions, if a man divorced his wife or his concubine,
+he was obliged to make proper provision for her maintenance. Whether
+she were barren or had borne him children, he was obliged to return
+her marriage portion; and in the latter case she had the custody of the
+children, for whose maintenance and education he was obliged to furnish
+the necessary supplies. Moreover, at the man's death she and her
+children would inherit a share of his property. When there had been no
+marriage portion, a sum was fixed which the husband was obliged to pay
+to his divorced wife, according to his status. In cases where the wife
+was proved to have wasted her household and to have entirely failed in
+her duty, her husband could divorce her without paying any compensation,
+or could make her a slave in his house, and the extreme penalty for
+this offence was death. On the other hand, a woman could not be divorced
+because she had contracted a permanent disease; and, if she desired to
+divorce her husband and could prove that her past life had been seemly,
+she could do so, returning to her father's house and taking her marriage
+portion with her.
+
+It is not necessary here to go very minutely into the regulations given
+by the code with regard to marriage portions, the rights of widows,
+the laws of inheritance, and the laws regulating the adoption and
+maintenance of children. The customs that already have been described
+with regard to marriage and divorce may serve to indicate the spirit
+in which the code is drawn up and the recognized status occupied by the
+wife in the Babylonian household. The extremely independent position
+enjoyed by women in the early Babylonian days is illustrated by the
+existence of a special class of women, to which constant reference is
+made in the contracts and letters of the period. When the existence of
+this class of women was first recognized from the references to them in
+the contract-tablets inscribed at the time of the First Dynasty, they
+were regarded as priestesses, but the regulations concerning them which
+occur in the code of Hammurabi prove that their duties were not strictly
+sacerdotal, but that they occupied the position of votaries. The
+majority of those referred to in the inscriptions of this period
+were vowed to the service of E-bab-bara, the temple of the Sun-god at
+Sippara, and of E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk at Babylon, but
+it is probable that all the great temples in the country had classes of
+female votaries attached to them. From the evidence at present
+available it may be concluded that the functions of these women bore no
+resemblance to that of the sacred prostitutes devoted to the service of
+the goddess Ishtar in the city of Erech. They seem to have occupied a
+position of great influence and independence in the community, and
+their duties and privileges were defined and safeguarded by special
+legislation.
+
+Generally they lived together in a special building, or convent,
+attached to the temple, but they had considerable freedom and could
+leave the convent and also contract marriage. Their vows, however,
+while securing them special privileges, entailed corresponding
+responsibilities. Even when married a votary was still obliged to remain
+a virgin, and, should her husband desire to have children, she could not
+bear them herself, but must provide him with a maid or concubine. Also
+she had to maintain a high standard of moral conduct, for any breach
+of which severe penalties were enforced. Thus, if a votary who was not
+living in the convent opened a beer-shop, or should enter one for drink,
+she ran the risk of being put to death. But the privileges she enjoyed
+were also considerable, for even when unmarried she enjoyed the status
+of a married woman, and if any man slandered her he incurred the penalty
+of branding on the forehead. Moreover, a married votary, though she
+could not bear her husband children, was secured in her position as the
+permanent head of his household. The concubine she might give to her
+husband was always the wife's inferior, even after bearing him children,
+and should the former attempt to put herself on a level of equality with
+the votary, the latter might brand her as a slave and put her with the
+female slaves. If the concubine proved barren she could be sold. The
+votary could also possess property, and on taking her vows was provided
+with a portion by her father exactly as though she were being given
+in marriage. Her portion was vested in herself and did not become the
+property of the order of votaries, nor of the temple to which she
+was attached. The proceeds of her property were devoted to her own
+maintenance, and on her father's death her brothers looked after
+her interests, or she might farm the property out. Under certain
+circumstances she could inherit property and was not obliged to pay
+taxes on it, and such property she could bequeath at her own death; but
+upon her death her portion returned to her own family unless her father
+had assigned her the privilege of bequeathing it. That the social
+position enjoyed by a votary was considerable is proved by the fact that
+many women of good family, and even members of the royal house, took
+vows. The existence of the order and its high repute indicate a
+very advanced conception of the position of women among the early
+Babylonians.
+
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gather considerable information with
+regard to the various classes of which the community was composed and
+to their relative social positions. For the purposes of legislation
+the community was divided into three main classes or sections, which
+corresponded to well-defined strata in the social system. The lowest
+of these classes consisted of the slaves, who must have formed a
+considerable portion of the population. The class next above them
+comprised the large body of free men, who were possessed of a certain
+amount of property but were poor and humble, as their name, _muslikenu_,
+implied. These we may refer to as the middle class. The highest, or
+upper class, in the Babylonian community embraced all the officers and
+ministers attached to the court, the higher officials and servants
+of the state, and the owners of considerable lands and estates. The
+differences which divided and marked off from one another the two great
+classes of free men in the population of Babylonia is well illustrated
+by the scale of payments as compensation for injury which they were
+obliged to make or were entitled to receive. Thus, if a member of the
+upper class were guilty of stealing an ox, or a sheep, or an ass, or
+a pig, or a boat, from a temple or a private house, he had to pay the
+owner thirty times its value as compensation, whereas if the thief were
+a member of the middle class he only had to pay ten times its price, but
+if he had no property and so could not pay compensation he was put to
+death. The penalty for manslaughter was less if the assailant was a man
+of the middle class, and such a man could also divorce his wife more
+cheaply, and was privileged to pay his doctor or surgeon a smaller fee
+for a successful operation.
+
+But the privileges enjoyed by a man of the middle class were
+counterbalanced by a corresponding diminution of the value at which
+his life and limbs were assessed. Thus, if a doctor by carrying out an
+operation unskilfully caused the death of a member of the upper class,
+or inflicted a serious injury upon him, such as the loss of an eye, the
+punishment was the amputation of both hands, but no such penalty seems
+to have been exacted if the patient were a member of the middle class.
+If, however, the patient were a slave of a member of the middle class,
+in the event of death under the operation, the doctor had to give the
+owner another slave, and in the event of the slave losing his eye, he
+had to pay the owner half the slave's value. Penalties for assault were
+also regulated in accordance with the social position and standing
+of the parties to the quarrel. Thus, if one member of the upper class
+knocked out the eye or the tooth of one of his equals, his own eye or
+his own tooth was knocked out as a punishment, and if he broke the limb
+of one of the members of his own class, he had his corresponding limb
+broken; but if he knocked out the eye of a member of the middle class,
+or broke his limb, he suffered no punishment in his own person, but was
+fined one mana of silver, and for knocking out the tooth of such a man
+he was fined one-third of a mana. If two members of the same class were
+engaged in a quarrel, and one of them made a peculiarly improper assault
+upon the other, the assailant was only fined, the fine being larger
+if the quarrel was between members of the upper class. But if such an
+assault was made by one man upon another who was of higher rank than
+himself, the assailant was punished by being publicly beaten in the
+presence of the assembly, when he received sixty stripes from a scourge
+of ox-hide. These regulations show the privileges and responsibilities
+which pertained to the two classes of free men in the Babylonian
+community, and they indicate the relative social positions which they
+enjoyed.
+
+Both classes of free men could own slaves, though it is obvious that
+they were more numerous in the households and on the estates of members
+of the upper class. The slave was the absolute property of his master
+and could be bought and sold and employed as a deposit for a debt,
+but, though slaves as a class had few rights of their own, in certain
+circumstances they could acquire them. Thus, if the owner of a female
+slave had begotten children by her he could not use her as the payment
+for a debt, and in the event of his having done so he was obliged to
+ransom her by paying the original amount of the debt in money. It was
+also possible for a male slave, whether owned by a member of the upper
+or of the middle class, to marry a free woman, and if he did so, his
+children were free and did not become the property of his master. Also,
+if the free woman whom the slave married brought with her a marriage
+portion from her father's house, this remained her own property on the
+slave's death, and supposing the couple had acquired other property
+during the time they lived together as man and wife, the owner of the
+slave could only claim half of such property, the other half being
+retained by the free woman for her own use and for that of her children.
+
+Generally speaking, the lot of the slave was not a particularly hard
+one, for he was a recognized member of his owner's household, and, as a
+valuable piece of property, it was obviously to his owner's interest to
+keep him healthy and in good condition. In fact, the value of the slave
+is attested by the severity of the penalty imposed for abducting a male
+or female slave from the owner's house and removing him or her from
+the city; for a man guilty of this offence was put to death. The same
+penalty was imposed for harbouring and taking possession of a runaway
+slave, whereas a fixed reward was paid by the owner to any one by whom
+a runaway slave was captured and brought back. Special legislation was
+also devised with the object of rendering the theft of slaves difficult
+and their detection easy. Thus, if a brander put a mark upon a slave
+without the owner's consent, he was liable to have his hands cut off,
+and if he could prove that he did so through being deceived by another
+man, that man was put to death. For bad offences slaves were liable to
+severe punishments, such as cutting off the ear, which was the penalty
+for denying his master, and also for making an aggravated assault on a
+member of the upper class of free men. But it is clear that on the whole
+the slave was well looked after. He was also not condemned to remain
+perpetually a slave, for while still in his master's service it was
+possible for him, under certain conditions, to acquire property of his
+own, and if he did so he was able with his master's consent to purchase
+his freedom. If a slave were captured by the enemy and taken to a
+foreign land and sold, and were then brought back by his new owner to
+his own country, he could claim his liberty without having to pay any
+purchase-money to either of his masters.
+
+The code of Hammurabi also contains detailed regulations concerning the
+duties of debtors and creditors, and it throws an interesting light
+on the commercial life of the Babylonians at this early period. For
+instance, it reveals the method by which a wealthy man, or a merchant,
+extended his business and obtained large profits by trading with other
+towns. This he did by employing agents who were under certain fixed
+obligations to him, but acted independently so far as their trading was
+concerned. From the merchant these agents would receive money or grain
+or wool or oil or any sort of goods wherewith to trade, and in return
+they paid a fixed share of their profits, retaining the remainder as
+the recompense for their own services. They were thus the earliest of
+commercial travellers. In order to prevent fraud between the merchant
+and the agent special regulations were framed for the dealings they had
+with one another. Thus, when the agent received from the merchant the
+money or goods to trade with, it was enacted that he should at the time
+of the transaction give a properly executed receipt for the amount he
+had received. Similarly, if the agent gave the merchant money in return
+for the goods he had received and in token of his good faith, the
+merchant had to give a receipt to the agent, and in reckoning their
+accounts after the agent's return from his journey, only such amounts as
+were specified in the receipts were to be regarded as legal obligations.
+If the agent forgot to obtain his proper receipt he did so at his own
+risk.
+
+[Illustration: 280.jpg CLAY CONTRACT TABLET AND ITS OUTER CASE]
+
+     Dating from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon.
+
+Travelling at this period was attended with some risk, as it is in the
+East at the present day, and the caravan with which an agent travelled
+was liable to attack from brigands, or it might be captured by enemies
+of the country from which it set out. It was right that loss from this
+cause should not be borne by the agent, who by trading with the goods
+was risking his own life, but should fall upon the merchant who had
+merely advanced the goods and was safe in his own city. It is plain,
+however, that disputes frequently arose in consequence of the loss of
+goods through a caravan being attacked and robbed, for the code states
+clearly the responsibility of the merchant in the matter. If in the
+course of his journey an enemy had forced the agent to give up some of
+the goods he was carrying, on his return the agent had to specify the
+amount on oath, and he was then acquitted of all responsibility in the
+matter. If he attempted to cheat his employer by misappropriating the
+money or goods advanced to him, on being convicted of the offence before
+the elders of the city, he was obliged to repay the merchant three times
+the amount he had taken. On the other hand, if the merchant attempted
+to defraud his agent by denying that the due amount had been returned to
+him, he was obliged on conviction to pay the agent six times the amount
+as compensation. It will thus be seen that the law sought to protect the
+agent from the risk of being robbed by his more powerful employer.
+
+The merchant sometimes furnished the agent with goods which he was to
+dispose of in the best markets he could find in the cities and towns
+along his route, and sometimes he would give the agent money with which
+to purchase goods in foreign cities for sale on his return. If the
+venture proved successful the merchant and his agent shared the profits
+between them, but if the agent made bad bargains he had to refund to the
+merchant the value of the goods he had received; if the merchant had not
+agreed to risk losing any profit, the amount to be refunded to him was
+fixed at double the value of the goods advanced.
+
+[Illustration: 282.jpg A TRACK IN THE DESERT.]
+
+This last enactment gives an indication of the immense profits which
+were obtained by both the merchant and the agent from this system of
+foreign trade, for it is clear that what was regarded fair profit for
+the merchant was double the value of the goods disposed of. The profits
+of a successful journey would also include a fair return to the agent
+for the trouble and time involved in his undertaking. Many of the
+contract tablets of this early period relate to such commercial
+journeys, which show that various bargains were made between the
+different parties interested, and sometimes such contracts, or
+partnerships, were entered into, not for a single journey only, but for
+long periods. We may therefore conclude that at the time of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon, and probably for long centuries before that period,
+the great trade-routes of the East were crowded with traffic. With the
+exception that donkeys and asses were employed for beasts of burden and
+were not supplemented by horses and camels until a much later period, a
+camping-ground in the desert on one of the great trade-routes must have
+presented a scene similar to that of a caravan camping in the desert at
+the present day.
+
+[Illustration: 283.jpg A CAMPING-GROUND IN THE DESERT, BETWEEN BIREJIK
+AND URFA.]
+
+The rough tracks beaten by the feet of men and beasts are the same
+to-day as they were in that remote period. We can imagine a body of
+these early travellers approaching a walled city at dusk and hastening
+their pace to get there before the gates were shut. Such a picture as
+that of the approach to the city of Samarra, with its mediaeval walls,
+may be taken as having had its counterpart in many a city of the early
+Babylonians. The caravan route leads through the desert to the city
+gate, and if we substitute two massive temple towers for the domes of
+the mosques that rise above the wall, little else in the picture need be
+changed.
+
+[Illustration: 284.jpg APPROACH TO THE CITY OF SAMARRA, SITUATED ON THE
+LEFT BANK OF THE TIGRIS.]
+
+     A small caravan is here seen approaching the city at sunset
+     before the gates are shut. Samarra was only founded in A. D.
+     834, by the Khalif el-Motasim, the son of Harun er-Rashid,
+     but customs in the East do not change, and the photograph
+     may be used to illustrate the approach of an early
+     Babylonian caravan to a walled city of the period.
+
+The houses, too, at this period must have resembled the structures of
+unburnt brick of the present day, with their flat mud tops, on which
+the inmates sleep at night during the hot season, supported on poles
+and brushwood. The code furnishes evidence that at that time, also, the
+houses were not particularly well built and were liable to fall, and,
+in the event of their doing so, it very justly fixes the responsibility
+upon the builder. It is clear from the penalties for bad workmanship
+enforced upon the builder that considerable abuses had existed in the
+trade before the time of Hammurabi, and it is not improbable that the
+enforcement of the penalties succeeded in stamping them out. Thus, if
+a builder built a house for a man, and his work was not sound and the
+house fell and crushed the owner so that he died, it was enacted that
+the builder himself should be put to death. If the fall of the house
+killed the owner's son, the builder's own son was to be put to death.
+
+[Illustration: 285.jpg A SMALL CARAVAN IN THE MOUNTAINS OF KURDISTAN.]
+
+If one or more of the owner's slaves were killed, the builder had to
+restore him slave for slave. Any damage which the owner's goods might
+have suffered from the fall of the house was to be made good by the
+builder. In addition to these penalties the builder was obliged to
+rebuild the house, or any portion of it that had fallen through
+not being properly secured, at his own cost. On the other hand, due
+provisions were made for the payment of the builder for sound work; and
+as the houses of the period rarely, if ever, consisted of more than one
+story, the scale of payment was fixed by the area of ground covered by
+the building.
+
+[Illustration: 286.jpg THE CITY OF MOSUL.]
+
+     Situated on the right bank of the Tigris opposite the mounds
+     which mark the site of the ancient city of Nineveh. The
+     flat-roof ednouses which may be distinguished in the
+     photograph are very similar in form and construction to
+     those employed by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
+
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gain considerable information with
+regard to agricultural pursuits in ancient Babylonia, for elaborate
+regulations are given concerning the landowner's duties and
+responsibilities, and his relations to his tenants. The usual practice
+in hiring land for cultivation was for the tenant to pay his rent in
+kind, by assigning a certain proportion of the crop, generally a third
+or a half, to the owner. If a tenant hired certain land for cultivation
+he was bound to till it and raise a crop, and should he neglect to do
+so he had to pay the owner what was reckoned as the average rent of the
+land, and he had also to break up the land and plough it before handing
+it back. As the rent of a field was usually reckoned at harvest, and its
+amount depended on the size of the crop, it was only fair that damage to
+the crop from flood or storm should not be made up by the tenant; thus
+it was enacted by the code that any loss from such a cause should be
+shared equally by the owner of the field and the farmer, though if the
+latter had already paid his rent at the time the damage occurred he
+could not make a claim for repayment.
+
+[Illustration: 287.jpg THE VILLAGE OF NEBI YUNUS.]
+
+     Built on one of the mounds marking the site of the Assyrian
+     city of Nineveh. The mosque in the photograph is built over
+     the traditional site of the prophet Jonah's tomb. The flat-
+     roofed houses of the modern dwellers on the mound can be
+     well seen in the picture.
+
+It is clear from the enactments of the code that disputes were frequent,
+not only between farmers and landowners, but also between farmers and
+shepherds. It is certain that the latter, in the attempt to find pasture
+for the flocks, often allowed their sheep to feed off the farmers' fields
+in the spring. This practice the code set itself to prevent by fixing a
+scale of compensation to be paid by any shepherd who caused his sheep to
+graze on cultivated land without the owner's consent. If the offence was
+committed in the early spring, when the crop was still small, the farmer
+was to harvest the crop and receive a considerable price in kind as
+compensation for the shepherd. But if it occurred later on in the
+spring, when the sheep had been brought in from the meadows and turned
+into the great common field at the city gate, the offence would less
+probably be due to accident and the damage to the crop would be greater.
+In these circumstances the shepherd had to take over the crop and pay
+the farmer very heavily for his loss.
+
+[Illustration: 288.jpg Portrait-sculpture of Hammurabi, King of Babylon]
+
+     From a stone slab in the British Museum.
+
+The planting of gardens and orchards was encouraged, and a man was
+allowed to use a field for this purpose without paying a yearly rent. He
+might plant it and tend it for four years, and in the fifth year of
+his tenancy the original owner of the field took half of the garden
+in payment, while the other half the planter of the garden kept for
+himself. If a bare patch had been left in the garden it was to be
+reckoned in the planter's half. Regulations were framed to ensure the
+proper carrying out of the planting, for if the tenant neglected to do
+this during the first four years, he was still liable to plant the plot
+he had taken without receiving his half, and he had to pay the owner
+compensation in addition, which varied in amount according to the
+original condition of the land. If a man hired a garden, the rent he
+paid to the owner was fixed at two-thirds of its produce. Detailed
+regulations are also given in the code concerning the hire of cattle
+and asses, and the compensation to be paid to the owner for the loss or
+ill-treatment of his beasts. These are framed on the just principle that
+the hirer was responsible only for damage or loss which he could have
+reasonably prevented. Thus, if a lion killed a hired ox or ass in the
+open country, or if an ox was killed by lightning, the loss fell upon
+the owner and not on the man who hired the beast. But if the hirer
+killed the ox through carelessness or by beating it unmercifully, or if
+the beast broke its leg while in his charge, he had to restore another
+ox to the owner in place of the one he had hired. For lesser damages to
+the beast the hirer had to pay compensation on a fixed scale. Thus, if
+the ox had its eye knocked out during the period of its hire, the man
+who hired it had to pay to the owner half its value; while for a broken
+horn, the loss of the tail, or a torn muzzle, he paid a quarter of the
+value of the beast.
+
+Fines were also levied for carelessness in looking after cattle, though
+in cases of damage or injury, where carelessness could not be proved,
+the owner of a beast was not held responsible. A bull might go wild at
+any time and gore a man, however careful and conscientious the owner
+might be, and in these circumstances the injured man could not bring an
+action against the owner. But if a bull had already gored a man, and,
+although it was known to be vicious, the owner had not blunted its horns
+or shut it up, in the event of its goring and killing a free man, he had
+to pay half a mana of silver. One-third of a mana was the price paid for
+a slave who was killed. A landed proprietor who might hire farmers to
+cultivate his fields inflicted severe fines for acts of dishonesty with
+regard to the cattle, provender, or seed-corn committed to their charge.
+If a man stole the provender for the cattle he had to make it good, and
+he was also liable to the punishment of having his hands cut off. In
+the event of his being convicted of letting out the oxen for hire, or
+stealing the seed-corn so that he did not produce a crop, he had to pay
+very heavy compensation, and, if he could not pay, he was liable to be
+torn to pieces by the oxen in the field he should have cultivated.
+
+In a dry land like Babylonia, where little rain falls and that in only
+one season of the year, the irrigation of his fields forms one of the
+most important duties of the agriculturist. The farmer leads the water
+to his fields along small irrigation-canals or channels above the level
+of the soil, their sides being formed of banks of earth. It is clear
+that similar methods were employed by the early Babylonians. One such
+channel might supply the fields of several farmers, and it was the duty
+of each man through whose land the channel flowed to keep its banks on
+his land in repair. If he omitted to strengthen his bank or dyke, and
+the water forced a breach and flooded his neighbour's field, he had to
+pay compensation in kind for any crop that was ruined; while if he could
+not pay, he and his goods were sold, and his neighbours, whose fields
+had been damaged through his carelessness, shared the money.
+
+The land of Babylonian farmers was prepared for irrigation before it was
+sown by being divided into a number of small square or oblong tracts,
+each separated from the others by a low bank of earth, the seed being
+afterwards sown within the small squares or patches. Some of the banks
+running lengthwise through the field were made into small channels, the
+ends of which were carried up to the bank of the nearest main irrigation
+canal. No system of gates or sluices was employed, and when the farmer
+wished to water one of his fields he simply broke away the bank opposite
+one of his small channels and let the water flow into it. He would let
+the water run along this small channel until it reached the part of
+his land he wished to water. He then blocked the channel with a little
+earth, at the same time breaking down its bank so that the water flowed
+over one of the small squares and thoroughly soaked it. When this square
+was finished he filled up the bank and repeated the process for the
+next square, and so on until he had watered the necessary portion of
+the field. When this was finished he returned to the main channel and
+stopped the flow of the water by blocking up the hole he had made in the
+dyke. The whole process was, and to-day still is, extremely simple,
+but it needs care and vigilance, especially in the case of extensive
+irrigation when water is being carried into several parts of an estate
+at once. It will be obvious that any carelessness on the part of the
+irrigator in not shutting off the water in time may lead to extensive
+damage, not only to his own fields, but to those of his neighbours. In
+the early Babylonian period, if a farmer left the water running in his
+channel, and it flooded his neighbour's field and hurt his crop, he had
+to pay compensation according to the amount of damage done.
+
+It was stated above that the irrigation-canals and little channels were
+made above the level of the soil so that the water could at any point
+be tapped and allowed to flow over the surrounding land; and in a flat
+country like Babylonia it will be obvious that some means had to be
+employed for raising the water from its natural level to the higher
+level of the land. As we should expect, reference is made in the
+Babylonian inscriptions to irrigation-machines, and, although their
+exact form and construction are not described, they must have been very
+similar to those employed at the present day. The modern inhabitants of
+Mesopotamia employ four sorts of contrivances for raising the water into
+their irrigation-channels; three of these are quite primitive, and are
+those most commonly employed. The method which gives the least trouble
+and which is used wherever the conditions allow is a primitive form of
+water-wheel. This can be used only in a river with a good current.
+The wheel is formed of rough boughs and branches nailed together, with
+spokes joining the outer rims to a roughly hewn axle. A row of rough
+earthenware cups or bottles are tied round the outer rim for picking
+up the water, and a few rough paddles are fixed so that they stick out
+beyond the rim. The wheel is then fixed in place near the bank of the
+river, its axle resting in pillars of rough masonry.
+
+[Illustration: 293.jpg A MODERN MACHINE FOR IRRIGATION ON THE
+EUPHRATES.]
+
+As the current turns the wheel, the bottles on the rim dip below the
+surface and are raised up full. At the top of the wheel is fixed a
+trough made by hollowing half the trunk of a date-palm, and into this
+the bottles pour their water, which is conducted from the trough by
+means of a small aqueduct into the irrigation-channel on the bank.
+
+The convenience of the water-wheel will be obvious, for the water is
+raised without the labour of man or beast, and a constant supply is
+secured day and night so long as the current is strong enough to turn
+the wheel. The water can be cut off by blocking the wheel or tying it
+up. These wheels are most common on the Euphrates, and are usually set
+up where there is a slight drop in the river bed and the water runs
+swiftly over shallows. As the banks are very high, the wheels are
+necessarily huge contrivances in order to reach the level of the fields,
+and their very rough construction causes them to creak and groan as they
+turn with the current. In a convenient place in the river several of
+these are sometimes set up side by side, and the noise of their combined
+creakings can be heard from a great distance. Some idea of what one of
+these machines looks like can be obtained from the illustration. At Hit
+on the Euphrates a line of gigantic water-wheels is built across the
+river, and the noise they make is extraordinary.
+
+Where there is no current to turn one of these wheels, or where the bank
+is too high, the water must be raised by the labour of man or beast. The
+commonest method, which is the one employed generally on the Tigris, is
+to raise it in skins, which are drawn up by horses, donkeys, or cattle.
+A recess with perpendicular sides is cut into the bank, and a wooden
+spindle on wooden struts is supported horizontally over the recess. A
+rope running over the spindle is fastened to the skin, while the funnel
+end of the skin is held up by a second rope, running over a lower
+spindle, until its mouth is opposite the trough into which the water
+is to be poured. The beasts which are employed for raising the skin
+are fastened to the ends of the ropes, and they get a good purchase for
+their pull by being driven down a short cutting or inclined plane in the
+bank. To get a constant flow of water, two skins are usually employed,
+and as one is drawn up full the other is let down empty.
+
+The third primitive method of raising water, which is commoner in Egypt
+than in Mesopotamia at the present day, is the _shadduf_, and is worked
+by hand. It consists of a beam supported in the centre, at one end of
+which is tied a rope with a bucket or vessel for raising the water, and
+at the other end is fixed a counterweight.* On an Assyrian bas-relief
+found at Kuyunjik are representations of the shadduf in operation,
+two of them being used, the one above the other, to raise the water to
+successive levels. These were probably the contrivances usually employed
+by the early Babylonians for raising the water to the level of their
+fields, and the fact that they were light and easily removed must have
+made them tempting objects to the dishonest farmer. Hammurabi therefore
+fixed a scale of compensation to be paid to the owner by a detected
+thief, which varied according to the class and value of the machine
+he stole. The rivers and larger canals of Babylonia were used by the
+ancient inhabitants not only for the irrigation of their fields, but
+also as waterways for the transport of heavy materials. The recently
+published letters of Hammurabi and Abeshu' contain directions for the
+transportation of corn, dates, sesame seed, and wood, which were ordered
+to be brought in ships to Babylon, and the code of Hammurabi refers to
+the transportation by water of wool and oil. It is therefore clear that
+at this period considerable use was made of vessels of different size
+for conveying supplies in bulk by water. The method by which the size of
+such ships and barges was reckoned was based on the amount of grain
+they were capable of carrying, and this was measured by the _gur_, the
+largest measure of capacity. Thus mention is made in the inscriptions of
+vessels of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and
+seventy-five gur capacity. A boat-builder's fee for building a vessel of
+sixty gur was fixed at two shekels of silver, and it was proportionately
+less for boats of smaller capacity. To ensure that the boat-builder
+should not scamp his work, regulations were drawn up to fix on him the
+responsibility for unsound work. Thus if a boat-builder were employed to
+build a vessel, and he put faulty work into its construction so that it
+developed defects within a year of its being launched, he was obliged to
+strengthen and rebuild it at his own expense.
+
+     * The fourth class of machine for raising water employed in
+     Mesopotamia at the present day consists of an endless chain
+     of iron buckets running over a wheel. This is geared by
+     means of rough wooden cogs to a horizontal wheel, the
+     spindle of which has long poles fixed to it, to which horses
+     or cattle are harnessed. The beasts go round in a circle and
+     so turn the machine. The contrivance is not so primitive as
+     the three described above, and the iron buckets are of
+     European importation.
+
+The hire of a boatman was fixed at six gur of corn to be paid him
+yearly, but it is clear that some of the larger vessels carried crews
+commanded by a chief boatman, or captain, whose pay was probably on
+a larger scale. If a man let his boat to a boatman, the latter was
+responsible for losing or sinking it, and he had to replace it. A
+boatman was also responsible for the safety of his vessel and of any
+goods, such as corn, wool, oil, or dates, which he had been hired to
+transport, and if they were sunk through his carelessness he had to make
+good the loss. If he succeeded in refloating the boat after it had been
+sunk, he was only under obligation to pay the owner half its value in
+compensation for the damage it had sustained. In the case of a collision
+between two vessels, if one was at anchor at the time, the owner of the
+other vessel had to pay compensation for the boat that was sunk and its
+cargo, the owner of the latter estimating on oath the value of what
+had been sunk. Boats were also employed as ferries, and they must have
+resembled the primitive form of ferry-boat in use at the present day,
+which is heavily built of huge timbers, and employed for transporting
+beasts as well as men across a river.
+
+[Illustration: 297.jpg KAIKS, OR NATIVE BOATS ON THE EUPHRATES AT
+BIREJIE.]
+
+     Employed for ferrying caravans across the river.
+
+There is evidence that under the Assyrians rafts floated on inflated
+skins were employed for the transport of heavy goods, and these have
+survived in the keleks of the present day. They are specially adapted
+for the transportation of heavy materials, for they are carried down by
+the current, and are kept in the course by means of huge sweeps or oars.
+Being formed only of logs of wood and skins, they are not costly, for
+wood is plentiful in the upper reaches of the rivers. At the end of
+their journey, after the goods are landed, they are broken up. The wood
+is sold at a profit, and the skins, after being deflated, are packed on
+to donkeys to return by caravan.
+
+[Illustration: 298.jpg THE MODERN BRIDGE OF BOATS ACROSS THE TIGRIS
+OPPOSITE MOSUL.]
+
+It is not improbable that such rafts were employed on the Tigris and the
+Euphrates from the earliest periods of Chaldaean history, though boats
+would have been used on the canals and more sluggish waterways.
+
+In the preceding pages we have given a sketch of the more striking
+aspects of early Babylonian life, on which light has been thrown by
+recently discovered documents belonging to the period of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon. We have seen that, in the code of laws drawn up
+by Hammurabi, regulations were framed for settling disputes and fixing
+responsibilities under almost every condition and circumstance which
+might arise among the inhabitants of the country at that time; and the
+question naturally arises as to how far the code of laws was in actual
+operation.
+
+[Illustration: 299.jpg A SMALL KELEK, OK RAFT, UPON THE TIGRIS AT
+BAGHDAD.]
+
+It is conceivable that the king may have held admirable convictions, but
+have been possessed of little power to carry them out and to see
+that his regulations were enforced. Luckily, we have not to depend on
+conjecture for settling the question, for Hammurabi's own letters which
+are now preserved in the British Museum afford abundant evidence of the
+active control which the king exercised over every department of his
+administration and in every province of his empire. In the earlier
+periods of history, when each city lived independently of its neighbours
+and had its own system of government, the need for close and frequent
+communication between them was not pressing, but this became apparent
+as soon as they were welded together and formed parts of an extended
+empire. Thus in the time of Sargon of Agade, about 3800 B.C., an
+extensive system of royal convoys was established between the principal
+cities. At Telloh the late M. de Sarzec came across numbers of lumps of
+clay bearing the seal impressions of Sargon and of his son Naram-Sin,
+which had been used as seals and labels upon packages sent from Agade
+to Shirpurla. In the time of Dungi, King of Ur, there was a constant
+interchange of officials between the various cities of Babylonia and
+Elam, and during the more recent diggings at Telloh there have been
+found vouchers for the supply of food for their sustenance when stopping
+at Shirpurla in the course of their journeys. In the case of Hammurabi
+we have recovered some of the actual letters sent by the king himself to
+Sin-idinnam, his local governor in the city of Larsam, and from them we
+gain considerable insight into the principles which guided him in the
+administration of his empire.
+
+The letters themselves, in their general characteristics, resembled the
+contract tablets of the period which have been already described. They
+were written on small clay tablets oblong in shape, and as they were
+only three or four inches long they could easily be carried about the
+person of the messenger into whose charge they were delivered. After the
+tablet was written it was enclosed in a thin envelope of clay, having
+been first powdered with dry clay to prevent its sticking to the
+envelope. The name of the person for whom the letter was intended was
+written on the outside of the envelope, and both it and the tablet were
+baked hard to ensure that they should not be broken on their travels.
+The recipient of the letter, on its being delivered to him, broke the
+outer envelope by tapping it sharply, and it then fell away in pieces,
+leaving the letter and its message exposed. The envelopes were very
+similar to those in which the contract tablets of the period were
+enclosed, of which illustrations have already been given, their only
+difference being that the text of the tablet was not repeated on the
+envelope, as was the case with the former class of documents.
+
+The royal letters that have been recovered throw little light on
+military affairs and the prosecution of campaigns, for, being addressed
+to governors of cities and civil officials, most of them deal with
+matters affecting the internal administration of the empire. One letter
+indeed contains directions concerning the movements of two hundred
+and forty soldiers of "the King's Company" who had been stationed in
+Assyria, and another letter mentions certain troops who were quartered
+in the city of Ur. A third deals with the supply of clothing and oil
+for a section of the Babylonian army, and troops are also mentioned
+as having formed the escort for certain goddesses captured from the
+Elamites; while directions are sent to others engaged in a campaign upon
+the Elamite frontier. The letter which contains directions for the
+safe escort of the captured Elamite goddesses, and the one ordering the
+return of these same goddesses to their own shrines, show that
+foreign deities, even when captured from an enemy, were treated by the
+Babylonians with the same respect and reverence that was shown by them
+to their own gods and goddesses. Hammurabi gave directions in the first
+letter for the conveyance of the goddesses to Babylon with all due pomp
+and ceremony, sheep being supplied for sacrifice upon the journey,
+and their usual rites being performed by their own temple-women and
+priestesses. The king's voluntary restoration of the goddesses to their
+own country may have been due to the fact that, after their transference
+to Babylon, the army of the Babylonians suffered defeat in Elam. This
+misfortune would naturally have been ascribed by the king and the
+priests to the anger of the Elamite goddesses at being detained in a
+foreign land, and Hammurabi probably arrived at his decision that they
+should be escorted back in the hope of once more securing victory for
+the Babylonian arms.
+
+The care which the king exercised for the due worship of his own gods
+and the proper supply of their temples is well illustrated from the
+letters that have been recovered, for he superintended the collection
+of the temple revenues, and the herdsmen and shepherds attached to the
+service of the gods sent their reports directly to him. He also took
+care that the observances of religious rites and ceremonies were duly
+carried out, and on one occasion he postponed the hearing of a lawsuit
+concerning the title to certain property which was in dispute, as it
+would have interfered with the proper observance of a festival in
+the city of Ur. The plaintiff in the suit was the chief of the temple
+bakers, and it was his duty to superintend the preparation of certain
+offerings for the occasion. In order that he should not have to leave
+his duties, the king put off the hearing of the case until after the
+festival had been duly celebrated. The king also exercised a strict
+control over the priests themselves, and received reports from the chief
+priests concerning their own subordinates, and it is probable that the
+royal sanction was obtained for all the principal appointments. The
+guild of soothsayers was an important religious class at this time,
+and they also were under the king's direct control. A letter written by
+Ammiditana, one of the later kings of the First Dynasty, to three high
+officials of the city of Sippar, contains directions with regard to
+certain duties to be carried out by the soothsayers attached to the
+service of the city, and indicates the nature of their functions.
+Ammiditana wrote to the officials in question, stating that there was a
+scarcity of corn in the city of Shagga, and he therefore ordered them
+to send a supply thither. But before the corn was brought into the city
+they were told to consult the soothsayers, who were to divine the future
+and ascertain whether the omens were favourable. If they proved to be
+so, the corn was to be brought in. We may conjecture that the king took
+this precaution, as he feared the scarcity of corn in Shagga was due
+to the anger of some local deity or spirit, and that, if this were the
+case, the bringing in of the corn would only lead to fresh troubles.
+This danger it was the duty of the soothsayers to prevent.
+
+Another class of the priesthood, which we may infer was under the king's
+direct control, was the astrologers, whose duty it probably was to make
+reports to the king of the conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, with a
+view to ascertaining whether they portended good or evil to the
+state. No astrological reports written in this early period have
+been recovered, but at a later period under the Assyrian empire the
+astrologers reported regularly to the king on such matters, and it is
+probable that the practice was one long established. One of Hammurabi's
+letters proves that the king regulated the calendar, and it is
+legitimate to suppose that he sought the advice of his astrologers as
+to the times when intercalary months were to be inserted. The letter
+dealing with the calendar was written to inform Sin-idinnam, the
+governor of Larsam, that an intercalary month was to be inserted. "Since
+the year (i.e. the calendar) hath a deficiency," he writes, "let the
+month which is now beginning be registered as a second Elul," and the
+king adds that this insertion of an extra month will not justify any
+postponement in the payment of the regular tribute due from the city of
+Larsam, which had to be paid a month earlier than usual to make up for
+the month that was inserted. The intercalation of additional months
+was due to the fact that the Babylonian months were lunar, so that the
+calendar had to be corrected at intervals to make it correspond to the
+solar year.
+
+From the description already given of the code of laws drawn up by
+Hammurabi it will have been seen that the king attempted to incorporate
+and arrange a set of regulations which should settle any dispute likely
+to arise with regard to the duties and privileges of all classes of
+his subjects. That this code was not a dead letter, but was actively
+administered, is abundantly proved by many of the letters of Hammurabi
+which have been recovered. From these we learn that the king took a very
+active part in the administration of justice in the country, and that he
+exercised a strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the
+capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities
+and towns of Babylonia. Any private citizen was entitled to make a
+direct appeal to the king for justice, if he thought he could not obtain
+it in his local court, and it is clear from Hammurabi's letters that he
+always listened to such an appeal and gave it adequate consideration.
+The king was anxious to stamp out all corruption on the part of those
+who were invested with authority, and he had no mercy on any of his
+officers who were convicted of taking bribes. On one occasion when he
+had been informed of a case of bribery in the city of Dur-gurgurri, he
+at once ordered the governor of the district in which Dur-gurgurri lay
+to investigate the charge and send to Babylon those who were proved to
+be guilty, that they might be punished. He also ordered that the bribe
+should be confiscated and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise
+provision which must have tended to discourage those who were inclined
+to tamper with the course of justice, while at the same time it enriched
+the state. It is probable that the king tried all cases of appeal in
+person when it was possible to do so. But if the litigants lived at
+a considerable distance from Babylon, he gave directions to his local
+officials on the spot to try the case. When he was convinced of
+the justice of any claim, he would decide the case himself and send
+instructions to the local authorities to see that his decision was duly
+carried out. It is certain that many disputes arose at this period in
+consequence of the extortions of money-lenders. These men frequently
+laid claim in a fraudulent manner to fields and estates which they had
+received in pledge as security for seed-corn advanced by them. In
+cases where fraud was proved Hammurabi had no mercy, and summoned the
+money-lender to Babylon to receive punishment, however wealthy and
+powerful he might be.
+
+A subject frequently referred to in Hammurabi's letters is the
+collection of revenues, and it is clear that an elaborate system was in
+force throughout the country for the levying and payment of tribute
+to the state by the principal cities of Babylonia, as well as for the
+collection of rent and revenue from the royal estates and from the lands
+which were set apart for the supply of the great temples. Collectors of
+both secular and religious tribute sent reports directly to the king,
+and if there was any deficit in the supply which was expected from a
+collector he had to make it up himself; but the king was always ready
+to listen to and investigate a complaint and to enforce the payment of
+tribute or taxes so that the loss should not fall upon the collector.
+Thus, in one of his letters Hammurabi informs the governor of
+Larsam that a collector named Sheb-Sin had reported to him, saying
+"Enubi-Marduk hath laid hands upon the money for the temple of
+Bit-il-kittim (i.e. the great temple of the Sun-god at Larsam) which is
+due from the city of Dur-gurgurri and from the (region round about the)
+Tigris, and he hath not rendered the full sum; and Gimil-Marduk hath
+laid hands upon the money for the temple of Bit-il-kittim which is due
+from the city.of Rakhabu and from the region round about that city, and
+he hath not (paid) the full amount. But the palace hath exacted the full
+sum from me." It is probable that both Enubi-Marduk and Gimil-Marduk
+were money-lenders, for we know from another letter that the former had
+laid claim to certain property on which he had held a mortgage, although
+the mortgage had been redeemed. In the present case they had probably
+lent money or seed-corn to certain cultivators of land near Dur-gurgurri
+and Rakhabu and along the Tigris, and in settlement of their claims they
+had seized the crops and had, moreover, refused to pay to the king's
+officer the proportion of the crops that was due to the state as
+taxes upon the land. The governor of Larsam, the principal city in the
+district, had rightly, as the representative of the palace (i.e.
+the king), caused the tax-collector to make up the deficiency, but
+Hammurabi, on receiving the subordinate officer's complaint, referred
+the matter back to the governor. The end of the letter is wanting, but
+we may infer that Hammurabi condemned the defaulting money-lenders to
+pay the taxes due, and fined them in addition, or ordered them to be
+sent to the capital for punishment.
+
+On another occasion Sheb-Sin himself and a second tax-collector named
+Sin-mushtal appear to have been in fault and to have evaded coming to
+Babylon when summoned thither by the king. It had been their duty to
+collect large quantities of sesame seed as well as taxes paid in money.
+When first summoned, they had made the excuse that it was the time of
+harvest and they would come after the harvest was over. But as they
+did not then make their appearance, Hammurabi wrote an urgent letter
+insisting that they should be despatched with the full amount of the
+taxes due, in the company of a trustworthy officer who would see that
+they duly arrived at the capital.
+
+Tribute on flocks and herds was also levied by the king, and collectors
+or assessors of the revenue were stationed in each district, whose duty
+it was to report any deficit in the revenue accounts. The owners of
+flocks and herds were bound to bring the young cattle and lambs that
+were due as tribute to the central city of the district in which they
+dwelt, and they were then collected into large bodies and added to the
+royal flocks and herds; but, if the owners attempted to hold back any
+that were due as tribute, they were afterwards forced to incur the extra
+expense and trouble of driving the beasts to Babylon. The flocks and
+herds owned by the king and the great temples were probably enormous,
+and yielded a considerable revenue in themselves apart from the tribute
+and taxes due from private owners. Shepherds and herdsmen were placed in
+charge of them, and they were divided into groups under chief shepherds,
+who arranged the districts in which the herds and flocks were to be
+grazed, distributing them when possible along the banks and in the
+neighbourhood of rivers and canals which would afford good pasturage and
+a plentiful supply of water. The king received reports from the chief
+shepherds and herdsmen, and it was the duty of the governors of the
+chief cities and districts of Babylonia to make tours of inspection
+and see that due care was taken of the royal flocks and sheep. The
+sheep-shearing for all the flocks that were pastured near the capital
+took place in Babylon, and the king used to send out summonses to his
+chief shepherds to inform them of the day when the shearing would take
+place; and it is probable that the governors of the other great cities
+sent out similar orders to the shepherds of flocks under their charge.
+Royal and priestly flocks were often under the same chief officer, a
+fact which shows the very strict control the king exercised over the
+temple revenues.
+
+The interests of the agricultural population were strictly looked
+after by the king, who secured a proper supply of water for purposes of
+irrigation by seeing that the canals and waterways were kept in a proper
+state of repair and cleaned out at regular intervals. There is also
+evidence that nearly every king of the First Dynasty of Babylon cut new
+canals, and extended the system of irrigation and transportation which
+had been handed down to him from his fathers. The draining of the
+marshes and the proper repair of the canals could only be carried out
+by careful and continuous supervision, and it was the duty of the local
+governors to see that the inhabitants of villages and owners of land
+situated on the banks of a canal should keep it in proper order. When
+this duty had been neglected complaints were often sent to the king,
+who gave orders to the local governor to remedy the defect. Thus on one
+occasion it had been ordered that a canal at Erech which had silted
+up should be deepened, but the dredging had not been carried out
+thoroughly, so that the bed of the canal soon silted up again and boats
+were prevented from entering the city. In these circumstances Hammurabi
+gave pressing orders that the obstruction was to be removed and the
+canal made navigable within three days.
+
+Damage was often done to the banks of canals by floods which followed
+the winter rains, and a letter of Abeshu' gives an interesting account of
+a sudden rise of the water in the Irnina canal so that it overflowed its
+banks. The king was building a palace at the city of Kar-Irnina, which
+was supplied by the Irnina canal, and every year it was possible to put
+so much work into the building. But one year, when little more than a
+third of the year's work was done, the building operations were stopped
+by flood, the canal having overflowed its banks so that the water rose
+right up to the wall of the town. In return for the duty of keeping
+the canals in order, the villagers along the banks had the privilege of
+fishing in its waters in the portion which was in their charge, and
+any poaching by other villagers in this part of the stream was strictly
+forbidden. On one occasion, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Hammurabi's son
+and successor, the fishermen of the district of Rabim went down in their
+boats to the district of Shakanim and caught fish there contrary to the
+law. So the inhabitants of Shakanim complained of this poaching to the
+king, who sent a palace official to the authorities of Sippar, near
+which city the districts in question lay, with orders to inquire into
+the matter and take steps to prevent all such poaching for the future.
+
+The regulation of transportation on the canals was also under the royal
+jurisdiction. The method of reckoning the size of ships has already
+been described, and there is evidence that the king possessed numerous
+vessels of all sizes for the carrying of grain, wool, and dates, as well
+as for the wood and stone employed in his building operations. Each ship
+seems to have had its own crew, under the command of a captain, and it
+is probable that officials who regulated the transportation from the
+centres where they were stationed were placed in charge of separate
+sections of the rivers and of the canals.
+
+It is obvious, from the account that has been given of the numerous
+operations directly controlled and superintended by the king, that
+he had need of a very large body of officials, by whose means he was
+enabled to carry out successfully the administration of the country.
+In the course of the account we have made mention of the judges and
+judicial officers, the assessors and collectors of revenue, and the
+officials of the palace who were under the king's direct orders. It is
+also obvious that different classes of officers were in charge of all
+the departments of the administration. Two classes of officials,
+who were placed in charge of the public works and looked after and
+controlled the public slaves, and probably also had a good deal to do
+with the collection of the revenue, had special privileges assigned
+to them, and special legislation was drawn up to protect them in the
+enjoyment of the same. As payment for their duties they were each
+granted land with a house and garden, they were assigned the use of
+certain sheep and cattle with which to stock their land, and in addition
+they received a regular salary. They were in a sense personal retainers
+of the king and were liable to be sent at any moment on a special
+mission to carry out the king's commands. Disobedience was severely
+punished; for, if such an officer, when detailed for a special mission,
+did not go but hired a substitute, he was liable to be put to death and
+the substitute he had hired could take his office. Sometimes an officer
+was sent for long periods some distance from his home to take charge
+of a garrison, and when this was done his home duties were performed by
+another man, who temporarily occupied his house and land, but gave it
+back to the officer on his return. If such an officer had a son old
+enough to perform his duty in his father's absence, he was allowed to
+do so and to till his father's lands; but if the son was too young,
+the substitute who took the officer's place had to pay one-third of
+the produce of the land to the child's mother for his education. Before
+departing on his journey to the garrison it was the officer's duty to
+arrange for the proper cultivation of his land and the discharge of his
+local duties during his absence. If he omitted to do so and left
+his land and duties neglected for more than a year, and another had
+meanwhile taken his place, on his return he could not reclaim his land
+and office. It will be obvious, therefore, that his position was a
+specially favoured one and much sought after, and these regulations
+ensured that the duties attaching to the office were not neglected.
+
+In the course of his garrison duty or when on special service, these
+officers ran some risk of being captured by the enemy, and in that event
+regulations were drawn up for their ransom. If the captured officer was
+wealthy and could pay for his own ransom, he was bound to do so, but
+if he had not the necessary means his ransom was to be paid out of the
+local temple treasury, and, when the funds in the temple treasury
+did not suffice, he was to be ransomed by the state. It was specially
+enacted that his land and garden and house were in no case to be sold
+in order to pay for his ransom. These were inalienably attached to the
+office which he held, and he was not allowed to sell them or the sheep
+and cattle with which they were stocked. Moreover, he was not allowed
+to bequeath any of this property to his wife or daughter, so that his
+office would appear to have been hereditary and the property attached to
+it to have been entailed on his son if he succeeded him. Such succession
+would not, of course, have taken place if the officer by his own neglect
+or disobedience had forfeited his office and its privileges during his
+lifetime.
+
+It has been suggested with considerable probability that these officials
+were originally personal retainers and follows of Sumu-abu, the founder
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon. They were probably assigned lands
+throughout the country in return for their services to the king, and
+their special duties were to preserve order and uphold the authority of
+their master. In the course of time their duties were no doubt modified,
+but they retained their privileges and they must have continued to be a
+very valuable body of officers, on whose personal loyalty the king could
+always rely. In the preceding chapter we have already seen how grants of
+considerable estates were made by the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty
+to followers who had rendered conspicuous services, and at the same time
+they received the privilege of holding such lands free of all liability
+to forced labour and the payment of tithes and taxes. We may conclude
+that the class of royal officers under the kings of the First Dynasty
+had a similar origin.
+
+In the present chapter, from information recently made available, we
+have given some account of the system of administration adopted by the
+early kings of Babylon, and we have described in some detail the
+various classes of the Babylonian population, their occupations, and the
+conditions under which they lived. In the two preceding chapters we have
+dealt with the political history of Western Asia from the very earliest
+period of the Sumerian city-states down to the time of the Kassite
+kings. In the course of this account we have seen how Mesopotamia in the
+dawn of history was in the sole possession of the Sumerian race and how
+afterwards it fell in turn under the dominion of the Semites and the
+kings of Elam. The immigration of fresh Semitic tribes at the end of the
+third millennium before Christ resulted in the establishment in Babylon
+of the Semitic kings who are known as First Dynasty kings; and under the
+sway of Hammurabi, the greatest of this group of kings, the empire thus
+established in Western Asia had every appearance of permanence. Although
+Elam no longer troubled Babylon, a great danger arose from a new and
+unexpected quarter. In the Country of the Sea--which comprised the
+districts in the extreme south of Babylonia on the shores of the Persian
+Gulf--the Sumerians had rallied their forces, and they now declared
+themselves independent of Babylonian control. A period of conflict
+followed between the kings of the First Dynasty and the kings of the
+Country of the Sea, in which the latter more than held their own; and,
+when the Hittite tribes of Syria invaded Northern Babylonia in the reign
+of Samsu-ditana, Babylon's power of resistance was so far weakened that
+she fell an easy prey to the rulers of the Country of the Sea. But the
+reappearance of the Sumerians in the role of leading race in Western
+Asia was destined not to last long, and was little more than the last
+flicker of vitality exhibited by this ancient and exhausted race. Thus
+the Second Dynasty fell in its turn before the onslaught of the Kassite
+tribes who descended from the mountainous districts in the west of Elam,
+and, having overrun the whole of Mesopotamia, established a new dynasty
+at Babylon, and adopted Babylonian civilization.
+
+With the advent of the Kassite kings a new chapter opens in the history
+of Western Asia. Up to that time Egypt and Babylon, the two chief
+centres of ancient civilization, had no doubt indirectly influenced one
+another, but they had not come into actual contact. During the period of
+the Kassite kings both Babylon and Assyria established direct relations
+with Egypt, and from that time forward the influence they exerted upon
+one another was continuous and unbroken. We have already traced the
+history of Babylon up to this point in the light of recent discoveries,
+and a similar task awaits us with regard to Assyria. Before we enter
+into a discussion of Assyria's origin and early history in the light of
+recent excavation and research, it is necessary that we should return
+once more to Egypt, and describe the course of her history from the
+period when Thebes succeeded in displacing Memphis as the capital city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+
+We have seen that it was in the Theban period that Egypt emerged from
+her isolation, and for the first time came into contact with Western
+Asia. This grand turning-point in Egyptian history seemed to be the
+appropriate place at which to pause in the description of our latest
+knowledge of Egyptian history, in order to make known the results of
+archaeological discovery in Mesopotamia and Western Asia generally. The
+description has been carried down past the point of convergence of the
+two originally isolated paths of Egyptian and Babylonian civilization,
+and what new information the latest discoveries have communicated to us
+on this subject has been told in the preceding chapters. We now have to
+retrace our steps to the point where we left Egyptian history and resume
+the thread of our Egyptian narrative.
+
+The Hyksos conquest and the rise of Thebes are practically
+contemporaneous. The conquest took place perhaps three or four hundred
+years after the first advancement of Thebes to the position of capital
+of Egypt, but it must be remembered that this position was not retained
+during the time of the XIIth Dynasty. The kings of that dynasty, though
+they were Thebans, did not reign at Thebes. Their royal city was in the
+North, in the neighbourhood of Lisht and Medum, where their pyramids
+were erected, and their chief care was for the lake province of the
+Fayyum, which was largely the creation of Amenemhat III, the Moeris
+of the Greeks. It was not till Thebes became the focus of the
+national resistance to the Hyksos that its period of greatness began.
+Henceforward it was the undisputed capital of Egypt, enlarged and
+embellished by the care and munificence of a hundred kings, enriched by
+the tribute of a hundred conquered nations.
+
+But were we to confine ourselves to the consideration only of the latest
+discoveries of Theban greatness after the expulsion of the Hyksos, we
+should be omitting much that is of interest and importance. For the
+Egyptians the first grand climacteric in their history (after the
+foundation of the monarchy) was the transference of the royal power from
+Memphis and Herakleopolis to a Theban house. The second, which followed
+soon after, was the Hyksos invasion. The two are closely connected in
+Theban history; it is Thebes that defeated Herakleopolis and conquered
+Memphis; it is Theban power that was overthrown by the Hyksos; it is
+Thebes that expelled them and initiated the second great period of
+Egyptian history. We therefore resume our narrative at a point before
+the great increase of Theban power at the time of the expulsion of the
+Hyksos, and will trace this power from its rise, which followed
+the defeat of Herakleopolis and Memphis. It is upon this epoch--the
+beginning of Theban power--that the latest discoveries at Thebes have
+thrown some new light.
+
+More than anywhere else in Egypt excavations have been carried on at
+Thebes, on the site of the ancient capital of the country. And here, if
+anywhere, it might have been supposed that there was nothing more to be
+found, no new thing to be exhumed from the soil, no new fact to be added
+to our knowledge of Egyptian history. Yet here, no less than at Abydos,
+has the archaeological exploration of the last few years been especially
+successful, and we have seen that the ancient city of Thebes has a great
+deal more to tell us than we had expected.
+
+The most ancient remains at Thebes were discovered by Mr. Newberry in
+the shape of two tombs of the VIth Dynasty, cut upon the face of the
+well-known hill of Shekh Abd el-Kurna, on the west bank of the Nile
+opposite Luxor. Every winter traveller to Egypt knows, well the ride
+from the sandy shore opposite the Luxor temple, along the narrow pathway
+between the gardens and the canal, across the bridges and over the
+cultivated land to the Ramesseum, behind which rises Shekh Abd el-Kurna,
+with its countless tombs, ranged in serried rows along the scarred and
+scarped face of the hill. This hill, which is geologically a fragment of
+the plateau behind which some gigantic landslip was sent sliding in the
+direction of the river, leaving the picturesque gorge and cliffs of Der
+el-Bahari to mark the place from which it was riven, was evidently the
+seat of the oldest Theban necropolis. Here were the tombs of the Theban
+chiefs in the period of the Old Kingdom, two of which have been found
+by Mr. Newberry. In later times, it would seem, these tombs were largely
+occupied and remodelled by the great nobles of the XVIIIth Dynasty, so
+that now nearly all the tombs extant on Shekh Abd el-Kurna belong to
+that dynasty.
+
+Of the Thebes of the IXth and Xth Dynasties, when the Herakleopolites
+ruled, we have in the British Museum two very remarkable statues--one of
+which is here illustrated--of the steward of the palace, Mera. The tomb
+from which they came is not known. Both are very beautiful examples
+of the Egyptian sculptor's art, and are executed in a style eminently
+characteristic of the transition period between the work of the Old and
+Middle Kingdoms. As specimens of the art of the Hierakonpolite period,
+of which we have hardly any examples, they are of the greatest interest.
+Mera is represented wearing a different head-dress in each figure; in
+one he has a short wig, in the other a skullcap.
+
+[Illustration: 320.jpg STATUE OF MERA]
+
+When the Herakleopolite dominion was finally overthrown, in spite of the
+valiant resistance of the princes of Asyut, and the Thebans assumed the
+Pharaonic dignity, thus founding the XIth Dynasty, the Theban necropolis
+was situated in the great bay in the cliffs, immediately north of Shekh
+Abd el-Kurna, which is known as Der el-Bahari. In this picturesque part
+of Western Thebes, in many respects perhaps the most picturesque
+place in Egypt, the greatest king of the XIth Dynasty, Neb-hapet-Ra
+Mentuhetep, excavated his tomb and built for the worship of his ghost
+a funerary temple, which he called _Akh-aset_, "Glorious-is-its-
+Situation," a name fully justified by its surroundings. This temple is
+an entirely new discovery, made by Prof. Naville and Mr. Hall in 1903.
+The results obtained up to date have been of very great importance,
+especially with regard to the history of Egyptian art and architecture,
+for our sources of information were few and we were previously not very
+well informed as to the condition of art in the time of the XIth
+Dynasty.
+
+The new temple lies immediately to the south of the great XVIIIth
+Dynasty temple at Der el-Bahari, which has always been known, and which
+was excavated first by Mariette and later by Prof. Naville, for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund. To the results of the later excavations we shall
+return. When they were finally completed, in the year 1898, the great
+XVIIIth Dynasty temple, which was built by Queen Hatshepsu, had been
+entirely cleared of debris, and the colonnades had been partially
+restored (under the care of Mr. Somers Clarke) in order to make a roof
+under which to protect the sculptures on the walls. The whole mass of
+debris, consisting largely of fallen _talus_ from the cliffs above,
+which had almost hidden the temple, was removed; but a large tract lying
+to the south of the temple, which was also covered with similar mounds
+of debris, was not touched, but remained to await further investigation.
+It was here, beneath these heaps of debris, that the new temple was
+found when work was resumed by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1903. The
+actual tomb of the king has not yet been revealed, although that of
+Neb-hetep Mentuhetep, who may have been his immediate predecessor,
+was discovered by Mr. Carter in 1899. It was known, however, and still
+uninjured in the reign of Ramses IX of the XXth Dynasty. Then, as we
+learn from the report of the inspectors sent to examine the royal tombs,
+which is preserved in the Abbott Papyrus, they found the _pyramid-tomb_
+of King Xeb-hapet-Ra which is in Tjesret (the ancient Egyptian name for
+Der el-Bahari); it was intact. We know, therefore, that it was intact
+about 1000 B.C. The description of it as a pyramid-tomb is interesting,
+for in the inscription of Tetu, the priest of Akh-aset, who was buried
+at Abydos, Akh-aset is said to have been a pyramid. That the newly
+discovered temple was called Akh-aset we know from several inscriptions
+found in it. And the most remarkable thing about this temple is that in
+its centre there was a pyramid. This must be the pyramid-tomb which was
+found intact by the inspectors, so that the tomb itself must be close
+by. But it does not seem to have been beneath the pyramid, below which
+is only solid rock. It is perhaps a gallery cut in the cliffs at the
+back of the temple.
+
+The pyramid was then a dummy, made of rubble within a revetment of heavy
+flint nodules, which was faced with fine limestone. It was erected on a
+pyloni-form base with heavy cornice of the usual Egyptian pattern. This
+central pyramid was surrounded by a roofed hall or ambulatory of small
+octagonal pillars, the outside wall of which was decorated with coloured
+reliefs, depicting various scenes connected with the _sed-heb_ or
+jubilee-festival of the king, processions of the warriors and magnates
+of the realm, scenes of husbandry, boat-building, and so forth, all of
+which were considered appropriate to the chapel of a royal tomb at that
+period. Outside this wall was an open colonnade of square pillars.
+The whole of this was built upon an artificially squared rectangular
+platform of natural rock, about fifteen feet high. To north and south of
+this were open courts. The southern is bounded by the hill; the northern
+is now bounded by the Great Temple of Hat-shepsu, but, before this was
+built, there was evidently a very large open court here. The face of the
+rock platform is masked by a wall of large rectangular blocks of fine
+white limestone, some of which measure six feet by three feet six
+inches. They are beautifully squared and laid in bonded courses of
+alternate sizes, and the walls generally may be said to be among the
+finest yet found in Egypt. We have already remarked that the architects
+of the Middle Kingdom appear to have been specially fond of fine masonry
+in white stone. The contrast between these splendid XIth Dynasty walls,
+with their great base-stones of sandstone, and the bad rough masonry of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty temple close by, is striking. The XVIIIth Dynasty
+architects and masons had degenerated considerably from the standard of
+the Middle Kingdom.
+
+This rock platform was approached from the east in the centre by an
+inclined plane or ramp, of which part of the original pavement of wooden
+beams remains _in situ_.
+
+[Illustration: 324.jpg XIth DYNASTY WALL: DER EL-BAHARI.]
+
+     Excavated by Mr. Hall, 1904, for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
+
+To right and left of this ramp are colonnades, each of twenty-two square
+pillars, all inscribed with the name and titles of Mentuhetep. The walls
+masking the platform in these colonnades were sculptured with various
+scenes, chiefly representing boat processions and campaigns against the
+Aamu or nomads of the Sinaitic peninsula. The design of the colonnades
+is the same as that of the Great Temple, and the whole plan of this
+part, with its platform approached by a ramp flanked by colonnades,
+is so like that of the Great Temple that we cannot but assume that the
+peculiar design of the latter, with its tiers of platforms approached by
+ramps flanked by colonnades, is not an original idea, but was directly
+copied by the XVIIIth Dynasty architects from the older XIth Dynasty
+temple which they found at Der el-Bahari when they began their work.
+
+[Illustration: 325.jpg XVIIIth DYNASTY WALL, DBR EL-BAHARI.]
+
+     Excavated by M. Naville, 1896; repaired by Mr. Howard
+     Carter, 1904.
+
+The supposed originality of Hatshepsu's temple is then non-existent;
+it was a copy of the older design, in fact, a magnificent piece of
+archaism. But Hatshepsu's architects copied this feature only; the
+actual arrangements _on_ the platforms in the two temples are as
+different as they can possibly be. In the older we have a central
+pyramid with a colonnade round it, in the newer may be found an open
+court in front of rock-cave shrines.
+
+[Illustration: 326.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE NORTH LOWER COLONNADE OF THE
+XIth DYNASTY TEMPLE, DER EL-BAHARI, 1904.]
+
+Before the XIth Dynasty temple was set up a series of statues of King
+Mentuhetep and of a later king, Amenhetep I, in the form of Osiris, like
+those of Usertsen (Senusret) I at Lisht already mentioned. One of these
+statues is in the British Museum. In the south court were discovered
+six statues of King Usertsen (Senusret) III, depicting him at different
+periods of his life. Pour of the heads are preserved, and, as the
+expression of each differs from that of the other, it is quite evident
+that some show him as a young, others as an old, man.
+
+[Illustration: 327.jpg GRANITE THRESHOLD AND OCTAGONAL SANDSTONE
+PILLARS]
+
+     Of The XIth Dynasty Temple At Dee El-Bahari. About 2500 B.C.
+
+The face is of the well-known hard and lined type which is seen also in
+the portraits of Amenemhat III, and was formerly considered to be that
+of the Hyksos. Messrs. Newberry and Garstang, as we have seen, consider
+it to be so, indirectly, as they regard the type as having been
+introduced into the XIIth Dynasty by Queen Nefret, the mother of
+Usertsen (Sen-usret) III. This queen, they think, _was_ a Hittite
+princess, and the Hittites were practically the same thing as the
+Hyksos. We have seen, however, that there is very little foundation for
+this view, and it is more than probable that this peculiar physiognomy
+is of a type purely Egyptian in character.
+
+[Illustration: 328.jpg EXCAVATION OF THE TOMB OF A PRIESTESS,]
+
+     On The Platform Of The XIth Dynasty Temple, Der El-Bahari,
+     1904.
+
+On the platform, around the central pyramid, were buried in small
+chamber-tombs a number of priestesses of the goddess Hathor, the
+mistress of the desert and special deity of Der el-Bahari. They were
+all members of the king's harim, and they bore the title of "King's
+Favourite." As told in a previous chapter, all were buried at one
+time, before the final completion of the temple, and it is by no means
+impossible that they were strangled at the king's death and buried round
+him in order that their ghosts might accompany him in the next world,
+just as the slaves were buried around the graves (or secondary graves)
+of the 1st Dynasty kings at Aby-dos. They themselves, as also already
+related, took with them to the next world little waxen figures which
+when called upon could by magic be turned into ghostly slaves. These
+images were _ushabtiu,_ "answerers," the predecessors of the little
+figures of wood, stone, and pottery which are found buried with the
+dead in later times. The priestesses themselves were, so to speak, human
+_ushabtiu,_ for royal use only, and accompanied the kings to their final
+resting-place.
+
+With the priestesses was buried the usual funerary furniture
+characteristic of the period. This consisted of little models of
+granaries with the peasants bringing in the corn, models of bakers and
+brewers at work, boats with their crews, etc., just as we find them
+in the XIth and XIIth Dynasty tombs at el-Bersha and Beni Hasan. These
+models, too, were supposed to be transformed by magic into actual
+workmen who would work for the deceased, heap up grain for her, brew
+beer for her, ferry her over the ghostly Nile into the tomb-world, or
+perform any other services required.
+
+Some of the stone sarcophagi of the priestesses are very elaborately
+decorated with carved and painted reliefs depicting each deceased
+receiving offerings from priests, one of whom milks the holy cows of
+Hathor to give her milk. The sarcophagi were let down into the tomb in
+pieces and there joined together, and they have been removed in the same
+way. The finest is a unique example of XIth Dynasty art, and it is now
+preserved in the Museum of Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: 330.jpg CASES OF ANTIQUITIES LEAVING DER EL-BAHARI FOR
+TRANSPORT TO CAIRO.]
+
+In memory of the priestesses there were erected on the platform behind
+the pyramid a number of small shrines, which were decorated with the
+most delicately coloured carvings in high relief, representing chiefly
+the same subjects as those on the sarcophagi. The peculiar style of
+these reliefs was previously unknown. In connection with them a most
+interesting possibility presents itself.
+
+[Illustration: 331.jpg SHIPPING CASES OF ANTIQUITIES ON BOARD THE NILE
+STEAMER AT LUXOR, FOR THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND.]
+
+We know the name of the chief artist of Mentuhetep's reign. He was
+called Mertisen, and he thus describes himself on his tombstone from
+Abydos, now in the Louvre: "I was an artist skilled in my art. I knew
+my art, how to represent the forms of going forth and returning, so that
+each limb may be in its proper place. I knew how the figure of a man
+should walk and the carriage of a woman, the poising of the arm to
+bring the hippopotamus low, the going of the runner. I knew how to make
+amulets, which enable us to go without fire burning us and without the
+flood washing us away. No man could do this but I, and the eldest son
+of my body. Him has the god decreed to excel in art, and I have seen
+the perfections of the work of his hands in every kind of rare stone,
+in gold and silver, in ivory and ebony." Now since Mertisen and his son
+were the chief artists of their day, it is more than probable that they
+were employed to decorate their king's funerary chapel. So that in all
+probability the XIth Dynasty reliefs from Der el-Bahari are the work
+of Mertisen and his son, and in them we see the actual "forms of going
+forth and returning, the poising of the arm to bring the hippopotamus
+low, the going of the runner," to which he refers on his tombstone. This
+adds a note of personal interest to the reliefs, an interest which is
+often sadly wanting in Egypt, where we rarely know the names of the
+great artists whose works we admire so much. We have recovered the names
+of the sculptor and painter of Seti I's temple at Abydos and that of the
+sculptor of some of the tombs at Tell el-Amarna, but otherwise very few
+names of the artists are directly associated with the temples and tombs
+which they decorated, and of the architects we know little more. The
+great temple of Der el-Bahari was, however, we know, designed by Senmut,
+the chief architect to Queen Hatshepsu.
+
+It is noticeable that Mertisen's art, if it is Mertisen's, is of a
+peculiar character. It is not quite so fully developed as that of the
+succeeding XIIth Dynasty. The drawing of the figures is often peculiar,
+strange lanky forms taking the place of the perfect proportions of the
+IVth-VIth and the XIIth Dynasty styles. Great elaboration is bestowed
+upon decoration, which is again of a type rather archaic in character
+when compared with that of the XIIth Dynasty. We are often reminded of
+the rude sculptures which used to be regarded as typical of the art of
+the XIth Dynasty, while at the same time we find work which could not
+be surpassed by the best XIIth Dynasty masters. In fact, the art of
+Neb-hapet-Ra's reign was the art of a transitional period. Under the
+decadent Memphites of the VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties, Egyptian art
+rapidly fell from the high estate which it had attained under the Vth
+Dynasty, and, though good work was done under the Hierakonpolites, the
+chief characteristic of Egyptian art at the time of the Xth and early
+XIth Dynasties is its curious roughness and almost barbaric appearance.
+When, however, the kings of the XIth Dynasty reunited the whole land
+under one sceptre, and the long reign of Neb-hapet-Ra Mentuhetep enabled
+the reconsolidation of the realm to be carried out by one hand, art
+began to revive, and, just as to Neb-hapet-Ra must be attributed the
+renascence of the Egyptian state under the hegemony of Thebes, so must
+the revival of art in his reign be attributed to his great artists,
+Mertisen and his son. They carried out in the realm of art what their
+king had carried out in the political realm, and to them must be
+attributed the origin of the art of the Middle Kingdom which under the
+XIIth Dynasty attained so high a pitch of excellence. The sculptures
+of the king's temple at Der el-Bahari, then, are monuments of the
+renascence of Egyptian art, after the state of decadence into which it
+had fallen during the long civil wars between South and North; it is
+a reviving art, struggling out of barbarism to regain perfection, and
+therefore has much about it that seems archaic, stiff, and curious when
+compared with later work. To the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptian it would no
+doubt have seemed hopelessly old-fashioned and even semi-barbarous, and
+he had no qualms about sweeping it aside whenever it appeared in the
+way of the work of his own time; but to us this very strangeness
+gives additional charm and interest, and we can only be thankful that
+Mertisen's work has lasted (in fragments only, it is true) to our own
+day, to tell us the story of a little known chapter in the history of
+ancient Egyptian art.
+
+From this description it will have been seen that the temple is an
+important monument of the Egyptian art and architecture of the Middle
+Kingdom. It is the only temple of that period of which considerable
+traces have been found, and on that account the study of it will be of
+the greatest interest. It is the best preserved of the older temples of
+Egypt, and at Thebes it is by far the most ancient building recovered.
+Historically it has given us a new king of the XIth Dynasty,
+Sekhahe-tep-Ra Mentuhetep, and the name of the queen of Neb-hapet-Ra
+Mentuhetep, Aasheit, who seems to have been an Ethiopian, to judge from
+her portrait, which has been discovered. It is interesting to note that
+one of the priestesses was a negress.
+
+The name Neb-hapet-Ra may be unfamiliar to those readers who are
+acquainted with the lists of the Egyptian kings. It is a correction
+of the former reading, "Neb-kheru-Ra," which is now known from these
+excavations to be erroneous. Neb-hapet-Ra (or, as he used to be called,
+Neb-kheru-Ra) is Mentuhetep III of Prof. Petrie's arrangement. Before
+him there seem to have come the kings Mentuhetep Neb-hetep (who is also
+commemorated in this temple) and Neb-taui-Ra; after him, Sekhahetep-Ra
+Mentuhetep IV and Seankhkara Mentuhetep V, who were followed by an
+Antef, bearing the banner or hawk-name Uah-ankh. This king was followed
+by Amenemhat I, the first king of the XIIth Dynasty. Antef Uah-ankh may
+be numbered Antef I, as the prince Antefa, who founded the XIth Dynasty,
+did not assume the title of king.
+
+Other kings of the name of Antef also ruled over Egypt, and they used to
+be regarded as belonging to the XIth Dynasty; but Prof. Steindorff
+has now proved that they really reigned after the XIIIth Dynasty, and
+immediately before the Sekenenras, who were the fighters of the Hyksos
+and predecessors of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The second names of Antef III
+(Seshes-Ra-up-maat) and Antef IV (Seshes-Ra-her-her-maat) are exactly
+similar to those of the XIIIth Dynasty kings and quite unlike those of
+the Mentuheteps; also at Koptos a decree of Antef II (Nub-kheper-Ra) has
+been found inscribed on a doorway of Usertsen (Senusret) I; so that
+he cannot have preceded him. Prof. Petrie does not yet accept these
+conclusions, and classes all the Antefs together with the Mentuheteps in
+the XIth Dynasty. He considers that he has evidence from Herakleopolis
+that Antef Xub-kheper-Ra (whom he numbers Antef V) preceded the XIIth
+Dynasty, and he supposes that the decree of Nub-kheper-Ra at Koptos is
+a later copy of the original and was inscribed during the XIIth Dynasty.
+But this is a difficult saying. The probabilities are that Prof.
+Steindorff is right. Antef Uah-ankh must, however, have preceded the
+XIIth Dynasty, since an official of that period refers to his father's
+father as having lived in Uah-ankh 's time.
+
+The necropolis of Der el-Bahari was no doubt used all through the period
+of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties, and many tombs of that period have been
+found there. A large number of these were obliterated by the building
+of the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, in the northern part of the
+cliff-bay. We know of one queen's tomb of that period which runs right
+underneath this temple from the north, and there is another that is
+entered at the south side which also runs down underneath it. Several
+tombs were likewise found in the court between it and the XIth Dynasty
+temple. We know that the XVIIIth Dynasty temple was largely built over
+this court, and we can see now the XIth Dynasty mask-wall on the west of
+the court running northwards underneath the mass of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple. In all probability, then, when the temple of Hatshepsu
+was built, the larger portion of the Middle Kingdom necropolis (of
+chamber-tombs reached by pits), which had filled up the bay to the north
+of the Mentuhetep temple, was covered up and obliterated, just as
+the older VIth Dynasty gallery tombs of Shekh Abd el-Kurna had been
+appropriated and altered at the same period.
+
+The kings of the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties were not buried at Thebes,
+as we have seen, but in the North, at Dashur, Lisht, and near the
+Fayymn, with which their royal city at Itht-taui had brought them into
+contact. But at the end of the XIIIth Dynasty the great invasion of the
+Hyksos probably occurred, and all Northern Egypt fell under the Arab
+sway. The native kings were driven south from the Fayymn to Abydos,
+Koptos, and Thebes, and at Thebes they were buried, in a new necropolis
+to the north of Der el-Bahari (probably then full), on the flank of a
+long spur of hill which is now called Dra' Abu-'l-Negga, "Abu-'l-Negga's
+Arm." Here the Theban kings of the period between the XIIIth and XVIIth
+Dynasties, Upuantemsaf, Antef Nub-kheper-Ra, and his descendants, Antefs
+III and IV, were buried. In their time the pressure of foreign invasion
+seems to have been felt, for, to judge from their coffins, which show
+progressive degeneration of style and workmanship, poverty now afflicted
+Upper Egypt and art had fallen sadly from the high standard which it had
+reached in the days of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties. Probably the later
+Antefs and Sebekemsafs were vassals of the Hyksos. Their descendants
+of the XVIIth Dynasty were buried in the same necropolis of Dra'
+Abu-'l-Negga, and so were the first two kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
+Aahmes and Amenhetep I. The tombs of the last two have not yet been
+found, but we know from the Abbott Papyrus that Amenhetep's was
+here, for, like that of Menttihetep III, it was found intact by the
+inspectors. It was a gallery-tomb of very great length, and will be a
+most interesting find when it is discovered, as it no doubt eventually
+will be. Aahmes had a tomb at Abydos, which was discovered by Mr.
+Currelly, working for the Egypt Exploration Fund. This, however, like
+the Abydene tomb of Usert-sen (Senusret) III, was in all likelihood a
+sham or secondary tomb, the king having most probably been buried at
+Thebes, in the Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. The Abydos tomb is of interesting
+construction. The entrance is by a simple pit, from which a gallery
+runs round in a curving direction to a great hall supported by eighteen
+square pillars, beyond which is a further gallery which was never
+finished. Nothing was found in the tomb. On the slope of the mountain,
+due west of and in a line with the tomb, Mr. Currelly found a
+terrace-temple analogous to those of Der el-Bahari, approached not
+by means of a ramp but by stairways at the side. It was evidently the
+funerary temple of the tomb.
+
+[Illustration: 338.jpg Statue of Queen Teta-shera]
+
+     Grandmother of Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos and
+     founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty. About 1700 B. C. British
+     Museum. From the photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The secondary tomb of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Abydos, which has
+already been mentioned, was discovered in the preceding year by Mr. A.
+E. P. Weigall, and excavated by Mr. Currelly in 1903. It lies north of
+the Aahmes temple, between it and the main cemetery of Abydos. It is a
+great _bab_ or gallery-tomb, like those of the later kings at Thebes,
+with the usual apparatus of granite plugs, barriers, pits, etc., to
+defy plunderers. The tomb had been plundered, nevertheless, though it is
+probable that the robbers were vastly disappointed with what they
+found in it. Mr. Currelly ascribes the absence of all remains to the
+plunderers, but the fact is that there probably never was anything in
+it but an empty sarcophagus. Near the tomb Mr. Weigall discovered
+some dummy mastabas, a find of great interest. Just as the king had a
+secondary tomb, so secondary mastabas, mere dummies of rubble like the
+XIth Dynasty pyramid at Der el-Bahari, were erected beside it to look
+like the tombs of his courtiers. Some curious sinuous brick walls which
+appear to act as dividing lines form a remarkable feature of this sham
+cemetery. In a line with the tomb, on the edge of the cultivation,
+is the funerary temple belonging to it, which was found by Mr.
+Randall-Maclver in 1900. Nothing remains but the bases of the fluted
+limestone columns and some brick walls. A headless statue of Usertsen
+was found.
+
+We have an interesting example of the custom of building a secondary
+tomb for royalties in these two necropoles of Dra' Abu-'l-Negga and
+Abydos. Queen Teta-shera, the grandmother of Aahmes, a beautiful
+statuette of whom may be seen in the British Museum, had a small pyramid
+at Abydos, eastward of and in a line with the temple and secondary tomb
+of Aahmes. In 1901 Mr. Mace attempted to find the chamber, but could
+not. In the next year Mr. Currelly found between it and the Aahmes
+tomb a small chapel, containing a splendid stele, on which Aahmes
+commemorates his grandmother, who, he says, was buried at Thebes and had
+a _mer-ahat_ at Abydos, and he records his determination to build her
+also a pyramid at Abydos, out of his love and veneration for her memory.
+It thus appeared that the pyramid to the east was simply a dummy,
+like Usertsen's mastabas, or the Mentuhetep pyramid at Der el-Bahari.
+Teta-shera was actually buried at Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. Her secondary
+pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was in the "holy ground" at
+Abydos, though it was not an imitation _bab_, but a dummy pyramid of
+rubble. This well illustrates the whole custom of the royal primary and
+secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had obtained in the case of
+royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty, when Aha had two
+tombs, one at Nakada and the other at Abydos. It is probable that all
+the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings being really
+buried elsewhere. After their time we know for certain that Tjeser and
+Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly Usertsen
+(Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III and
+Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs. Ramses III
+also had two tombs, both at Thebes. The reasons for this custom were
+two: first, the desire to elude plunderers, and second, the wish to give
+the ghost a _pied-a-terre_ on the sacred soil of Abydos or Sakkara.
+
+As the inscription of Aahmes which records the building of the dummy
+pyramid of Teta-shera is of considerable interest, it may here be
+translated. The text reads: "It came to pass that when his Majesty the
+king, even the king of South and North, Neb-pehti-Ra, Son of the Sun,
+Aahmes, Giver of Life, was taking his pleasure in the _tjadu_-hall,
+the hereditary princess greatly favoured and greatly prized, the king's
+daughter, the king's sister, the god's wife and great wife of the king,
+Nefret-ari-Aahmes, the living, was in the presence of his Majesty. And
+the one spake unto the other, seeking to do honour to These There,*
+which consisteth in the pouring of water, the offering upon the altar,
+the painting of the stele at the beginning of each season, at the
+Festival of the New Moon, at the feast of the month, the feast of the
+going-forth of the _Sem_-priest, the Ceremonies of the Night, the Feasts
+of the Fifth Day of the Month and of the Sixth, the _Hak_-festival, the
+_Uag_-festival, the feast of Thoth, the beginning of every season of
+heaven and earth. And his sister spake, answering him: 'Why hath one
+remembered these matters, and wherefore hath this word been said?
+Prithee, what hath come into thy heart?' The king spake, saying: 'As for
+me, I have remembered the mother of my mother, the mother of my father,
+the king's great wife and king's mother Teta-shera, deceased, whose
+tomb-chamber and _mer-ahat_ are at this moment upon the soil of Thebes
+and Abydos. I have spoken thus unto thee because my Majesty desireth to
+cause a pyramid and chapel to be made for her in the Sacred Land, as a
+gift of a monument from my Majesty, and that its lake should be dug, its
+trees planted, and its offerings prescribed; that it should be provided
+with slaves, furnished with lands, and endowed with cattle, with
+_hen-ka_ priests and _kher-heb_ priests performing their duties, each
+man knowing what he hath to do.' Behold! when his Majesty had thus
+spoken, these things were immediately carried out. His Majesty did these
+things on account of the greatness of the love which he bore her, which
+was greater than anything. Never had ancestral kings done the like for
+their mothers. Behold! his Majesty extended his arm and bent his hand,
+and made for her the king's offering to Geb, to the Ennead of Gods, to
+the lesser Ennead of Gods... [to Anubis] in the God's Shrine, thousands
+of offerings of bread, beer, oxen, geese, cattle... to [the Queen
+Teta-shera]." This is one of the most interesting inscriptions
+discovered in Egypt in recent years, for the picturesqueness of its
+diction is unusual.
+
+     * A polite periphrasis for the dead.
+
+As has already been said, the king Amenhetep I was also buried in the
+Dra' Abu-'l-Negga, but the tomb has not yet been found. Amenhetep I and
+his mother, Queen Nefret-ari-Aahmes, who is mentioned in the inscription
+translated above, were both venerated as tutelary demons of the Western
+Necropolis of Thebes after their deaths, as also was Mentuhetep III. At
+Der el-Bahari both kings seem to have been worshipped with Hathor, the
+Mistress of the Waste. The worship of Amen-Ra in the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple of Der el-Bahari was a novelty introduced by the priests of Amen
+at that time. But the worship of Hathor went on side by side with that
+of Amen in a chapel with a rock-cut shrine at the side of the Great
+Temple. Very possibly this was the original cave-shrine of Hathor, long
+before Mentuhetep's time, and was incorporated with the Great Temple and
+beautified with the addition of a pillared hall before it, built
+over part of the XIth Dynasty north court and wall, by Hatshepsu's
+architects.
+
+The Great Temple, the excavation of which for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+was successfully brought to an end by Prof. Naville in 1898, was erected
+by Queen Hatshepsu in honour of Amen-Ra, her father Thothmes I, and her
+brother-husband Thothmes II, and received a few additions from Thothmes
+III, her successor. He, however, did not complete it, and it fell into
+disrepair, besides suffering from the iconoclastic zeal of the heretic
+Akhunaten, who hammered out some of the beautifully painted scenes upon
+its walls. These were badly restored by Ramses II, whose painting is
+easily distinguished from the original work by the dulness and badness
+of its colour.
+
+The peculiar plan and other remarkable characteristics of this temple
+are well known. Its great terraces, with the ramps leading up to them,
+flanked by colonnades, which, as we have seen, were imitated from the
+design of the old XIth Dynasty temple at its side, are familiar from a
+hundred illustrations, and the marvellously preserved colouring of its
+delicate reliefs is known to every winter visitor to Egypt, and can be
+realized by those who have never been there through the medium of Mr.
+Howard Carter's wonderful coloured reproductions, published in Prof.
+Naville's edition of the temple by the Egypt Exploration Fund. The Great
+Temple stands to-day clear of all the debris which used to cover it, a
+lasting monument to the work of the greatest of the societies which busy
+themselves with the unearthing of the relics of the ancient world.
+
+[Illustration: 334.jpg THE TWO TEMPLES OF DES EL-BAHARI.] Excavated by
+Prof. Nayille, 1893-8 and 1903-6, for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+
+The two temples of Der el-Bahari will soon stand side by side, as they
+originally stood, and will always be associated with the name of the
+society which rescued them from oblivion, and gave us the treasures
+of the royal tombs at Abydos. The names of the two men whom the Egypt
+Exploration Fund commissioned to excavate Der el-Bahari and Abydos, and
+for whose work it exclusively supplied the funds, Profs. Naville and
+Petrie, will live chiefly in connection with their work at Der el-Bahari
+and Abydos.
+
+The Egyptians called the two temples _Tjeserti_, "the two holy places,"
+the new building receiving the name of _Tjeser-tjesru_, "Holy of
+Holies," and the whole tract of Der el-Bahari the appellation _Tjesret_,
+"the Holy." The extraordinary beauty of the situation in which they are
+placed, with its huge cliffs and rugged hillsides, may be appreciated
+from the photograph which is taken from a steep path half-way up the
+cliff above the Great Temple. In it we see the Great Temple in the
+foreground with the modern roofs of two of its colonnades, devised in
+order to protect the sculptures beneath them, the great trilithon gate
+leading to the upper court, and the entrance to the cave-shrine of
+Amen-Ra, with the niches of the kings on either side, immediately at the
+foot of the cliff. In the middle distance is the duller form of the XIth
+Dynasty temple, with its rectangular platform, the ramp leading up
+to it, and the pyramid in the centre of it, surrounded by pillars,
+half-emerging from the great heaps of sand and debris all around. The
+background of cliffs and hills, as seen in the photograph, will serve to
+give some idea of the beauty of the surroundings,--an arid beauty, it is
+true, for all is desert. There is not a blade of vegetation near; all
+is salmon-red in colour beneath a sky of ineffable blue, and against the
+red cliffs the white temple stands out in vivid contrast.
+
+The second illustration gives a nearer view of the great trilithon
+gate in the upper court, at the head of the ramp. The long hill of Dra'
+Abu-'l-Negga is seen bending away northward behind the gate.
+
+[Illustration: 346.jpg THE UPPER COURT AND TRILITHON GATE]
+
+     Of The Xviiith Dynasty Temple At Dek El-Bahari. About 1500
+     B.C.
+
+This is the famous gate on which the jealous Thothmes III chiselled out
+Hatshepsu's name in the royal cartouches and inserted his own in
+its place; but he forgot to alter the gender of the pronouns in the
+accompanying inscription, which therefore reads "King Thothmes III, she
+made this monument to her father Amen."
+
+Among Prof. Naville's discoveries here one of the most important is that
+of the altar in a small court to the north, which, as the inscription
+says, was made in honour of the god Ra-Harmachis "of beautiful white
+stone of Anu." It is of the finest white limestone known. Here also were
+found the carved ebony doors of a shrine, now in the Cairo Museum. One
+of the most beautiful parts of the temple is the Shrine of Anubis, with
+its splendidly preserved paintings and perfect columns and roof of
+white limestone. The effect of the pure white stone and simplicity of
+architecture is almost Hellenic.
+
+The Shrine of Hathor has been known since the time of Mariette, but in
+connection with it some interesting discoveries have been made during
+the excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple. In the court between the two
+temples were found a large number of small votive offerings, consisting
+of scarabs, beads, little figures of cows and women, etc., of blue
+glazed _faience_ and rough pottery, bronze and wood, and blue glazed
+ware ears, eyes, and plaques with figures of the sacred cow, and other
+small objects of the same nature. These are evidently the ex-votos of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty fellahin to the goddess Hathor in the rock-shrine
+above the court. When the shrine was full or the little ex-votos broken,
+the sacristans threw them over the wall into the court below, which thus
+became a kind of dust-heap. Over this heap the sand and debris gradually
+collected, and thus they were preserved. The objects found are of
+considerable interest to anthropological science.
+
+The Great Temple was built, as we have said, in honour of Thothmes I
+and II, and the deities Amen-Ra and Hathor. More especially it was the
+funerary chapel of Thothmes I. His tomb was excavated, not in the Dra'
+Abu-l-Negga, which was doubtless now too near the capital city and not
+in a sufficiently dignified position of aloofness from the common herd,
+but at the end of the long valley of the Wadiyen, behind the cliff-hill
+above Der el-Bahari. Hence the new temple was oriented in the direction
+of his tomb. Immediately behind the temple, on the other side of the
+hill, is the tomb which was discovered by Lepsius and cleared in 1904
+for Mr. Theodore N. Davis by Mr. Howard Carter, then chief inspector of
+antiquities at Thebes. Its gallery is of very small dimensions, and it
+winds about in the hill in corkscrew fashion like the tomb of Aahmes at
+Aby-dos. Owing to its extraordinary length, the heat and foul air in the
+depths of the tomb were almost insupportable and caused great difficulty
+to the excavators. When the sarcophagus-chamber was at length reached,
+it was found to contain the empty sarcophagi of Thothmes I and of
+Hatshepsu. The bodies had been removed for safe-keeping in the time of
+the XXIst Dynasty, that of Thothmes I having been found with those
+of Set! I and Ramses II in the famous pit at Der el-Bahari, which was
+discovered by M. Maspero in 1881. Thothmes I seems to have had another
+and more elaborate tomb (No. 38) in the Valley of the Tombs of the
+Kings, which was discovered by M. Loret in 1898. Its frescoes had been
+destroyed by the infiltration of water.
+
+The fashion of royal burial in the great valley behind Der el-Bahari
+was followed during the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth Dynasties. Here in the
+eastern branch of the Wadiyen, now called the _Biban el-Muluk_, "the
+Tombs of the Kings," the greater number of the mightiest Theban Pharaohs
+were buried. In the western valley rested two of the kings of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, who desired even more remote burial-places, Amenhetep
+III and Ai. The former chose for his last home a most kingly site.
+Ancient kings had raised great pyramids of artificial stone over their
+graves. Amenhetep, perhaps the greatest and most powerful Pharaoh of
+them all, chose to have a natural pyramid for his grave, a mountain for
+his tumulus. The illustration shows us the tomb of this monarch, opening
+out of the side of one of the most imposing hills in the Western Valley.
+No other king but Amenhetep rested beneath this hill, which thus marks
+his grave and his only.
+
+It is in the Eastern Valley, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings
+properly speaking, that the tombs of Thothmes I and Hatshepsu lie, and
+here the most recent discoveries have been made. It is a desolate spot.
+As we come over the hill from Der el-Bahari we see below us in the
+glaring sunshine a rocky canon, with sides sometimes sheer cliff,
+sometimes sloped by great falls of rock in past ages. At the bottom
+of these slopes the square openings of the many royal tombs can be
+descried. [See illustration.] Far below we see the forms of tourists
+and the tomb-guards accompanying them, moving in and out of the openings
+like ants going in and out of an ants' nest. Nothing is heard but the
+occasional cry of a kite and the ceaseless rhythmical throbbing of the
+exhaust-pipe of the electric light engine in the unfinished tomb of
+Ramses XI. Above and around are the red desert hills. The Egyptians
+called it "The Place of Eternity."
+
+[Illustration: 350.jpg THE TOMB-MOUNTAIN OF AMENHETEF III, IN THE
+WESTERN VALLEY, THEBES.]
+
+In this valley some remarkable discoveries have been made during the
+last few years. In 1898 M. Grebaut discovered the tomb of Amenhetep
+II, in which was found the mummy of the king, intact, lying in its
+sarcophagus in the depths of the tomb. The royal body now lies there
+for all to see. The tomb is lighted with electricity, as are all the
+principal tombs of the kings. At the head of the sarcophagus is a single
+lamp, and, when the party of visitors is collected in silence around the
+place of death, all the lights are turned out, and then the single
+light is switched on, showing the royal head illuminated against the
+surrounding blackness. The effect is indescribably weird and impressive.
+The body has only twice been removed from the tomb since its burial, the
+second time when it was for a brief space taken up into the sunlight to
+be photographed by Mr.. Carter, in January, 1902. The temporary removal
+was carefully carried out, the body of his Majesty being borne up
+through the passages of the tomb on the shoulders of the Italian
+electric light workmen, preceded and followed by impassive Arab
+candle-bearers. The workmen were most reverent in their handling of the
+body of "_ il gran re_," as they called him.
+
+In the tomb were found some very interesting objects, including a model
+boat (afterwards stolen), across which lay the body of a woman. This
+body now lies, with others found close by, in a side chamber of the
+tomb. One may be that of Hatshepsu. The walls of the tomb-chamber are
+painted to resemble papyrus, and on them are written chapters of the
+"Book of What Is in the Underworld," for the guidance of the royal
+ghost.
+
+In 1902-3 Mr. Theodore Davis excavated the tomb of Thothmes IV. It
+yielded a rich harvest of antiquities belonging to the funeral state of
+the king, including a chariot with sides of embossed and gilded leather,
+decorated with representations of the king's warlike deeds, and much
+fine blue pottery, all of which are now in the Cairo Museum. The
+tomb-gallery returns upon itself, describing a curve. An interesting
+point with regard to it is that it had evidently been violated even in
+the short time between the reigns of its owner and Horem-heb, probably
+in the period of anarchy which prevailed at Thebes during the reign
+of the heretic Akhunaten; for in one of the chambers is a hieratic
+inscription recording the repair of the tomb in the eighth year of
+Horemheb by Maya, superintendent of works in the Tombs of the Kings. It
+reads as follows: "In the eighth year, the third month of summer, under
+the Majesty of King Tjeser-khepru-Ra Sotp-n-Ra, Son of the Sun, Horemheb
+Meriamen, his Majesty (Life, health, and wealth unto him!) commanded
+that orders should be sent unto the Fanbearer on the King's Left Hand,
+the King's Scribe and Overseer of the Treasury, the Overseer of the
+Works in the Place of Eternity, the Leader of the Festivals of Amen
+in Karnak, Maya, son of the judge Aui, born of the Lady Ueret, that he
+should renew the burial of King Men-khepru-Ra, deceased, in the August
+Habitation in Western Thebes." Men-khepru-Ra was the prenomen or
+throne-name of Thothmes IV. Tied round a pillar in the tomb is still a
+length of the actual rope used by the thieves for crossing the chasm,
+which, as in many of the tombs here, was left open in the gallery to bar
+the way to plunderers. The mummy of the king was found in the tomb of
+Amenhetep II, and is now at Cairo.
+
+The discovery of the tomb of Thothmes I and Hat-shepsu has already been
+described. In 1905 Mr. Davis made his latest find, the tomb of Iuaa
+and Tuaa, the father and mother of Queen Tii, the famous consort of
+Amenhetep III and mother of Akhunaten the heretic. Readers of Prof.
+Maspero's history will remember that Iuaa and Tuaa are mentioned on one
+of the large memorial scarabs of Amenhetep III, which commemorates his
+marriage. The tomb has yielded an almost incredible treasure of funerary
+furniture, besides the actual mummies of Tii's parents, including a
+chariot overlaid with gold. Gold overlay of great thickness is found on
+everything, boxes, chairs, etc. It was no wonder that Egypt seemed the
+land of gold to the Asiatics, and that even the King of Babylon begs
+this very Pharaoh Amenhetep to send him gold, in one of the letters
+found at Tell el-Amarna, "for gold is as water in thy land." It is
+probable that Egypt really attained the height of her material wealth
+and prosperity in the reign of Amenhetep III. Certainly her dominion
+reached its farthest limits in his time, and his influence was felt from
+the Tigris to the Sudan. He hunted lions for his pleasure in Northern
+Mesopotamia, and he built temples at Jebel Barkal beyond Dongola. We see
+the evidence of lavish wealth in the furniture of the tomb of Iuaa and
+Tuaa. Yet, fine as are many of these gold-overlaid and overladen objects
+of the XVIIIth Dynasty, they have neither the good taste nor the charm
+of the beautiful jewels from the XIIth Dynasty tombs at Dashur. It is
+mere vulgar wealth. There is too much gold thrown about. "For gold is as
+water in thy land." In three hundred years' time Egypt was to know what
+poverty meant, when the poor priest-kings of the XXIst Dynasty could
+hardly keep body and soul together and make a comparatively decent show
+as Pharaohs of Egypt. Then no doubt the latter-day Thebans sighed for
+the good old times of the XVIIIth Dynasty, when their city ruled a
+considerable part of Africa and Western Asia and garnered their riches
+into her coffers. But the days of the XIIth Dynasty had really been
+better still. Then there was not so much wealth, but what there was (and
+there was as much gold then, too) was used sparingly, tastefully, and
+simply. The XIIth Dynasty, not the XVIIIth, was the real Golden Age of
+Egypt.
+
+From the funeral panoply of a tomb like that of Iuaa and Tuaa we can
+obtain some idea of the pomp and state of Amenhetep III. But the remains
+of his Theban palace, which have been discovered and excavated by Mr. C.
+Tytus and Mr. P. E. Newberry, do not bear out this idea of magnificence.
+It is quite possible that the palace was merely a pleasure house,
+erected very hastily and destined to fall to pieces when its owner tired
+of it or died, like the many palaces of the late Khedive Ismail. It
+stood on the border of an artificial lake, whereon the Pharaoh and his
+consort Tii sailed to take their pleasure in golden barks. This is now
+the cultivated rectangular space of land known as the Birket Habu, which
+is still surrounded by the remains of the embankment built to retain its
+waters, and becomes a lake during the inundation. On the western shore
+of this lake Amenhetep erected the "stately pleasure dome," the
+remains of which still cover the sandy tract known as el-Malkata, "the
+Salt-pans," south of the great temple of Medinet Habu. These remains
+consist merely of the foundations and lowest wall-courses of a
+complicated and rambling building of many chambers, constructed of
+common unburnt brick and plastered with white stucco on walls and
+floors, on which were painted beautiful frescoes of fighting bulls,
+birds of the air, water-fowl, fish-ponds, etc., in much the same style
+as the frescoes of Tell el-Amarna executed in the next reign. There
+were small pillared halls, the columns of which were of wood, mounted
+on bases of white limestone. The majority still remain in position. In
+several chambers there are small daises, and in one the remains of a
+throne, built of brick and mud covered with plaster and stucco, upon
+which the Pharaoh Amenhetep sat. This is the palace of him whom the
+Greeks called Memnon, who ruled Egypt when Israel was in bondage and
+when the dynasty of Minos reigned in Crete. Here by the side of his
+pleasure-lake the most powerful of Egyptian Pharaohs whiled away his
+time during the summer heats. Evidently the building was intended to be
+of the lightest construction, and never meant to last; but to our ideas
+it seems odd that an Egyptian Pharaoh should live in a mud palace. Such
+a building is, however, quite suited to the climate of Egypt, as are the
+modern crude brick dwellings of the fellahin. In the ruins of the
+palace were found several small objects of interest, and close by was
+an ancient glass manufactory of Amenhetep III's time, where much of the
+characteristic beautifully coloured and variegated opaque glass of the
+period was made.
+
+[Illustration: 356.jpg THE TOMB-HILL OF SHEKH 'ABD EL-KUBNA, THEBES.]
+
+The tombs of the magnates of Amenhetep III's reign and of the reigns
+of his immediate predecessors were excavated, as has been said, on the
+eastern slope of the hill of Shekh 'Abd el-Kurna, where was the earliest
+Theban necropolis. No doubt many of the early tombs of the time of the
+VIth Dynasty were appropriated and remodelled by the XVIIIth Dynasty
+magnates. We have an instance of time's revenge in this matter, in the
+case of the tomb of Imadua, a great priestly official of the time of
+the XXth Dynasty. This tomb previously belonged to an XVIIIth Dynasty
+worthy, but Imadua appropriated it three hundred years later and covered
+up all its frescoes with the much begilt decoration fashionable in his
+period. Perhaps the XVIIIth Dynasty owner had stolen it from an original
+owner of the time of the VIth Dynasty. The tomb has lately been cleared
+out by Mr. Newberry.
+
+Much work of the same kind has been done here of late years by Messrs.
+Newberry and R. L. Mond, in succession. To both we are indebted for the
+excavation of many known tombs, as well as for the discovery of many
+others previously unknown. Among the former was that of Sebekhetep,
+cleared by Mr. Newberry. Se-bekhetep was an official of the time of
+Thothmes III. From his tomb, and from others in the same hill, came many
+years ago the fine frescoes shown in the illustration, which are among
+the most valued treasures of the Egyptian department of the British
+Museum. They are typical specimens of the wall-decoration of an XVIIIth
+Dynasty tomb. On one may be seen a bald-headed peasant, with staff in
+hand, pulling an ear of corn from the standing crop in order to see if
+it is ripe. He is the "Chief Reaper," and above him is a prayer that the
+"great god in heaven" may increase the crop. To the right of him is a
+charioteer standing beside a car and reining back a pair of horses, one
+black, the other bay. Below is another charioteer with two white
+horses. He sits on the floor of the car with his back to them, eating
+or resting, while they nibble the branches of a tree close by. Another
+scene is that of a scribe keeping tally of offerings brought to the
+tomb, while fellahm are bringing flocks of geese and other fowl, some in
+crates. The inscription above is apparently addressed by the goose-herd
+to the man with the crates. It reads: "Hasten thy feet because of the
+geese! Hearken! thou knowest not the next minute what has been said
+to thee!" Above, a reis with a stick bids other peasants squat on the
+ground before addressing the scribe, and he is saying to them: "Sit ye
+down to talk." The third scene is in another style; on it may be seen
+Semites bringing offerings of vases of gold, silver, and copper to the
+royal presence, bowing themselves to the ground and kissing the dust
+before the throne. The fidelity and accuracy with which the racial type
+of the tribute-bearers is given is most extraordinary; every face
+seems a portrait, and each one might be seen any day now in the Jewish
+quarters of Whitechapel.
+
+[Illustration: 358.jpg Wall-Painting from a Tomb]
+
+The first two paintings are representative of a very common style of
+fresco-pictures in these tombs. The care with which the animals
+are depicted is remarkable. Possibly one of the finest Egyptian
+representations of an animal is the fresco of a goat in the tomb of
+Gen-Amen, discovered by Mr. Mond. There is even an attempt here at
+chiaroscuro, which is unknown to Egyptian art generally, except at Tell
+el-Amarna. Evidently the Egyptian painters reached the apogee of
+their art towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The third, the
+representation of tribute-bearers, is of a type also well known at
+this period. In all the chief tombs we have processions of Egyptians,
+Westerners, Northerners, Easterners, and Southerners, bringing tribute
+to the Pharaoh. The North is represented by the Semites, the East by the
+Punites (when they occur), the South by negroes, the West by the Keftiu
+or people of Crete and Cyprus. The representations of the last-named
+people have become of the very highest interest during the last few
+years, on account of the discoveries in Crete, which have revealed to
+us the state and civilization of these very Keftiu. Messrs. Evans
+and Halbherr have discovered at Knossos and Phaistos the cities and
+palace-temples of the king who sent forth their ambassadors to far-away
+Egypt with gifts for the mighty Pharaoh; these ambassadors were painted
+in the tombs of their hosts as representative of the quarter of the
+world from which they came.
+
+The two chief Egyptian representations of these people, who since they
+lived in Greece may be called Greeks, though their more proper title
+would be "Pe-lasgians," are to be found in the tombs of Rekhmara and
+Senmut, the former a vizier under Thothmes III, the latter the
+architect of Hatshepsu's temple at Der el-Bahari. Senmut's tomb is a
+new rediscovery. It was known, as Rekhmara's was, in the early days of
+Egyptological science, and Prisse d'Avennes copied its paintings. It was
+afterwards lost sight of until rediscovered by Mr. Newberry and Prof.
+Steindorff.
+
+[Illustration: 360.jpg FRESCO IN THE TOMB OF SENMUT AT THEBES.] About
+1500 B.C.
+
+The tomb of Rekhmara (No. 35) is well known to every visitor to Thebes,
+but it is difficult to get at that of Senmut (No. 110); it lies at the
+top of the hill round to the left and overlooking Der el-Bahari,
+an appropriate place for it, by the way. In some ways Senmut's
+representations are more interesting than Rekhmara's. They are more
+easily seen, since they are now in the open air, the fore hall of the
+tomb having been ruined; and they are better preserved, since they have
+not been subjected to a century of inspection with naked candles and
+pawing with greasy hands, as have Rekhmara's frescoes. Further, there
+is no possibility of mistaking what they represent. From right to
+left, walking in procession, we see the Minoan gift-bearers from Crete,
+carrying in their hands and on their shoulders great cups of gold and
+silver, in shape like the famous gold cups found at Vaphio in Lakonia,
+but much larger, also a ewer of gold and silver exactly like one of
+bronze discovered by Mr. Evans two years ago at Knossos, and a huge
+copper jug with four ring-handles round the sides. All these vases are
+specifically and definitely Mycenaean, or rather, following the new
+terminology, Minoan. They are of Greek manufacture and are carried on
+the shoulders of Pelasgian Greeks. The bearers wear the usual Mycenaean
+costume, high boots and a gaily ornamented kilt, and little else, just
+as we see it depicted in the fresco of the Cupbearer at Knossos and
+in other Greek representations. The coiffure, possibly the most
+characteristic thing about the Mycenaean Greeks, is faithfully
+represented by the Egyptians both here and in Rekhmara's tomb. The
+Mycenaean men allowed their hair to grow to its full natural length,
+like women, and wore it partly hanging down the back, partly tied up
+in a knot or plait (the _kepas_ of the dandy Paris in the Iliad) on the
+crown of the head. This was the universal fashion, and the Keftiu are
+consistently depicted by the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptians as following it.
+The faces in the Senmut fresco are not so well portrayed as those in the
+Rekhmara fresco. There it is evident that the first three ambassadors
+are faithfully depicted, as the portraits are marked. The procession
+advances from left to right. The first man, "the Great Chief of the
+Kefti and the Isles of the Green Sea," is young, and has a remarkably
+small mouth with an amiable expression. His complexion is fair rather
+than dark, but his hair is dark brown. His lieutenant, the next in
+order, is of a different type,--elderly, with a most forbidding visage,
+Roman nose, and nutcracker jaws. Most of the others are very much
+alike,--young, dark in complexion, and with long black hair hanging
+below their waists and twisted up into fantastic knots and curls on the
+tops of their heads. One, carrying on his shoulder a great silver vase
+with curving handles and in one hand a dagger of early European Bronze
+Age type, is looking back to hear some remark of his next companion.
+Any one of these gift-bearers might have sat for the portrait of
+the Knossian Cupbearer, the fresco discovered by Mr. Evans in the
+palace-temple of Minos; he has the same ruddy brown complexion, the same
+long black hair dressed in the same fashion, the same parti-coloured
+kilt, and he bears his vase in much the same way. We have only to allow
+for the difference of Egyptian and Mycenaean ways of drawing. There is
+no doubt whatever that these Keftiu of the Egyptians were Cretans of the
+Minoan Age. They used to be considered Phoenicians, but this view was
+long ago exploded. They are not Semites, and that is quite enough.
+Neither are they Asiatics of any kind. They are purely and simply
+Mycenaean, or rather Minoan, Greeks of the pre-Hellenic period--Pelasgi,
+that is to say.
+
+Probably no discovery of more far-reaching importance to our knowledge
+of the history of the world generally and of our own culture especially
+has ever been made than the finding of Mycenae by Schliemann, and
+the further finds that have resulted therefrom, culminating in the
+discoveries of Mr. Arthur Evans at Knossos. Naturally, these discoveries
+are of extraordinary interest to us, for they have revealed the
+beginnings and first bloom of the European civilization of to-day. For
+our culture-ancestors are neither the Egyptians, nor the Assyrians, nor
+the Hebrews, but the Hellenes, and they, the Aryan-Greeks, derived most
+of their civilization from the pre-Hellenic people whom they found in
+the land before them, the Pelasgi or "Mycenaean" Greeks, "Minoans," as we
+now call them, the Keftiu of the Egyptians. These are the ancient Greeks
+of the Heroic Age, to which the legends of the Hellenes refer; in their
+day were fought the wars of Troy and of the Seven against Thebes, in
+their day the tragedy of the Atridse was played out to its end, in their
+day the wise Minos ruled Knossos and the _AEgean_. And of all the events
+which are at the back of these legends we know nothing. The hieroglyphed
+tablets of the pre-Hellenic Greeks lie before us, but we cannot read
+them; we can only see that the Minoan writing in many ways resembled
+the Egyptian, thus again confirming our impression of the original early
+connection of the two cultures.
+
+In view of this connection, and the known close relations between Crete
+and Egypt, from the end of the XIIth Dynasty to the end of the XVIIIth,
+we might have hoped to recover at Knossos a bilingual inscription in
+Cretan and Egyptian hieroglyphs which would give us the key to the
+Minoan script and tell us what we so dearly wish to know. But this hope
+has not yet been realized. Two Egyptian inscriptions have been found at
+Knossos, but no bilingual one. A list of Keftian names is preserved in
+the British Museum upon an Egyptian writing-board from Thebes with what
+is perhaps a copy of a single Cretan hieroglyph, a vase; but again,
+nothing bilingual. A list of "Keftian words" occurs at the head of a
+papyrus, also in the British Museum, but they appear to be nonsense,
+a mere imitation of the sounds of a strange tongue. Still we need
+not despair of finding the much desired Cretan-Egyptian bilingual
+inscription yet. Perhaps the double text of a treaty between Crete and
+Egypt, like that of Ramses II with the Hittites, may come to light.
+Meanwhile we can only do our best with the means at our hand to trace
+out the history of the relations of the oldest European culture with
+the ancient civilization of Egypt. The tomb-paintings at Thebes are very
+important material. Eor it is due to them that the voice of the doubter
+has finally ceased to be heard, and that now no archaeologist questions
+that the Egyptians were in direct communication with the Cretan
+Mycenaeans in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, some fifteen hundred years
+before Christ, for no one doubts that the pictures of the Keftiu are
+pictures of Mycenaeans.
+
+As we have seen, we know that this connection was far older than the
+time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, but it is during that time and the Hyksos
+period that we have the clearest documentary proof of its existence,
+from the statuette of Abnub and the alabastron lid of King Khian,
+found at Knossos, down to the Mycenaean pottery fragments found at Tell
+el-Amarna, a site which has been utterly abandoned since the time of
+the heretic Akhunaten (B.C. 1430), so that there is no possibility of
+anything found there being later than his time. That the connection
+existed as late as the time of the XXth Dynasty we know from the
+representations of golden _Buegelkannen_ or false-necked vases of
+Mycenaean form in the tomb of Ramses III in the Biban el-Muluk, and of
+golden cups of Vaphio type in the tomb of Imadua, already mentioned.
+This brings the connection down to about 1050 B.C.
+
+After that date we cannot hope to find any certain evidence of
+connection, for by that time the Mycenaean civilization had probably
+come to an end. In the days of the XIIth and XVIIIth Dynasties a great
+and splendid power evidently existed in Crete, and sent its peaceful
+ambassadors, the Keftiu who are represented in the Theban tombs, to
+Egypt. But with the XIXth Dynasty the name of the Keftiu disappears from
+Egyptian records, and their place is taken by a congeries of warring
+seafaring tribes, whose names as given by the Egyptians seem to be forms
+of tribal and place names well known to us in the Greece of later days.
+We find the Akaivasha (_Axaifol_, Achaians), Shakalsha (Sagalassians of
+Pisidia), Tursha (Tylissians of Crete?), and Shardana (Sardians) allied
+with the Libyans and Mashauash (Maxyes) in a land attack upon Egypt in
+the days of Meneptah, the successor of Ramses II--just as in the later
+days of the XXVIth Dynasty the Northern pirates visited the African
+shore of the Mediterranean, and in alliance with the predatory Libyans
+attacked Egypt.
+
+Prof. Petrie has lately [History of Egypt, iii, pp. Ill, I12.] proffered
+an alternative view, which would make all these tribes Tunisians and
+Algerians, thus disposing of the identification of the Akaivasha with
+the Achaians, and making them the ancient representatives of the town
+of el-Aghwat (Roman Agbia) in Tunis. But several difficulties might be
+pointed out which are in the way of an acceptance of this view, and it
+is probable that the older identifications with Greek tribes must still
+be retained, so that Meneptah's Akaivasha are evidently the ancient
+representatives of the Achai(v)ans, the Achivi of the Roman poets. The
+terminations _sha_ and _na_, which appear in these names, are merely
+ethnic and locative affixes belonging to the Asianic language system
+spoken by these tribes at that time, to which the language of the Minoan
+Cretans (which is written in the Knossian hieroglyphs) belonged. They
+existed in ancient Lycian in the forms _azzi_ and _nna_, and we find
+them enshrined in the Asia Minor place-names terminating in _assos_
+and _nda_, as Halikarnassos, Sagalassos (Shakalasha in Meneptah's
+inscription), Oroanda, and Labraunda (which, as we have seen, is the
+same as the [Greek word], a word of pre-Hellenic origin, both meaning
+"Place of the Double Axe") The identification of these _sha_ and _nal_
+terminations in the Egyptian transliterations of the foreign names, with
+the Lycian affixes referred to, was made some five years ago,* and is
+now generally accepted. We have, then, to find the equivalents of
+these names, to strike off the final termination, as in the case of
+Akaiva-sha, where Akaiva only is the real name, and this seems to be
+the Egyptian equivalent of _Axaifol_, Achivi. It is strange to meet with
+this great name on an Egyptian monument of the thirteenth century B.C.
+But yet not so strange, when we recollect that it is precisely to that
+period that Greek legend refers the war of Troy, which was an attack
+by Greek tribes from all parts of the AEgean upon the Asianic city
+at Hissarlik in the Troad, exactly parallel to the attacks of the
+Northerners on Egypt. And Homer preserves many a reminiscence of early
+Greek visits, peaceful and the reverse, to the coast of Egypt at this
+period. The reader will have noticed that one no longer treats the siege
+of Troy as a myth. To do so would be to exhibit a most uncritical mind;
+even the legends of King Arthur have a historic foundation, and those of
+the Nibelungen are still more probable.
+
+     * See Hall, Oldest Civilization of Greece, p. 178/.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg Page Image to display Greek words]
+
+[Illustration: 369.jpg Page Image to display Greek words]
+
+In the eighth year of Ramses III the second Northern attack was made,
+by the Pulesta (_Pelishtim_, Philistines), Tjakaray, Shakalasha
+(Sagalassians), Vashasha, and Danauna or Daanau, in alliance with North
+Syrian tribes. The Danauna are evidently the ancient representatives of
+the _Aavaoi_, the Danaans who formed the bulk of the Greek army against
+Troy under the leadership of the long-haired Achaians, [Greek words]
+(like the Keftiu). The Vashasha have been identified by the writer with
+the Axians, the [Greek word] of Crete. Prof. Petrie compares the name
+of the Tjakaray with that of the (modern) place Zakro in Crete.
+Identifications with modern place-names are of doubtful value;
+for instance, we cannot but hold that Prof. Petrie errs greatly in
+identifying the name of the Pidasa (another tribe mentioned in Ramses
+II's time) with that of the river Pidias in Cyprus. "Pidias" is a purely
+modern corruption of the ancient Pediseus, which means the "plain-river"
+(because it flows through the central plain of the island), from the
+Greek [Greek word]. If, then, we make the Pidasa Cypriotes we assume
+that pure Greek was spoken in Cyprus as early as 1100 b. c, which is
+highly improbable. The Pidasa were probably Le-leges (Pedasians); the
+name of Pisidia may be the same, by metathesis. Pedasos is a name always
+connected with the much wandering tribe of the Leleges, where-ever they
+are found in Lakonia or in Asia Minor. We believe them to have been
+known to the Egyptians as Pidasa. The identification of the Tjakaray
+with Zakro is very tempting. The name was formerly identified with
+that of the Teukrians, but the v in the word Tewpot lias always been a
+stumbling-block in the way. Perhaps Zakro is neither more nor less than
+the Tetkpoc-name, since the legendary Teucer, the archer, was connected
+with the eastern or Eteokretan end of Crete, where Zakro lies. In
+Mycenaean times Zakro was an important place, so that the Tjakaray may
+be the Teukroi, after all, and Zakro may preserve the name. At any rate,
+this identification is most alluring and, taken in conjunction with
+the other cumulative identifications, is very probable; but the
+identification of the Pidaea with the river Pediaeus in Cyprus is
+neither alluring nor probable.
+
+In the time of Ramses II some of these Asia Minor tribes had marched
+against Egypt as allies of the Hittites. We find among them the Luka or
+Lycians, the Dardenui (Dardanians, who may possibly have been at that
+time in the Troad, or elsewhere, for all these tribes were certainly
+migratory), and the Masa (perhaps the Mysians). With the Cretans of
+Ramses Ill's time must be reckoned the Pulesta, who are certainly the
+Philistines, then most probably in course of their traditional migration
+from Crete to Palestine. In Philistia recent excavations by Mr. Welch
+have disclosed the unmistakable presence of a late Mycenaean culture,
+and we can only ascribe this to the Philistines, who were of Cretan
+origin.
+
+Thus we see that all these Northern tribal names hold together with
+remarkable persistence, and in fact refuse to be identified with any
+tribes but those of Asia Minor and the AEgean. In them we see the broken
+remnants of the old Minoan (Keftian) power, driven hither and thither
+across the seas by intestinal feuds, and "winding the skein of grievous
+wars till every man of them perished," as Homer says of the heroes after
+the siege of Troy. These were in fact the wanderings of the heroes, the
+period of _Sturm und Drang_ which succeeded the great civilized epoch of
+Minos and his thalassocracy, of Knossos, Phaistos, and the Keftius.
+On the walls of the temple of Medinet Habu, Ramses III depicted the
+portraits of the conquered heroes who had fallen before the Egyptian
+onslaught, and he called them heroes, _tuher_ in Egyptian, fully
+recognizing their Berserker gallantry. Above all in interest are the
+portraits of the Philistines, those Greeks who at this very time seized
+part of Palestine (which takes its name from them), and continued to
+exist there as a separate people (like the Normans in France) for at
+least two centuries. Goliath the giant was, then, a Greek; certainly he
+was of Cretan descent, and so a Pelasgian.
+
+Such are the conclusions to which modern discovery in Crete has impelled
+us with regard to the pictures of the Keftiu at Shekh 'Abd el-Kurna. It
+is indeed a new chapter in the history of the relations of ancient Egypt
+with the outside world that Dr. Arthur Evans has opened for us. And in
+this connection some American work must not be overlooked. An expedition
+sent out by the University of Pennsylvania, under Miss Harriet Boyd,
+has discovered much of importance to Mycenaean study in the ruins of an
+ancient town at Gournia in Crete, east of Knossos. Here, however, little
+has been found that will bear directly on the question of relations
+between Mycenaean Greece and Egypt.
+
+The Theban necropoles of the New Empire are by no means exhausted by a
+description of the Tombs of the Kings and Shekh 'Abd el-Kurna; but few
+new discoveries have been made anywhere except in the picturesque valley
+of the Tombs of the Queens, south of Shekh 'Abd el-Kurna. Here the
+Italian Egyptologist, Prof. Schiaparelli, has lately discovered and
+excavated some very fine tombs of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties. The best
+is that of Queen Nefertari, one of the wives of Ramses II. The colouring
+of the reliefs upon these walls is extraordinarily bright, and the
+portraits of the queen, who has a very beautiful face, with aquiline
+nose, are wonderfully preserved. She was of the dark type, while another
+queen, Titi by name, who was buried close by, was fair, and had a
+retrousse nose. Prof. Schiaparelli also discovered here the tombs of
+some princes of the XXth Dynasty, who died young. All the tombs are
+much alike, with a single short gallery, on the walls of which are
+mythological scenes, figures of the prince and of his father, the king,
+etc., painted in a crude style, which shows a great degeneration from
+that of the XVIIIth Dynasty tombs.
+
+We now leave the great necropolis and turn to the later temples of the
+Western Bank at Thebes. These were of a funerary character, like those
+of Der el-Bahari, already described. The most imposing of all in some
+respects is the Ramesseum, where lies the huge granite colossus of
+Ramses II, prostrate and broken, which Diodorus knew as the statue of
+Osymandyas. This name is a late corruption of Ramses II's throne-name,
+User-maat-Ra, pronounced Usimare. The temple has been cleared by
+Mr. Howard Carter for the Egyptian government, and the small town of
+priests' houses, magazines, and cellars, to the west of it, has been
+excavated by him. This is quite a little Pompeii, with its small
+streets, its houses with the stucco still clinging to the walls, its
+public altar, its market colonnade, and its gallery of statues. The
+statues are only of brick like the walls, and roughly shaped and
+plastered, but they were portraits, undoubtedly, of celebrities of
+the time, though we do not know of whom. On either side are the long
+magazines in which were kept the possessions of the priests of the
+Ramesseum, the grain from the lands with which they were endowed, and
+everything meet to be offered to the ghost of the king whom they served.
+The plan of the place had evidently been altered after the time of
+Ramses II, as remains of overbuilding were found here and there. The
+magazines were first investigated in 1896 by Prof. Petrie, who also
+found in the neighbourhood the remains of a number of small royal
+funerary temples of the XVIIIth Dynasty, all looking in the direction of
+the hill, beyond which lay the tombs of the kings.
+
+[Illustration: 372.jpg THE VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE QUEENS AT THEBES.]
+
+     In which Prof. Schiaparelli discovered the tomb of Ramses
+     II's wife (1904).
+
+We may now turn to Luxor, where immediately above the landing-place of
+the steamers and dahabiyas rise the stately coloured colonnades of the
+Temple of Luxor. Unfortunately, modern excavations have not been
+allowed to pursue their course to completion here, as in the first great
+colonnaded court, which was added by Ramses II to the original building
+of Amenhetep III, Tutankhamen, and Horemheb, there still remains
+the Mohammedan Mosque of Abu-'l-Haggag, which may not be removed.
+Abu-'l-Haggag, "the Father of Pilgrims" (so called on account of the
+number of pilgrims to his shrine), was a very holy shekh, and his memory
+is held in the greatest reverence by the Luksuris. It is unlucky that
+this mosque was built within the court of the Great Temple, and it
+cannot be removed till Moslem religious prejudices become at least
+partially ameliorated, and then the work of completely excavating the
+Temple of Luxor may be carried out.
+
+Between Luxor and Karnak lay the temple of the goddess Mut, consort of
+Amen and protectress of Thebes. It stood in the part of the city known
+as Asheru. This building was cleared in 1895 at the expense and under
+the supervision of two English ladies, Miss Benson and Miss Gourlay.
+
+[Illustration: 374.jpg THE NILE-BANK AT LUXOR]
+
+     With A Dahabiya And A Steamer Of The Anglo-American Nile
+     Company.
+
+The temple had always been remarkable on account of the prodigious
+number of seated figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhemet, or
+Pakhet, which it contains, dedicated by Amenhetep III and Sheshenk I;
+most of those in the British Museum were brought from this temple.
+The excavators found many more of them, and also some very interesting
+portrait-statues of the late period which had been dedicated there.
+The most important of these was the head and shoulders of a statue of
+Mentuemhat, governor of Thebes at the time of the sack of the city by
+Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668 B.C. In Miss Benson's interesting book,
+_The Temple of Mut in Asher_, it is suggested, on the authority of Prof.
+Petrie, that his facial type is Cypriote, but this speculation is a
+dangerous one, as is also the similar speculation that the wonderful
+portrait-head of an old man found by Miss Benson [* Plate vii of her
+book.] is of Philistine type. We have only to look at the faces of
+elderly Egyptians to-day to see that the types presented by Mentuemhat
+and Miss Benson's "Philistine" need be nothing but pure Egyptian. The
+whole work of the clearing was most efficiently carried out, and the
+Cairo Museum obtained from it some valuable specimens of Egyptian
+sculpture.
+
+The Great Temple of Karnak is one of the chief cares of the Egyptian
+Department of Antiquities. Its paramount importance, so to speak, as the
+cathedral temple of Egypt, renders its preservation and exploration a
+work of constant necessity, and its great extent makes this work one
+which is always going on and which probably will be going on for many
+years to come. The Temple of Karnak has cost the Egyptian government
+much money, yet not a piastre of this can be grudged. For several years
+past the works have been under the charge of M. Georges Legrain, the
+well-known engineer and draughtsman who was associated with M. de
+Morgan in the work at Dashur. His task is to clear out the whole temple
+thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have left
+undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has fallen.
+
+[Illustration: 376.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OP KAKNAK.]
+
+     The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was
+     erected by Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by
+     Thothmes III. No general work of restoration is
+     contemplated, nor would this be in the slightest degree
+     desirable. Up to the present M. Legrain has certainly
+     carried out all three branches of his task with great
+     success. An unforeseen event has, however, considerably
+     complicated and retarded the work.
+
+In October, 1899, one of the columns of the side aisles of the great
+Hypostyle Hall fell, bringing down with it several others. The whole
+place was a chaotic ruin, and for a moment it seemed as though the whole
+of the Great Hall, one of the wonders of the world, would collapse.
+The disaster was due to the gradual infiltration of water from the Nile
+beneath the structure, whose foundations, as is usual in Egypt, were of
+the flimsiest description. Even the most imposing Egyptian temples
+have jerry-built foundations; usually they are built on the top of the
+wall-stumps of earlier buildings of different plan, filled in with a
+confused mass of earlier slabs and weak rubbish of all kinds. Had the
+Egyptian buildings been built on sure foundations, they would have been
+preserved to a much greater extent even than they are. In such a climate
+as that of Egypt a stone building well built should last for ever.
+
+M. Legrain has for the last five years been busy repairing the damage.
+All the fallen columns are now restored to the perpendicular, and the
+capitals and architraves are in process of being hoisted into their
+original positions. The process by which M. Legrain carries out this
+work has been already described. He works in the old Egyptian fashion,
+building great inclines or ramps of earth up which the pillar-drums,
+the capitals, and the architrave-blocks are hauled by manual labour, and
+then swung into position. This is the way in which the Egyptians built
+Karnak, and in this way, too, M. Le-grain is rebuilding it. It is a slow
+process, but a sure one, and now it will not be long before we shall
+see the hall, except its roof, in much the same condition as it was when
+Seti built it. Lovers of the picturesque will, however, miss the famous
+leaning column, hanging poised across the hall, which has been a main
+feature in so many pictures and photographs of Karnak. This fell in the
+catastrophe of 1899, and naturally it has not been possible to restore
+it to its picturesque, but dangerous, position.
+
+The work at Karnak has been distinguished during the last two years by
+two remarkable discoveries. Outside the main temple, to the north of
+the Hypostyle Hall, M. Legrain found a series of private sanctuaries or
+shrines, built of brick by personages of the XVIIIth Dynasty and later,
+in order to testify their devotion to Amen. In these small cells were
+found some remarkable statues, one of which is illustrated. It is one of
+the most perfect of its kind. A great dignitary of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+is seen seated with his wife, their daughter standing between them.
+Round his neck are four chains of golden rings, with which he had been
+decorated by the Pharaoh for his services. It is a remarkable group,
+interesting for its style and workmanship as well as for its subject. As
+an example of the formal hieratic type of portraiture it is very fine.
+
+The other and more important discovery of the two was made by M. Legrain
+on the south side of the Hypo-style Hall.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg THE GREAT TEMPLE OP KAKNAK.]
+
+The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was erected by
+Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by Thothmes III.
+
+M. de Morgan in the work at Dashur. His task is to clear out the whole
+temple thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have
+left undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has
+fallen. Tentative excavations, begun in an unoccupied tract under the
+wall of the hall, resulted in the discovery of parts of statues; the
+place was then regularly excavated, and the result has been amazing.
+The ground was full of statues, large and small, at some unknown period
+buried pell-mell, one on the top of another. Some are broken, but the
+majority are perfect, which is in itself unusual, and is due very much
+to the soft, muddy soil in which they have lain. Statues found on dry
+desert land are often terribly cracked, especially when they are of
+black granite, the crystals of which seem to have a greater tendency to
+disintegration than have those of the red syenite. The Karnak statues
+are figures of pious persons, who had dedicated portraits of themselves
+in the temple of Amen, together with those of great men whom the king
+had honoured by ordering their statues placed in the temple during their
+lives.
+
+Of this number was the great sage Amenhetep, son of Hapi, the founder of
+the little desert temple of Der el-Medina, near Der el-Bahari, who was
+a sort of prime minister under Amenhetep III, and was venerated in later
+days as a demigod. His statue was found with the others by M. Legrain.
+Among them is a figure made entirely of green felspar, an unusual
+material for so large a statuette. A fine portrait of Thothmes III was
+also found. The illustration shows this wonderfully fruitful excavation
+in progress, with the diggers at work in the black mud soil, in the
+foreground the basket-boys carrying away the rubbish on their shoulders,
+and the massive granite walls of the Great Hypostyle Hall of Seti in the
+background. The huge size of the roof-blocks is noticeable. These are
+not the actual uppermost roof-blocks, but only the architraves from
+pillar to pillar; the original roof consisted of similar blocks laid
+across in the transverse direction from architrave to architrave. An
+Egyptian granite temple was in fact built upon the plan of a child's box
+of bricks; it was but a modified and beautified Stonehenge.
+
+[Illustration: 381.jpg PORTRAIT-GROUP OF A GREAT NOBLE AND HIS WIFE]
+
+     Of The Time Of The Xviiith Dynasty. Discovered by M. Legrain
+     at Karnak.
+
+Other important discoveries have been made by M. Legrain in the course
+of his work.
+
+[Illustration: 382.jpg A TOMB PITTED UP AS AN EXPLORER'S RESIDENCE.]
+
+     The Tomb of Pentu (No. 5) at Tell el-Amarna, inhabited by
+     Mr. de G. Davies during his work for the Archaeological
+     Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund). About 1400 B.C.
+
+Among them are statues of the late Middle Kingdom, including one of King
+Usertsen (Senusret) IV of the XIIIth Dynasty. There are also reliefs of
+the reign of Amenhetep I, which are remarkable for the delicacy of their
+workmanship and the sureness of their technique.
+
+We know that the temple was built as early as the time of TJsertsen,
+for in it have been found one or two of his blocks; and no doubt the
+original shrine, which was rebuilt in the time of Philip Arrhidseus, was
+of the same period, but hitherto no remains of the centuries between his
+time and that of Hatshepsu had been found. With M. Legrain's work in the
+greatest temple of Thebes we finish our account of the new discoveries
+in the chief city of ancient Egypt, as we began it with the work of M.
+Naville in the oldest temple there.
+
+One of the most interesting questions connected with the archaeology
+of Thebes is that which asks whether the heretical disk-worshipper
+Akhunaten (Amenhetep IV) erected buildings there, and whether any
+trace of them has ever been discovered. To those who are interested in
+Egyptian history and religion the transitory episode of the disk-worship
+heresy is already familiar. The precise character of the heretical
+dogma, which Amenhetep IV proclaimed and desired his subjects to.
+accept, has lately been well explained by Mr. de Garis Davies in his
+volumes, published by the "Archaeological Survey of Egypt" branch of
+the Egypt Exploration Fund, on the tombs of el-Amarna. He shows that the
+heretical doctrine was a monotheism of a very high order. Amenhetep IV
+(or as he preferred to call himself, Akhunaten, "Glory of the Disk") did
+not, as has usually been supposed, merely worship the Sun-disk itself
+as the giver of life, and nothing more. He venerated the glowing disk
+merely as the visible emanation of the deity behind it, who dispensed
+heat and life to all living things through its medium. The disk was, so
+to speak, the window in heaven through which the unknown God, the "Lord
+of the Disk," shed a portion of his radiance on the world. Now, given
+an ignorance of the true astronomical character of the sun, we see how
+eminently rational a religion this was. In effect, the sun is the source
+of all life upon this earth, and so Akhunaten caused its rays to be
+depicted each with a hand holding out the sign of life to the earth. The
+monotheistic worship of the sun alone is certainly the highest form of
+pagan religion, but Akhunaten saw further than this. His doctrine was
+that there was a deity behind the sun, whose glory shone through it and
+gave us life. This deity was unnamed and unnamable; he was "the Lord
+of the Disk." We see in his heresy, therefore, the highest attitude
+to which religious ideas had attained before the days of the Hebrew
+prophets.
+
+This religion seems to have been developed out of the philosophical
+speculations of the priests of the Sun at Heliopolis. Akhunaten with
+unwise iconoclastic zeal endeavoured to root out the worship of the
+ancient gods of Egypt, and especially that of Amen-Ba, the ruler of the
+Egyptian pantheon, whose primacy in the hearts of the people made him
+the most redoubtable rival of the new doctrine. But the name of the
+old Sun-god Ba-Harmaehis was spared, and it is evident that Akhunaten
+regarded him as more or less identical with his god.
+
+It has been supposed by Prof. Petrie that Queen Tii, the mother of
+Akhunaten, was of Mitannian (Armenian) origin, and that she brought the
+Aten religion to Egypt from her native land, and taught it to her son.
+Certainly it seems as though the new doctrine had made some headway
+before the death of Amenhetep III, but we have no reason to attribute it
+to Tii, or to suppose that she brought it with her from abroad. There is
+no proof whatever that she was not a native Egyptian, and the mummies of
+her parents, Iuaa and Tuaa, are purely Egyptian in facial type. It
+seems undoubted that the Aten cult was a development of pure Egyptian
+religious thought.
+
+At first Akhunaten tried to establish his religion at Thebes alongside
+that of Amen and his attendant pantheon. He seems to have built a temple
+to the Aten there, and we see that his courtiers began to make tombs for
+themselves in the new realistic style of sculptural art, which the king,
+heretical in art as in religion, had introduced. The tomb of Barnes at
+Shekh 'Abd el-Kurna has on one side of the door a representation of
+the king in the old regular style, and on the other side one in the new
+realistic style, which depicts him in all the native ugliness in which
+this strange truth-loving man seems to have positively gloried. We
+find, too, that he caused a temple to the Aten to be erected in far-away
+Napata, the capital of Nubia, by Jebel Barkal in the Sudan. The facts
+as to the Theban and Napata temples have been pointed out by Prof.
+Breasted, of Chicago.
+
+But the opposition of the Theban priesthood was too strong. Akhunaten
+shook the dust of the capital off his feet and retired to the isolated
+city of Akhet-aten, "the Glory of the Disk," at the modern Tell
+el-Amarna, where he could philosophize in peace, while his kingdom was
+left to take care of itself. He and his wife Nefret-iti, who seems to
+have been a faithful sharer of his views, reigned over a select court
+of Aten-worship-ping nobles, priests, and artists. The artists had under
+Akhunaten an unrivalled opportunity for development, of which they had
+already begun to take considerable advantage before the end of his reign
+and the restoration of the old order of ideas. Their style takes on
+itself an almost bizarre freedom, which reminds us strongly of the
+similar characteristic in Mycenaean art. There is a strange little
+relief in the Berlin Museum of the king standing cross-legged, leaning
+on a staff, and languidly smelling a flower, while the queen stands
+by with her garments blown about by the wind. The artistic monarch's
+graceful attitude is probably a faithful transcript of a characteristic
+pose.
+
+We see from this what an Egyptian artist could do when his shackles were
+removed, but unluckily Egypt never produced another king who was at the
+same time an original genius, an artist, and a thinker. When Akhunaten
+died, the Egyptian artists' shackles were riveted tighter than ever.
+The reaction was strong. The kingdom had fallen into anarchy, and the
+foreign empire which his predecessors had built up had practically
+been thrown to the winds by Akhunaten. The whole is an example of the
+confusion and disorganization which ensue when a philosopher rules. Not
+long after the heretic's death the old religion was fully restored, the
+cult of the disk was blotted out, and the Egyptians returned joyfully
+to the worship of their myriad deities. Akhunaten's ideals were too high
+for them. The debris of the foreign empire was, as usual in such
+cases, put together again, and customary law and order restored by
+the conservative reactionaries who succeeded him. Henceforth Egyptian
+civilization runs an uninspired and undeveloping course till the days
+of the Saites and the Ptolemies. This point in the history of Egypt,
+therefore, forms a convenient stopping-place at which to pause, while
+we turn once more to Western Asia, and ascertain to what extent recent
+excavations and research have thrown new light upon the problems
+connected with the rise and history of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian
+Empires.
+
+[Illustration: 387.jpg]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF
+RECENT RESEARCH
+
+
+The early history of Assyria has long been a subject on which historians
+were obliged to trust largely to conjecture, in their attempts to
+reconstruct the stages by which its early rulers obtained their
+independence and laid the foundations of the mighty empire over which
+their successors ruled. That the land was colonized from Babylonia and
+was at first ruled as a dependency of the southern kingdom have long
+been regarded as established facts, but until recently little was known
+of its early rulers and governors, and still less of the condition of
+the country and its capital during the early periods of their existence.
+Since the excavations carried out by the British Museum at Kala
+Sherghat, on the western bank of the Tigris, it has been known that
+the mounds at that spot mark the site of the city of Ashur, the first
+capital of the Assyrians, and the monuments and records recovered
+during those excavations have hitherto formed our principal source of
+information for the early history of the country.* Some of the oldest
+records found in the course of these excavations were short votive texts
+inscribed by rulers who bore the title of _ishshakku_, corresponding to
+the Sumerian and early Babylonian title of patesi, and with some such
+meaning as "viceroy." It was rightly conjectured from the title which
+they bore that these early rulers owed allegiance to the kings of
+Babylon and were their nominees, or at any rate their tributaries. The
+names of a few of these early viceroys were recovered from their votive
+inscriptions and from notices in later historical texts, but it was
+obvious that our knowledge of early Assyrian history would remain very
+fragmentary until systematic excavations in Assyria were resumed. Three
+years ago (1902) the British Museum resumed excavations at Kuyunjik, the
+site of Nineveh. The work was begun and carried out under the direction
+of Mr. L. W. King, but since last summer has been continued by Mr. R. C.
+Thompson. Last year, too, excavations were reopened at Sherghat by
+the Deutsch-Orient Ge-sellschaft, at first under the direction of Dr.
+Koldewey, and afterwards under that of Dr. Andrae, by whom they are
+at present being carried on. This renewed activity on the sites of the
+ancient cities of Assyria is already producing results of considerable
+interest, and the veil which has so long concealed the earlier periods
+in the history of that country is being lifted.
+
+     * For the texts and translations of these documents, see
+     Budge and King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, pp. iff.
+
+Shortly before these excavations in Assyria were set on foot an
+indication was obtained from an early Babylonian text that the history
+of Assyria as a dependent state or province of Babylon must be pushed
+back to a far more remote period than had hitherto been supposed. In one
+of Hammurabi's letters to Sin-idinnam, governor of the city of Larsam,
+to which reference has already been made, directions are given for
+the despatch to the king of "two hundred and forty men of 'the King's
+Company' under the command of Nannar-iddina... who have left the country
+of Ashur and the district of Shitullum." From this most interesting
+reference it followed that the country to the north of Babylonia was
+known as Assyria at the time of the kings of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon, and the fact that Babylonian troops were stationed there
+by Hammurabi proved that the country formed an integral part of the
+Babylonian empire.
+
+These conclusions were soon after strikingly confirmed by two passages
+in the introductory sections of Hammurabi's code of laws which was
+discovered at Susa. Here Hammurabi records that he "restored his (i.e.
+the god Ashur's) protecting image unto the city of Ashur," and a few
+lines farther on he describes himself as the king "who hath made
+the names of Ishtar glorious in the city of Nineveh in the temple of
+E-mish-mish." That Ashur should be referred to at this period is what we
+might expect, inasmuch as it was known to have been the earliest capital
+of Assyria; more striking is the reference to Nineveh, proving as it
+does that it was a flourishing city in Hammurabi's time and that the
+temple of Ishtar there had already been long established. It is true
+that Gudea, the Sumerian patesi of Shirpurla, records that he rebuilt
+the temple of the goddess Ninni (Ishtar) at a place called Nina. Now
+Nina may very probably be identified with Nineveh, but many writers have
+taken it to be a place in Southern Babylonia and possibly a district of
+Shirpurla itself. No such uncertainty attaches to Hammurabi's reference
+to Nineveh, which is undoubtedly the Assyrian city of that name.
+Although no account has yet been published of the recent excavations
+carried out at Nineveh by the British Museum, they fully corroborate the
+inference drawn with regard to the great age of the city. The series of
+trenches which were cut deep into the lower strata of Kuyunjik revealed
+numerous traces of very early habitations on the mound.
+
+Neither in Hammurabi's letters, nor upon the stele inscribed with his
+code of laws, is any reference made to the contemporary governor or
+ruler of Assyria, but on a contract tablet preserved in the Pennsylvania
+Museum a name has been recovered which will probably be identified
+with that of the ruler of Assyria in Hammurabi's reign. In legal and
+commercial documents of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon the
+contracting parties frequently swore by the names of two gods (usually
+Shamash and Marduk) and also that of the reigning king. Now it has been
+found by Dr. Banke that on this document in the Pennsylvania Museum the
+contracting parties swear by the name of Hammurabi and also by that of
+Shamshi-Adad. As only gods and kings are mentioned in the oath formulas
+of this period, it follows that Shamshi-Adad was a king, or at any rate
+a patesi or ishshakku. Now from its form the name Shamshi-Adad must
+be that of an Assyrian, not that of a Babylonian, and, since he is
+associated in the oath formula with Hammurabi, it is legitimate to
+conclude that he governed Assyria in the time of Hammurabi as a
+dependency of Babylon. An early Assyrian ishshakku of this name, who was
+the son of Ishme-Dagan, is mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser I, but he cannot
+be identified with the ruler of the time of Hammurabi, since,
+according to Tiglath-Pileser, he ruled too late, about 1800 B.C.
+A brick-inscription of another Shamshi-Adad, however, the son of
+Igur-kapkapu, is preserved in the British Museum, and it is probable
+that we may identify him with Hammurabi's Assyrian viceroy. Erishum and
+his son Ikunum, whose inscriptions are also preserved in the British
+Museum, should certainly be assigned to an early period of Assyrian
+history.
+
+The recent excavations at Sherghat are already yielding the names
+of other early Assyrian viceroys, and, although the texts of the
+inscriptions in which their names occur have not yet been published, we
+may briefly enumerate the more important of the discoveries that have
+been made. Last year a small cone or cylinder was found which, though
+it bears only a few lines of inscription, restores the names of no less
+than seven early Assyrian viceroys whose existence was not previously
+known. The cone was inscribed by Ashir-rim-nisheshu, who gives his own
+genealogy and records the restoration of the wall of the city of Ashur,
+which he states had been rebuilt by certain of his predecessors on
+the throne. The principal portion of the inscription reads as
+follows: "Ashir-rim-nisheshu, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of
+Ashir-nirari, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of Ashir-rabi, the
+viceroy. The city wall which Kikia, Ikunum, Shar-kenkate-Ashir, and
+Ashir-nirari, the son of Ishme-Dagan, my forefathers, had built, was
+fallen, and for the preservation of my life... I rebuilt it." Perhaps no
+inscription has yet been recovered in either Assyria or Babylonia which
+contained so much new information packed into so small a space. Of the
+names of the early viceroys mentioned in it only one was previously
+known, i.e. the name of Ikunum, the son of Erishum, is found in a late
+copy of a votive text preserved in the British Museum. Thus from these
+few lines the names of three rulers in direct succession have been
+recovered, viz., Ashir-rabi, Ashir-nirari, and Ashur-rim-nisheshu, and
+also those of four earlier rulers, viz., Kikia, Shar-kenkate-Ashir,
+Ishme-Dagan, and his son Ashir-nirari. Another interesting point about
+the inscription is the spelling of the name of the national god of the
+Assyrians. In the later periods it is always written _Ashur_, but at
+this early time we see that the second vowel is changed and that at
+first the name was written _Ashir_, a form that was already known
+from the Cappadocian cuneiform inscriptions. The form Ashir is a good
+participial construction and signifies "the Beneficent," "the Merciful
+One."
+
+Another interesting find, which was also made last year, consists of
+four stone tablets, each engraved with the same building-inscription
+of Shalmaneser I, a king who reigned over Assyria about 1300 B.C. In
+recording his rebuilding of E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of the god
+Ashur in the city of Ashur, he gives a brief summary of the temple's
+history with details as to the length of time which elapsed between
+the different periods during which it had been previously restored. The
+temple was burned in Shalmaneser's time, and, when recording this fact
+and the putting out of the fire, he summarizes the temple's history in a
+long parenthesis, as will be seen from the following translation of the
+extract: "When E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of Ashur, my lord, which
+Ushpia (variant _Aushpia_), the priest of Ashur, my forefather, had
+built aforetime,--and it fell into decay and Erishu, my forefather,
+the priest of Ashur, rebuilt it; 159 years passed by after the reign of
+Erishu, and that temple fell into decay, and Shamshi-Adad, the priest
+of Ashur, rebuilt it; (during) 580 years that temple which Shamshi-Adad,
+the priest of Ashur, had built, grew hoary and old--(when) fire broke
+out in the midst thereof..., at that time I drenched that temple (with
+water) in (all) its circuit."
+
+From this extract it will be seen that Shalmaneser gives us, in Ushpia
+or Aushpia, the name of a very early Assyrian viceroy, who in his belief
+was the founder of the great temple of the god Ashur. He also tells us
+that 159 years separated Erishu from a viceroy named Shamshi-Adad, and
+that 580 years separated Shamshi-Adad from his own time. When these
+inscriptions were first found they were hailed with considerable
+satisfaction by historians, as they gave what seemed to be valuable
+information for settling the chronology of the early patesis. But
+confidence in the accuracy of Shalmaneser's reckoning was somewhat
+shaken a few months afterwards by the discovery of a prism of
+Esarhaddon, who gave in it a history of the same temple, but ascribed
+totally different figures for the periods separating the reigns
+of Erishu and Shamshi-Adad, and the temple's destruction by fire.
+Esarhaddon agrees with Shalmaneser in ascribing the founding of the
+temple to Ushpia, but he states that only 126 years (instead of 159
+years) separated Erishu (whom he spells Irishu), the son of Ilu-shumma,
+from Shamshi-Adad, the son of Bel-kabi; and he adds that 434 years
+(instead of 580 years) elapsed between Shamshi-Adad's restoration of the
+temple and the time when it was burned down. As Shalmaneser I lived over
+six hundred years earlier than Esarhaddon, he was obviously in a better
+position to ascertain the periods at which the events recorded took
+place, but the discrepancy between the figures he gives and those of
+Esarhaddon is disconcerting. It shows that Assyrian scribes could make
+bad mistakes in their reckoning, and it serves to cast discredit on the
+absolute accuracy of the chronological notices contained in other
+late Assyrian inscriptions. So far from helping to settle the unsolved
+problems of Assyrian chronology, these two recent finds at Sherghat
+have introduced fresh confusion, and Assyrian chronology for the earlier
+periods is once more cast into the melting pot.
+
+In addition to the recovery of the names of hitherto unknown early
+rulers of Assyria, the recent excavations at Sherghat have enabled us to
+ascertain the true reading of the name of Shalmaneser I's grandfather,
+who reigned a considerable time after Assyria had gained her
+independence. The name of this king has hitherto been read as Pudi-ilu,
+but it is now shown that the signs composing the first part of the name
+are not to be taken phonetically, but as ideographs, the true reading of
+the name being Arik-den-ilu, the signification of which is "Long
+(i.e. far-reaching) is the judgment of God." Arik-den-ilu was a great
+conqueror, as were his immediate descendants, all of whom extended the
+territory of Assyria. By strengthening the country and increasing her
+resources they enabled Arik-den-ilu 's great-grandson, Tukulti-Ninib I,
+to achieve the conquest of Babylon itself. Concerning Tukulti-Ninib's
+reign and achievements an interesting inscription has recently been
+discovered. This is now preserved in the British Museum, and before
+describing it we may briefly refer to another phase of the excavations
+at Sherghat.
+
+[Illustration: 396.jpg Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription of
+Arik-den-ilu.]
+
+     An early independent King of Assyria, who reigned about B.C.
+     1350. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
+
+The mounds of Sherghat rise a considerable height above the level of
+the plain, and are to a great extent of natural and not of artificial
+formation. In fact, the existence of a group of high natural mounds at
+this point on the bank of the Tigris must have led to its selection
+by the early Assyrians as the site on which to build their first
+stronghold. The mounds were already so high, from their natural
+formation, that there was no need for the later Assyrian kings
+to increase their height artificially (as they raised the chief
+palace-mound at Nineveh), and the remains of the Assyrian buildings of
+the early period are thus only covered by a few feet of debris and not
+by masses of unburnt brick and artificially piled up soil. This fact
+has considerably facilitated the systematic uncovering of the principal
+mound that is now being carried out by Dr. Andrae.
+
+[Illustration: 397.jpg ENTRANCE INTO ONE OF THE GALLERIES OR TUNNELS CUT
+INTO THE PRINCIPAL MOUND AT SHERGHAT.]
+
+Work has hitherto been confined to the northwest corner of the mound
+around the ziggurat, or temple tower, and already considerable traces of
+Assyrian buildings have been laid bare in this portion of the site. The
+city wall on the northern side has been uncovered, as well as quays with
+steps leading down to the water along the river front. Part of the
+great temple of the god Ashur has been excavated, though a considerable
+portion of it must be still covered by the modern Turkish fort at the
+extreme northern point of the mounds; also part of a palace erected
+by Ashur-nasir-pal has been identified. In fact, the work at Sherghat
+promises to add considerably to our knowledge of ancient Assyrian
+architecture.
+
+The inscription of Tukulti-Ninib I, which was referred to above as
+having been recently acquired by the trustees of the British Museum,
+affords valuable information for the reconstruction of the history of
+Assyria during the first half of the thirteenth century B.C.* It is seen
+from the facts summarized that for our knowledge of the earlier
+history of the country we have to depend to a large extent on short
+brick-inscriptions and votive texts supplemented by historical
+references in inscriptions of the later period. The only historical
+inscription of any length belonging to the early Assyrian period,
+which had been published up to a year ago, was the famous memorial slab
+containing an inscription of Adad-nirari I, which was acquired by the
+late Mr. George Smith some thirty years ago. Although purchased in
+Mosul, the slab had been found by the natives in the mounds at Sherghat,
+for the text engraved upon it in archaic Assyrian characters records the
+restoration of a part of the temple of the god Ashur in the ancient city
+of Ashur, the first capital of the Assyrians, now marked by the
+mounds of Sherghat, which have already been described. The object of
+Adad-nirari in causing the memorial slab to be inscribed was to record
+the restoration of the portion of the temple which he had rebuilt,
+but the most important part of the inscription was contained in the
+introductory phrases with which the text opens. They recorded
+the conquests achieved not only by Adad-nirari but by his father
+Arik-den-ilu, his grandfather Bel-nirari, and his great-grandfather
+Ashur-uballit. They thus enabled the historian to trace the gradual
+extension and consolidation of the Assyrian empire during a critical
+period in its early history.
+
+     * For the text and translation of the inscription, see King,
+     Studies it Eastern History, i (1904).
+
+The recently recovered memorial slab of Tukulti-Ninib I is similar to
+that of his grandfather Adad-nirari I, and ranks in importance with it
+for the light it throws on the early struggles of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninib
+'s slab, like that of Adad-nirari, was a foundation memorial intended to
+record certain building operations carried out by order of the king.
+The building so commemorated was not the restoration of a portion of
+a temple, but the founding of a new city, in which the king erected
+no less than eight temples dedicated to various deities, while he also
+records that he built a palace therein for his own habitation, that he
+protected the city by a strongly fortified wall, and that he cut a canal
+from the Tigris by which he ensured a continuous supply of fresh water.
+These were the facts which the memorial was primarily intended to
+record, but, like the text of Adad-nirari I, the most interesting events
+for the historian are those referred to in the introductory portions of
+the inscription. Before giving details concerning the founding of the
+new city, named Kar-Tukulti-Mnib, "the Fortress of Tukulti-Mnib,"
+the king supplies an account of the military expeditions which he
+had conducted during the course of his reign up to the time when the
+foundation memorial was inscribed. These introductory paragraphs record
+how the king gradually conquered the peoples to the north and northeast
+of Assyria, and how he finally undertook a successful campaign against
+Babylon, during which he captured the city and completely subjugated
+both Northern and Southern Babylonia. Tukulti-Mnib's reign thus marks an
+epoch in the history of his country.
+
+We have already seen how, during the early ages of her history, Assyria
+had been merely a subject province of the Babylonian empire. Her rulers
+had been viceroys owing allegiance to their overlords in Babylon,
+under whose orders they administered the country, while garrisons of
+Babylonian soldiers, and troops commanded by Babylonian officers, served
+to keep the country in a state of subjection. Gradually, however, the
+country began to feel her feet and long for independence. The conquest
+of Babylon by the kings of the Country of the Sea afforded her the
+opportunity of throwing off the Babylonian yoke. In the fifteenth
+century the Assyrian kings were powerful enough to have independent
+relations with the kings of Egypt, and, during the two centuries which
+preceded Tukulti-Mnib's reign.
+
+Assyria's relations with Babylon were the cause of constant friction due
+to the northern kingdom's growth in power and influence. The frontier
+between the two countries was constantly in dispute, and, though
+sometimes rectified by treaty, the claims of Assyria often led to war
+between the two countries. The general result of these conflicts was
+that Assyria gradually extended her authority farther southwards, and
+encroached upon territory which had previously been Babylonian. The
+successes gained by Ashur-uballit, Bel-nirari, and Adad-nirari I against
+the contemporary Babylonian kings had all resulted in the cession of
+fresh territory to Assyria and in an increase of her international
+importance. Up to the time of Tukulti-Mnib no Assyrian king had actually
+seated himself upon the Babylonian throne. This feat was achieved by
+Tukulti-Mnib, and his reign thus marks an important step in the gradual
+advance of Assyria to the position which she later occupied as the
+predominant power in Western Asia.
+
+Before undertaking his campaign against Babylon, Tukulti-Mnib secured
+himself against attack from other quarters, and his newly discovered
+memorial inscription supplies considerable information concerning the
+steps he took to achieve this object. In his inscription the king does
+not number his military expeditions, and, with the exception of the
+first one, he does not state the period of his reign in which they
+were undertaken. The results of his campaigns are summarized in four
+paragraphs of the text, and it is probable that they are not described
+in chronological order, but are arranged rather according to the
+geographical position of the districts which he invaded and subdued.
+Tukulti-Ninib records that his first campaign took place at the
+beginning of his sovereignty, in the first year of his reign, and it was
+directed against the tribes and peoples inhabiting the territory on the
+east of Assyria. Of the tribes which he overran and conquered on this
+occasion the most important was the Kuti, who probably dwelt in the
+districts to the east of the Lower Zab. They were a turbulent race and
+they had already been conquered by Arik-den-ilu and Adad-nirari I, but
+on neither occasion had they been completely subdued, and they had soon
+regained their independence. Their subjugation by Tukulti-Ninib was
+a necessary preliminary to any conquest in the south, and we can well
+understand why it was undertaken by the king at the beginning of his
+reign. Other conquests which were also made in the same region were the
+Ukumani and the lands of Elkhu-nia, Sharnida, and Mekhri, mountainous
+districts which probably lay to the north of the Lower Zab. The country
+of Mekhri took its name from the mekhru-tree, a kind of pine or fir,
+which grew there in abundance upon the mountainsides, and was highly
+esteemed by the Assyrian kings as affording excellent wood for building
+purposes. At a later period Ashur-nasir-pal invaded the country in the
+course of his campaigns and brought back beams of mekhru-wood, which he
+used in the construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar
+in Nineveh.
+
+The second group of tribes and districts enumerated by Tukulti-Ninib as
+having been subdued in his early years, before his conquest of Babylon,
+all lay probably to the northwest of Assyria. The most powerful among
+these peoples were the Shubari, who, like the Kuti on the eastern
+border of Assyria, had already been conquered by Adad-nirari I, but had
+regained their independence and were once more threatening the border on
+this side. The third group of his conquests consisted of the districts
+ruled over by forty kings of the lands of Na'iri, which was a general
+term for the mountainous districts to the north of Assyria, including
+territory to the west of Lake Van and extending eastwards to the
+districts around Lake Urmi. The forty kings in this region whom
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts of having subdued were little more than chieftains
+of the mountain tribes, each one possessing authority over a few
+villages scattered among the hills and valleys. But the men of Na'iri
+were a warlike and hardy race, and, if left long in undisturbed
+possession of their native fastnesses, they were tempted to make raids
+into the fertile plains of Assyria. It was therefore only politic for
+Tukulti-Ninib to traverse their country with fire and sword, and, by
+exacting heavy tribute, to keep the fear of Assyrian power before their
+eyes. From the king's records we thus learn that he subdued and crippled
+the semi-independent races living on his borders to the north, to the
+northwest, and to the east. On the west was the desert, from which
+region he need fear no organized attack when he concentrated his army
+elsewhere, for his permanent garrisons were strong enough to repel and
+punish any incursion of nomadic tribes. He was thus in a position to try
+conclusions with his hereditary foe in the south, without any fear of
+leaving his land open to invasion in his absence.
+
+The campaign against Babylon was the most important one undertaken by
+Tukulti-Ninib, and its successful issue was the crowning point of his
+military career. The king relates that the great gods Ashur, Bel, and
+Shamash, and the goddess Ishtar, the queen of heaven and earth, marched
+at the head of his warriors when he set out upon the expedition. After
+crossing the border and penetrating into Babylonian territory he seems
+to have had some difficulty in forcing Bitiliashu, the Kassite king who
+then occupied the throne of Babylon, to a decisive engagement. But by
+a skilful disposition of his forces he succeeded in hemming him in, so
+that the Babylonian army was compelled to engage in a pitched battle.
+The result of the fighting was a complete victory for the Assyrian arms.
+Many of the Babylonian warriors fell fighting, and Bitiliashu himself
+was captured by the Assyrian soldiers in the midst of the battle.
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts that he trampled his lordly neck beneath his feet,
+and on his return to Assyria he carried his captive back in fetters to
+present him with the spoils of the campaign before Ashur, the national
+god of the Assyrians.
+
+Before returning to Assyria, however, Tukulti-Ninib marched with his
+army throughout the length and breadth of Babylonia, and achieved
+the subjugation of the whole of the Sumer and Akkad. He destroyed the
+fortifications of Babylon to ensure that they should not again be used
+against himself, and all the inhabitants who did not at once submit to
+his decrees he put co the sword. He then appointed his own officers
+to rule the country and established his own system of administration,
+adding to his previous title of "King of Assyria," those of "King of
+Karduniash (i. e. Babylonia)" and "King of Sumer and Akkad." It was
+probably from this period that he also adopted the title of "King of the
+Poor Quarters of the World." As a mark of the complete subjugation of
+their ancient foe, Tukulti-Ninib and his army carried back with them
+to Assyria not only the captive Babylonian king, but also the statue of
+Marduk, the national god of Babylon. This they removed from B-sagila,
+his sumptuous temple in Babylon, and they looted the sacred treasures
+from the treasure-chambers, and carried them off together with the spoil
+of the city.
+
+Tukulti-Ninib no doubt left a sufficient proportion of his army in
+Babylon to garrison the city and support the governors and officials
+into whose charge he committed the administration of the land, but he
+himself returned to Assyria with the rich spoil of the campaign, and
+it was probably as a use for this large increase of wealth and material
+that he decided to found another city which should bear his own name and
+perpetuate it for future ages. The king records that he undertook this
+task at the bidding of Bel (i.e. the god Ashur), who commanded that he
+should found a new city and build a dwelling-place for him therein.
+In accordance with the desire of Ashur and the gods, which was thus
+conveyed to him, the king founded the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+he erected therein temples dedicated not only to Ashur, but also to the
+gods Adad, and Sha-mash, and Ninib, and Nusku, and Nergal, and Imina-bi,
+and the goddess Ishtar. The spoils from Babylon and the temple treasures
+from E-sagila were doubtless used for the decoration of these temples
+and the adornment of their shrines, and the king endowed the temples and
+appointed regular offerings, which he ordained should be their property
+for ever. He also built a sumptuous palace for his own abode when he
+stayed in the city, which he constructed on a mound or terrace of earth,
+faced with brick, and piled high above the level of the city. Finally,
+he completed its fortification by the erection of a massive wall around
+it, and the completion of this wall was the occasion on which his
+memorial tablet was inscribed.
+
+The memorial tablet was buried and bricked up within the actual
+structure of the wall, in order that in future ages it might be read by
+those who found it, and so it might preserve his name and fame. After
+finishing the account of his building operations in the new city and
+recording the completion of the city wall from its foundation to its
+coping stone, the king makes an appeal to any future ruler who should
+find it, in the following words: "In the days that are to come, when
+this wall shall have grown old and shall have fallen into ruins, may
+a future prince repair the damaged parts thereof, and may he anoint my
+memorial tablet with oil, and may he offer sacrifices and restore
+it unto its place, and then Ashur will hearken unto his prayers. But
+whosoever shall destroy this wall, or shall remove my memorial tablet or
+my name that is inscribed thereon, or shall leave Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, the
+city of my dominion, desolate, or shall destroy it, may the lord Ashur
+overthrow his kingdom, and may he break his weapons, and may he cause
+his warriors to be defeated, and may he diminish his boundaries, and may
+he ordain that his rule shall be cut off, and on his days may he bring
+sorrow, and his years may he make evil, and may he blot out his name and
+his seed from the land!"
+
+By such blessings and curses Tukulti-Ninib hoped to ensure the
+preservation of his name and the rebuilding of his city, should it at
+any time be neglected and fall into decay. Curiously enough, it was in
+this very city that Tukulti-Ninib met his own fate less than seven years
+after he had founded it. At that time one of his own sons, who bore the
+name of Ashur-nasir-pal, conspired against his father and stirred up the
+nobles to revolt. The insurrection was arranged when Tukulti-Ninib was
+absent from his capital and staying in Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, where he was
+probably protected by only a small bodyguard, the bulk of his veteran
+warriors remaining behind in garrison at Ashur. The insurgent nobles,
+headed by Ashur-nasir-pal, fell upon the king without warning when
+he was passing through the city without any suspicion of risk from a
+treacherous attack. The king defended himself and sought refuge in a
+neighbouring house, but the conspirators surrounded the building and,
+having forced an entrance, slew him with the sword. Thus Tukulti-Ninib
+perished in the city he had built and beautified with the spoils of his
+campaigns, where he had looked forward to passing a peaceful and secure
+old age. Of the fate of the city itself we know little except that its
+site is marked to-day by a few mounds which rise slightly above the
+level of the surrounding desert. The king's memorial tablet only has
+survived. For some 3,200 years it rested undisturbed in the foundations
+of the wall of unburnt brick, where it was buried by Tukulti-Ninib on
+the completion of the city wall.
+
+[Illustration: 408.jpg Stone Tablet. Bearing an inscription of
+Tukulti-Ninib I]
+
+     King of Assyria, about B. C. 1275.
+
+Thence it was removed by the hands of modern Arabs, and it is now
+preserved in the British Museum, where the characters of the inscription
+may be seen to be as sharp and uninjured as on the day when the Assyrian
+graver inscribed them by order of the king.
+
+In the account of his first campaign, which is preserved upon
+the memorial tablet, it is stated that the peoples conquered by
+Tukulti-Ninib brought their yearly tribute to the city of Ashur. This
+fact is of considerable interest, for it proves that Tukulti-Ninib
+restored the capital of Assyria to the city of Ashur, removing it from
+Calah, whither it had been transferred by his father Shalmaneser I. The
+city of Calah had been founded and built by Shalmaneser I in the same
+way that his son Tukulti-Ninib built the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+the building of both cities is striking evidence of the rapid growth
+of Assyria and her need of expansion around fresh centres prepared for
+administration and defence. The shifting of the Assyrian capital to
+Calah by Shalmaneser I was also due to the extension of Assyrian power
+in the north, in consequence of which there was need of having the
+capital nearer the centre of the country so enlarged. Ashur's recovery
+of her old position under Tukulti-Ninib I was only a temporary check to
+this movement northwards, and, so long as Babylon remained a conquered
+province of the Assyrian empire, obviously the need for a capital
+farther north than Ashur would not have been pressing.
+
+[Illustration 409.jpg THE ZIGGURAT, OR TEMPLE TOWER, OF THE ASSYRIAN
+CITY OF CALAH.]
+
+But with Tukulti-Ninib's death Babylon regained her independence and
+freed herself from Assyrian control, and the centre of the northern
+kingdom was once more subject to the influences which eventually
+resulted in the permanent transference of her capital to Nineveh. To the
+comparative neglect into which Ashur and Calah consequently fell, we
+may probably trace the extensive remains of buildings belonging to the
+earlier periods of Assyrian history which have been recovered and still
+remain to be found, in the mounds that mark their sites.
+
+We have given some account of the results already achieved from the
+excavations carried out during the last two years at Sherghat, the site
+of the city of Ashur. That much remains to be done on the site of Calah,
+the other early capital of Assyria, is evident from even a cursory
+examination of the present condition of the mounds that mark the
+location of the city. These mounds are now known by the name of Nimrud
+and are situated on the left or eastern bank of the Tigris, a short
+distance above the point at which it is joined by the stream of the
+Upper Zab, and the great mound which still covers the remains of the
+ziggurat, or temple tower, can be seen from a considerable distance
+across the plain. During the excavations formerly carried out here for
+the British Museum, remains of palaces were recovered which had been
+built or restored by Shal-maneser I, Ashur-nasir-pal, Shalmaneser II,
+Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon, Esarhaddon, and Ashur-etil-ilani. After the
+conclusion of the diggings and the removal of many of the sculptures to
+England, the site was covered again with earth, in order to protect the
+remains of Assyrian buildings which were left in place. Since that time
+the soil has sunk and been washed away by the rains so that many of the
+larger sculptures are now protruding above the soil, an example of which
+is seen in the two winged bulls in the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal. It
+is improbable that the mounds of Nimrud will yield such rich results
+as Sherghat, but the site would probably well repay prolonged and
+systematic excavation.
+
+We have hitherto summarized and described the principal facts,
+with regard to the early history of Babylonia and Assyria and the
+neighbouring countries, which have been obtained from the excavations
+conducted recently on the sites of ancient cities. From the actual
+remains of the buildings that have been unearthed we have secured
+information with regard to the temples and palaces of ancient rulers and
+the plans on which they were designed. Erom the objects of daily life
+and of religious use which have been recovered, such as weapons of
+bronze and iron, and vessels of metal, stone, and clay, it is possible
+for the archaeologist to draw conclusions with regard to the customs of
+these early peoples; while from a study of their style and workmanship
+and of such examples of their sculpture as have been brought to light,
+he may determine the stage of artistic development at which they had
+arrived. The clay tablets and stone monuments that have been recovered
+reveal the family life of the people, their commercial undertakings,
+their system of legislation and land tenure, their epistolary
+correspondence, and the administration under which they lived, while the
+royal inscriptions and foundation-memorials throw light on the religious
+and historical events of the period in which they were inscribed.
+Information on all these points has been acquired as the result of
+excavation, and is based on the discoveries in the ruins of early cities
+which have remained buried beneath the soil for some thousands of years.
+But for the history of Assyria and of the other nations in the north
+there is still another source of information to which reference must now
+be made.
+
+The kings of Assyria were not content with recording their achievements
+on the walls of their buildings, on stelae set up in their palaces and
+temples, on their tablets of annals preserved in their archive-chambers,
+and on their cylinders and foundation-memorials concealed within the
+actual structure of the buildings themselves. They have also left
+records graven in the living rock, and these have never been buried,
+but have been exposed to wind and weather from the moment they
+were engraved. Records of irrigation works and military operations
+successfully undertaken by Assyrian kings remain to this day on the
+face of the mountains to the north and east of Assyria. The kings of
+one great mountain race that had its capital at Van borrowed from the
+Assyrians this method of recording their achievements, and, adopting the
+Assyrian character, have left numerous rock-inscriptions in their own
+language in the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan. In some instances
+the action of rain and frost has nearly if not quite obliterated the
+record, and a few have been defaced by the hand of man. But as the
+majority are engraved in panels cut on the sheer face of the rock, and
+are inaccessible except by means of ropes and tackle, they have escaped
+mutilation. The photograph reproduced will serve to show the means that
+must be adopted for reaching such rock-inscriptions in order to examine
+or copy them.
+
+[Illustration: 413.jpg WORK IN PROGRESS ON ONE OF THE ROCK-INSCRIPTIONS
+OF SENNACHERIB]
+
+     In The Gorge Of The River Gomel, Near Bavian.
+
+The inscription shown in the photograph is one of those cut by
+Sennacherib in the gorge near Bavian, through which the river Gomel
+flows, and can be reached only by climbing down ropes fixed to the top
+of the cliff. The choice of such positions by the kings who caused the
+inscriptions to be engraved was dictated by the desire to render it
+difficult to destroy them, but it has also had the effect of delaying to
+some extent their copying and decipherment by modern workers.
+
+[Illustration: 414.jpg THE PRINCIPAL ROCK SCULPTURES IN THE GORGE OF THE
+GOMEL]
+
+     Near Bavian In Assyria.
+
+Considerable progress, however, has recently been made in identifying
+and copying these texts, and we may here give a short account of what
+has been done and of the information furnished by the inscriptions that
+have been examined.
+
+Recently considerable additions have been made to our knowledge of the
+ancient empire of Van and of its relation to the later kings of Assyria
+by the labours of Prof Lehmann and Dr. Belck on the inscriptions which
+the kings of that period caused to be engraved upon the rocks among the
+mountains of Armenia.
+
+[Illustration: 415.jpg THE ROCK AND CITADEL OF VAN.]
+
+The flat roofs of the houses of the city of Van may be seen to the left
+of the photograph nestling below the rock.
+
+The centre and capital of this empire was the ancient city which stood
+on the site of the modern town of Van at the southwest corner of the
+lake which bears the same name. The city was built at the foot of a
+natural rock which rises precipitously from the plain, and must have
+formed an impregnable stronghold against the attack of the foe.
+
+In this citadel at the present day remain the ancient galleries and
+staircases and chambers which were cut in the living rock by the kings
+who made it their fortress, and their inscriptions, engraved upon the
+face of the rock on specially prepared and polished surfaces, enable us
+to reconstruct in some degree the history of that ancient empire. From
+time to time there have been found and copied other similar texts, which
+are cut on the mountainsides or on the massive stones which formed part
+of the construction of their buildings and fortifications. A complete
+collection of these texts, together with translations, will shortly be
+published by Prof. Lehmann. Meanwhile, this scholar has discussed and
+summarized the results to be obtained from much of his material, and
+we are thus already enabled to sketch the principal achievements of the
+rulers of this mountain race, who were constantly at war with the later
+kings of Assyria, and for two centuries at least disputed her claim to
+supremacy in this portion of Western Asia.
+
+The country occupied by this ancient people of Van was the great
+table-land which now forms Armenia. The people themselves cannot
+be connected with the Armenians, for their language presents no
+characteristics of those of the Indo-European family, and it is equally
+certain that they are not to be traced to a Semitic origin. It is true
+that they employed the Assyrian method of writing their inscriptions,
+and their art differs only in minor points from that of the Assyrians,
+but in both instances this similarity of culture was directly borrowed
+at a time when the less civilized race, having its centre at Van, came
+into direct contact with the Assyrians.
+
+[Illustration: 417.jpg ANCIENT FLIGHT OF STEPS AND GALLERY ON THE FACE
+OF THE ROCK-CITADEL OF VAN.
+
+The exact date at which this influence began to be exerted is not
+certain, but we have records of immediate relations with Assyria in the
+second half of the ninth century before Christ. The district inhabited
+by the Vannic people was known to the Assyrians by the name of Urartu,
+and although the inscriptions of the earlier Assyrian kings do not
+record expeditions against that country, they frequently make mention of
+campaigns against princes and petty rulers of the land of Na'iri. They
+must therefore for long have exercised an indirect, if not a direct,
+influence on the peoples and tribes which lay more to the north.
+
+The earliest evidence of direct contact between the Assyrians and the
+land of Urartu which we at present possess dates from the reign of
+Ashur-nasir-pal, and in the reign of his son Shalmaneser II three
+expeditions were undertaken against the people of Van. The name of the
+king of Urartu at this time was Arame, and his capital city, Arzasku,
+probably lay to the north of Lake Van. On all three occasions the
+Assyrians were victorious, forcing Arame to abandon his capital
+and capturing his cities as far as the sources of the Euphrates.
+Subsequently, in the year 833 B.C., Shalmaneser II made another attack
+upon the country, which at that time was under the sway of Sarduris I.
+Under this monarch the citadel of Van became the great stronghold of the
+people of Urartu, for he added to the natural strength of the position
+by the construction of walls built between the rock of Van and the
+harbour. The massive blocks of stone of which his fortifications
+were composed are standing at the present day, and they bear eloquent
+testimony to the energy with which this monarch devoted himself to the
+task of rendering his new citadel impregnable. The fortification and
+strengthening of Van and its citadel was carried on during the reigns of
+his direct successors and descendants, Ispui-nis, Menuas, and Argistis
+I, so that when Tiglath-pile-ser III brought fire and sword into the
+country and laid siege to Van in the reign of Sarduris II, he could not
+capture the citadel.
+
+[Illustration: 419.jpg PART OF THE ANCIENT FORTIFICATIONS OF THE CITY OF
+VAN, BETWEEN THE CITADEL AND THE LAKE.]
+
+It was not difficult for the Assyrian king to assault and capture the
+city itself, which lay at the foot of the citadel as it does at the
+present day, but the latter, within the fortifications of which Sarduris
+and his garrison withdrew, proved itself able to withstand the Assyrian
+attack. The expedition of Tiglath-pileser III did not succeed in
+crushing the Vannic empire, for Rusas I, the son and successor of
+Sarduris II, allied himself to the neighbouring mountain races and gave
+considerable trouble to Sargon, the Assyrian king, who was obliged to
+undertake an expedition to check their aggressions.
+
+It was probably Rusas I who erected the buildings on Toprak Kala, the
+hill to the east of Van, traces of which remain to the present day. He
+built a palace and a temple, and around them he constructed a new city
+with a reservoir to supply it with water, possibly because the slopes
+of Toprak Kala rendered it easier of defence than the city in the
+plain (beneath the rock and citadel) which had fallen an easy prey to
+Tiglath-pileser III. The site of the temple on Toprak Kala has been
+excavated by the trustees of the British Museum, and our knowledge of
+Vannic art is derived from the shields and helmets of bronze and small
+bronze figures and fittings which were recovered from this building. One
+of the shields brought to the British Museum from the Toprak Kala, where
+it originally hung with others on the temple walls, bears the name of
+Argistis II, who was the son and successor of Rusas I, and who attempted
+to give trouble to the Assyrians by stirring the inhabitants of the land
+of Kummukh (Kommagene) to revolt against Sargon. His son, Rusas II,
+was the contemporary of Esarhaddon, and from some recently discovered
+rock-inscriptions we learn that he extended the limits of his kingdom on
+the west and secured victories against Mushki (Meshech) to the southeast
+of the Halys and against the Hittites in Northern Syria. Rusas III
+rebuilt the temple on Toprak Kala, as we know from an inscription of his
+on one of the shields from that place in the British Museum. Both he and
+Sarduris III were on friendly terms with the Assyrians, for we know that
+they both sent embassies to Ashur-bani-pal.
+
+By far the larger number of rock-inscriptions that have yet been found
+and copied in the mountainous districts bordering on Assyria were
+engraved by this ancient Vannic people, and Drs. Lehmann and Belck have
+done good service by making careful copies and collations of all those
+which are at present known. Work on other classes of rock-inscriptions
+has also been carried on by other travellers. A new edition of the
+inscriptions of Sennacherib in the gorge of the Gomel, near the village
+of Bavian, has been made by Mr. King, who has also been fortunate enough
+to find a number of hitherto unknown inscriptions in Kurdistan on the
+Judi Dagh and at the sources of the Tigris. The inscriptions at
+the mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb, "the Dog River," in Syria, have
+been reexamined by Dr. Knudtzon, and the long inscription which
+Nebuchadnezzar II cut on the rocks at Wadi Brissa in the Lebanon,
+formerly published by M. Pognon, has been recopied by Dr. Weissbach.
+Finally, the great trilingual inscription of Darius Hystaspes on the
+rock at Bisutun in Persia, which was formerly copied by the late Sir
+Henry Raw-linson and used by him for the successful decipherment of the
+cuneiform inscriptions, was completely copied last year by Messrs. King
+and Thompson.
+
+     Messrs. King and Thompson are preparing a new edition of
+     this inscription.
+
+The main facts of the history of Assyria under her later kings and of
+Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods were many years
+ago correctly ascertained, and recent excavation and research have done
+little to add to our knowledge of the history of these periods. It was
+hoped that the excavations conducted by Dr. Koldewey at Babylon would
+result in the recovery of a wealth of inscriptions and records referring
+to the later history of the country, but unfortunately comparatively
+few tablets or inscriptions have been found, and those that have been
+recovered consist mainly of building-inscriptions and votive texts. One
+such building-inscription contains an interesting historical reference.
+It occurs on a barrel-cylinder of clay inscribed with a text of
+Nabopolassar, and it was found in the temple of Ninib and records the
+completion and restoration of the temple by the king. In addition to
+recording the building operations he had carried out in the temple,
+Nabopolassar boasts of his opposition to the Assyrians. He says: "As for
+the Assyrians who had ruled all peoples from distant days and had set
+the people of the land under a heavy yoke, I, the weak and humble man
+who worshippeth the Lord of Lords (i.e. the god Marduk), through the
+mighty power of Nabu and Marduk, my lords, held back their feet from the
+land of Akkad and cast off their yoke."
+
+It is not yet certain whether the Babylonians under Nabopolassar
+actively assisted Cyaxares and the Medes in the siege and in the
+subsequent capture of Nineveh in 606 B.C. but this newly discovered
+reference to the Assyrians by Nabopolassar may possibly be taken
+to imply that the Babylonians were passive and not active allies of
+Cyaxares. If the cylinder were inscribed after the fall of Nineveh we
+should have expected Nabopolassar, had he taken an active part in the
+capture of the city, to have boasted in more definite terms of his
+achievement. On his stele which is preserved at Constantinople,
+Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire, who himself
+suffered defeat at the hands of Cyrus, King of Persia, ascribed the fall
+of Nineveh to the anger of Marduk and the other gods of Babylon because
+of the destruction of their city and the spoliation of their temples by
+Sennacherib in 689 B.C. We see the irony of fate in the fact that Cyrus
+also ascribed the defeat and deposition of Nabonidus and the fall of
+Babylon to Marduk's intervention, whose anger he alleges was aroused
+by the attempt of Nabonidus to concentrate the worship of the local
+city-gods in Babylon.
+
+Thus it will be seen that recent excavation and research have not
+yet supplied the data for filling in such gaps as still remain in our
+knowledge of the later history of Assyria and Babylon. The closing
+years of the Assyrian empire and the military achievements of the great
+Neo-Babylonian rulers, Nabopolassar, Nerig-lissar, and Nebuchadnezzar
+II, have not yet been found recorded in any published Assyrian or
+Babylonian inscription, but it may be expected that at any moment
+some text will be discovered that will throw light upon the problems
+connected with the history of those periods which still await solution.
+Meanwhile, the excavations at Babylon, although they have not added
+much to our knowledge of the later history of the country, have been
+of immense service in revealing the topography of the city during the
+Neo-Babylonian period, as well as the positions, plans, and characters
+of the principal buildings erected by the later Babylonian kings. The
+discovery of the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on the mound of the Kasr,
+of the small but complete temple E-makh, of the temple of the goddess
+Nin-makh to the northeast of the palaces, and of the sacred road
+dividing them and passing through the Great Gate of Ishtar (adorned with
+representations of lions, bulls, and dragons in raised brick upon its
+walls) has enabled us to form some conception of the splendour and
+magnificence of the city as it appeared when rebuilt by its last native
+rulers. Moreover, the great temple E-sagila, the famous shrine of the
+god Marduk, has been identified and partly excavated beneath the huge
+mound of Tell Amran ibn-Ali, while a smaller and less famous temple of
+Ninib has been discovered in the lower mounds which lie to the eastward.
+Finally, the sacred way from E-sagila to the palace mound has been
+traced and uncovered. We are thus enabled to reconstitute the scene of
+the most solemn rite of the Babylonian festival of the New Year, when
+the statue of the god Marduk was carried in solemn procession along this
+road from the temple to the palace, and the Babylonian king made his
+yearly obeisance to the national god, placing his own hands within those
+of Marduk, in token of his submission to and dependence on the divine
+will.
+
+[Illustration: 425.jpg WITHIN THE SHRINE OP E-MAKH, THE TEMPLE OP THE
+GODDESS NIN-MAKH.]
+
+Though recent excavations have not led to any startling discoveries
+with regard to the history of Western Asia during the last years of
+the Babylonian empire, research among the tablets dating from the
+Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods has lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of Babylonian literature. These periods were marked by great
+literary activity on the part of the priests at Babylon, Sippar, and
+elsewhere, who, under the royal orders, scoured the country for all
+remains of the early literature which was preserved in the ancient
+temples and archives of the country, and made careful copies and
+collections of all they found. Many of these tablets containing
+Neo-Babylonian copies of earlier literary texts are preserved in the
+British Museum, and have been recently published, and we have thus
+recovered some of the principal grammatical, religious, and magical
+compositions of the earlier Babylonian period.
+
+[Illustration: 426.jpg TRENCH IN THE BABYLONIAN PLAIN]
+
+     Between The Mound Of The Kasr And Tell Amran Ibn-Ali,
+     Showing A Section Of The Paved Sacred Way.
+
+Among the most interesting of such recent finds is a series of tablets
+inscribed with the Babylonian legends concerning the creation of the
+world and man, which present many new and striking parallels to the
+beliefs on these subjects embodied in Hebrew literature. We have not
+space to treat this subject at greater length in the present work, but
+we may here note that discovery and research in its relation to the
+later empires that ruled at Babylon have produced results of literary
+rather than of historical importance. But we should exceed the space
+at our disposal if we attempted even to skim this fascinating field of
+study in which so much has recently been achieved. For it is time we
+turned once more to Egypt and directed our inquiry towards ascertaining
+what recent research has to tell us with regard to her inhabitants
+during the later periods of her existence as a nation of the ancient
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+
+
+Before we turned from Egypt to summarize the information, afforded by
+recent discoveries, upon the history of Western Asia under the kings
+of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, we noted that the Asiatic
+empire of Egypt was regained by the reactionary kings of the XIXth
+Dynasty, after its temporary loss owing to the vagaries of Akhunaten.
+Palestine remained Egyptian throughout the period of the judges until
+the foundation of the kingdom of Judah. With the decline of military
+spirit in Egypt and the increasing power of the priesthood, authority
+over Asia became less and less a reality. Tribute was no longer paid,
+and the tribes wrangled without a restraining hand, during the reigns of
+the successors of Ramses III. By the time of the priest-kings of Thebes
+(the XXIst Dynasty) the authority of the Pharaohs had ceased to be
+exercised in Syria. Egypt was itself divided into two kingdoms, the one
+ruled by Northern descendants of the Ramessids at Tanis, the other by
+the priestly monarchs at Thebes, who reigned by right of inheritance as
+a result of the marriage of the daughter of Ramses with the high
+priest Amenhetep, father of Herhor, the first priest-king. The Thebans
+fortified Gebelen in the South and el-Hebi in the North against attack,
+and evidently their relations with the Tanites were not always friendly.
+
+In Syria nothing of the imperial power remained. The prestige of the god
+Amen of Thebes, however, was still very great. We see this clearly from
+a very interesting papyrus of the reign of Herhor, published in 1899 by
+Mr. Golenischeff, which describes the adventures of Uenuamen, an envoy
+sent (about 1050 B.C.) to Phoenicia to bring wood from the mountains of
+Lebanon for the construction of a great festival bark of the god Amen
+at Thebes. In the course of his mission he was very badly treated
+(We cannot well imagine Thothmes III or Amenhetep III tolerating
+ill-treatment of their envoy!) and eventually shipwrecked on the coast
+of the land of Alashiya or Cyprus. He tells us in the papyrus, which
+seems to be the official report of his mission, that, having been given
+letters of credence to the Prince of Byblos from the King of Tanis,
+"to whom Amen had given charge of his North-land," he at length reached
+Phoenicia, and after much discussion and argument was able to prevail
+upon the prince to have the wood which he wanted brought down from
+Lebanon to the seashore.
+
+Here, however, a difficulty presented itself,--the harbour was filled
+with the piratical ships of the Cretan Tjakaray, who refused to allow
+Uenuamen to return to Egypt. They said, 'Seize him; let no ship of his
+go unto the land of Egypt!' "Then," says Uenuamen in the papyrus, "I sat
+down and wept. The scribe of the prince came out unto me; he said unto
+me, 'What ail-eth thee?' I replied, 'Seest thou not the birds which fly,
+which fly back unto Egypt? Look at them, they go unto the cool canal,
+and how long do I remain abandoned here? Seest thou not those who would
+prevent my return?' He went away and spoke unto the prince, who began
+to weep at the words which were told unto him and which were so sad. He
+sent his scribe out unto me, who brought me two measures of wine and a
+deer. He sent me Tentnuet, an Egyptian singing-girl who was with him,
+saying unto her, 'Sing unto him, that he may not grieve!' He sent word
+unto me, 'Eat, drink, and grieve not! To-morrow shalt thou hear all that
+I shall say.' On the morrow he had the people of his harbour summoned,
+and he stood in the midst of them, and he said unto the Tjakaray, 'What
+aileth you?' They answered him, 'We will pursue the piratical ships
+which thou sendest unto Egypt with our unhappy companions.' He said unto
+them, 'I cannot seize the ambassador of Amen in my land. Let me send him
+away and then do ye pursue after him to seize him!' He sent me on board,
+and he sent me away... to the haven of the sea. The wind drove me upon
+the land of Alashiya. The people of the city came out in order to slay
+me. I was dragged by them to the place where Hatiba, the queen of the
+city, was. I met her as she was going out of one of her houses into
+the other. I greeted her and said unto the people who stood by her, 'Is
+there not one among you who understandeth the speech of Egypt?' One
+of them replied, 'I understand it.' I said unto him, 'Say unto thy
+mistress: even as far as the city in which Amen dwelleth (i. e. Thebes)
+have I heard the proverb, "In all cities is injustice done; only in
+Alashiya is justice to be found," and now is injustice done here every
+day!' She said, 'What is it that thou sayest?' I said unto her, 'Since
+the sea raged and the wind drove me upon the land in which thou livest,
+therefore thou wilt not allow them to seize my body and to kill me, for
+verily I am an ambassador of Amen. Remember that I am one who will be
+sought for always. And if these men of the Prince of Byblos whom they
+seek to kill (are killed), verily if their chief finds ten men of thine,
+will he not kill them also?' She summoned the men, and they were brought
+before her. She said unto me, 'Lie down and sleep...'"
+
+At this point the papyrus breaks off, and we do not know how Uenuamen
+returned to Egypt with his wood. The description of his casting-away and
+landing on Alashiya is quite Homeric, and gives a vivid picture of the
+manners of the time. The natural impulse of the islanders is to kill
+the strange castaway, and only the fear of revenge and of the wrath of a
+distant foreign deity restrains them. Alashiya is probably Cyprus, which
+also bore the name Yantinay from the time of Thothmes III until the
+seventh century, when it is called Yatnan by the Assyrians. A king
+of Alashiya corresponded with Amenhetep III in cuneiform on terms of
+perfect equality, three hundred years before: "Brother," he writes,
+"should the small amount of the copper which I have sent thee be
+displeasing unto thy heart, it is because in my land the hand of Nergal
+my lord slew all the men of my land (i.e. they died of the plague), and
+there was no working of copper; and this was, my brother, not pleasing
+unto thy heart. Thy messenger with my messenger swiftly will I send, and
+whatsoever amount of copper thou hast asked for, O my brother, I,
+even I, will send it unto thee." The mention by Herhor's envoy of
+Nesibinebdad (Smendes), the King of Tanis, a powerful ruler who in
+reality constantly threatened the existence of the priestly monarchy
+at Thebes, as "him to whom Amen has committed the wardship of his
+North-land," is distinctly amusing. The hard fact of the independence of
+Lower Egypt had to be glozed somehow.
+
+The days of Theban power were coming to an end and only the prestige
+of the god Amen remained strong for two hundred years more. But the
+alliance of Amen and his priests with a band of predatory and destroying
+foreign conquerors, the Ethiopians (whose rulers were the descendants
+of the priest-kings, who retired to Napata on the succession of the
+powerful Bubastite dynasty of Shishak to that of Tanis, abandoning
+Thebes to the Northerners), did much to destroy the prestige of Amen
+and of everything connected with him. An Ethiopian victory meant only
+an Assyrian reconquest, and between them Ethiopians and Assyrians had
+well-nigh ruined Egypt. In the Saite period Thebes had declined greatly
+in power as well as in influence, and all its traditions were anathema
+to the leading people of the time, although not of course in Akhunaten's
+sense.
+
+With the Saite period we seem almost to have retraced our steps and to
+have reentered the age of the Pyramid Builders. All the pomp and glory
+of Thothmes, Amenhetep, and Ramses were gone. The days of imperial Egypt
+were over, and the minds of men, sickened of foreign war, turned for
+peace and quietness to the simpler ideals of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+We have already seen that an archaistic revival of the styles of the
+early dynasties is characteristic of this late period, and that men
+were buried at Sakkara and at Thebes in tombs which recall in form and
+decoration those of the courtiers of the Pyramid Builders. Everywhere
+we see this fashion of archaism. A Theban noble of this period named
+Aba was buried at Thebes. Long ago, nearly three thousand years before,
+under the VIth Dynasty, there had lived a great noble of the same name,
+who was buried in a rock-tomb at Der el-Gebrawi, in Middle Egypt. This
+tomb was open and known in the days of the second Aba, who caused to be
+copied and reproduced in his tomb in the Asasif at Thebes most of the
+scenes from the bas-relief with which it had been decorated. The tomb
+of the VIth Dynasty Aba has lately been copied for the Archaeological
+Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund) by Mr. de Garis Davies, who has
+found the reliefs of the XXVIth Dynasty Aba of considerable use to him
+in reconstituting destroyed portions of their ancient originals.
+
+During late years important discoveries of objects of this era have been
+few. One of the most noteworthy is that of a contemporary inscription
+describing the battle of Momemphis, which is mentioned by Herodotus (ii,
+163, 169). We now have the official account of this battle, and know
+that it took place in the third year of the reign of Amasis--not before
+he became king. This was the fight in which the unpatriotic king,
+Apries, who had paid for his partiality for the Greeks of Nau-kratis
+with the loss of his throne, was finally defeated. As we see from this
+inscription, he was probably murdered by the country people during his
+flight.
+
+The following are the most important passages of the inscription: "His
+Majesty (Amasis) was in the Festival-Hall, discussing plans for his
+whole land, when one came to say unto him, 'Haa-ab-Ra (Apries) is rowing
+up; he hath gone on board the ships which have crossed over. Haunebu
+(Greeks), one knows not their number, are traversing the North-land,
+which is as if it had no master to rule it; he (Apries) hath summoned
+them, they are coming round him. It is he who hath arranged their
+settlement in the Peh-an (the An-dropolite name); they infest the whole
+breadth of Egypt, those who are on thy waters fly before them!'... His
+Majesty mounted his chariot, having taken lance and bow in his hand...
+(the enemy) reached Andropolis; the soldiers sang with joy on the
+roads... they did their duty in destroying the enemy. His Majesty fought
+like a lion; he made victims among them, one knows not how many. The
+ships and their warriors were overturned, they saw the depths as do the
+fishes. Like a flame he extended, making a feast of fighting. His heart
+rejoiced.... The third year, the 8th Athyr, one came to tell Majesty:
+'Let their vile-ness be ended! They throng the roads, there are
+thousands there ravaging the land; they fill every road. Those who are
+in ships bear thy terror in their hearts. But it is not yet finished.'
+Said his Majesty unto his soldiers: '...Young men and old men, do this
+in the cities and nomes!'... Going upon every road, let not a day pass
+without fighting their galleys!'... The land was traversed as by the
+blast of a tempest, destroying their ships, which were abandoned by the
+crews. The people accomplished their fate, killing the prince (Apries)
+on his couch, when he had gone to repose in his cabin. When he saw his
+friend overthrown... his Majesty himself buried him (Apries), in order
+to establish him as a king possessing virtue, for his Majesty decreed
+that the hatred of the gods should be removed from him."
+
+This is the event to which we have already referred in a preceding
+chapter, as proving the great amelioration of Egyptian ideas with regard
+to the treatment of a conquered enemy, as compared with those of other
+ancient nations. Amasis refers to the deposed monarch as his "friend,"
+and buries him in a manner befitting a king at the charges of Amasis
+himself. This act warded off from the spirit of Apries the just anger
+of the gods at his partiality for the "foreign devils," and ensured his
+reception by Osiris as a king neb menkh, "possessing virtues."
+
+The town of Naukratis, where Apries established himself, had been
+granted to the Greek traders by Psametik I a century or more before. Mr.
+D. G. Hogarth's recent exploration of the site has led to a considerable
+modification of our first ideas of the place, which were obtained
+from Prof. Petrie 's excavations. Prof. Petrie was the discoverer of
+Naukratis, and his diggings told us what Naukratis was like in the first
+instance, but Mr. Hogarth has shown that several of his identifications
+were erroneous and that the map of the place must be redrawn. The chief
+error was in the placing of the Hellenion (the great meeting-place of
+the Greeks), which is now known to be in quite a different position from
+that assigned to it by Prof. Petrie. The "Great Temenos" of Prof. Petrie
+has now been shown to be non-existent. Mr. Hogarth has also pointed out
+that an old Egyptian town existed at Nau-kratis long before the Greeks
+came there. This town is mentioned on a very interesting stele of black
+basalt (discovered at Tell Gaif, the site of Naukratis, and now in the
+Cairo Museum), under the name of "Permerti, which is called Nukrate."
+The first is the old Egyptian name, the second the Greek name adapted
+to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stele was erected by Tekhtnebf, the last
+native king of Egypt, to commemorate his gifts to the temples of Neith
+on the occasion of his accession at Sais. It is beautifully cut, and the
+inscription is written in a curious manner, with alphabetic spellings
+instead of ideographs, and ideographs instead of alphabetic spellings,
+which savours fully of the affectation of the learned pedant who drafted
+it; for now, of course, in the fourth century before Christ, nobody but
+a priestly antiquarian could read hieroglyphics. Demotic was the only
+writing for practical purposes.
+
+We see this fact well illustrated in the inscriptions of the Ptolemaic
+temples. The accession of the Ptolemies marked a great increase in the
+material wealth of Egypt, and foreign conquest again came in fashion.
+Ptolemy Euergetes marched into Asia in the grand style of a Ramses and
+brought back the images of gods which had been carried off by Esarhaddon
+or Nebuchadnezzar II centuries before. He was received on his return
+to Egypt with acclamations as a true successor of the Pharaohs. The
+imperial spirit was again in vogue, and the archaistic simplicity and
+independence of the Saites gave place to an archaistic imperialism, the
+first-fruits of which were the repair and building of temples in the
+great Pharaonic style. On these we see the Ptolemies masquerading as
+Pharaohs, and the climax of absurdity is reached when Ptolemy Auletes
+(the Piper) is seen striking down Asiatic enemies in the manner of
+Amen-hetep or Ramses! This scene is directly copied from a Ramesside
+temple, and we find imitations of reliefs of Ramses II so slavish that
+the name of the earlier king is actually copied, as well as the relief,
+and appears above the figure of a Ptolemy. The names of the nations who
+were conquered by Thothmes III are repeated on Ptolemaic sculptures to
+do duty for the conquered of Euergetes, with all sorts of mistakes
+in spelling, naturally, and also with later interpolations. Such an
+inscription is that in the temple of Kom Ombo, which Prof. Say ce has
+held to contain the names of "Caphtor and Casluhim" and to prove the
+knowledge of the latter name in the fourteenth century before Christ.
+The name of Caphtor is the old Egyptian Keftiu (Crete); that of Casluhim
+is unknown in real Old Egyptian inscriptions, and in this Ptolemaic list
+at Kom Ombo it may be quite a late interpolation in the lists, perhaps
+no older than the Persian period, since we find the names of Parsa
+(Persia) and Susa, which were certainly unknown to Thothmes III,
+included in it. We see generally from the Ptolemaic inscriptions that
+nobody could read them but a few priests, who often made mistakes. One
+of the most serious was the identification of Keftiu with Phoenicia in
+the Stele of Canopus. This misled modern archaeologists down to the
+time of Dr. Evans's discoveries at Knossos, though how these utterly
+un-Semitic looking Keftiu could have been Phoenicians was a puzzle to
+everybody. We now know, of course, that they were Mycenaean or
+Minoan Cretans, and that the Ptolemaic antiquaries made a mistake in
+identifying the land of Keftiu with Phoenicia.
+
+We must not, however, say too much in dispraise of the Ptolemaic
+Egyptians and their works. We have to be grateful to them indeed for the
+building of the temples of Edfu and Dendera, which, owing to their later
+date, are still in good preservation, while the best preserved of the
+old Pharaonic fanes, such as Medinet Habu, have suffered considerably
+from the ravages of time. Eor these temples show us to-day what an
+old Egyptian temple, when perfect, really looked like. They are, so to
+speak, perfect mummies of temples, while of the old buildings we have
+nothing but the disjointed and damaged skeletons.
+
+A good deal of repairing has been done to these buildings, especially
+to that at Edfu, of late years. But the main archaeological interest of
+Ptolemaic and Roman times has been found in the field of epigraphy and
+the study of papyri, with which the names of Messrs. Kenyon, Grenfell,
+and Hunt are chiefly connected. The treasures which have lately been
+obtained by the British Museum in the shape of the manuscripts of
+Aristotle's "Constitution of Athens," the lost poems of Bacchylides, and
+the Mimes of Herondas, all of which have been published for the trustees
+of that institution by Mr. Kenyon, are known to those who are interested
+in these subjects. The long series of publications of Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt, issued at the expense of the Egypt Exploration Fund
+(Graeco-Roman branch), with the exception of the volume of discoveries
+at Teb-tunis, which was issued by the University of California, is also
+well known.
+
+The two places with which Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt's work has been
+chiefly connected are the Fayyum and Behnesa, the site of the ancient
+Permje or Oxyr-rhynchus. The lake-province of the Fayyum, which attained
+such prominence in the days of the XIIth Dynasty, seems to have had
+little or no history during the whole period of the New Empire, but in
+Ptolemaic times it revived and again became one of the richest and
+most important provinces of Egypt. The town of Arsinoe was founded at
+Crocodilopolis, where are now the mounds of Kom el-Faris (The Mound of
+the Horseman), near Medinet el-Payyum, and became the capital of the
+province. At Illahun, just outside the entrance to the Fayyum, was the
+great Nile harbour and entrepot of the lake-district, called Ptolemais
+Hormos.
+
+The explorations of Messrs. Hogarth, Grenfell, and Hunt in the years
+of 1895-6 and 1898-9 resulted in the identification of the sites of the
+ancient cities of Karanis (Kom Ushim), Bacchias (Omm el-'Atl), Euhemeria
+(Kasr el-Banat), Theadelphia (Harit), and Philoteris (Wadfa). The work
+for the University of California in 18991900 at Umm el-Baragat showed
+that this place was Tebtunis. Dime, on the northern coast of the Birket
+Karun, the modern representative of the ancient Lake Moeris, is now
+known to be the ancient Sokno-paiou Nesos (the Isle of Soknopaios), a
+local form of Sebek, the crocodile-god of the Fayyum. At Karanis this
+god was worshipped under the name of Petesuchos ("He whom Sebek
+has given"), in conjunction with Osiris Pnepheros (P-nefer-ho,
+"the beautiful of face"); at Tebtunis he became Seknebtunis., i.e.
+Sebek-neb-Teb-tunis (Sebek, lord of Tebtunis). This is a typical example
+of the portmanteau pronunciations of the latter-day Egyptians.
+
+Many very interesting discoveries were made during the course of the
+excavations of these places (besides Mr. Hogarth's find of the temple
+of Petesuchos and Pnepheros at Karanis), consisting of Roman pottery
+of varied form and Roman agricultural implements, including a perfect
+plough.* The main interest of all, however, lies, both here and at
+Behnesa, in the papyri. They consist of Greek and Latin documents of
+all ages from the early Ptolemaic to the Christian. In fact, Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt have been unearthing and sifting the contents of the
+waste-paper baskets of the ancient Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptians, which
+had been thrown out on to dust-heaps near the towns. Nothing perishes
+in,, the dry climate and soil of Egypt, so the contents of the ancient
+dust-heaps have been preserved intact until our own day, and have been
+found by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt, just as the contents of the houses
+of the ancient Indian rulers of Chinese Turkestan, at Niya and Khotan,
+with their store of Kha-roshthi documents, have been preserved intact in
+the dry Tibetan desert climate and have been found by Dr. Stein.** There
+is much analogy between the discoveries of Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in
+Egypt and those of Dr. Stein in Turkestan.
+
+     * Illustrated on Plate IX of Fayum Towns and Their Papyri.
+
+     ** See Dr. Stein's Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, London,
+     1903.
+
+The Graeco-Egyptian documents are of all kinds, consisting of letters,
+lists, deeds, notices, tax-assessments, receipts, accounts, and business
+records of every sort and kind, besides new fragments of classical
+authors and the important "Sayings of Jesus," discovered at Behnesa,
+which have been published in a special popular form by the Egypt
+Exploration Fund.*
+
+     * Aoyla 'Itjffov, 1897, and New Sayings of Jesus, 1904.
+
+These last fragments of the oldest Christian literature, which are
+of such great importance and interest to all Christians, cannot be
+described or discussed here. The other documents are no less
+important to the student of ancient literature, the historian, and the
+sociologist. The classical fragments include many texts of lost authors,
+including Menander. We will give a few specimens of the private
+letters and documents, which will show how extremely modern the ancient
+Egyptians were, and how little difference there actually is between our
+civilization and theirs, except in the-matter of mechanical invention.
+They had no locomotives and telephones; otherwise they were the same. We
+resemble them much more than we resemble our mediaeval ancestors or even
+the Elizabethans.
+
+This is a boy's letter to his father, who would not take him up to town
+with him to see the sights: "Theon to his father Theon, greeting. It was
+a fine thing of you not to take me with you to the city! If you won't
+take me with you to Alexandria, I won't write you a letter, or speak to
+you, or say good-bye to you; and if you go to Alexandria I won't take
+your hand or ever greet you again. That is what will happen if you
+won't take me. Mother said to Archelaus, 'It quite upsets him to be left
+behind.' It was good of you to send me presents on the 12th, the day
+you sailed. Send me a lyre, I implore you. If you don't, I won't eat, I
+won't drink: there now!'" Is not this more like the letter of a spoiled
+child of to-day than are the solemnly dutiful epistles of even our
+grandfathers and grandmothers when young? The touch about "Mother said
+to Archelaus, 'It quite upsets him to be left behind'" is delightfully
+like the modern small boy, and the final request and threat are also
+eminently characteristic.
+
+Here is a letter asking somebody to redeem the writer's property from
+the pawnshop: "Now please redeem my property from Sarapion. It is
+pledged for two minas. I have paid the interest up to the month Epeiph,
+at the rate of a stater per mina. There is a casket of incense-wood,
+and another of onyx, a tunic, a white veil with a real purple border, a
+handkerchief, a tunic with a Laconian stripe, a garment of purple linen,
+two armlets, a necklace, a coverlet, a figure of Aphrodite, a cup, a big
+tin flask, and a wine-jar. From Onetor get the two bracelets. They have
+been pledged since the month Tybi of last year for eight... at the
+rate of a stater per mina. If the cash is insufficient owing to the
+carelessness of Theagenis, if, I say, it is insufficient, sell the
+bracelets and make up the money." Here is an affectionate letter of
+invitation: "Greeting, my dear Serenia, from Petosiris. Be sure, dear,
+to come up on the 20th for the birthday festival of the god, and let me
+know whether you are coming by boat or by donkey, that we may send for
+you accordingly. Take care not to forget."
+
+Here is an advertisement of a gymnastic display:
+
+"The assault-at-arms by the youths will take place to-morrow, the 24th.
+Tradition, no less than the distinguished character of the festival,
+requires that they should do their utmost in the gymnastic display. Two
+performances." Signed by Dioskourides, magistrate of Oxyrrhynchus.
+
+Here is a report from a public physician to a magistrate: "To
+Claudianus, the mayor, from Dionysos, public physician. I was to-day
+instructed by you, through Herakleides your assistant, to inspect the
+body of a man who had been found hanged, named Hierax, and to report to
+you my opinion of it. I therefore inspected the body in the presence
+of the aforesaid Herakleides at the house of Epagathus in the Broadway
+ward, and found it hanged by a noose, which fact I accordingly report."
+Dated in the twelfth year of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 173).
+
+The above translations are taken, slightly modified, from those in The
+Oxyrrhynchus Papyri, vol. i. The next specimen, a quaint letter, is
+translated from the text in Mr. Grenfell's Greek Papyri (Oxford, 1896),
+p. 69: "To Noumen, police captain and mayor, from Pokas son of Onos,
+unpaid policeman. I have been maltreated by Peadius the priest of the
+temple of Sebek in Crocodilopolis. On the first epagomenal day of the
+eleventh year, after having abused me about... in the aforesaid temple,
+the person complained against sprang upon me and in the presence of
+witnesses struck me many blows with a stick which he had. And as part of
+my body was not covered, he tore my shirt, and this fact I called upon
+the bystanders to bear witness to. Wherefore I request that if it seems
+proper you will write to Klearchos the headman to send him to you, in
+order that, if what I have written is true, I may obtain justice at your
+hands."
+
+A will of Hadrian's reign, taken from the Oxyrrhynchus Papyri (i, p.
+173), may also be of interest: "This is the last will and testament,
+made in the street (i.e. at a street notary's stand), of Pekysis, son of
+Hermes and Didyme, an inhabitant of Oxyrrhynchus, being sane and in his
+right mind. So long as I live, I am to have powers over my property,
+to alter my will as I please. But if I die with this will unchanged, I
+devise my daughter Ammonous whose mother is Ptolema, if she survive me,
+but if not then her children, heir to my shares in the common house,
+court, and rooms situate in the Cretan ward. All the furniture,
+movables, and household stock and other property whatever that I shall
+leave, I bequeath to the mother of my children and my wife Ptolema, the
+freedwoman of Demetrius, son of Hermippus, with the condition that
+she shall have for her lifetime the right of using, dwelling in, and
+building in the said house, court, and rooms. If Ammonous should die
+without children and intestate, the share of the fixtures shall belong
+to her half-brother on the mother's side, Anatas, if he survive, but if
+not, to... No one shall violate the terms of this my will under pain of
+paying to my daughter and heir Ammonous a fine of 1,000 drachmae and to
+the treasury an equal sum." Here follow the signatures of testator and
+witnesses, who are described, as in a passport, one of them as follows:
+"I, Dionysios, son of Dionysios of the same city, witness the will of
+Pekysis. I am forty-six years of age, have a curl over my right temple,
+and this is my seal of Dionysoplaton."
+
+During the Roman period, which we have now reached in our survey, the
+temple building of the Ptolemies was carried on with like energy. One of
+the best-known temples of the Roman period is that at Philse, which
+is known as the "Kiosk," or "Pharaoh's Bed." Owing to the great
+picturesqueness of its situation, this small temple, which was built in
+the reign of Trajan, has been a favourite subject for the painters of
+the last fifty years, and next to the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and Karnak,
+it is probably the most widely known of all Egyptian buildings. Recently
+it has come very much to the front for an additional reason. Like all
+the other temples of Philse, it had been archaeologically surveyed and
+cleared by Col. H. Gr. Lyons and Dr. Borchardt, but further work of a
+far-reaching character was rendered necessary by the building of the
+great Aswan dam, below the island of Philse, one of the results of
+which has been the partial submergence of the island and its temples,
+including the picturesque Kiosk. The following account, taken from the
+new edition (1906) of Murray's _Guide to Egypt and the Sudan_, will
+suffice better than any other description to explain what the dam is,
+how it has affected Philse, and what work has been done to obviate the
+possibility of serious damage to the Kiosk and other buildings.
+
+"In 1898 the Egyptian government signed a contract with Messrs. John
+Aird & Co. for the construction of the great reservoir and dam at
+Shellal, which serves for the storage of water at the time of the flood
+Nile. The river is 'held up' here sixty-five feet above its old normal
+level. A great masonry dyke, 150 feet high in places, has been carried
+across the Bab el-Kebir of the First Cataract, and a canal and four
+locks, two hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, allow for the passage
+of traffic up and down the river.
+
+[Illustration: 447.jpg The Great Dam Of Aswan]
+
+     Showing Water Rushing Through The Sluices
+
+The dam is 2,185 yards long and over ninety feet thick at the base; in
+places it rises one hundred feet above the bed of the river. It is built
+of the local red granite, and at each end the granite dam is built into
+the granite hillside. Seven hundred and eight thousand cubic yards of
+masonry were used. The sluices are 180 in number, and are arranged at
+four different levels. The sight of the great volume of water pouring
+through them is a very fine one. The Nile begins to rise in July, and at
+the end of November it is necessary to begin closing the sluice-gates
+to hold up the water. By the end of February the reservoir is usually
+filled and Philae partially submerged, so that boats can sail in and out
+of the colonnades and Pharaoh's Bed. By the beginning of July the water
+has been distributed, and it then falls to its normal level.
+
+"It is of course regrettable that the engineers were unable to find
+another site for the dam, as it seemed inevitable that some damage would
+result to the temples of Philae from their partial submergence. Korosko
+was proposed as a site, but was rejected for cogent reasons, and
+apparently Shellal was the only possible place. Further, no serious
+person, who places the greatest good of the greatest number above
+considerations of the picturesque and the 'interesting,' will deny
+that if it is necessary to sacrifice Philae to the good of the people of
+Egypt, Philae must go. 'Let the dead bury their dead.' The concern of the
+rulers of Egypt must be with the living people of Egypt rather than with
+the dead bones of the past; and they would not be doing their duty did
+they for a moment allow artistic and archaeological considerations to
+outweigh in their minds the practical necessities of the country. This
+does not in the least imply that they do not owe a lesser duty to the
+monuments of Egypt, which are among the most precious relics of the past
+history of mankind. They do owe this lesser duty, and with regard to
+Philae it has been conscientiously fulfilled. The whole temple, in order
+that its stability may be preserved under the stress of submersion, has
+been braced up and underpinned, under the superintendence of Mr. Ball,
+of the Survey Department, who has most efficiently carried out this
+important work, at a cost of L22,000.
+
+[Illustration: 449.jpg THE KIOSK AT PHILAE IN PROCESS OF UNDERPINNING
+AND RESTORATION, JANUARY, 1902.]
+
+Steel girders have been fixed across the island from quay to quay,
+and these have been surrounded by cement masonry, made water-tight
+by forcing in cement grout. Pharaoh's Bed and the colonnade have been
+firmly underpinned in cement masonry, and there is little doubt that the
+actual stability of Philae is now more certain than that of any other
+temple in Egypt. The only possible damage that can accrue to it is
+the partial discolouration of the lower courses of the stonework of
+Pharaoh's Bed, etc., which already bear a distinct high-water mark. Some
+surface disintegration from the formation of salt crystals is perhaps
+inevitable here, but the effects of this can always be neutralized
+by careful washing, which it should be an important charge of the
+Antiquities Department to regularly carry out."
+
+[Illustration: 450.jpg THE ANCIENT QUAY OP PHILAE, NOVEMBER, 1904.]
+
+     This is entirely covered when the reservoir is full, and the
+     palm-trees are farther submerged.
+
+The photographs accompanying the present chapter show the dam, the Kiosk
+in process of conservation and underpinning (1902), and the shores of
+the island as they now appear in the month of November, with the water
+nearly up to the level of the quays. A view is also given of the island
+of Konosso, with its inscriptions, as it is now. The island is simply a
+huge granite boulder of the kind characteristic of the neighbourhood of
+Shellal (Phila?) and Aswan.
+
+On the island of Elephantine, opposite Aswan, an interesting discovery
+has lately been made by Mr. Howard Carter. This is a remarkable well,
+which was supposed by the ancients to lie immediately on the tropic. It
+formed the basis of Eratosthenes' calculations of the measurement of the
+earth. Important finds of documents written in Aramaic have also been
+made here; they show that there was on the island in Ptolemaic times a
+regular colony of Syrian merchants.
+
+South of Aswan and Philse begins Nubia. The Nubian language, which is
+quite different from Arabic, is spoken by everybody on the island of
+Elephantine, and its various dialects are used as far south as Dongola,
+where Arabic again is generally spoken till we reach the land of the
+negroes, south of Khartum. In Ptolemaic and Roman days the Nubians were
+a powerful people, and the whole of Nubia and the modern North Sudan
+formed an independent kingdom, ruled by queens who bore the title or
+name of Candace. It was the eunuch of a Candace who was converted to
+Christianity as he was returning from a mission to Jerusalem to salute
+Jehovah. "Go and join thyself unto his chariot" was the command to
+Philip, and when the Ethiopian had heard the gospel from his lips he
+went on his way rejoicing. The capital of this Candace was at Meroe, the
+modern Bagarawiya, near Shendi. Here, and at Naga not far off, are
+the remains of the temples of the Can-daces, great buildings of
+semi-barbaric Egyptian style. For the civilization of the Nubians, such
+as it was, was of Egyptian origin. Ever since Egyptian rule had been
+extended southwards to Jebel Barkal, beyond Dongola, in the time of
+Amenhetep II, Egyptian culture had influenced the Nubians. Amenhetep III
+built a temple to Amen at Napata, the capital of Nubia, which lay
+under the shadow of Mount Barkal; Akhunaten erected a sanctuary of the
+Sun-Disk there; and Ramses II also built there.
+
+[Illustration: 452.jpg THE ROOK OF KONOSSO IN JANUARY, 1902, BEFORE THE
+BUILDING OF THE DAM AND FORMATION OF THE RESERVOIR.]
+
+The place in fact was a sort of appanage of the priests of Amen at
+Thebes, and when the last priest-king evacuated Thebes, leaving it to
+the Bubastites of the XXIId Dynasty, it was to distant Napata that he
+retired. Here a priestly dynasty continued to reign until, two centuries
+later, the troubles and misfortunes of Egypt seemed to afford an
+opportunity for the reassertion of the exiled Theban power. Piankhi
+Mera-men returned to Egypt in triumph as its rightful sovereign, but his
+successors, Shabak, Shabatak, and Tirha-kah, had to contend constantly
+with the Assyrians. Finally ITrdamaneh, Tirhakah's successor, returned
+to Nubia, leaving Egypt, in the decadence of the Assyrian might, free to
+lead a quiet existence under Psametik I and the succeeding monarchs of
+the XXVIth Dynasty. When Cambyses conquered Egypt he aspired to conquer
+Nubia also, but his army was routed and destroyed by the Napatan king,
+who tells us in an inscription how he defeated "the man Kambasauden,"
+who had attacked him. At Napata the Nubian monarchs, one of the greatest
+of whom in Ptolemaic times was Ergam-enes, a contemporary of Ptolemy
+Philopator, continued to reign. But the first Roman governor of Egypt,
+AElius Gallus, destroyed Napata, and the Nubians removed their capital
+to Meroe, where the Candaces reigned.
+
+The monuments of this Nubian kingdom, the temples of Jebel Barkal, the
+pyramids of Nure close by, the pyramids of Bagarawiya, the temples of
+Wadi Ben Naga, Mesawwarat en-Naga, and Mesawwarat es-Sufra ("Mesawwarat"
+proper), were originally investigated by Cailliaud and afterwards by
+Lepsius. During the last few years they and the pyramids excavated by
+Dr. E. A. Wallis-Budge, of the British Museum, for the Sudan government,
+have been again explored. As the results of his work are not yet
+fully published, it is possible at present only to quote the following
+description from Cook's _Handbook for Egypt and the Sudan_ (by Dr.
+Budge), p. 6, of work on the pyramids of Jebel Barkal: "the writer
+excavated the shafts of one of the pyramids here in 1897, and at the
+depth of about twenty-five cubits found a group of three chambers, in
+one of which were a number of bones of the sheep which was sacrificed
+there about two thousand years ago, and also portions of a broken
+amphora which had held Rho-dian wine. A second shaft, which led to the
+mummy-chamber, was partly emptied, but at a further depth of twenty
+cubits water was found. The high-water mark of the reservoir when full
+is ------ and, as there were no visible means for pumping it out, the
+mummy-chamber could not be entered." With regard to the Bagarawiya
+pyramids, Dr. Budge writes, on p. 700 of the same work, a propos of the
+story of the Italian Ferlini that he found Roman jewelry in one of these
+pyramids: "In 1903 the writer excavated a number of the pyramids of
+Meroe for the Governor-General of the Sudan, Sir F. R. Wingate, and
+he is convinced that the statements made by Ferlini are the result of
+misapprehension on his part. The pyramids are solid throughout, and the
+bodies are buried under them. When the details are complete the proofs
+for this will be published." Dr. Budge has also written upon the subject
+of the orientation of the Jebel Barkal and Nure pyramids.
+
+[Illustration: 454.jpg THE ISLE OF KONOSSO, WITH ITS INSCRIPTIONS]
+
+It is very curious to find the pyramids reappearing in Egyptian
+tomb-architecture in the very latest period of Egyptian history. We
+find them when Egyptian civilization was just entering upon its vigorous
+manhood, then they gradually disappear, only to revive in its decadent
+and exiled old age. The Ethiopian pyramids are all of much more
+elongated form than the old Egyptian ones. It is possible that they may
+be a survival of the archaistic movement of the XXVIth Dynasty, to which
+we have already referred.
+
+These are not the latest Egyptian monuments in the Sudan, nor are the
+temples of Naga and Mesawwarat the most ancient, though they belong
+to the Roman period and are decidedly barbarian as to their style and,
+especially, as to their decoration. The southernmost as well as latest
+relic of Egypt in the Sudan is the Christian church of Soba, on the Blue
+Mie, a few miles above Khartum. In it was found a stone ram, an emblem
+of Amen-Ra, which had formerly stood in the temple of Naga and had been
+brought to Soba perhaps under the impression that it was the Christian
+Lamb. It was removed to the garden of the governor-general's palace at
+Khartum, where it now stands.
+
+The church at Soba is a relic of the Christian kingdom of Alua, which
+succeeded the realm of the Candaces. One of its chief seats was at
+Dongola, and all Nubia is covered with the ruins of its churches. It
+was, of course, an offshoot of the Christianity of Egypt, but a late
+one, since Isis was still worshipped at Philse in the sixth century,
+long after the Edict of Theodosius had officially abolished paganism
+throughout the Roman world, and the Nubians were at first zealous
+votaries of the goddess of Philo. So also when Egypt fell beneath the
+sway of the Moslem in the seventh century, Nubia remained an independent
+Christian state, and continued so down to the twelfth century, when the
+soldiers of Islam conquered the country.
+
+Of late pagan and early Christian Egypt very much that is new has been
+discovered during the last few years. The period of the Lower Empire
+has yielded much to the explorers of Oxyrrhynchus, and many papyri of
+interest belonging to this period have been published by Mr. Kenyon in
+his _Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the British Museum_, especially
+the letters of Flavius Abinaeus, a military officer of the fourth
+century. The papyri of this period are full of the high-flown titles
+and affected phraseology which was so beloved of Byzantine scribes.
+"Glorious Dukes of the Thebaid," "most magnificent counts and
+lieutenants," "all-praiseworthy secretaries," and the like strut across
+the pages of the letters and documents which begin "In the name of Our
+Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the God and Saviour of us all, in
+the year x of the reign of the most divine and praised, great, and
+beneficent Lord Flavius Heraclius (or other) the eternal Augustus and
+Auto-krator, month x, year x of the In diction." It is an extraordinary
+period, this of the sixth and seventh centuries, which we have now
+entered, with its bizarre combination of the official titulary of
+the divine and eternal Caesars Imperatores Augusti with the initial
+invocation of Christ and the Trinity. It is the transition from the
+ancient to the modern world, and as such has an interest all its own.
+
+In Egypt the struggle between the adherents of Chalcedon, the "Melkites"
+or Imperialists of the orthodox Greek rite, and the Eutychians or
+Mono-physites, the followers of the patriarch Dioskoros, who rejected
+Chalcedon, was going on with unabated fury, and was hardly stopped even
+by the invasion of the pagan Persians. The last effort of the party of
+Constantinople to stamp out the Monophysite heresy was made when Cyril
+was patriarch and governor of Egypt. According to an ingenious theory
+put forward by Mr. Butler, in his _Arab Conquest of Egypt_, it is Cyril
+the patriarch who was the mysterious Mukaukas, the [Greek word], or
+"Great and Magnificent One," who played so doubtful a part in the
+epoch-making events of the Arab conquest by Amr in A.D. 639-41. Usually
+this Mukaukas has been regarded as a "noble Copt," and the Copts have
+generally been credited with having assisted the Islamites against
+the power of Constantinople. This was a very natural and probable
+conclusion, but Mr. Butler will have it that the Copts resisted the
+Arabs valiantly, and that the treacherous Mukaukas was none other than
+the Constantinopolitan patriarch himself.
+
+In the papyri it is interesting to note the gradual increase of Arab
+names after the conquest, more especially in those of the Archduke
+Rainer 's collection from the Fayyum, which was so near the new capital
+city, Fustat. In Upper Egypt the change was not noticeable for a long
+time, and in the great collection of Coptic _ostraka_ (inscriptions on
+slips of limestone and sherds of pottery, used as a substitute for paper
+or parchment), found in the ruins of the Coptic monastery established,
+on the temple site of Der el-Bahari, we find no Arab names. These
+documents, part of which have been published by Mr. W. E. Crum for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund, while another part will shortly be issued for
+the trustees of the British Museum by Mr. Hall, date to the seventh and
+eighth centuries. Their contents resemble those of the earlier papyri
+from Oxyrrhynchus, though they are not of so varied a nature and are
+generally written by persons of less intelligence, i.e. the monks and
+peasants of the monasteries and villages of Tjeme, or Western Thebes.
+During the late excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple of Der el-Bahari,
+more of these _ostraka_ were found, which will be published for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund by Messrs. Naville and Hall. Of actual buildings
+of the Coptic period the most important excavations have been those of
+the French School of Cairo at Bawit, north of Asyut. This work, which
+was carried on by M. Jean Cledat, has resulted in the discovery of very
+important frescoes and funerary inscriptions, belonging to the monastery
+of a famous martyr, St. Apollo. With these new discoveries of Christian
+Egypt our work reaches its fitting close. The frontier which divides the
+ancient from the modern world has almost been crossed. We look back from
+the monastery of Bawit down a long vista of new discoveries until, four
+thousand years before, we see again the Great Heads coming to the Tomb
+of Den, Narmer inspecting the bodies of the dead Northerners, and,
+far away in Babylonia, Naram-Sin crossing the mountains of the East to
+conquer Elam, or leading his allies against the prince of Sinai.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria,
+Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall
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diff --git a/old/17321.zip b/old/17321.zip
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>
+    Maspero's History of Egypt, Volume 13
+    by L. W. King and H. R. Hall
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+		body {background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { margin:10%;
+		    text-indent:   1em;
+        margin-top:    .75em;
+        margin-bottom: .75em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; }
+		hr  { width: 50%; }
+    hr.full { width: 100%; }
+    .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 95%; }
+		img {border: 0;}
+    HR  { width: 33%; text-align: center; }
+		blockquote {font-size: 97%; }
+		.figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;}
+    CENTER { padding: 10px;}
+		PRE    { font-size: 90%; margin-left: 20%;}
+    // -->
+</style>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chald�a, Syria,
+Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chald�a, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery
+
+Author: L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17321]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+Character set for HTML: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<center>
+Volume XIII.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1a.htm">Part A.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Part B.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Part C.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1d.htm">Part D.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+<br />
+
+
+<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/spines.jpg" height="967" width="652"
+alt="Book Spines
+">
+</center>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<center>
+<img alt="cover (168K)" src="images/cover.jpg" height="1012" width="728" />
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+<h1>
+    HISTORY OF EGYPT
+</h1>
+<center>
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+</center>
+<center>
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+</center>
+<center><b>
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+</b></center>
+<center>
+<p>
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+</p>
+<p>
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+</p>
+<p>
+Copyright 1906
+</p>
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="936" width="625"
+alt="Frontispiece1
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1-text.jpg" height="171" width="520"
+alt="Frontispiece1-text
+">
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/titlepage1.jpg" height="1198" width="756"
+alt="Titlepage1
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/versa1.jpg" height="730" width="511"
+alt="Versa1
+">
+</center>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>Listing of Special Color Plates and Photographs</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr><td>
+Stele of Vultures</td><td><a href="v1a.htm#image-0013">In Context&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/038.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+Stele of Victory</td><td><a href="v1b.htm#image-0014">In Context</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/160a.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+Statue of Queen Teta-shera&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="v1d.htm#image-0013">In Context</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/338.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+Wall Painting</td><td><a href="v1d.htm#image-0018">In Context</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/358.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+</table>
+</center>
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr><td>
+
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0001">
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_PREF">
+PREFACE
+</a></p>
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1a.htm">PART I.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1a.htm#2H_4_0003">
+EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1a.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER I&mdash;THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1a.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER II&mdash;ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1b.htm">PART II.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1b.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER III&mdash;MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1b.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER IV&mdash;RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA AND THE DAWN OF CHALD�AN HISTORY
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1c.htm">PART III.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1c.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER V&mdash;ELAM AND BABYLON, THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE KASSITES
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1c.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER VI&mdash;EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+</a></p>
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1d.htm">PART IV.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1d.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER VII&mdash;TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1d.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER VIII&mdash;THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1d.htm#2HCH0003">
+CHAPTER IX&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+</a></p>
+
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+
+<a name="2H_4_0001"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+<h2>
+    PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+</h2>
+<p>
+It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations
+in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume
+have been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in
+those countries. The greater number of the photographs here published
+were taken by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest
+Leroux, of Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number
+of plates from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent
+discoveries in Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell &amp; Co., of
+London, for kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs
+issued by them.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_PREF"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    PREFACE
+</h2>
+<p>
+The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
+which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt
+and Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the
+publication of Prof. Maspero's <i>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
+l'Orient Classique</i>, and includes short descriptions of the excavations
+from which these results have been obtained. It is in no sense a
+connected and continuous history of these countries, for that has
+already been written by Prof. Maspero, but is rather intended as an
+appendix or addendum to his work, briefly recapitulating and describing
+the discoveries made since its appearance. On this account we
+have followed a geographical rather than a chronological system of
+arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has been made to suggest
+to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of events.
+</p>
+<p>
+At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and
+activity, both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and
+every season's work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends
+our knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were
+unknown to the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added
+to Egyptian history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the
+primitive Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing
+a hitherto totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization.
+Further than this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest
+historical kings of Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from
+material as yet unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties
+of Babylon. Important discoveries have also been made with regard to
+isolated points in the later historical periods. We have therefore
+attempted to include the most important of these in our survey of recent
+excavations and their results. We would again remind the reader that
+Prof. Maspero's great work must be consulted for the complete history of
+the period, the present volume being, not a connected history of Egypt
+and Western Asia, but a description and discussion of the manner in
+which recent discovery and research have added to and modified our
+conceptions of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.
+</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<br />
+<center>
+Volume XIII.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1a.htm">Part A.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Part B.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Part C.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1d.htm">Part D.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chald�a, Syria,
+Babylonia, And Assyria In The Light Of Recent Discovery, by L.W. King and H.R. Hall
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17321-h.htm or 17321-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,2747 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>
+    Maspero's History of Egypt, Volume 13a
+    by L. W. King and H. R. Hall
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+		body {background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { margin:10%;
+		    text-indent:   1em;
+        margin-top:    .75em;
+        margin-bottom: .75em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; }
+		hr  { width: 50%; }
+    hr.full { width: 100%; }
+    .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 95%; }
+		img {border: 0;}
+    HR  { width: 33%; text-align: center; }
+		blockquote {font-size: 97%; }
+		.figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;}
+    CENTER { padding: 10px;}
+		PRE    { font-size: 90%; margin-left: 20%;}
+    // -->
+</style>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+<br />
+
+<center>
+PART 13A.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ 
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Next Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+
+
+<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/spines.jpg" height="967" width="652"
+alt="Book Spines 
+">
+</center>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<center>
+<img alt="cover (168K)" src="images/cover.jpg" height="1012" width="728" />
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+<h1>
+    HISTORY OF EGYPT
+</h1>
+<center>
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+</center>
+<center>
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+</center>
+<center><b>
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+</b></center>
+<center>
+<p>
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+</p>
+<p>
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+</p>
+<p>
+Copyright 1906
+</p>
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="936" width="625"
+alt="Frontispiece1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1-text.jpg" height="171" width="520"
+alt="Frontispiece1-text 
+">
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/titlepage1.jpg" height="1198" width="756"
+alt="Titlepage1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/versa1.jpg" height="730" width="511"
+alt="Versa1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+</h2>
+<p>
+It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations
+in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume
+have been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in
+those countries. The greater number of the photographs here published
+were taken by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest
+Leroux, of Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number
+of plates from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent
+discoveries in Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell &amp; Co., of
+London, for kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs
+issued by them.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_PREF"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    PREFACE
+</h2>
+<p>
+The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
+which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt
+and Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the
+publication of Prof. Maspero's <i>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
+l'Orient Classique</i>, and includes short descriptions of the excavations
+from which these results have been obtained. It is in no sense a
+connected and continuous history of these countries, for that has
+already been written by Prof. Maspero, but is rather intended as an
+appendix or addendum to his work, briefly recapitulating and describing
+the discoveries made since its appearance. On this account we
+have followed a geographical rather than a chronological system of
+arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has been made to suggest
+to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of events.
+</p>
+<p>
+At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and
+activity, both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and
+every season's work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends
+our knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were
+unknown to the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added
+to Egyptian history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the
+primitive Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing
+a hitherto totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization.
+Further than this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest
+historical kings of Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from
+material as yet unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties
+of Babylon. Important discoveries have also been made with regard to
+isolated points in the later historical periods. We have therefore
+attempted to include the most important of these in our survey of recent
+excavations and their results. We would again remind the reader that
+Prof. Maspero's great work must be consulted for the complete history of
+the period, the present volume being, not a connected history of Egypt
+and Western Asia, but a description and discussion of the manner in
+which recent discovery and research have added to and modified our
+conceptions of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr><td>
+
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0001">
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_PREF">
+PREFACE
+</a></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0003">
+EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER I&mdash;THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER II&mdash;ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+</a></p>
+
+
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
+
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr><td>
+
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0001">
+Book Spines 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0002">
+Frontispiece1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0003">
+Frontispiece1-text 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0004">
+Titlepage1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0005">
+Versa1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0006">
+007.jpg the Bed of an Ancient Watercourse in The Wadiy�n,
+Thebes. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0007">
+008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.
+From the Desert Plateau and Slopes West of Thebes. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0008">
+009.jpg (right): Palaeolithic Implements. From Man,
+March, 1905. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0009">
+012.jpg Upper Desert Plateau, Where Paleolithic
+Implements Are Found, Thebes: 1,400 Feet Above the Nile. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0010">
+014.jpg Flint Knife 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0011">
+017.jpg (right) Buff Ware Vase, Predynastic Period,
+Before 4000 B.c. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0012">
+027.jpg Camp of the Expedition Of The University Of
+California at Nag' Ed-d�r, 1901. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0013">
+038.jpg Portion of the "Stele Of Vultures" Found At
+Telloh 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0014">
+038-text.jpg 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0015">
+041greek.jpg 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0016">
+050.jpg (left) Obverse of a Slate Relief. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0017">
+051.jpg (right) 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0018">
+052.jpg Obverse of a Slate Relief. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0019">
+053.jpg Reverse of a Slate Relief, Representing Animals. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0020">
+054.jpg  
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0021">
+060.jpg Prof. Petrie's Camp at Abydos, 1901. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0022">
+065.jpg (right) the Tomb of King Den at Abydos. About
+4000 B.c. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0023">
+067.jpg Conical Vase-stoppers. From Abydos. 1st Dynasty:
+About 4000 B.c. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0024">
+082.jpg the Tomb of King Tjeser at B�t Khall�f. About
+3700 B.C. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0025">
+086.jpg False Door of the Tomb Of Teta, About 3600 B.C. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0026">
+089.jpg the Shunet Ez-zebib: The Fortress-town, About
+3900 B.C. 
+</a></p>
+
+
+
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h1>
+    EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+</h1>
+<h3>
+    <i>In the Light of Recent Excavation and Research</i>
+</h3>
+<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER I&mdash;THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+</h2>
+<p>
+During the last ten years our conception of the beginnings of Egyptian
+antiquity has profoundly altered. When Prof. Maspero published the
+first volume of his great <i>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples des l'Orient
+Classique</i>, in 1895, Egyptian history, properly so called, still began
+with the Pyramid-builders, Sne-feru, Khufu, and Khafra (Cheops and
+Chephren), and the legendary lists of earlier kings preserved at Abydos
+and Sakkara were still quoted as the only source of knowledge of the
+time before the IVth Dynasty. Of a prehistoric Egypt nothing was known,
+beyond a few flint flakes gathered here and there upon the desert
+plateaus, which might or might not tell of an age when the ancestors
+of the Pyramid-builders knew only the stone tools and weapons of the
+primeval savage.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, however, the veil which has hidden the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization from us has been lifted, and we see things, more or less,
+as they actually were, unobscured by the traditions of a later day.
+Until the last few years nothing of the real beginnings of history in
+either Egypt or Mesopotamia had been found; legend supplied the only
+material for the reconstruction of the earliest history of the oldest
+civilized nations of the globe. Nor was it seriously supposed that any
+relics of prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia ever would be found. The
+antiquity of the known history of these countries already appeared
+so great that nobody took into consideration the possibility of our
+discovering a prehistoric Egypt or Mesopotamia; the idea was too remote
+from practical work. And further, civilization in these countries had
+lasted so long that it seemed more than probable that all traces
+of their prehistoric age had long since been swept away. Yet the
+possibility, which seemed hardly worth a moment's consideration in 1895,
+is in 1905 an assured reality, at least as far as Egypt is concerned.
+Prehistoric Babylonia has yet to be discovered. It is true, for example,
+that at Mukay-yar, the site of ancient Ur of the Chaldees, burials
+in earthenware coffins, in which the skeletons lie in the doubled-up
+position characteristic of Neolithic interments, have been found; but
+there is no doubt whatever that these are burials of a much later date,
+belonging, quite possibly, to the Parthian period. Nothing that may
+rightfully be termed prehistoric has yet been found in the Euphrates
+valley, whereas in Egypt prehistoric antiquities are now almost as well
+known and as well represented in our museums as are the prehistoric
+antiquities of Europe and America.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the exception of a few palasoliths from the surface of the Syrian
+desert, near the Euphrates valley, not a single implement of the Age
+of Stone has yet been found in Southern Mesopotamia, whereas Egypt
+has yielded to us the most perfect examples of the flint-knapper's
+art known, flint tools and weapons more beautiful than the finest that
+Europe and America can show. The reason is not far to seek. Southern
+Mesopotamia is an alluvial country, and the ancient cities, which
+doubtless mark the sites of the oldest settlements in the land, are
+situated in the alluvial marshy plain between the Tigris and the
+Euphrates; so that all traces of the Neolithic culture of the country
+would seem to have disappeared, buried deep beneath city-mounds, clay
+and marsh. It is the same in the Egyptian Delta, a similar country; and
+here no traces of the prehistoric culture of Egypt have been found. The
+attempt to find them was made last year at Buto, which is known to be
+one of the most antique centres of civilization, and probably was one of
+the earliest settlements in Egypt, but without success. The infiltration
+of water had made excavation impossible and had no doubt destroyed
+everything belonging to the most ancient settlement. It is not going too
+far to predict that exactly the same thing will be found by any explorer
+who tries to discover a Neolithic stratum beneath a city-mound of
+Babylonia. There is little hope that prehistoric Chald�a will ever be
+known to us. But in Egypt the conditions are different. The Delta is
+like Babylonia, it is true; but in the Upper Nile valley the river flows
+down with but a thin border of alluvial land on either side, through the
+rocky and hilly desert, the dry Sahara, where rain falls but once in two
+or three years. Antiquities buried in this soil in the most remote
+ages are preserved intact as they were first interred, until the modern
+investigator comes along to look for them. And it is on the desert
+margin of the valley that the remains of prehistoric Egypt have been
+found. That is the reason for their perfect preservation till our own
+day, and why we know prehistoric Egypt so well.
+</p>
+<p>
+The chief work of Egyptian civilization was the proper irrigation of
+the alluvial soil, the turning of marsh into cultivated fields, and the
+reclamation of land from the desert for the purposes of agriculture.
+Owing to the rainless character of the country, the only means
+of obtaining water for the crops is by irrigation, and where the
+fertilizing Nile water cannot be taken by means of canals, there
+cultivation ends and the desert begins. Before Egyptian civilization,
+properly so called, began, the valley was a great marsh through which
+the Nile found its way north to the sea. The half-savage, stone-using
+ancestors of the civilized Egyptians hunted wild fowl, crocodiles,
+and hippopotami in the marshy valley; but except in a few isolated
+settlements on convenient mounds here and there (the forerunners of the
+later villages), they did not live there. Their settlements were on
+the dry desert margin, and it was here, upon low tongues of desert hill
+jutting out into the plain, that they buried their dead. Their simple
+shallow graves were safe from the flood, and, but for the depredations
+of jackals and hyenas, here they have remained intact till our own
+day, and have yielded up to us the facts from which we have derived our
+knowledge of prehistoric Egypt. Thus it is that we know so much of the
+Egyptians of the Stone Age, while of their contemporaries in Mesopotamia
+we know nothing, nor is anything further likely to be discovered.
+</p>
+<p>
+But these desert cemeteries, with their crowds of oval shallow graves,
+covered by only a few inches of surface soil, in which the Neolithic
+Egyptians lie crouched up with their flint implements and polished
+pottery beside them, are but monuments of the later age of prehistoric
+Egypt. Long before the Neolithic Egyptian hunted his game in the
+marshes, and here and there essayed the work of reclamation for the
+purposes of an incipient agriculture, a far older race inhabited the
+valley of the Nile. The written records of Egyptian civilization go back
+four thousand years before Christ, or earlier, and the Neolithic Age of
+Egypt must go back to a period several thousand years before that. But
+we can now go back much further still, to the Palaeolithic Age of Egypt.
+At a time when Europe was still covered by the ice and snows of the
+Glacial Period, and man fought as an equal, hardly yet as a superior,
+with cave-bear and mammoth, the Palaeolithic Egyptians lived on the
+banks of the Nile. Their habitat was doubtless the desert slopes, often,
+too, the plateaus themselves; but that they lived entirely upon the
+plateaus, high up above the Nile marsh, is improbable. There, it is
+true, we find their flint implements, the great pear-shaped weapons of
+the types of Chelles, St. Acheul, and Le Moustier, types well known
+to all who are acquainted with the flint implements of the "Drift" in
+Europe. And it is there that the theory, generally accepted hitherto,
+has placed the habitat of the makers and users of these implements.
+</p>
+<p>
+The idea was that in Palaeolithic days, contemporary with the Glacial
+Age of Northern Europe and America, the climate of Egypt was entirely
+different from that of later times and of to-day. Instead of dry desert,
+the mountain plateaus bordering the Nile valley were supposed to have
+been then covered with forest, through which flowed countless streams
+to feed the river below. It was suggested that remains of these streams
+were to be seen in the side ravines, or wadis, of the Nile valley, which
+run up from the low desert on the river level into the hills on either
+hand. These wadis undoubtedly show extensive traces of strong water
+action; they curve and twist as the streams found their easiest way
+to the level through the softer strata, they are heaped up with great
+water-worn boulders, they are hollowed out where waterfalls once fell.
+They have the appearance of dry watercourses, exactly what any mountain
+burns would be were the water-supply suddenly cut off for ever, the
+climate altered from rainy to eternal sun-glare, and every plant and
+tree blasted, never to grow again. Acting on the supposition that this
+idea was a correct one, most observers have concluded that the climate
+of Egypt in remote periods was very different from the dry, rainless one
+now obtaining. To provide the water for the wadi streams, heavy
+rainfall and forests are desiderated. They were easily supplied, on the
+hypothesis. Forests clothed the mountain plateaus, heavy rains fell, and
+the water rushed down to the Nile, carving out the great watercourses
+which remain to this day, bearing testimony to the truth. And the
+flints, which the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the plateau-forests made
+and used, still lie on the now treeless and sun-baked desert surface.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0006"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/007.jpg" height="614" width="719"
+alt="007.jpg the Bed of an Ancient Watercourse in The Wadiy�n,
+Thebes. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+This is certainly a very weak conclusion. In fact, it seriously damages
+the whole argument, the water-courses to the contrary notwithstanding.
+The pal�oliths are there. They can be picked up by any visitor. There
+they lie, great flints of the Drift types, just like those found in the
+gravel-beds of England and Belgium, on the desert surface where they
+were made. Undoubtedly where they were made, for the places where
+they lie are the actual ancient flint workshops, where the flints were
+chipped. Everywhere around are innumerable flint chips and perfect
+weapons, burnt black and patinated by ages of sunlight. We are taking
+one particular spot in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but
+there are plenty of others, such as the Wadi esh-Sh�kh on the right bank
+of the Nile opposite Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought
+back specimens of flint tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the
+Neolithic periods.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Pal�olithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited of
+late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof. Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen Sturge,
+and Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall. The
+weapons illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton, and are
+now preserved in the British Museum. Among these flints shown we notice
+two fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St. Acheul, with curious
+adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left and right. Below, to
+the right, is a very primitive instrument of Chellean type, being merely
+a sharpened pebble. Above, to left and right, are two specimens of the
+curious half-moon-shaped instruments which are characteristic of
+the Theban flint field and are hardly known elsewhere. All have the
+beautiful brown patina, which only ages of sunburn can give. The
+"poignard" type to the left, at the bottom of the plate, is broken off
+short.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0007"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/008.jpg" height="976" width="718"
+alt="008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.
+From the Desert Plateau and Slopes West of Thebes. 
+">
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<a name="image-0008"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%"
+      src="images/009.jpg" alt="009.jpg (right): Palaeolithic Implements. From Man, March, 1905.">
+</div>
+
+<p>
+In the smaller illustration we see some remarkable types: two scrapers
+or knives with strongly marked "bulb of percussion" (the spot where the
+flint-knapper struck and from which the flakes flew off), a very regular
+<i>coup-de-poing</i> which looks almost like a large arrowhead, and on the
+right a much weathered and patinated scraper which must be of immemorial
+age.
+This came from the top plateau, not from the slopes (or subsidiary
+plateaus at the head of the <i>wadis</i>), as did the great St. Acheulian
+weapons. The circular object is very remarkable: it is the half of the
+ring of a "morpholith "(a round flinty accretion often found in the
+Theban limestone) which has been split, and the split (flat) side
+carefully bevelled. Several of these interesting objects have been
+found in conjunction with Pal�olithic implements at Thebes. No doubt the
+flints lie on the actual surface where they were made. No later water
+action has swept them away and covered them with gravel, no later human
+habitation has hidden them with successive deposits of soil, no gradual
+deposit of dust and rubbish has buried them deep. They lie as they were
+left in the far-away Pal�olithic Age, and they have lain there till
+taken away by the modern explorer.
+</p>
+<p>
+But this is not the case with all the Pal�olithic flints of Thebes. In
+the year 1882 Maj.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers discovered Pal�olithic flints in the
+deposit of diluvial detritus which lies between the cultivation and the
+mountains on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor. Many of these are
+of the same type as those found on the surface of the mountain plateau
+which lies at the head of the great <i>wadi</i> of the Tombs of the Kings,
+while the diluvial deposit is at its mouth. The stuff of which the
+detritus is composed evidently came originally from the high plateau,
+and was washed down, with the flints, in ancient times.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is quite conceivable, but how is it that the flints left behind
+on the plateau remain on the original ancient surface? How is it
+conceivable that if (on the old theory) these plateaus were in
+Pal�olithic days clothed with forest, the Pal�olithic flints could even
+in a single instance remain undisturbed from Pal�olithic times to the
+present day, when the forest in which they were made and the forest soil
+on which they reposed have entirely disappeared? If there were woods and
+forests On the heights, it would seem impossible that we should find,
+as we do, Pal�olithic implements lying in situ on the desert surface,
+around the actual manufactories where they were made. Yet if the
+constant rainfall and the vegetation of the Libyan desert area in
+Pal�olithic days is all a myth (as it most probably is), how came the
+embedded palaeoliths, found by Gen. Pitt-Rivers, in the bed of diluvial
+detritus which is apparently <i>d�bris</i> from the plateau brought down by
+the Pal�olithic <i>wadi</i> streams?
+</p>
+<p>
+Water erosion has certainly formed the Theban <i>wadis</i>. But this water
+erosion was probably not that which would be the result of perennial
+streams flowing down from wooded heights, but of torrents like those
+of to-day, which fill the <i>wadis</i> once in three years or so after heavy
+rain, but repeated at much closer intervals. We may in fact suppose
+just so much difference in meteorological conditions as would make it
+possible for sudden rain-storms to occur over the desert at far more
+frequent intervals than at present. That would account for the detritus
+bed at the mouth of the <i>wadi</i>, and its embedded flints, and at the
+same time maintain the general probability of the idea that the desert
+plateaus were desert in Pal�olithic days as now, and that early man only
+knapped his flints up there because he found the flint there. He himself
+lived on the slopes and nearer the marsh.
+</p>
+<p>
+This new view seems to be much sounder and more probable than the old
+one, maintained by Flinders Petrie and Blanckenhorn, according to which
+the high plateau was the home of man in Pal�olithic times, when the
+rainfall, as shown by the valley erosion and waterfalls, must have
+caused an abundant vegetation on the plateau, where man could live and
+hunt his game. [*Petrie, Nagada and Ballas, p. 49.] Were this so, it
+is patent that the Pal�olithic flints could not have been found on the
+desert surface as they are. Mr. H. J. L. Beadnell, of the Geological
+Survey of Egypt, to whom we are indebted for the promulgation of the
+more modern and probable view, says: "Is it certain that the high
+plateau was then clothed with forests? What evidence is there to show
+that it differed in any important respect from its present aspect? And
+if, as I suggest, desert conditions obtained then as now, and man merely
+worked his flints along the edges of the plateaus overlooking the
+Nile valley, I see no reason why flint implements, dating even from
+Pal�olithic times should not in favourable cases still be found in
+the spots where they were left, surrounded by the flakes struck off in
+manufacture. On the flat plateaus the occasional rains which fall&mdash;once
+in three or four years&mdash;can effect but little transport of material, and
+merely lower the general level by dissolving the underlying limestone,
+so that the plateau surface is left with a coating of nodules and blocks
+of insoluble flint and chert. Flint implements might thus be expected
+to remain in many localities for indefinite periods, but they would
+certainly become more or less 'patinated,' pitted on the surface, and
+rounded at the angles after long exposure to heat, cold, and blown
+sand." This is exactly the case of the Pal�olithic flint tools from the
+desert plateau.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0009"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/012.jpg" height="592" width="709"
+alt="012.jpg Upper Desert Plateau, Where Paleolithic
+Implements Are Found, Thebes: 1,400 Leet Above the Nile. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+We do not know whether Pal�olithic man in Egypt was contemporary with
+the cave-man of Europe. We have no means of gauging the age of the
+Pal�olithic Egyptian weapons, as we have for the Neolithic period.
+The historical (dynastic) period of Egyptian annals began with the
+unification of the kingdom under one head somewhere about 4500 B.C. At
+that time copper as well as stone weapons were used, so that we may say
+that at the beginning of the historical age the Egyptians were living
+in the "Chalcolithic" period. We can trace the use of copper back for
+a considerable period anterior to the beginning of the Ist Dynasty,
+so that we shall probably not be far wrong if we do not bring down the
+close of the purely Neolithic Age in Egypt&mdash;the close of the Age of
+Stone, properly so called&mdash;later than +5000 B.C. How far back in the
+remote ages the transition period between the Pal�olithic and Neolithic
+Ages should be placed, it is utterly impossible to say. The use of stone
+for weapons and implements continued in Egypt as late as the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty, about 2500-2000 B.C. But these XIIth Dynasty stone
+implements show by their forms how late they are in the history of the
+Stone Age. The axe heads, for instance, are in form imitations of
+the copper and bronze axe heads usual at that period; they are stone
+imitations of metal, instead of the originals on whose model the metal
+weapons were formed. The flint implements of the XIIth Dynasty were
+a curious survival from long past ages. After the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty stone was no longer used for tools or weapons, except for the
+sacred rite of making the first incision in the dead bodies before
+beginning the operations of embalming; for this purpose, as Herodotus
+tells us, an "Ethiopian stone" was used. This was no doubt a knife of
+flint or chert, like those of the Neolithic ancestors of the Egyptians,
+and the continued use of a stone knife for this one purpose only is a
+very interesting instance of a ceremonial survival. We may compare the
+wigs of British judges.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0010"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/014.jpg" height="1140" width="647"
+alt="014.jpg Flint Knife 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+We have no specimen of a flint knife which can definitely be asserted to
+have belonged to an embalmer, but of the archaistic flint weapons of the
+XIIth Dynasty we have several specimens. They were found by Prof. Petrie
+at the place named by him "Kahun," the site of a XIIth Dynasty town
+built near the pyramid of King Usertsen (or Senusret) II at Illahun,
+at the mouth of the canal leading from the Nile valley into the
+oasis-province of the Payyum. These Kahun flints, and others of probably
+the same period found by Mr. Seton-Karr at the very ancient flint
+works in the Wadi esh-Sh�kh, are of very coarse and poor workmanship
+as compared with the stone-knapping triumphs of the late Neolithic and
+early Chalcolithic periods. The delicacy of the art had all been lost.
+But the best flint knives of the early period&mdash;dating to just a little
+before the time of the Ist Dynasty, when flint-working had attained its
+apogee, and copper had just begun to be used&mdash;are undoubtedly the most
+remarkable stone weapons ever made in the world. The grace and utility
+of the form, the delicacy of the fluted chipping on the side, and
+the minute care with which the tiny serrations of the cutting edge,
+serrations so small that often they can hardly be seen with the naked
+eye, are made, can certainly not be parallelled elsewhere. The art
+of flint-knapping reached its zenith in Ancient Egypt. The specimen
+illustrated has a handle covered with gold decorated with incised
+designs representing animals.
+</p>
+<p>
+The prehistoric Egyptians may also fairly be said to have attained
+greater perfection than other peoples in the Neolithic stage of culture,
+in other arts besides the making of stone tools and weapons. Their
+pottery is of remarkable perfection. Now that the sites of the Egyptian
+prehistoric settlements have been so thoroughly explored by competent
+arch�ologists (and, unhappily, as thoroughly pillaged by incompetent
+natives), this prehistoric Egyptian pottery has become extremely well
+known. In fact, it is so common that good specimens may be bought
+anywhere in Egypt for a few piastres. Most museums possess sets of this
+pottery, of which great quantities have been brought back from Egypt
+by Prof. Petrie and other explorers. It is of very great interest,
+artistically as well as historically. The potter's wheel was not yet
+invented, and all the vases, even those of the most perfect shape, were
+built up by hand. The perfection of form attained without the aid of the
+wheel is truly marvellous.
+</p>
+<p>
+The commonest type of this pottery is a red polished ware vase with
+black top, due to its having been baked mouth downward in a fire, the
+ashes of which, according to Prof. Petrie, deoxidized the h�matite
+burnishing, and so turned the red colour to black. "In good examples
+the h�matite has not only been reduced to black magnetic oxide, but
+the black has the highest polish, as seen on fine Greek vases. This is
+probably due to the formation of carbonyl gas in the smothered fire.
+This gas acts as a solvent of magnetic oxide, and hence allows it to
+assume a new surface, like the glassy surface of some marbles subjected
+to solution in water." This black and red ware appears to be the most
+ancient prehistoric Egyptian pottery known. Later in date are a red
+ware and a black ware with rude geometrical incised designs, imitating
+basketwork, and with the incised lines filled in with white. Later again
+is a buff ware, either plain or decorated with wavy lines, concentric
+circles, and elaborate drawings of boats sailing on the Nile, ostriches,
+fish, men and women, and so on.
+</p>
+
+
+<a name="image-0011"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+ 
+
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+        <img width="100%"
+        src="images/017.jpg" alt="017.jpg (right) Buff Ware Vase, Predynastic Period, Before 4000 B.C.">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<p>
+These designs are in deep red. With this elaborate pottery the Neolithic
+ceramic art of Egypt reached its highest point; in the succeeding period
+(the beginning of the historic age) there was a decline in workmanship,
+exhibiting clumsy forms and bad colour, and it is not until the time of
+the IVth Dynasty that good pottery (a fine polished red) is once more
+found. Meanwhile the invention of glazed pottery, which was unknown to
+the prehistoric Egyptians, had been made (before the beginning of the
+Ist Dynasty). The unglazed ware of the first three dynasties was bad,
+but the new invention of light blue glazed faience (not porcelain
+properly so called) seems to have made great progress, and we possess
+fine specimens at the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The prehistoric
+Egyptians were also proficient in other arts. They carved ivory and they
+worked gold, which is known to have been almost the first metal worked
+by man; certainly in Egypt it was utilized for ornament even before
+copper was used for work. We may refer to the illustration of a flint
+knife with gold handle, already given. [* See illustration.]
+</p>
+<p>
+The date of the actual introduction of copper for tools and weapons into
+Egypt is uncertain, but it seems probable that copper was occasionally
+used at a very early period. Copper weapons have been found in
+pre-dynastic graves beside the finest buff pottery with elaborate red
+designs, so that we may say that when the flint-working and pottery of
+the Neolithic Egyptians had reached its zenith, the use of copper was
+already known, and copper weapons were occasionally employed. We can
+thus speak of the "Chalcolithic" period in Egypt as having already begun
+at that time, no doubt several centuries before the beginning of the
+historical or dynastic age. Strictly speaking, the Egyptians remained
+in the "Chalcolithic" period till the end of the XIIth Dynasty, but in
+practice it is best to speak of this period, when the word is used, as
+extending from the time of the finest flint weapons and pottery of the
+prehistoric age (when the "Neolithic" period may be said to close) till
+about the IId or IIId Dynasty. By that time the "Bronze," or, rather,
+"Copper," Age of Egypt had well begun, and already stone was not in
+common use.
+</p>
+<p>
+The prehistoric pottery is of the greatest value to the arch�ologist,
+for with its help some idea may be obtained of the succession of periods
+within the late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Age. The enormous number of
+prehistoric graves which have been examined enables us to make an
+exhaustive comparison of the different kinds of pottery found in
+them, so that we can arrange them in order according to pottery they
+contained. By this means we obtain an idea of the development of
+different types of pottery, and the sequence of the types. Thus it is
+that we can say with some degree of confidence that the black and red
+ware is the most ancient form, and that the buff with red designs is one
+of the latest forms of prehistoric pottery. Other objects found in the
+graves can be classified as they occur with different pottery types.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the help of the pottery we can thus gain a more or less reliable
+conspectus of the development of the late "Neolithic" culture of Egypt.
+This system of "sequence-dating" was introduced by Prof. Petrie, and is
+certainly very useful. It must not, however, be pressed too far or be
+regarded as an iron-bound system, with which all subsequent discoveries
+must be made to fit in by force. It is not to be supposed that all
+prehistoric pottery developed its series of types in an absolutely
+orderly manner without deviations or throws-back. The work of man's
+hands is variable and eccentric, and does not develop or evolve in an
+undeviating course as the work of nature does. It is a mistake, very
+often made by anthropologists and arch�ologists, who forget this
+elementary fact, to assume "curves of development," and so forth, or
+semi-savage culture, on absolutely even and regular lines. Human culture
+has not developed either evenly or regularly, as a matter of fact.
+Therefore we cannot always be sure that, because the Egyptian black and
+red pottery does not occur in graves with buff and red, it is for
+this reason absolutely earlier in date than the latter. Some of the
+development-sequences may in reality be contemporary with others instead
+of earlier, and allowance must always be made for aberrations and
+reversions to earlier types.
+</p>
+<p>
+This caveat having been entered, however, we may provisionally
+accept Prof. Petrie's system of sequence-dating as giving the best
+classification of the prehistoric antiquities according to development.
+So it may fairly be said that, as far as we know, the black and red
+pottery ("sequence-date 30&mdash;") is the most ancient Neolithic Egyptian
+ware known; that the buff and red did not begin to be used till about
+"sequence-date 45;" that bone and ivory carvings were commonest in the
+earlier period ("sequence-dates 30-50"); that copper was almost unknown
+till "sequence-date 50," and so on. The arbitrary numbers used range
+from 30 to 80, in order to allow for possible earlier and later
+additions, which may be rendered necessary by the progress of discovery.
+The numbers are of course as purely arbitrary and relative as those
+of the different thermometrical systems, but they afford a convenient
+system of arrangement. The products of the prehistoric Egyptians are, so
+to speak, distributed on a conventional plan over a scale numbered from
+30 to 80, 30 representing the beginning and 80 the close of the term,
+so far as its close has as yet been ascertained. It is probable that
+"sequence-date 80" more or less accurately marks the beginning of the
+dynastic or historical period.
+</p>
+<p>
+This hypothetically chronological classification is, as has been said,
+due to Prof. Petrie, and has been adopted by Mr. Randall-Maclver and
+other students of prehistoric Egypt in their work. [*<i>El Amra and
+Abydos</i>, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902.] To Prof. Petrie then is due the
+credit of systematizing the study of Egyptian prehistoric antiquities;
+but the further credit of having <i>discovered</i> these antiquities
+themselves and settled their date belongs not to him but to the
+distinguished French arch�ologist, M. J. de Morgan, who was for several
+years director of the museum at Giza, and is now chief of the French
+arch�ological delegation in Persia, which has made of late years so many
+important discoveries. The proof of the prehistoric date of this class
+of antiquities was given, not by Prof. Petrie after his excavations at
+Dendera in 1897-8, but by M. de Morgan in his volume, <i>Recherches sur
+les Origines de l'�gypte: l'�ge de la Pierre et les M�taux</i>, published
+in 1895-6. In this book the true chronological position of the
+prehistoric antiquities was pointed out, and the existence of an
+Egyptian Stone Age finally decided. M. de Morgan's work was based on
+careful study of the results of excavations carried on for several years
+by the Egyptian government in various parts of Egypt, in the course
+of which a large number of cemeteries of the primitive type had been
+discovered. It was soon evident to M. de Morgan that these primitive
+graves, with their unusual pottery and flint implements, could be
+nothing less than the tombs of the prehistoric Egyptians, the Egyptians
+of the Stone Age.
+</p>
+<p>
+Objects of the prehistoric period had been known to the museums for many
+years previously, but owing to the uncertainty of their provenance and
+the absence of knowledge of the existence of the primitive cemeteries,
+no scientific conclusions had been arrived at with regard to them; and
+it was not till the publication of M. de Morgan's book that they were
+recognized and classified as prehistoric. The necropoles investigated
+by M. de Morgan and his assistants extended from Kaw�mil in the north,
+about twenty miles north of Abydos, to Edfu in the south. The chief
+cemeteries between these two points were those of B�t Allam, Saghel
+el-Baglieh, el-'Amra, Nak�da, T�kh, and Gebel�n. All the burials were
+of simple type, analogous to those of the Neolithic races in the rest
+of the world. In a shallow, oval grave, excavated often but a few inches
+below the surface of the soil, lay the body, cramped up with the knees
+to the chin, sometimes in a rough box of pottery, more often with only
+a mat to cover it. Ready to the hand of the dead man were his flint
+weapons and tools, and the usual red and black, or buff and red, pots
+lay beside him; originally, no doubt, they had been filled with the
+funeral meats, to sustain the ghost in the next world. Occasionally a
+simple copper weapon was found. With the body were also buried slate
+palettes for grinding the green eye-paint which the Egyptians loved even
+at this early period. These are often carved to suggest the forms of
+animals, such as birds, bats, tortoises, goats, etc.; on others are
+fantastic creatures with two heads. Combs of bone, too, are found,
+ornamented in a similar way with birds' or goats' heads, often double.
+And most interesting of all are the small bone and ivory figures of men
+and women which are also found. These usually have little blue beads for
+eyes, and are of the quaintest and naivest appearance conceivable. Here
+we have an elderly man with a long pointed beard, there two women with
+inane smiles upon their countenances, here another woman, of better work
+this time, with a child slung across her shoulder. This figure, which
+is in the British Museum, must be very late, as prehistoric Egyptian
+antiquities go. It is almost as good in style as the early Ist Dynasty
+objects. Such were the objects which the simple piety of the early
+Egyptian prompted him to bury with the bodies of his dead, in order that
+they might find solace and contentment in the other world.
+</p>
+<p>
+All the prehistoric cemeteries are of this type, with the graves pressed
+closely together, so that they often impinge upon one another. The
+nearness of the graves to the surface is due to the exposed positions,
+at the entrances to <i>wadis</i>, in which the primitive cemeteries are
+usually found. The result is that they are always swept by the winds,
+which prevent the desert sand from accumulating over them, and so have
+preserved the original level of the ground. From their proximity to
+the surface they are often found disturbed, more often by the agency of
+jackals than that of man.
+</p>
+<p>
+Contemporaneously with M. de Morgan's explorations, Prof. Flinders
+Petrie and Mr. J. Quibell had, in the winter of 1894-5, excavated in
+the districts of Tukh and Nakada, on the west bank of the Nile opposite
+Koptos, a series of extensive cemeteries of the primitive type, from
+which they obtained a large number of antiquities, published in their
+volume Nagada and Dallas. The plates giving representations of the
+antiquities found were of the highest interest, but the scientific value
+of the letter-press is vitiated by the fact that the true historical
+position of the antiquities was not perceived by their discoverers, who
+came to the conclusion that these remains were those of a "New Pace" of
+Libyan invaders. This race, they supposed, had entered Egypt after the
+close of the flourishing period of the "Old Kingdom" at the end of the
+VIth Dynasty, and had occupied part of the Nile valley from that time
+till the period of the Xth Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+This conclusion was proved erroneous by M. de Morgan almost as soon
+as made, and the French arch�ologist's identification of the primitive
+remains as pre-dynastic was at once generally accepted. It was obvious
+that a hypothesis of the settlement of a stone-using barbaric race in
+the midst of Egypt at so late a date as the period immediately preceding
+the XIIth Dynasty, a race which mixed in no way with the native
+Egyptians themselves, and left no trace of their influence upon the
+later Egyptians, was one which demanded greater faith than the simple
+explanation of M. de Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>
+The error of the British explorers was at once admitted by Mr. Quibell,
+in his volume on the excavations of 1897 at el-Kab, published in 1898.*
+Mr. Quibell at once found full and adequate confirmation of M. de
+Morgan's discovery in his diggings at el-Kab. Prof. Petrie admitted
+the correctness of M. de Morgan's views in the preface to his volume
+Diospolis Parva, published three years later in 1901.** The preface to
+the first volume of M. de Morgan's book contained a generous recognition
+of the method and general accuracy of Prof. Petrie's excavations, which
+contrasted favourably, according to M. de Morgan, with the excavations
+of others, generally carried on without scientific control, and with
+the sole aim of obtaining antiquities or literary texts.*** That M. de
+Morgan's own work was carried out as scientifically and as carefully
+is evident from the fact that his conclusions as to the chronological
+position of the prehistoric antiquities have been shown to be correct.
+To describe M. de Morgan's discovery as a "happy guess," as has been
+done, is therefore beside the mark.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * El-Kab. Egyptian Research Account, 1897, p. 11.
+
+     ** Diospolis Parva. Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901, p. 2.
+
+     *** Recherches: Age de la Pierre, p. xiii.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Another most important British excavation was that carried on by
+Messrs. Randall-Maclver and Wilkin at el-'Amra. The imposing lion-headed
+promontory of el-'Amra stands out into the plain on the west bank of the
+Nile about five miles south of Abydos. At the foot of this hill M. de
+Morgan found a very extensive prehistoric necropolis, which he examined,
+but did not excavate to any great extent, and the work of thoroughly
+excavating it was performed by Messrs. Randall-MacIver and Wilkin for
+the Egypt Exploration Fund. The results have thrown very great light
+upon the prehistoric culture of Egypt, and burials of all prehistoric
+types, some of them previously unobserved, were found. Among the most
+interesting are burials in pots, which have also been found by Mr.
+Garstang in a predynastic necropolis at Ragagna, north of Abydos. One
+of the more remarkable observations made at el-'Amra was the progressive
+development of the tombs from the simplest pot-burial to a small brick
+chamber, the embryo of the brick tombs of the Ist Dynasty. Among the
+objects recovered from this site may be mentioned a pottery model of
+oxen, a box in the shape of a model hut, and a slate "palette" with what
+is perhaps the oldest Egyptian hieroglyph known, a representation of the
+fetish-sign of the god Min, in relief. All these are preserved in the
+British Museum. The skulls of the bodies found were carefully preserved
+for craniometric examination.
+</p>
+<p>
+In 1901 an extensive prehistoric cemetery was being excavated by Messrs.
+Reisner and Lythgoe at Nag'ed-D�r, opposite Girga, and at el-Ahaiwa,
+further north, another prehistoric necropolis has been excavated by
+these gentlemen, working for the University of California.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0012"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/027.jpg" height="534" width="716"
+alt="027.jpg Camp of the Expedition Of The University Of
+California at Nag' Ed-d�r, 1901. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The cemetery of Nag'ed-D�r is of the usual prehistoric type, with its
+multitudes of small oval graves, excavated just a little way below the
+surface. Graves of this kind are the most primitive of all. Those at
+el-'Amra are usually more developed, often, as has been noted, rising to
+the height of regular brick tombs. They are evidently later, nearer to
+the time of the Ist Dynasty. The position of the Nag'ed-D�r cemetery is
+also characteristic. It lies on the usual low ridge at the entrance to a
+desert <i>wadi</i>, which is itself one of the most picturesque in this
+part of Egypt, with its chaos of great boulders and fallen rocks. An
+illustration of the camp of Mr. Reisner's expedition at Nag'ed-D�r is
+given above. The excavations of the University of California are carried
+out with the greatest possible care and are financed with the greatest
+possible liberality. Mr. Reisner has therefore been able to keep an
+absolutely complete photographic record of everything, even down to
+the successive stages in the opening of a tomb, which will be of the
+greatest use to science when published.
+</p>
+<p>
+For a detailed study of the antiquities of the prehistoric period the
+publications of Prof. Petrie, Mr. Quibell, and Mr. Randall-Maclver are
+more useful than that of M. de Morgan, who does not give enough details.
+Every atom of evidence is given in the publications of the British
+explorers, whereas it is a characteristic of French work to give
+brilliant conclusions, beautifully illustrated, without much of the
+evidence on which the conclusions are based. This kind of work does not
+appeal to the Anglo-Saxon mind, which takes nothing on trust, even
+from the most renowned experts, and always wants to know the why and
+wherefore. The complete publication of evidence which marks the British
+work will no doubt be met with, if possible in even more complete
+detail, in the American work of Messrs. Reisner, Lythgoe, and Mace (the
+last-named is an Englishman) for the University of California, when
+published. The question of speedy versus delayed publication is a very
+vexing one. Prof. Petrie prefers to publish as speedily as possible; six
+months after the season's work in Egypt is done, the full publication
+with photographs of everything appears. Mr. Reisner and the French
+explorers prefer to publish nothing until they have exhaustively studied
+the whole of the evidence, and can extract nothing more from it. This
+would be admirable if the French published their discoveries fully, but
+they do not. Even M. de Morgan has not approached the fulness of
+detail which characterizes British work and which will characterize Mr.
+Reisner's publication when it appears. The only drawback to this method
+is that general interest in the particular excavations described tends
+to pass away before the full description appears.
+</p>
+<p>
+Prof. Petrie has explored other prehistoric sites at Abadiya, and Mr.
+Quibell at el-Kab. M. de Morgan and his assistants have examined a large
+number of sites, ranging from the Delta to el-Kab. Further research has
+shown that some of the sites identified by M. de Morgan as prehistoric
+are in reality of much later date, for example, Kahun, where the late
+flints of XIIth Dynasty date were found. He notes that "large numbers
+of Neolithic flint weapons are found in the desert on the borders of
+the Fayyum, and at Helwan, south of Cairo," and that all the important
+necropoles and kitchen-middens of the predynastic people are to be found
+in the districts of Abydos and Thebes, from el-Kawamil in the North to
+el-Kab in the South. It is of course too soon to assert with confidence
+that there are no prehistoric remains in any other part of Egypt,
+especially in the long tract between the Fayy�m and the district of
+Abydos, but up to the present time none have been found in this region.
+</p>
+<p>
+This geographical distribution of the prehistoric remains fits in
+curiously with the ancient legend concerning the origin of the ancestors
+of the Egyptians in Upper Egypt, and supports the much discussed theory
+that they came originally to the Nile valley from the shores of the Red
+Sea by way of the Wadi Hammamat, which debouches on to the Nile in the
+vicinity of Koptos and Kus, opposite Ballas and T�kh. The supposition
+seems a very probable one, and it may well be that the earliest
+Egyptians entered the valley of the Nile by the route suggested and
+then spread northwards and southwards in the valley. The fact that their
+remains are not found north of el-Kaw�mil nor south of el-Kab might
+perhaps be explained by the supposition that, when they had extended
+thus far north and south from their original place of arrival, they
+passed from the primitive Neolithic condition to the more highly
+developed copper-using culture of the period which immediately preceded
+the establishment of the monarchy. The Neolithic weapons of the Fayy�m
+and Hel-w�n would then be the remains of a different people, which
+inhabited the Delta and Middle Egypt in very early times. This people
+may have been of Mediterranean stock, akin to the primitive inhabitants
+of Palestine, Greece, Italy, and Spain; and they no doubt were identical
+with the inhabitants of Lower Egypt who were overthrown and conquered by
+Kha-sekhem and the other Southern founders of the monarchy (who belonged
+to the race which had come from the Red Sea by the Wadi Hammamat), and
+so were the ancestors of the later natives of Lower Egypt. Whether the
+Southerners, whose primitive remains we find from el-Kaw�mil to el-Kab,
+were of the same race as the Northerners whom they conquered, cannot
+be decided. The skull-form of the Southerners agrees with that of the
+Mediterranean races. But we have no n�cropoles of the Northerners to
+tell us much of their peculiarities. We have nothing but their flint
+arrowheads.
+</p>
+<p>
+But it should be observed that, in spite of the present absence of all
+primitive remains (whether mere flints, or actual graves with bodies and
+relics) of the primeval population between the Fayy�m and el-Kaw�mil,
+there is no proof that the primitive race of Upper Egypt was not
+coterminous and identical with that of the lower country. It
+might therefore be urged that the whole Neolithic population was
+"Mediterranean" by its skull-form and body-structure, and specifically
+"Nilotic" (indigenous Egyptian) in its culture-type. This is quite
+possible, but we have again to account for the legends of distant origin
+on the Red Sea coast, the probability that one element of the Egyptian
+population was of extraneous origin and came from the east into the Nile
+valley near Koptos, and finally the historical fact of an advance of the
+early dynastic Egyptians from the South to the conquest of the North.
+The latter fact might of course be explained as a civil war analogous
+to that between Thebes and Asy�t in the time of the IXth Dynasty, but
+against this explanation is to be set the fact that the contemporary
+monuments of the Southerners exhibit the men of the North as of foreign
+and non-Egyptian ethnic type, resembling Libyans. It is possible that
+they were akin to the Libyans; and this would square very well with the
+first theory, but it may also be made to fit in with a development of
+the second, which has been generally accepted.
+</p>
+<p>
+According to this view, the whole primitive Neolithic population of
+North and South was Miotic, indigenous in origin, and akin to the
+"Mediterraneans "of Prof. Sergi and the other ethnologists. It was not
+this population, the stone-users whose n�cropoles have been found by
+Messrs. de Morgan, P�trie, and Maclver, that entered the Nile valley by
+the Wadi Hammamat. This was another race of different ethnic origin,
+which came from the Red Sea toward the end of the Neolithic period,
+and, being of higher civilization than the native Nilotes, assumed the
+lordship over them, gave a great impetus to the development of their
+culture, and started at once the institution of monarchy, the knowledge
+of letters, and the use of metals. The chiefs of this superior tribe
+founded the monarchy, conquered the North, unified the kingdom, and
+began Egyptian history. From many indications it would seem probable
+that these conquerors were of Babylonian origin, or that the culture
+they brought with them (possibly from Arabia) was ultimately of
+Babylonian origin. They themselves would seem to have been Semites,
+or rather proto-Semites, who came from Arabia to Africa by way of
+the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and proceeded up the coast to about the
+neighbourhood of Kus�r, whence the Wadi Hammamat offered them an open
+road to the valley of the Nile. By this route they may have entered
+Egypt, bringing with them a civilization, which, like that of the other
+Semites, had been profoundly influenced and modified by that of the
+Sumerian inhabitants of Babylonia. This Semitic-Sumerian culture,
+mingling with that of the Nilotes themselves, produced the civilization
+of Ancient Egypt as we know it.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is a very plausible hypothesis, and has a great deal of evidence in
+its favour. It seems certain that in the early dynastic period two
+races lived in Egypt, which differed considerably in type, and also,
+apparently, in burial customs. The later Egyptians always buried the
+dead lying on their backs, extended at full length. During the period of
+the Middle Kingdom (XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) the head was usually turned
+over on to the left side, in order that the dead man might look through
+the two great eyes painted on that side of the coffin. Afterward the
+rigidly extended position was always adopted. The Neolithic Egyptians,
+however, buried the dead lying wholly on the left side and in a
+contracted position, with the knees drawn up to the chin. The bodies
+were not embalmed, and the extended position and mummification were
+never used. Under the IVth Dynasty we find in the necropolis of M�d�m
+(north of the Payy�m) the two positions used simultaneously, and the
+extended bodies are mummified. The contracted bodies are skeletons, as
+in the case of most of the predynastic bodies. When these are found with
+flesh, skin, and hair intact, their preservation is due to the dryness
+of the soil and the preservative salts it contains, not to intentional
+embalming, which was evidently introduced by those who employed the
+extended position in burial. The contracted position is found as late as
+the Vth Dynasty at Dashasha, south of the Eayy�m, but after that date it
+is no longer found.
+</p>
+<p>
+The conclusion is obvious that the contracted position without
+mummification, which the Neolithic people used, was supplanted in the
+early dynastic period by the extended position with mummification, and
+by the time of the VIth Dynasty it was entirely superseded. This points
+to the supersession of the burial customs of the indigenous Neolithic
+race by those of another race which conquered and dominated the
+indigenes. And, since the extended burials of the IVth Dynasty are
+evidently those of the higher nobles, while the contracted ones are
+those of inferior people, it is probable that the customs of extended
+burial and embalming were introduced by a foreign race which founded the
+Egyptian monarchical state, with its hierarchy of nobles and officials,
+and in fact started Egyptian civilization on its way. The conquerors of
+the North were thus not the descendants of the Neolithic people of the
+South, but their conquerors; in fact, they dominated the indigenes both
+of North and South, who will then appear (since we find the custom of
+contracted burial in the North at Dashasha and M�d�m) to have originally
+belonged to the same race.
+</p>
+<p>
+The conquering race is that which is supposed to have been of Semitic or
+proto-Semitic origin, and to have brought elements of Sumerian culture
+to savage Egypt. The reasons advanced for this supposition are the
+following:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+(1) Just as the Egyptian race was evidently compounded of two elements,
+of conquered "Mediterraneans" and conquering x, so the Egyptian language
+is evidently compounded of two elements, the one Nilotic, perhaps
+related in some degree to the Berber dialects of North Africa, the other
+not x, but evidently Semitic.
+</p>
+<p>
+(2) Certain elements of the early dynastic civilization, which do not
+appear in that of the earlier pre-dynastic period, resemble well-known
+elements of the civilization of Babylonia. We may instance the use of
+the cylinder-seal, which died out in Egypt in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty, but was always used in Babylonia from the earliest to the
+latest times. The early Egyptian mace-head is of exactly the same
+type as the early Babylonian one. In the British Museum is an Egyptian
+mace-head of red breccia, which is identical in shape and size with
+one from Babylonia (also in the museum) bearing the name of
+Shargani-shar-ali (i.e. Sargon, King of Agade), one of the earliest
+Chald�an monarchs, who must have lived about the same time as the
+Egyptian kings of the IId-IIId Dynasties, to which period the Egyptian
+mace-head may also be approximately assigned. The Egyptian art of the
+earliest dynasties bears again a remarkable resemblance to that of early
+Babylonia. It is not till the time of the IId Dynasty that Egyptian art
+begins to take upon itself the regular form which we know so well, and
+not till that of the IVth that this form was finally crystallized. Under
+the 1st Dynasty we find the figure of man or, to take other instances,
+that of a lion, or a hawk, or a snake, often treated in a style very
+different from that in which we are accustomed to see a man, a lion, a
+hawk, or a snake depicted in works of the later period. And the striking
+thing is that these early representations, which differ so much from
+what we find in later Egyptian art, curiously resemble the works of
+early Babylonian art, of the time of the patesis of Shirpurla or the
+Kings Shargani-shar-ali and Nar�m-Sin. One of the best known relics
+of the early art of Babylonia is the famous "Stele of Vultures" now in
+Paris. On this we see the enemies of Eannadu, one of the early rulers
+of Shirpurla, cast out to be devoured by the vultures. On an Egyptian
+relief of slate, evidently originally dedicated in a temple record of
+some historical event, and dating from the beginning of the Ist Dynasty
+(practically contemporary, according to our latest knowledge, with
+Eannadu), we have an almost exactly similar scene of captives being cast
+out into the desert, and devoured by lions and vultures. The two reliefs
+are curiously alike in their clumsy, na�ve style of art. A further
+point is that the official represented on the stele, who appears to be
+thrusting one of the bound captives out to die, wears a long fringed
+garment of Babylonish cut, quite different from the clothes of the later
+Egyptians.
+</p>
+<p>
+(3) There are evidently two distinct and different main strata in the
+fabric of Egyptian religion. On the one hand we find a mass of myth and
+religious belief of very primitive, almost savage, cast, combining
+a worship of the actual dead in their tombs&mdash;which were supposed
+to communicate and thus form a veritable "underworld," or, rather,
+"under-Egypt"&mdash;with veneration of magic animals, such as jackals, cats,
+hawks, and crocodiles. On the other hand, we have a sun and sky worship
+of a more elevated nature, which does not seem to have amalgamated with
+the earlier fetishism and corpse-worship until a comparatively late
+period. The main seats of the sun-worship were at Heliopolis in the
+Delta and at Edfu in Upper Egypt. Heliopolis seems always to have been
+a centre of light and leading in Egypt, and it is, as is well known,
+the On of the Bible, at whose university the Jewish lawgiver Moses is
+related to have been educated "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." The
+philosophical theories of the priests of the Sun-gods, R�-Harmachis and
+Turn, at Heliopolis seem to have been the source from which sprang the
+monotheistic heresy of the Disk-Worshippers (in the time of the XVIIIth
+Dynasty), who, under the guidance of the reforming King Akhunaten,
+worshipped only the disk of the sun as the source of all life, the door
+in heaven, so to speak, through which the hidden One Deity poured
+forth heat and light, the origin of life upon the earth. Very early
+in Egyptian history the Heliopolitans gained the upper hand, and the
+R�-worship (under the Vth Dynasty, the apogee of the Old Kingdom) came
+to the front, and for the first time the kings took the afterwards
+time-honoured royal title of "Son of the Sun." It appears then as a
+more or less foreign importation into the Nile valley, and bears most
+undoubtedly a Semitic impress. Its two chief seats were situated, the
+one, Heliopolis, in the North on the eastern edge of the Delta,&mdash;just
+where an early Semitic settlement from over the desert might be expected
+to be found,&mdash;the other, Edfu, in the Upper Egyptian territory south
+of the Theba�d, Koptos, and the Wadi Ham-mamat, and close to the chief
+settlement of the earliest kings and the most ancient capital of Upper
+Egypt.
+</p>
+<p>
+(4) The custom of burying at full length was evidently introduced into
+Egypt by the second, or x race. The Neolithic Egyptians buried in the
+cramped position. The early Babylonians buried at full length, as far
+as we know. On the same "Stele of Vultures," which has already been
+mentioned, we see the burying at full length of dead warriors. [* See
+illustration.] There is no trace of any <i>early</i> burial in Babylonia in
+the cramped position. The tombs at Warka (Erech) with cramped bodies
+in pottery coffins are of very late date. A further point arises with
+regard to embalming. The Neolithic Egyptians did not embalm the dead.
+Usually their cramped bodies are found as skeletons. When they are
+mummified, it is merely owing to the preservative action of the salt
+in the soil, not to any process of embalming. The second, or x race,
+however, evidently introduced the custom of embalming as well as that
+of burial at full length and the use of coffins. The Neolithic Egyptian
+used no box or coffin, the nearest approach to this being a pot, which
+was inverted over the coiled up body. Usually only a mat was put over
+the body.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0013"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/038.jpg" height="944" width="698"
+alt="038.jpg Portion of the 'stele Of Vultures' Found At
+Telloh 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0014"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/038-text.jpg" height="130" width="516"
+alt="038-text.jpg 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Now it is evident that Babylonians and Assyrians, who buried the dead at
+full length in chests, had some knowledge of embalming. An Assyrian king
+tells us how he buried his royal father:&mdash;
+</p>
+<pre>
+     "Within the grave, the secret place,
+     In kingly oil, I gently laid him.
+     The grave-stone marketh his resting-place.
+     With mighty bronze I sealed its entrance,
+     And I protected it with an incantation."
+</pre>
+<p>
+The "kingly oil" was evidently used with the idea of preserving the body
+from decay. Salt also was used to preserve the dead, and Herodotus
+says that the Babylonians buried in honey, which was also used by the
+Egyptians. No doubt the Babylonian method was less perfect than the
+Egyptian, but the comparison is an interesting one, when taken in
+connection with the other points of resemblance mentioned above.
+</p>
+<p>
+We find, then, that an analysis of the Egyptian language reveals a
+Semitic element in it; that the early dynastic culture had certain
+characteristics which were unknown to the Neolithic Egyptians but are
+closely parallelled in early Babylonia; that there were two elements in
+the Egyptian religion, one of which seems to have originally belonged to
+the Neolithic people, while the other has a Semitic appearance; and that
+there were two sets of burial customs in early Egypt, one, that of the
+Neolithic people, the other evidently that of a conquering race, which
+eventually prevailed over the former; these later rites were analogous
+to those of the Babylonians and Assyrians, though differing from them
+in points of detail. The conclusion is that the x or conquering race
+was Semitic and brought to Egypt the Semitic elements in the Egyptian
+religion and a culture originally derived from that of the Sumerian
+inhabitants of Babylonia, the non-Semitic parent of all Semitic
+civilizations.
+</p>
+<p>
+The question now arises, how did this Semitic people reach Egypt? We
+have the choice of two points of entry: First, Heliopolis in the North,
+where the Semitic sun-worship took root, and, second, the Wadi Hamma-mat
+in the South, north of Edfu, the southern centre of sun-worship, and
+Hierakonpolis (Nekheb-Nekhen), the capital of the Upper Egyptian kingdom
+which existed before the foundation of the monarchy. The legends which
+seem to bring the ancestors of the Egyptians from the Red Sea coast have
+already been mentioned. They are closely connected with the worship
+of the Sky and Sun god Horus of Edfu. Hathor, his nurse, the "House of
+Horus," the centre of whose worship was at Dendera, immediately opposite
+the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat, was said to have come from Ta-neter,
+"The Holy Land," i.e. Abyssinia or the Red Sea coast, with the company
+or <i>paut</i> of the gods. Now the Egyptians always seem to have had some
+idea that they were connected racially with the inhabitants of the Land
+of Punt or Puenet, the modern Abyssinia and Somaliland. In the time of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty they depicted the inhabitants of Punt as greatly
+resembling themselves in form, feature, and dress, and as wearing the
+little turned-up beard which was worn by the Egyptians of the earliest
+times, but even as early as the IVth Dynasty was reserved for the
+gods. Further, the word <i>Punt</i> is always written without the hieroglyph
+determinative of a foreign country, thus showing that the Egyptians did
+not regard the Punites as foreigners. This certainly looks as if the
+Punites were a portion of the great migration from Arabia, left behind
+on the African shore when the rest of the wandering people pressed on
+northwards to the Wadi Hammamat and the Nile. It may be that the modern
+Gallas and Abyssinians are descendants of these Punites.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now the Sky-god of Edfu is in legend a conquering hero who advances down
+the Nile valley, with his <i>Mesniu</i>, or "Smiths," to overthrow the people
+of the North, whom he defeats in a great battle near Dendera. This may
+be a reminiscence of the first fights of the invaders with the Neolithic
+inhabitants. The other form of Horus, "Horus, son of Isis," has also a
+body of retainers, the <i>Shemsu-Heru</i>, or "Followers of Horns," who are
+spoken of in late texts as the rulers of Egypt before the monarchy. They
+evidently correspond to the dynasties of <i>Manes</i>,
+
+<a name="image-0015"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<img src="images/041greek.jpg" height="23" width="69"
+alt="041greek.jpg 
+">
+
+<p>
+or "Ghosts," of Manetho, and are probably intended for the early kings
+of Hierakonpolis.
+The mention of the Followers of Horus as "Smiths" is very interesting,
+for it would appear to show that the Semitic conquerors were notable
+as metal-users, that, in fact, their conquest was that old story in the
+dawn of the world's history, the utter overthrow and subjection of the
+stone-users by the metal-users, the primeval tragedy of the supersession
+of flint by copper. This may be, but if the "Smiths" were the Semitic
+conquerors who founded the kingdom, it would appear that the use of
+copper was known in Egypt to some extent before their arrival, for we
+find it in the graves of the late Neolithic Egyptians, very sparsely
+from "sequence-date 30" to "45," but afterwards more commonly. It was
+evidently becoming known. The supposition, however, that the "Smiths"
+were the Semitic conquerors, and that they won their way by the aid of
+their superior weapons of metal, may be provisionally accepted.
+</p>
+<p>
+In favour of the view which would bring the conquerors by way of the
+Wadi Hammamat, an interesting discovery may be quoted. Immediately
+opposite Den-dera, where, according to the legend, the battle between
+the <i>Mesniu</i> and the aborigines took place, lies Koptos, at the mouth of
+the Wadi Hammamat. Here, in 1894, underneath the pavement of the ancient
+temple, Prof. Petrie found remains which he then diagnosed as belonging
+to the most ancient epoch of Egyptian history. Among them were some
+extremely archaic statues of the god Min, on which were curious
+scratched drawings of bears, <i>crioceras-shells</i>, elephants walking over
+hills, etc., of the most primitive description. With them were lions'
+heads and birds of a style then unknown, but which we now know to belong
+to the period of the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. But the statues of
+Min are older. The <i>crioceras-shells</i> belong to the Red Sea. Are we to
+see in these statues the holy images of the conquerors from the Red Sea
+who reached the Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, and set up the
+first memorials of their presence at Koptos? It may be so, or the Min
+statues may be older than the conquerors, and belong to the Neolithic
+race, since Min and his fetish (which we find on the slate palette from
+el-'Amra, already mentioned) seem to belong to the indigenous Nilotes.
+In any case we have in these statues, two of which are in the Ashmolean
+Museum at Oxford, probably the most ancient cult-images in the world:
+</p>
+<p>
+This theory, which would make all the Neolithic inhabitants of Egypt
+one people, who were conquered by a Semitic race, bringing a culture of
+Sumerian origin to Egypt by way of the Wadi Hammamat, is that generally
+accepted at the present time. It may, however, eventually prove
+necessary to modify it. For reasons given above, it may well be that the
+Neolithic population was itself not indigenous, and that it reached the
+Nile valley by way of the Wadi Hammamat, spreading north and south
+from the mouth of the <i>wadi</i>. It may also be considered probable that
+a Semitic wave invaded Egypt by way of the Isthmus of Suez, where
+the early sun-cultus of Heliopolis probably marks a primeval Semitic
+settlement. In that case it would seem that the <i>Mesniu</i> or "Smiths,"
+who introduced the use of metal, would have to be referred to the
+originally Neolithic pre-Semitic people, who certainly were acquainted
+with the use of copper, though not to any great extent. But this is not
+a necessary supposition. The <i>Mesniu</i> are closely connected with the
+Sky-god Horus, who was possibly of Semitic origin, and another Semitic
+wave, quite distinct from that which entered Egypt by way of the
+Isthmus, may very well also have reached Egypt by the Wadi Hammamat, or,
+equally possibly, from the far south, coming down to the Nile from the
+Abyssinian mountains. The legend of the coming of Hathor from Ta-neter
+may refer to some such wandering, and we know that the Egyptians of the
+Old Kingdom communicated with the Land of Punt, not by way of the Red
+Sea coast as Hatshepsut did, but by way of the Upper Nile. This would
+tally well with the march of the <i>Mesniu</i> northwards from Edfu to their
+battle with the forces of Set at Dendera.
+</p>
+<p>
+In any case, at the dawn of connected Egyptian history, we find two main
+centres of civilization in Egypt, Heliopolis and Buto in the Delta
+in the North, and Edfu and Hierakonpolis in the South. Here were
+established at the beginning of the Chalcolithic stage of culture, we
+may say, two kingdoms, of Lower and Upper Egypt, which were eventually
+united by the superior arms of the kings of Upper Egypt, who imposed
+their rule upon the North but at the same time removed their capital
+thither. The dualism of Buto and Hierakonpolis really lasted throughout
+Egyptian history. The king was always called "Lord of the Two Lands,"
+and wore the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt; the snakes of Buto and
+Nekhebet (the goddess of Nekheb, opposite Nekhen or Hierakonpolis)
+always typified the united kingdom. This dualism of course often led to
+actual division and reversion to the predynastic order of things, as,
+for instance, in the time of the XXIst Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+It might well seem that both the impulses to culture development in the
+North and South came from Semitic inspiration, and that it was to
+the Semitic invaders in North and South that the founding of the two
+kingdoms was due. This may be true to some extent, but it is at the same
+time very probable that the first development of political culture at
+Hierakonpolis was really of pre-Semitic origin. The kingdom of Buto,
+since its capital is situated so near to the seacoast, may have owed
+its origin to oversea Mediterranean connections. There is much in
+the political constitution of later Egypt which seems to have been of
+indigenous and pre-Semitic origin. Especially does this seem to be so in
+the case of the division and organization of the country into nomes. It
+is obvious that so soon as agriculture began to be practised on a large
+scale, boundaries would be formed, and in the unique conditions of
+Egypt, where all boundaries disappear beneath the inundation every
+year, it is evident that the fixing of division-lines as permanently as
+possible by means of landmarks was early essayed. We can therefore with
+confidence assign the formation of the nomes to very early times. Now
+the names of the nomes and the symbols or emblems by which they were
+distinguished are of very great interest in this connection. They are
+nearly all figures of the magic animals of the primitive religion, and
+fetish-emblems of the older deities. The names are, in fact, those of
+the territories of the Neolithic Egyptian tribes, and their emblems are
+those of the protecting tribal demons. The political divisions of the
+country seem, then, to be of extremely ancient origin, and if the nomes
+go back to a time before the Semitic invasions, so may also the kingdoms
+of the South and North.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of these predynastic kingdoms we know very little, except from legendary
+sources. The Northerners who were conquered by Aha, Narmer, and
+Kh�sekhehiui do not look very much like Egyptians, but rather resemble
+Semites or Libyans. On the "Stele of Palermo," a chronicle of early
+kings inscribed in the period of the Vth Dynasty, we have a list of
+early kings of the North,&mdash;Seka, Desau, Tiu, Tesh, Nihab, Uatj�ntj,
+Mekhe. The names are primitive in form. We know nothing more about them.
+Last year Mr. C. T. Currelly attempted to excavate at Buto, in order to
+find traces of the predynastic kingdom, but owing to the infiltration of
+water his efforts were unsuccessful. It is improbable that anything is
+now left of the most ancient period at that site, as the conditions in
+the Delta are so very different from those obtaining in Upper Egypt.
+There, at Hierakonpolis, and at el-Kab on the opposite bank of the Nile,
+the sites of the ancient cities Nekhen and Nekheb, the excavators have
+been very successful. The work was carried out by Messrs. Quibell and
+Green, in the years 1891-9. Prehistoric burials were found on the hills
+near by, but the larger portion of the antiquities were recovered from
+the temple-ruins, and date back to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty,
+exactly the time when the kings of Hierakonpolis first conquered the
+kingdom of Buto and founded the united Egyptian monarchy.
+</p>
+<p>
+The ancient temple, which was probably one of the earliest seats of
+Egyptian civilization, was situated on a mound, now known as <i>el-Kom
+el-ahmar</i>, "the Red Hill," from its colour. The chief feature of the
+most ancient temple seems to have been a circular mound, revetted by a
+wall of sandstone blocks, which was apparently erected about the end of
+the predynastic period. Upon this a shrine was probably erected. This
+was the ancient shrine of Nekhen, the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy.
+Close by it were found some of the most valuable relics of the earliest
+Pharaonic age, the great ceremonial mace-heads and vases of Narmer and
+"the Scorpion," the shields or "palettes" of the same Narmer, the vases
+and stelas of Kh�sekhemui, and, of later date, the splendid copper
+colossal group of King Pepi I and his son, which is now at Cairo. Most
+of the 1st Dynasty objects are preserved in the Ashmo-lean Museum at
+Oxford, which is one of the best centres for the study of early Egyptian
+antiquities. Narmer and Kh�sekhemui are, as we shall see, two of the
+first monarchs of all Egypt. These sculptured and inscribed mace-heads,
+shields, etc., are monuments dedicated by them in the ancestral shrine
+at Hierakonpolis as records of their deeds. Both kings seem to have
+waged war against the Northerners, the <i>Anu</i> of Heliopolis and the
+Delta, and on these votive monuments from Hierakonpolis we find
+hieroglyphed records of the defeat of the <i>Anu</i>, who have very
+definitely Semitic physiognomies.
+</p>
+<p>
+On one shield or palette we see Narmer clubbing a man of Semitic
+appearance, who is called the "Only One of the Marsh" (Delta), while
+below two other Semites fly, seeking "fortress-protection." Above is a
+figure of a hawk, symbolizing the Upper Egyptian king, holding a rope
+which is passed through the nose of a Semitic head, while behind is a
+sign which may be read as "the North," so that the whole symbolizes the
+leading away of the North into captivity by the king of the South. It
+is significant, in view of what has been said above with regard to the
+probable Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan Northerners, to find the
+people typical of the North-land represented by the Southerners as
+Semites. Equally Semitic is the overthrown Northerner on the other
+side of this well-known monument which we are describing; he is being
+trampled under the hoofs and gored by the horns of a bull, who, like the
+hawk, symbolizes the king. The royal bull has broken down the wall of a
+fortified enclosure, in which is the hut or tent of the Semite, and the
+bricks lie about promiscuously.
+</p>
+<p>
+In connection with the Semitic origin of the Northerners, the form of
+the fortified enclosures on both sides of this monument (that to whose
+protection the two Semites on one side fly, and that out of which the
+kingly bull has dragged the chief on the other) is noticeable. As usual
+in Egyptian writing, the hieroglyph of these buildings takes the form of
+a plan. The plan shows a crenelated enclosure, resembling the walls of
+a great Babylonian palace or temple, such as have been found at Telloh,
+Warka, or Mukayyar. The same design is found in Egypt at the Shuret
+ez-Zebib, an Old Kingdom fortress at Abydos, in the tomb of King Aha at
+Nak�da, and in many walls of mastaba-tombs of the early time. This is
+another argument in favour of an early connection between Egypt and
+Babylonia. We illustrate a fragment of another votive shield or palette
+of the same kind, now in the museum of the Louvre, which probably came
+originally from Hierakonpolis. It is of exactly similar workmanship to
+that of Narmer, and is no doubt a fragment of another monument of that
+king. On it we see the same subject of the overthrowing of a Northerner
+(of Semitic aspect) by the royal bull. On one side, below, is a
+fortified enclosure with crenelated walls of the type we have described,
+and within it a lion and a vase; below this another fort, and a bird
+within it. These signs may express the names of the two forts, but,
+owing to the fact that at this early period Egyptian orthography was
+not yet fixed, we cannot read them. On the other side we see a row of
+animated nome-standards of Upper Egypt, with the symbols of the god Min
+of Koptos, the hawk of Horus of Edfu, the ibis of Thot of Eshmun�n, and
+the jackals of Anubis of Abydos, which drag a rope; had we the rest
+of the monument, we should see, bound at the end of the rope, some
+prisoner, king, or animal symbolic of the North. On another slate
+shield, which we also reproduce, we see a symbolical representation of
+the capture of seven Northern cities, whose names seem to mean the "Two
+Men," the "Heron," the "Owl," the "Palm," and the "Ghost" Cities.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ghost City" is attacked by a lion, "Owl City" by a hawk, "Palm City" by
+two hawk nome-standards, and another, whose name we cannot guess at, is
+being opened up by a scorpion.
+</p>
+
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr><td>
+
+
+<a name="image-0016"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<img src="images/050.jpg" height="754" width="375"
+alt="050.jpg (left) Obverse of a Slate Relief. 
+">
+</td><td>
+
+<a name="image-0017"><!--IMG--></a>
+<img src="images/051.jpg" height="724" width="373"
+alt="051.jpg (right) 
+">
+
+
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+
+
+<p>
+The operating animals evidently represent nomes and tribes of the Upper
+Egyptians. Here again we see the same crenelated walls of the Northern
+towns, and there is no doubt that this slate fragment also, which is
+preserved in the Cairo Museum, is a monument of the conquests of Narmer.
+It is executed in the same archaic style as those from Hierakonpolis.
+The animals on the other side no doubt represent part of the spoil of
+the North.
+</p>
+<p>
+Returning to the great shield or palette found by Mr. Quibell, we see
+the king coming out, followed by his sandal-bearer, the <i>Hen-neter</i> or
+"God's Servant,"* to view the dead bodies of the slain Northerners which
+lie arranged in rows, decapitated, and with their heads between their
+feet. The king is preceded by a procession of nome-standards.
+</p>
+
+ 
+
+<p>
+Above the dead men are symbolic representations of a hawk perched on a
+harpoon over a boat, and a hawk and a door, which doubtless again refer
+to the fights of the royal hawk of Upper Egypt on the Nile and at the
+gate of the North. The designs on the mace-heads refer to the same
+conquest of the North.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * In his commentary (Hierakonpolis, i. p. 9) on this scene,
+     Prof. Petrie supposes that the seven-pointed star sign means
+     "king," and compares the eight-pointed star "used for king
+     in Babylonia." The eight-pointed star of the cuneiform
+     script does not mean "king," but "god." The star then ought
+     to mean "god," and the title "servant of a god," and this
+     supposition may be correct. <i>Hen-neter</i>, "god's servant,"
+     was the appellation of a peculiar kind of priest in later
+     days, and was then spelt with the ordinary sign for a god,
+     the picture of an axe. But in the archaic period, with which
+     we are dealing, a star like the Babylonian sign may very
+     well have been used for "god," and the title of Narmer's
+     sandal-bearer may read <i>Hen-neter</i>. He was the slave of the
+     living god Narmer. All Egyptian kings were regarded as
+     deities, more or less.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The monuments Kh�sekhemui, a king, show us that he conquered the North
+also and slew 47,209 "Northern Enemies." The contorted attitudes of the
+dead Northerners were greatly admired and sketched at the time, and were
+reproduced on the pedestal of the king's statue found by Mr. Quibell,
+which is now at Oxford. It was an age of cheerful savage energy, like
+most times when kingdoms and peoples are in the making. About 4000 B.C.
+is the date of these various monuments.
+</p>
+<center>
+
+
+
+<a name="image-0018"><!--IMG--></a>
+<img src="images/052.jpg" height="520" width="575"
+alt="052.jpg Obverse Op a Slate Relief. 
+">
+<br />
+
+<a name="image-0019"><!--IMG--></a>
+<img src="images/053.jpg" height="485" width="621"
+alt="053.jpg Reverse of a Slate Relief, Representing Animals. 
+">
+
+
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Kh�sekhemui probably lived later than Narmer, and we may suppose that
+his conquest was in reality a re-conquest. He may have lived as late
+as the time of the IId Dynasty, whereas Narmer must be placed at the
+beginning of the Ist, and his conquest was probably that which first
+united the two kingdoms of the South and North. As we shall see in
+the next chapter, he is probably one of the originals of the legendary
+"Mena," who was regarded from the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty onwards
+as the founder of the kingdom, and was first made known to Europe by
+Herodotus, under the name of "Men�s."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Narmer is therefore the last of the ancient kings of Hierakonpolis, the
+last of Manetho's "Spirits." We may possibly have recovered the names of
+one or two of the kings anterior to Narmer in the excavations at Abydos
+(see Chapter II), but this is uncertain. To all intents and purposes we
+have only legendary knowledge of the Southern kingdom until its close,
+when Narmer the mighty went forth to strike down the Anu of the North,
+an exploit which he recorded in votive monuments at Hierakonpolis, and
+which was commemorated henceforward throughout Egyptian history in the
+yearly "Feast of the Smiting of the Anu." Then was Egypt for the first
+time united, and the fortress of the "White Wall," the "Good Abode" of
+Memphis, was built to dominate the lower country. The Ist Dynasty was
+founded and Egyptian history began.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0020"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/054.jpg" height="366" width="541"
+alt="054.jpg  
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER II&mdash;ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+</h2>
+<p>
+Until the recent discoveries had been made, which have thrown so much
+light upon the early history of Egypt, the traditional order and names
+of the kings of the first three Egyptian dynasties were, in default of
+more accurate information, retained by all writers on the history of the
+period. The names were taken from the official lists of kings at Abydos
+and elsewhere, and were divided into dynasties according to the system
+of Manetho, whose names agree more or less with those of the lists and
+were evidently derived from them ultimately. With regard to the fourth
+and later dynasties it was clear that the king-lists were correct, as
+their evidence agreed entirely with that of the contemporary monuments.
+But no means existed of checking the lists of the first three dynasties,
+as no contemporary monuments other than a IVth Dynasty mention of a IId
+Dynasty king, Send, had been found. The lists dated from the time of
+the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, so that it was very possible that with
+regard to the earliest dynasties they might not be very correct. This
+conclusion gained additional weight from the fact that no monuments of
+these earliest kings were ever discovered; it therefore seemed probable
+that they were purely legendary figures, in whose time (if they ever did
+exist) Egypt was still a semi-barbarous nation. The jejune stories told
+about them by Manetho seemed to confirm this idea. Mena, the reputed
+founder of the monarchy, was generally regarded as a historical figure,
+owing to the persistence of his name in all ancient literary accounts
+of the beginnings of Egyptian history; for it was but natural to suppose
+that the name of the man who unified Egypt and founded Memphis would
+endure in the mouths of the people. But with regard to his successors
+no such supposition seemed probable, until the time of Sneferu and the
+pyramid-builders.
+</p>
+<p>
+This was the critical view. Another school of historians accepted all
+the kings of the lists as historical <i>en bloc</i>, simply because the
+Egyptians had registered their names as kings. To them Teta, Ateth, and
+Ata were as historical as Mena.
+</p>
+<p>
+Modern discovery has altered our view, and truth is seen to lie between
+the opposing schools, as usual. The kings after Mena do not seem to be
+such entirely unhistorical figures as the extreme critics thought;
+the names of several of them, e.g. Merpeba, of the Ist Dynasty, are
+correctly given in the later lists, and those of others were simply
+misread, e. g. that of Semti of the same dynasty, misread "Hesepti" by
+the list-makers. On the other hand, Mena himself has become a somewhat
+doubtful quantity. The real names of most of the early monarchs of Egypt
+have been recovered for us by the latest excavations, and we can now see
+when the list-makers of the XIXth Dynasty were right and when they were
+wrong, and can distinguish what is legendary in their work from what is
+really historical. It is true that they very often appear to have been
+wrong, but, on the other hand, they were sometimes unexpectedly near
+the mark, and the general number and arrangement of their kings
+seems correct; so that we can still go to them for assistance in the
+arrangement of the names which are communicated to us by the newly
+discovered monuments. Manetho's help, too, need never be despised
+because he was a copyist of copyists; we can still use him to direct our
+investigations, and his arrangement of dynasties must still remain the
+framework of our chronological scheme, though he does not seem to have
+been always correct as to the places in which the dynasties originated.
+</p>
+<p>
+More than the names of the kings have the new discoveries communicated
+to us. They have shed a flood of light on the beginnings of Egyptian
+civilization and art, supplementing the recently ascertained facts
+concerning the prehistoric age which have been described in the
+preceding chapter. The impulse to these discoveries was given by the
+work of M. de Morgan, who excavated sites of the early dynastic as
+well as of the predynastic age. Among these was a great mastaba-tomb at
+Nak�da, which proved to be that of a very early king who bore the name
+of Aha, "the Fighter." The walls of this tomb are crenelated like
+those of the early Babylonian palaces and the forts of the Northerners,
+already referred to. M. de Morgan early perceived the difference between
+the Neolithic antiquities and those of the later archaic period of
+Egyptian civilization, to which the tomb at Nak�da belonged. In the
+second volume of his great work on the primitive antiquities of Egypt
+<i>(L'Age des M�taux et l� Tombeau Royale de N�gadeh)</i>, he described
+the antiquities of the Ist Dynasty which had been found at the time he
+wrote. Antiquities of the same primitive period and even of an earlier
+date had been discovered by Prof. Flinders Petrie, as has already been
+said, at Koptos, at the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat. But though Prof.
+Petrie correctly diagnosed the age of the great statues of the god
+Min which he found, he was led, by his misdating of the "New Race"
+antiquities from Ballas and T�kh, also to misdate several of the
+primitive antiquities,&mdash;the lions and hawks, for instance, found at
+Koptos, he placed in the period between the VIIth and Xth Dynasties;
+whereas they can now, in the light of further discoveries at Abydos, be
+seen to date to the earlier part of the Ist Dynasty, the time of Narmer
+and Aha.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is these discoveries at Abydos, coupled with those (already
+described) of Mr. Quibell at Hierakonpolis, which have told us most of
+what we know with regard to the history of the first three dynasties.
+At Abydos Prof. Petrie was not himself the first in the field, the site
+having already been partially explored by a French Egyptologist, M.
+Am�lineau. The excavations of M. Am�lineau were, however, perhaps
+not conducted strictly on scientific lines, and his results have been
+insufficiently published with very few photographs, so that with the
+best will in the world we are unable to give M. Am�lineau the full
+credit which is, no doubt, due to him for his work. The system of Prof.
+Petrie's publications has been often, and with justice, criticized, but
+he at least tells us every year what he has been doing, and gives us
+photographs of everything he has found. For this reason the epoch-making
+discoveries at Abydos have been coupled chiefly with the name of Prof.
+Petrie, while that of M. Am�lineau is rarely heard in connection with
+them. As a matter of fact, however, M. Am�lineau first excavated the
+necropolis of the early kings at Abydos, and discovered most of the
+tombs afterwards worked over by Prof. Petrie and Mr. Mace. Yet most of
+the important scientific results are due to the later explorers, who
+were the first to attempt a classification of them, though we must
+add that this classification has not been entirely accepted by the
+scientific world.
+</p>
+<p>
+The necropolis of the earliest kings of Egypt is situated in the great
+bay in the hills which lies behind Abydos, to the southwest of the main
+necropolis. Here, at holy Abydos, where every pious Egyptian wished to
+rest after death, the bodies of the most ancient kings were buried. It
+is said by Manetho that the original seat of their dominion was This,
+a town in the vicinity of Abydos, now represented by the modern Gr�rga,
+which lies a few miles distant from its site (el-Birba). This may be a
+fact, but we have as yet obtained no confirmation of it. It may well be
+that the attribution of a Thinite origin to the Ist and IId Dynasties
+was due simply to the fact that the kings of these dynasties were buried
+at Abydos, which lay within the Thinite nome. Manetho knew that they
+were buried at Abydos, and so jumped to the conclusion that they lived
+there also, and called them "Thinites."
+</p>
+<a name="image-0021"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/060.jpg" height="371" width="524"
+alt="060.jpg Prof. Petrie's Camp at Abydos, 1901. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Their real place of origin must have been Hierakonpolis, where the
+pre-dynastic kingdom of the South had its seat. The Hid Dynasty was no
+doubt of Memphite origin, as Manetho says. It is certain that the
+seat of the government of the IVth Dynasty was at Memphis, where the
+pyramid-building kings were buried, and we know that the sepulchres
+of two Hid Dynasty kings, at least, were situated in the necropolis of
+Memphis (Sakk�ra-M�d�m). So that probably the seat of government was
+transferred from Hierakonpolis to Memphis by the first king of the Hid
+Dynasty. Thenceforward the kings were buried in the Memphite necropolis.
+</p>
+<p>
+The two great n�cropoles of Memphis and Abydos were originally the
+seats of the worship of the two Egyptian gods of the dead, Seker and
+Khentamenti, both of whom were afterwards identified with the Busirite
+god Osiris. Abydos was also the centre of the worship of Anubis, an
+animal-deity of the dead, the jackal who prowls round the tombs at
+night. Anubis and Osiris-Khentamenti, "He who is in the West," were
+associated in the minds of the Egyptians as the protecting deities of
+Abydos. The worship of these gods as the chief Southern deities of the
+dead, and the preeminence of the necropolis of Abydos in the South, no
+doubt date back before the time of the Ist Dynasty, so that it would
+not surprise us were burials of kings of the predynastic Hierakonpolite
+kingdom discovered at Abydos. Prof. Petrie indeed claims to have
+discovered actual royal relics of that period at Abydos, but this seems
+to be one of the least certain of his conclusions. We cannot definitely
+state that the names "Ro," "Ka," and "Sma" (if they are names at all,
+which is doubtful) belong to early kings of Hierakonpolis who were
+buried at Abydos. It may be so, but further confirmation is desirable
+before we accept it as a fact; and as yet such confirmation has not been
+forthcoming. The oldest kings, who were certainly buried at Abydos, seem
+to have been the first rulers of the united kingdom of the North and
+South, Aha and his successors. N'armer is not represented. It may
+be that he was not buried at Abydos, but in the necropolis of
+Hierakonpolis. This would point to the kings of the South not having
+been buried at Abydos until after the unification of the kingdom.
+</p>
+<p>
+That Aha possessed a tomb at Abydos as well as another at Nak�da seems
+peculiar, but it is a phenomenon not unknown in Egypt. Several kings,
+whose bodies were actually buried elsewhere, had second tombs at Abydos,
+in order that they might <i>possess</i> last resting-places near the tomb
+of Osiris, although they might not prefer to <i>use</i> them. Usertsen (or
+Senusret) III is a case in point. He was really buried in a pyramid at
+Illahun, up in the North, but he had a great rock tomb cut for him in
+the cliffs at Abydos, which he never occupied, and probably had never
+intended to occupy. We find exactly the same thing far back at the
+beginning of Egyptian history, when Aha possessed not only a great
+mastaba-tomb at Nak�da, but also a tomb-chamber in the great necropolis
+of Abydos. It may be that other kings of the earliest period also had
+second sepulchres elsewhere. It is noteworthy that in none of the early
+tombs at Abydos were found any bodies which might be considered those
+of the kings themselves. M. Am�lineau discovered bodies of attendants
+or slaves (who were in all probability purposely strangled and buried
+around the royal chamber in order that they should attend the king
+in the next world), but no royalties. Prof. Petrie found the arm of a
+female mummy, who may have been of royal blood, though there is nothing
+to show that she was. And the quaint plait and fringe of false hair,
+which were also found, need not have belonged to a royal mummy. It is
+therefore quite possible that these tombs at Abydos were not the actual
+last resting-places of the earliest kings, who may really have been
+buried at Hierakonpolis or elsewhere, as Aha was. Messrs. Newberry
+and Gtarstang, in their <i>Short History of Egypt</i>, suppose that Aha was
+actually buried at Abydos, and that the great tomb with objects bearing
+his name, found by M. de Morgan at Nak�da, is really not his, but
+belonged to a royal princess named Neit-hetep, whose name is found in
+conjunction with his at Abydos and Nak�da. But the argument is equally
+valid turned round the other way: the Nak�da tomb might just as well be
+Aha's and the Abydos one Neit-hetep's. Neit-hetep, who is supposed by
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang to have been Narmer's daughter and Aha's
+wife, was evidently closely connected with Aha, and she may have been
+buried with him at Nak�da and commemorated with him at Abydos.* It is
+probable that the XIXth Dynasty list-makers and Manetho considered the
+Abydos tombs to have been the real graves of the kings, but it is by no
+means impossible that they were wrong.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * A princess named Bener-ab ("Sweet-heart"), who may have
+     been Aha's daughter, was actually buried beside his tomb at
+     Abydos.
+</pre>
+<p>
+This view of the royal tombs at Abydos tallies to a great extent with
+that of M. Naville, who has energetically maintained the view that M.
+Am�lineau and Prof. Petrie have not discovered the real tombs of the
+early kings, but only their contemporary commemorative "tombs" at
+Abydos. The only real tomb of the Ist Dynasty, therefore, as yet
+discovered is that of Aha at Nak�da, found by M. de Morgan. The fact
+that attendant slaves were buried around the Abydos tombs is no bar to
+the view that the tombs were only the monuments, not the real graves,
+of the kings. The royal ghosts would naturally visit their commemorative
+chambers at Abydos, in order to be in the company of the great Osiris,
+and ghostly servants would be as necessary to their Majesties at Abydos
+as elsewhere.
+</p>
+<p>
+It must not be thought that this revised opinion of the Abydos tombs
+detracts in the slightest degree from the importance of the discovery of
+M. Am�lineau and its subsequent and more detailed investigation by Prof.
+Petrie. These monuments are as valuable for historical purposes as
+the real tombs themselves. The actual bodies of these primeval kings
+themselves we are never likely to find. The tomb of Aha at Nak�da had
+been completely rifled in ancient times.
+</p>
+<p>
+The commemorative tombs of the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties at
+Abydos lie southwest of the great necropolis, far within the bay in the
+hills. Their present aspect is that of a wilderness of sand hillocks,
+covered with masses of fragments of red pottery, from which the site has
+obtained the modern Arab name of <i>Umm el-Ga'ab</i>, "Mother of Pots." It
+is impossible to move a step in any direction without crushing some
+of these potsherds under the heel. They are chiefly the remains of the
+countless little vases of rough red pottery, which were dedicated here
+as <i>ex-votos</i> by the pious, between the XIXth and XXVIth Dynasties, to
+the memory of the ancient kings and of the great god Osiris, whose tomb,
+as we shall see, was supposed to have been situated here also.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0022"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%"
+      src="images/065.jpg"
+alt="065.jpg (right) the Tomb of King Den at Abydos. About
+4000 B.C. 
+">
+</div>
+
+
+<p>
+Intermingled with these later fragments are pieces of the original
+Ist Dynasty vases, which were filled with wine and provisions and were
+placed in the tombs, for the refreshment and delectation of the royal
+ghosts when they should visit their houses at Abydos. These were thrown
+out and broken when the tombs were violated. Here and there one sees a
+dip in the sand, out of which rise four walls of great bricks, forming
+a rectangular chamber, half-filled with sand. This is one of the royal
+tomb-chambers of the Ist Dynasty. That of King Den is illustrated above.
+A straight staircase descends into it from the ground-level above. In
+several of the tombs the original flooring of wooden beams is still
+preserved. Den's is the most magnificent of all, for it has a floor of
+granite blocks; we know of no other instance of stone being used for
+building in this early age. Almost every tomb has been burnt at some
+period unknown. The brick walls are burnt red, and many of the alabaster
+vases are almost calcined. This was probably the work of some unknown
+enemy.
+</p>
+<p>
+The wide complicated tombs have around the main chamber a series of
+smaller rooms, which were used to store what was considered necessary
+for the use of the royal ghost. Of these necessaries the most
+interesting to us are the slaves, who were, as there is little reason to
+doubt, purposely killed and buried round the royal chamber so that their
+spirits should be on the spot when the dead king came to Abydos; thus
+they would be always ready to serve him with the food and other things
+which had been stored in the tomb with them and placed under their
+charge. There were stacks of great vases of wine, corn, and other food;
+these were covered up with masses of fat to preserve the contents,
+and they were corked with a pottery stopper, which was protected by
+a conical clay sealing, stamped with the impress of the royal
+cylinder-seal. There were bins of corn, joints of oxen, pottery dishes,
+copper pans, and other things which might be useful for the ghostly
+cuisine of the tomb. There were numberless small objects, used, no
+doubt, by the dead monarch during life, which he would be pleased to see
+again in the next world,&mdash;carved ivory boxes, little slabs for grinding
+eye-paint, golden buttons, model tools, model vases with gold tops,
+ivory and pottery figurines, and other <i>objets d'art</i>; the golden royal
+seal of judgment of King Den in its ivory casket, and so forth. There
+were memorials of the royal victories in peace and war, little ivory
+plaques with inscriptions commemorating the founding of new buildings,
+the institution of new religious festivals in honour of the gods, the
+bringing of the captives of the royal bow and spear to the palace, the
+discomfiture of the peoples of the North-land.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0023"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/067.jpg" height="588" width="721"
+alt="067.jpg Conical Vase-stoppers. From Abydos. 1st Dynasty:
+About 4000 B.c. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+All these things, which have done so much to reconstitute for us the
+history of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy, were placed
+under the care of the dead slaves whose bodies were buried round the
+empty tomb-chamber of their royal master in Abydos.
+</p>
+<p>
+The killing and entombment of the royal servants is of the highest
+anthropological interest, for it throws a vivid light upon the manners
+of the time. It shows the primeval Egyptians as a semi-barbaric people
+of childishly simple ways of thought. The king was dead. For all his
+kingship he was a man, and no man was immortal in this world. But yet
+how could one really die? Shadows, dreams, all kinds of phenomena which
+the primitive mind could not explain, induced the belief that, though
+the outer man might rot, there was an inner man which could not die
+and still lived on. The idea of total death was unthinkable. And where
+should this inner man still live on but in the tomb to which the outer
+man was consigned? And here, doubtless it was believed, in the house to
+which the body was consigned, the ghost lived on. And as each ghost had
+his house with the body, so no doubt all ghosts could communicate with
+one another from tomb to tomb; and so there grew up the belief in a
+tomb-world, a subterranean Egypt of tombs, in which the dead Egyptians
+still lived and had their being. Later on the boat of the sun, in which
+the god of light crossed the heavens by day, was thought to pass through
+this dead world between his setting and his rising, accompanied by the
+souls of the righteous. But of this belief we find no trace yet in the
+ideas of the Ist Dynasty. All we can see is that the <i>sahus</i>, or bodies
+of the dead, were supposed to reside in awful majesty in the tomb,
+while the ghosts could pass from tomb to tomb through the mazes of
+the underworld. Over this dread realm of dead men presided a dead god,
+Osiris of Abydos; and so the necropolis of Abydos was the necropolis of
+the underworld, to which all ghosts who were not its rightful citizens
+would come from afar to pay their court to their ruler. Thus the man
+of substance would have a monumental tablet put up to himself in this
+necropolis as a sort of <i>pied-�-terre</i>, even if he could not be buried
+there; for the king, who, for reasons chiefly connected with local
+patriotism, was buried near the city of his earthly abode, a second tomb
+would be erected, a stately mansion in the city of Osiris, in which his
+ghost could reside when it pleased him to come to Abydos.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now none could live without food, and men living under the earth needed
+it as much as men living on the earth. The royal tomb was thus provided
+with an enormous amount of earthly food for the use of the royal ghost,
+and with other things as well, as we have seen. The same provision had
+also to be made for the royal resting-place at Abydos. And in both cases
+royal slaves were needed to take care of all this provision, and to
+serve the ghost of the king, whether in his real tomb at Nak�da, or
+elsewhere, or in his second tomb at Abydos. Ghosts only could serve
+ghosts, so that of the slaves ghosts had to be made. That was easily
+done; they died when their master died and followed him to the tomb.
+No doubt it seemed perfectly natural to all concerned, to the slaves as
+much as to anybody else. But it shows the child's idea of the value of
+life. An animate thing was hardly distinguished at this period from an
+inanimate thing. The most ancient Egyptians buried slaves with their
+kings as naturally as they buried jars of wine and bins of corn with
+them. Both were buried with a definite object. The slaves had to die
+before they were buried, but then so had the king himself. They all had
+to die sometime or other. And the actual killing of them was no worse
+than killing a dog, no worse even than "killing" golden buttons and
+ivory boxes. For, when the buttons and boxes were buried with the king,
+they were just as much dead as the slaves. Of the sanctity of <i>human</i>
+life as distinct from other life, there was probably no idea at all. The
+royal ghost needed ghostly servants, and they were provided as a matter
+of course.
+</p>
+<p>
+But as civilization progressed, the ideas of the Egyptians changed
+on these points, and in the later ages of the ancient world they were
+probably the most humane of the peoples, far more so than the Greeks,
+in fact. The cultured Hellenes murdered their prisoners of war without
+hesitation. Who has not been troubled in mind by the execution of Mkias
+and Demosthenes after the surrender of the Athenian army at Syracuse?
+When we compare this with Grant's refusal even to take Lee's sword
+at Appomattox, we see how we have progressed in these matters; while
+Gylippus and the Syracusans were as much children as the Ist Dynasty
+Egyptians. But the Egyptians of Gylippus's time had probably advanced
+much further than the Greeks in the direction of rational manhood. When
+Amasis had his rival Apries in his power, he did not put him to death,
+but kept him as his coadjutor on the throne. Apries fled from him,
+allied himself with Greek pirates, and advanced against his generous
+rival. After his defeat and murder at Momemphis, Amasis gave him a
+splendid burial. When we compare this generosity to a beaten foe with
+the savagery of the Assyrians, for instance, we see how far the later
+Egyptians had progressed in the paths of humanity.
+</p>
+<p>
+The ancient custom of killing slaves was first discontinued at the death
+of the lesser chieftains, but we find a possible survival of it in the
+case of a king, even as late as the time of the XIth Dynasty; for at
+Thebes, in the precinct of the funerary temple of King Neb-hapet-R�
+Mentuhetep and round the central pyramid which commemorated his memory,
+were buried a number of the ladies of his <i>har�m</i>. They were all buried
+at one and the same time, and there can be little doubt that they were
+all killed and buried round the king, in order to be with him in the
+next world. Now with each of these ladies, who had been turned into
+ghosts, was buried a little waxen human figure placed in a little model
+coffin. This was to replace her own slave. She who went to accompany
+the king in the next world had to have her own attendant also. But, not
+being royal, a real slave was not killed for her; she only took with her
+a waxen figure, which by means of charms and incantations would, when
+she called upon it, turn into a real slave, and say, "Here am I," and do
+whatever work might be required of her. The actual killing and burial
+of the slaves had in all cases except that of the king been long
+"commuted," so to speak, into a burial with the dead person of
+<i>ushabtis</i>, or "Answerers," little figures like those described above,
+made more usually of stone, and inscribed with the name of the deceased.
+They were called "Answerers" because they answered the call of their
+dead master or mistress, and by magic power became ghostly servants.
+Later on they were made of wood and glazed <i>fa�ence</i>, as well as stone.
+By this means the greater humanity of a later age sought a relief from
+the primitive disregard of the death of others.
+</p>
+<p>
+Anthropologically interesting as are the results of the excavations at
+Umm el-Gra'ab, they are no less historically important. There is no need
+here to weary the reader with the details of scientific controversy; it
+will suffice to set before him as succinctly and clearly as possible the
+net results of the work which has been done.
+</p>
+<p>
+Messrs. Am�lineau and Petrie have found the secondary tombs and have
+identified the names of the following primeval kings of Egypt. We
+arrange them in their apparent historical order.
+</p>
+<p>
+1. Aha Men (?).
+</p>
+<p>
+2. Narmer (or Betjumer) Sma (?).
+</p>
+<p>
+3. Tjer (or Khent). Besh.
+</p>
+<p>
+4. Tja Ati.
+</p>
+<p>
+5. Den Semti.
+</p>
+<p>
+6. Atjab Merpeba.
+</p>
+<p>
+7. Semerkha Nekht.
+</p>
+<p>
+8. Q� Sen.
+</p>
+<p>
+9. Kh�sekhem (Kh�sekhemui)
+</p>
+<p>
+10. Hetepsekhemui.
+</p>
+<p>
+11. R�neb.
+</p>
+<p>
+12. Neneter.
+</p>
+<p>
+13. Sekhemab Perabsen.
+</p>
+<p>
+Two or three other names are ascribed by Prof. Petrie to the
+Hierakonpolite dynasty of Upper Egypt, which, as it occurs before the
+time of Mena and the Ist Dynasty, he calls "Dynasty 0." Dynasty 0,
+however, is no dynasty, and in any case we should prefer to call the
+"predynastic" dynasty "Dynasty I." The names of "Dynasty minus One,"
+however, remain problematical, and for the present it would seem safer
+to suspend judgment as to the place of the supposed royal names "Ro" and
+"Ka"(Men-kaf), which Prof. Petrie supposes to have been those of two
+of the kings of Upper Egypt who reigned before Mena. The king
+"Sma"("Uniter") is possibly identical with Aha or Narmer, more
+probably the latter. It is not necessary to detail the process by which
+Egyptologists have sought to identify these thirteen kings with the
+successors of Mena in the lists of kings and the Ist and IId Dynasties
+of Manetho. The work has been very successful, though not perhaps quite
+so completely accomplished as Prof. Petrie himself inclines to believe.
+The first identification was made by Prof. Sethe, of Gottingen, who
+pointed out that the names Semti and Merpeba on a vase-fragment found
+by M. Am�lineau were in reality those of the kings Hesepti and Merbap
+of the lists, the Ousapha�s and Miebis of Manetho. The perfectly certain
+identifications are these:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+5. Den Semti = Hesepti, <i>Ousapha�s</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+6. Atjab Merpeba = Merbap, <i>Miebis</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+7. Semerkha Nekht= Shemsu or Semsem (?), <i>Semempres</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+8. Q� Sen = Qebh, <i>Bienehhes</i>, Ist Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+9. Kh�sekhemui Besh = Betju-mer (?), <i>Boethos</i>, IId Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+10. Neneter = Bineneter, <i>Binothris</i>, IId Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+Six of the Abydos kings have thus been identified with names in the
+lists and in Manetho; that is to say, we now know the real names of six
+of the earliest Egyptian monarchs, whose appellations are given us
+under mutilated forms by the later list-makers. Prof. Petrie further
+identifies (4) Tja Ati with Ateth, (3) Tjer with Teta, and (1) Aha with
+Mena. Mena, Teta, Ateth, Ata, Hesepti, Merbap, Shemsu (?), and Qebh are
+the names of the 1st Dynasty as given in the lists. The equivalent of
+Ata Prof. Petrie finds in the name "Merneit," which is found at Umm
+el-Ga'ab. But there is no proof whatever that Merneit was a king; he
+was much more probably a prince or other great personage of the reign
+of Den, who was buried with the kings. Prof. Petrie accepts the
+identification of the personal name of Aha as "Men," and so makes him
+the only equivalent of Mena. But this reading of the name is still
+doubtful. Arguing that Aha must be Mena, and having all the rest of the
+kings of the Ist Dynasty identified with the names in the lists, Prof.
+Petrie is compelled to exclude Narmer from the dynasty, and to relegate
+him to "Dynasty 0," before the time of Mena. It is quite possible,
+however, that Narmer was the successor, not the predecessor, of Mena.
+He was certainly either the one or the other, as the style of art in his
+time was exactly the same as that in the time of Aha. The "Scorpion,"
+too, whose name is found at Hierakonpolis, certainly dates to the same
+time as Narmer and Aha, for the style of his work is the same. And it
+may well be that he is not to be counted as a separate king, belonging
+to "Dynasty 0 "(or "Dynasty -I") at all, but as identical with Narmer,
+just as "Sma" may also be. We thus find that the two kings who left the
+most developed remains at Hierakonpolis are the two whose monuments at
+Abydos are the oldest of all on that site. That is to say, the kings
+whose monuments record the conquest of the North belong to the period
+of transition from the old Hierakonpolite dominion of Upper Egypt to the
+new kingdom of all Egypt. They, in fact, represent the "Mena" or Men�s
+of tradition. It may be that Aha bore the personal name of <i>Men</i>, which
+would thus be the original of Mena, but this is uncertain. In any case
+both Aha and Narmer must be assigned to the Ist Dynasty, with the result
+that we know of more kings belonging to the dynasty than appear in the
+lists.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nor is this improbable. Manetho's list is evidently based upon old
+Egyptian lists derived from the authorities upon which the king-lists of
+Abydos and Sakk�ra were based. These old lists were made under the
+XIXth Dynasty, when an interest in the oldest kings seems to have been
+awakened, and the ruling monarchs erected temples at Abydos in their
+honour. This phenomenon can only have been due to a discovery of Umm
+el-Ga'ab and its treasures, the tombs of which were recognized as
+the burial-places (real or secondary) of the kings before the
+pyramid-builders. Seti I. and his son Ramses then worshipped the kings
+of Umm el-Ga'ab, with their names set before them in the order, number,
+and spelling in which the scribes considered they ought to be inscribed.
+It is highly probable that the number known at that time was not quite
+correct. We know that the spelling of the names was very much garbled
+(to take one example only, the signs for <i>Sen</i> were read as one sign
+<i>Qebh</i>), so that one or two kings may have been omitted or displaced.
+This may be the case with Narmer, or, as his name ought possibly to be
+read, <i>Betjumer</i>. His monuments show by their style that he belongs to
+the very beginning of the Ist Dynasty. No name in the Ist Dynasty list
+corresponds to his. But one of the lists gives for the first king of the
+IId Dynasty (the successor of "Qebh" = Sen) a name which may also be read
+Betjumer, spelt syllabically this time, not ideographically. On this
+account Prof. Naville wishes to regard the Hierakonpolite monuments of
+Narmer as belonging to the IId Dynasty, but, as we have seen, they are
+among the most archaic known, and certainly must belong to the beginning
+of the Ist Dynasty. It is therefore probable that Khasekhemui Besh
+and Narmer (Betjumer?) were confused by this list-maker, and the
+name Betjumer was given to the first king of the IId Dynasty, who was
+probably in reality Khasekhemui. The resemblance of <i>Betju</i> to <i>Besh</i>
+may have contributed to this confusion.
+</p>
+<p>
+So Narmer (or Betjumer) found his way out of his proper place at the
+beginning of the 1st Dynasty. Whether Aha was also called "Men" or not,
+it seems evident that he and Narmer were jointly the originals of the
+legendary Mena. Narmer, who possibly also bore the name of Sma, "the
+Uniter," conquered the North. Aha, "the Fighter," also ruled both South
+and North at the same period. Khasekhemui, too, conquered the North, but
+the style of his monuments shows such an advance upon that of the days
+of Aha and Narmer that it seems best to make him the successor of Sen
+(or "Qebh "), and, explaining the transference of the name Betjumer
+to the beginning of the IId Dynasty as due to a confusion with
+Khasekhemui's personal name Besh, to make Khasekhemui the founder of the
+IId Dynasty. The beginning of a new dynasty may well have been marked
+by a reassertion of the new royal power over Lower Egypt, which may have
+lapsed somewhat under the rule of the later kings of the Ist Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+Semti is certainly the "Hesepti" of the lists, and Tja Ati is probably
+"Ateth." "Ata" is thus unidentified. Prof. Petrie makes him = Merneit,
+but, as has already been said, there is no proof that the tomb of
+Merneit is that of a king. "Teta" may be Tjer or Khent, but of this
+there is no proof. It is most probable that the names "Teta," "Ateth,"
+and "Ata" are all founded on Ati, the personal name of Tja. The king
+Tjer is then not represented in the lists, and "Mena" is a compound of
+the two oldest Abydos kings, Narmer (Betjumer) Sma (?) and Aha Men (?).
+</p>
+<p>
+These are the bare historical results that have been attained with
+regard to the names, identity, and order of the kings. The smaller
+memorials that have been found with them, especially the ivory plaques,
+have told us of events that took place during their reigns; but, with
+the exception of the constantly recurring references to the conquest of
+the North, there is little that can be considered of historical interest
+or importance. We will take one as an example. This is the tablet No.
+32,650 of the British Museum, illustrated by Prof. Petrie, <i>Royal Tombs</i>
+i (Egypt Exploration Fund), pi. xi, 14, xv, 16. This is the record of
+a single year, the first in the reign of Semti, King of Upper and Lower
+Egypt. On it we see a picture of a king performing a religious dance
+before the god Osiris, who is seated in a shrine placed on a dais. This
+religious dance was performed by all the kings in later times. Below we
+find hieroglyphic (ideographic) records of a river expedition to fight
+the Northerners and of the capture of a fortified town called An. The
+capture of the town is indicated by a broken line of fortification,
+half-encircling the name, and the hoe with which the emblematic hawks
+on the slate reliefs already described are armed; this signifies the
+opening and breaking down of the wall.
+</p>
+<p>
+On the other half of the tablet we find the viceroy of Lower Egypt,
+Hemaka, mentioned; also "the Hawk (i. e. the king) seizes the seat of
+the Libyans," and some unintelligible record of a jeweller of the palace
+and a king's carpenter. On a similar tablet (of Sen) we find the words
+"the king's carpenter made this record." All these little tablets are
+then the records of single years of a king's life, and others like them,
+preserved no doubt in royal archives, formed the base of regular annals,
+which were occasionally carved upon stone. We have an example of one of
+these in the "Stele of Palermo," a fragment of black granite, inscribed
+with the annals of the kings up to the time of the Vth Dynasty, when
+the monument itself was made. It is a matter for intense regret that the
+greater portion of this priceless historical monument has disappeared,
+leaving us but a piece out of the centre, with part of the records
+of only six kings before Snefru. Of these six the name of only one,
+Neneter, of the lid Dynasty, whose name is also found at Abydos, is
+mentioned. The only important historical event of Neneter's reign seems
+to have occurred in his thirteenth year, when the towns or palaces of
+<i>Ha</i> ("North") and Shem-R� ("The Sun proceeds") were founded. Nothing
+but the institution and celebration of religious festivals is recorded
+in the sixteen yearly entries preserved to us out of a reign of
+thirty-five years. The annual height of the Nile is given, and the
+occasions of numbering the people are recorded (every second year):
+nothing else. Manetho tells us that in the reign of Binothris, who
+is Neneter, it was decreed that women could hold royal honours and
+privileges. This first concession of women's rights is not mentioned on
+the strictly official "Palermo Stele."
+</p>
+<p>
+More regrettable than aught else is the absence from the "Palermo Stele"
+of that part of the original monument which gave the annals of the
+earliest kings. At any rate, in the lines of annals which still exist
+above that which contains the chronicle of the reign of Neneter no
+entry can be definitely identified as belonging to the reigns of Aha
+or Narmer. In a line below there is a mention of the "birth of
+Kh�sekhemui," apparently a festival in honour of the birth of that king
+celebrated in the same way as the reputed birthday of a god. This shows
+the great honour in which Kh�sekhemui was held, and perhaps it was he
+who really finally settled the question of the unification of North and
+South and consolidated the work of the earlier kings.
+</p>
+<p>
+As far as we can tell, then, Aha and Narmer were the first conquerors
+of the North, the unifiers of the kingdom, and the originals of the
+legendary Mena. In their time the kingdom's centre of gravity was still
+in the South, and Narmer (who is probably identical with "the Scorpion")
+dedicated the memorials of his deeds in the temple of Hierakonpolis. It
+may be that the legend of the founding of Memphis in the time of "Men�s"
+is nearly correct (as we shall see, historically, the foundation may
+have been due to Merpeba), but we have the authority of Manetho for
+the fact that the first two dynasties were "Thinite" (that is, Upper
+Egyptian), and that Memphis did not become the capital till the time of
+the Hid Dynasty. With this statement the evidence of the monuments fully
+agrees. The earliest royal tombs in the pyramid-field of Memphis date
+from the time of the Hid Dynasty, so that it is evident that the kings
+had then taken up their abode in the Northern capital. We find that soon
+after the time of Kh�sekhemui the king Perabsen was especially connected
+with Lower Egypt. His personal name is unknown to us (though he may
+be the "Uatjnes" of the lists), but we do know that he had two
+banner-names, Sekhem-ab and Perabsen. The first is his hawk or
+Horus-name, the second his Set-name; that is to say, while he bore the
+first name as King of Upper Egypt under the special patronage of Horus,
+the hawk-god of the Upper Country, he bore the second as King of Lower
+Egypt, under the patronage of Set, the deity of the Delta, whose fetish
+animal appears above this name instead of the hawk. This shows how
+definitely Perabsen wished to appear as legitimate King of Lower as well
+as Upper Egypt. In later times the Theban kings of the XIIth Dynasty,
+when they devoted themselves to winning the allegiance of the
+Northerners by living near Memphis rather than at Thebes, seem to have
+been imitating the successors of Kh�sekhemui.
+</p>
+<p>
+Moreover, we now find various evidences of increasing connection with
+the North. A princess named Ne-maat-hap, who seems to have been the
+mother of Sa-nekht, the first king of the Hid Dynasty, bears the name of
+the sacred Apis of Memphis, her name signifying "Possessing the right of
+Apis." According to Manetho, the kings of the Hid Dynasty are the first
+Memphites, and this seems to be quite correct. With Ne-maat-hap the
+royal right seems to have been transferred to a Memphite house. But the
+Memphites still had associations with Upper Egypt: two of them, Tjeser
+Khet-neter and Sa-nekht, were buried near Abydos, in the desert at B�t
+Khall�f, where their tombs were discovered and excavated by Mr. Garstang
+in 1900. The tomb of Tjeser is a great brick-built mastaba, forty feet
+high and measuring 300 feet by 150 feet. The actual tomb-chambers are
+excavated in the rock, twenty feet below the ground-level and sixty feet
+below the top of the mastaba. They had been violated in ancient times,
+but a number of clay jar-sealings, alabaster vases, and bowls belonging
+to the tomb furniture were found by the discoverer. Sa-nekht's tomb is
+similar. In it was found the preserved skeleton of its owner, who was a
+giant seven feet high.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0024"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/082.jpg" height="351" width="494"
+alt="082.jpg the Tomb of King Tjeser at B�t Khall�f. About
+3700 B.c. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+It is remarkable that Manetho chronicles among the kings of the early
+period a king named Sesokhris, who was five cubits high. This may have
+been Sa-nekht.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tjeser had two tombs, one, the above-mentioned, near Abydos, the
+other at Sakk�ra, in the Memphite pyramid-field. This is the famous
+Step-Pyramid. Since Sa-nekht seems really to have been buried at B�t
+Khal-laf, probably Tjeser was, too, and the Step-Pyramid may have been
+his secondary or sham tomb, erected in the necropolis of Memphis as a
+compliment to Seker, the Northern god of the dead, just as Aha had his
+secondary tomb at Abydos in compliment to Khentamenti. Sne-feru, also,
+the last king of the Hid Dynasty, seems to have had two tombs. One of
+these was the great Pyramid of M�d�m, which was explored by Prof. Petrie
+in 1891, the other was at Dash�r. Near by was the interesting necropolis
+already mentioned, in which was discovered evidence of the continuance
+of the cramped position of burial and of the absence of mummification
+among a certain section of the population even as late as the time of
+the IVth Dynasty. This has been taken to imply that the fusion of the
+primitive Neolithic and invading sub-Semitic races had not been effected
+at that time.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the IVth Dynasty the connection of the royal house with the South
+seems to have finally ceased. The governmental centre of gravity was
+finally transferred to Memphis, and the kings were thenceforth for
+several centuries buried in the great pyramids which still stand in
+serried order along the western desert border of Egypt, from the Delta
+to the province of the Fayyum. With the latest discoveries in this
+Memphite pyramid-field we shall deal in the next chapter.
+</p>
+<p>
+The transference of the royal power to Memphis under the Hid Dynasty
+naturally led to a great increase of Egyptian activity in the Northern
+lands. We read in Manetho of a great Libyan war in the reign of
+Neche-rophes, and both Sa-nekht and Tjeser seem to have finally
+established Egyptian authority in the Sinaitic peninsula, where their
+rock-inscriptions have been found.
+</p>
+<p>
+In 1904 Prof. Petrie was despatched to Sinai by the Egypt Exploration
+Fund, in order finally to record the inscriptions of the early kings
+in the Wadi Maghara, which had been lately very much damaged by the
+operations of the turquoise-miners. It seems almost incredible that
+ignorance and vandalism should still be so rampant in the twentieth
+century that the most important historical monuments are not safe from
+desecration in order to obtain a few turquoises, but it is so. Prof.
+Petrie's expedition did not start a day too soon, and at the suggestion
+of Sir William Garstin, the adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, the
+majority of the inscriptions have been removed to the Cairo Museum for
+safety and preservation. Among the new inscriptions discovered is one of
+Sa-nekht, which is now in the British Museum. Tjeser and Sa-nekht were
+not the first Egyptian kings to visit Sinai. Already, in the days of the
+1st Dynasty, Semerkha had entered that land and inscribed his name upon
+the rocks. But the regular annexation, so to speak, of Sinai to Egypt
+took place under the Memphites of the Hid Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the Hid Dynasty we have reached the age of the pyramid-builders.
+The most typical pyramids are those of the three great kings of the IVth
+Dynasty, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, at Giza near Cairo. But, as
+we have seen, the last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, also had one
+pyramid, if not two; and the most ancient of these buildings known to
+us, the Step-Pyramid of Sakk�ra, was erected by Tjeser at the beginning
+of that dynasty. The evolution of the royal tombs from the time of the
+1st Dynasty to that of the IVth is very interesting to trace. At the
+period of transition from the predynastic to the dynastic age we have
+the great mastaba of Aha at Nak�da, and the simplest chamber-tombs
+at Abydos. All these were of brick; no stone was used in their
+construction. Then we find the chamber-tomb of Den Semti at Abydos
+with a granite floor, the walls being still of brick. Above each of the
+Abydos tombs was probably a low mound, and in front a small chapel, from
+which a flight of steps descended into the simple chamber. On one of the
+little plaques already mentioned, which were found in these tombs, we
+have an archaic inscription, entirely written in ideographs, which
+seems to read, "The Big-Heads (i. e. the chiefs) come to the tomb." The
+ideograph for "tomb" seems to be a rude picture of the funerary chapel,
+but from it we can derive little information as to its construction.
+Towards the end of the Ist Dynasty, and during the lid, the royal tombs
+became much more complicated, being surrounded with numerous chambers
+for the dead slaves, etc. Kh�sekhemui's tomb has thirty-three such
+chambers, and there is one large chamber of stone. We know of no other
+instance of the use of stone work for building at this period except in
+the royal tombs. No doubt the mason's art was still so difficult that it
+was reserved for royal use only.
+</p>
+<p>
+Under the Hid Dynasty we find the last brick mastabas built for royalty,
+at B�t Khall�f, and the first pyramids, in the Memphite necropolis.
+In the mastaba of Tjeser at B�t Khall�f stone was used for the great
+portcullises which were intended to bar the way to possible plunderers
+through the passages of the tomb. The Step-Pyramid at Sakk�ra is, so to
+speak, a series of mastabas of stone, imposed one above the other; it
+never had the continuous casing of stone which is the mark of a true
+pyramid. The pyramid of Snefru at M�d�m is more developed. It also
+originated in a mastaba, enlarged, and with another mastaba-like
+erection on the top of it; but it was given a continuous sloping casing
+of fine limestone from bottom to top, and so is a true pyramid. A
+discussion of recent theories as to the building of the later pyramids
+of the IVth Dynasty will be found in the next chapter.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the time of the Ist Dynasty the royal tomb was known by the name of
+"Protection-around-the-Hawk, i.e. the king"(<i>Sa-ha-heru</i>); but under
+the Hid and IVth Dynasties regular names, such as "the Firm," "the
+Glorious," "the Appearing," etc., were given to each pyramid.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0025"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/086.jpg" height="1119" width="718"
+alt="086.jpg False Door of the Tomb Of Teta, About 3600 B.c. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+We must not omit to note an interesting point in connection with the
+royal tombs at Abydos, In that of King Khent or Tjer (the reading of
+the ideograph is doubtful) M. Am�lineau found a large bed or bier of
+granite, with a figure of the god Osiris lying in state sculptured in
+high relief upon it. This led him to jump to the conclusion that he
+had found the tomb of the god Osiris himself, and that a skull he found
+close by was the veritable cranium of the primeval folk-hero, who,
+according to the euhemerist theory, was the deified original of the god.
+The true explanation is given by Dr. Wallis Budge in his <i>History of
+Egypt</i>, i, p. 19. It is a fact that the tomb of Tjer was regarded by
+the Egyptians of the XIXth Dynasty as the veritable tomb of Osiris.
+They thought they had discovered it, just as M. Am�lineau did. When the
+ancient royal tombs of Umm el-Ga'ab were rediscovered and identified at
+the beginning of the XIXth Dynasty, and Seti I built the great temple of
+Abydos to the divine ancestors in honour of the discovery, embellishing
+it with a relief of himself and his son Ramses making offerings to the
+names of his predecessors (the "Tablet of Abydos "), the name of King
+Khent or Tjer (which is perhaps the really correct original form) was
+read by the royal scribes as "Khent" and hastily identified with the
+first part of the name of the god <i>Khent-amenti</i> Osiris, the lord of
+Abydos. The tomb was thus regarded as the tomb of Osiris himself, and
+it was furnished with a great stone figure of the god lying on his bier,
+attended by the two hawks of Isis and Nephthys; ever after the site was
+visited by crowds of pilgrims, who left at Umm el-Ga'ab the thousands of
+little votive vases whose fragments have given the place its name of the
+"Mother of Pots." This is the explanation of the discovery of the "Tomb
+of Osiris." We have not found what M. Am�lineau seems rather naively to
+have thought possible, a confirmation of the ancient view that Osiris
+was originally a man who ruled over Egypt and was deified after his
+death; but we have found that the Egyptians themselves were more or less
+euhemerists, and did think so.
+</p>
+<p>
+It may seem remarkable that all this new knowledge of ancient Egypt is
+derived from tombs and has to do with the resting-places of the kings
+when dead, rather than with their palaces or temples when living. Of
+temples at this early period we have no trace. The oldest temple in
+Egypt is perhaps the little chapel in front of the pyramid of Snefru at
+M�d�m. We first hear of temples to the gods under the IVth Dynasty, but
+of the actual buildings of that period we have recovered nothing but one
+or two inscribed blocks of stone. Prof. Petrie has traced out the plan
+of the oldest temple of Osiris at Abydos, which may be of the time of
+Khufu, from scanty evidences which give us but little information. It is
+certain, however, that this temple, which is clearly one of the oldest
+in Egypt, goes back at least to his time. Its site is the mound
+called Kom es-Sultan, "The Mound of the King," close to the village of
+el-Kherba, and on the borders of the cultivation northeast of the royal
+tombs at Umm el-Oa'ab.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of royal palaces we have more definite information. North of the Kom
+es-Sultan are two great fortress-enclosures of brick: the one is known
+as <i>S�net es-Zeb�b</i>, "the Storehouse of Dried Orapes;" the other is
+occupied by the Coptic monastery of D�r Anba Mus�s. Both are certainly
+fortress-palaces of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy. We
+know from the small record-plaques of this period that the kings were
+constantly founding or repairing places of this kind, which were always
+great rectangular enclosures with crenelated brick walls like those of
+early Babylonian buildings.
+</p>
+<p>
+We have seen that the Northern Egyptian possessed similar
+fortress-cities which were captured by Narmer. These were the seats of
+the royal residence in various parts of the country. Behind their walls
+was the king's house, and no doubt also a town of nobles and retainers,
+while the peasants lived on the arable land without.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0026"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/089.jpg" height="374" width="495"
+alt="089.jpg the Shunet Ez-zebib: The Fortress-town, About
+3900 B.c. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The Sh�net ez-Zeb�b and its companion fortress were evidently the royal
+cities of the 1st and IId Dynasties at Abydos. The former has been
+excavated by Mr. E. R. Ayrton for the Egypt Exploration Fund, under the
+supervision of Prof. Petrie. He found jar-sealings of Kh�sekhemui and
+Perabsen. In later times the place was utilized as a burial-place for
+ibis-mummies (it had already been abandoned as a city before the time of
+the XIIth Dynasty), and from this fact it received the name of <i>Shenet
+deb-hib</i>, or "Storehouse of Ibis Burials." The Arab invaders adapted
+this name to their own language in the nearest form which would have
+any meaning, as <i>Sh�net ez-Zeb�b</i>, "the Storehouse of Dried Grapes."
+The Arab word <i>sh�na</i> ("Barn" or "Storehouse") was, it should be noted,
+taken over from the Coptic <i>sheune,</i> which is the old-Egyptian <i>shenet</i>.
+The identity of <i>sheune</i> or <i>sh�na</i> with the German "Scheune" is a
+quaint and curious coincidence. In the illustration of the Sh�net
+ez-Zebib the curved line of crenelated wall, following the contour of
+the hill, should be noted, as it is a remarkable example of the building
+of this early period.
+</p>
+<p>
+It will have been seen from the foregoing description of what
+far-reaching importance the discoveries at Abydos have been. A new
+chapter of the history of the human race has been opened, which contains
+information previously undreamt of, information which Egyptologists
+had never dared to hope would be recovered. The sand of Egypt indeed
+conceals inexhaustible treasures, and no one knows what the morrow's
+work may bring forth.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Ex Africa semper aliquid novi!</i>
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<center>
+PART 13A.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ 
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Next Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+
+<br /><br />
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/orig17321-h/v1b.htm b/old/orig17321-h/v1b.htm
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>
+    Maspero's History of Egypt,
+    by L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Part 13b
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+		body {background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { margin:10%;
+		    text-indent:   1em;
+        margin-top:    .75em;
+        margin-bottom: .75em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; }
+		hr  { width: 50%; }
+    hr.full { width: 100%; }
+    .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 95%; }
+		img {border: 0;}
+    HR  { width: 33%; text-align: center; }
+		blockquote {font-size: 97%; }
+		.figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;}
+    CENTER { padding: 10px;}
+		PRE    { font-size: 90%; margin-left: 20%;}
+    // -->
+</style>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+<br />
+<center>
+PART 13B.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1a.htm">Previous Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Next Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+<br />
+
+
+<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/spines.jpg" height="967" width="652"
+alt="Book Spines 
+">
+</center>
+
+<h1>
+    HISTORY OF EGYPT
+</h1><br />
+
+<h2>
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+<br />
+
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+</h2><br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+</h3><br />
+
+<h4>
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+<br />
+
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+<br /><br />
+
+
+Copyright 1906
+</h4>
+<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="936" width="625"
+alt="Frontispiece1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1-text.jpg" height="171" width="520"
+alt="Frontispiece1-text 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/titlepage1.jpg" height="1198" width="756"
+alt="Titlepage1 
+">
+</center>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>Contents (Part 13b)</h2><br />
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER III&mdash;MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER IV&mdash;RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA AND THE DAWN OF CHALD�AN HISTORY
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0001">
+Book Spines 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0002">
+Frontispiece1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0003">
+Frontispiece1-text 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0004">
+Titlepage1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0005">
+100.jpg Statue No. 1 of the Cairo Museum, About 3900
+B.c. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0006">
+109.jpg Exterior of the Southern Brick Pyramid Of Dashur 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0007">
+111.jpg the Pyramids of Giza During The Inundation. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0008">
+125.jpg (greek Word) 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0009">
+126.jpg (greek Word) 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0010">
+147.jpg List of Archaic Cuneiform Signs.
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0011">
+150.jpg Fragment of a List Of Archaic Cuneiform Signs. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0012">
+154.jpg Obelisk of Manishtusu. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0013">
+160.jpg Babil. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0014">
+160a.jpg "Stele of Victory" 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0015">
+160a-text.jpg Text for "Stele of Victory" 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0016">
+161.jpg Roughly Hewn Sculpture of a Lion Standing over A
+Fallen Man, Found at Babylon. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0017">
+163.jpg General View of the Excavations on The Kasr At
+Babylon. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0018">
+165.jpg Within the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0019">
+166.jpg Excavations in the Temple Op Ninib at Babylon. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0020">
+167.jpg the Principal Mound of Birs Nimrud, Which Marks
+The Site of the Ancient City Op Borsippa. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0021">
+168.jpg the Principal Mound at Shekghat, Which Marks The
+Site of Ashuk, the Ancient Capital Of The Assyrians. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0022">
+169.jpg the Mound of Kuyunjik, Which Formed One Of The
+Palace Mounds of the Ancient Assyrian City Of Nineveh. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0023">
+170.jpg Winged Bull in the Palace of Sennacherib On
+Kuyunjik, the Principal Mound Marking The Site of Nineveh. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0024">
+172.jpg Clay Memorial-tablet of Eannadu. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0025">
+175.jpg Marble Gate 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0026">
+188.jpg Stone Gate 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0027">
+190.jpg Statue of Gudea. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0028">
+192.jpg Tablet Inscribed in Sumerian With Details of A
+Survey of Certain Property. 
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER III&mdash;MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+</h2>
+<p>
+Memphis, the "beautiful abode," the "City of the White Wall," is said
+to have been founded by the legendary Men�s, who in order to build it
+diverted the stream of the Nile by means of a great dyke constructed
+near the modern village of Kosh�sh, south of the village of Mitrah�na,
+which marks the central point of the ancient metropolis of Northern
+Egypt. It may be that the city was founded by Aha or Narmer, the
+historical originals of Mena or Men�s; but we have another theory with
+regard to its foundation, that it was originally built by King Merpeba
+Atjab, whose tomb was also discovered at Abydos near those of Aha and
+Narmer. Merpeba is the oldest king whose name is absolutely identified
+with one occurring in the XIXth Dynasty king-lists and in Manetho. He
+is certainly the "Merbap" or "Merbepa" ("Merbapen") of the lists and the
+<i>Miebis</i> of Manetho. In both the lists and in Manetho he stands fifth in
+order from Mena, and he was therefore the sixth king of the Ist Dynasty.
+The lists, Manetho, and the small monuments in his own tomb agree in
+making him the immediate successor of Semti Den (Ousapha�s), and from
+the style of these latter it is evident that he comes after Tja, Tjer,
+Narmer, and Aha. That is to say, the contemporary evidence makes him the
+fifth king from Aha, the first original of "Men�s."
+</p>
+<p>
+Now after the piety of Seti I had led him to erect a great temple at
+Abydos in memory of the ancient kings, whose sepulchres had probably
+been brought to light shortly before, and to compile and set up in the
+temple a list of his predecessors, a certain pious snobbery or snobbish
+piety impelled a worthy named Tunure, who lived at Memphis, to put up in
+his own tomb at Sakk�ra a tablet of kings like the royal one at Abydos.
+If Osiris-Khentamenti at Abydos had his tablet of kings, so should
+Osiris-Seker at Sakk�ra. But Tunure does not begin his list with Mena;
+his initial king is Merpeba. For him Merpeba was the first monarch to be
+commemorated at Sakk�ra. Does not this look very much as if the strictly
+historical Merpeba, not the rather legendary and confused Mena, was
+regarded as the first Memphite king? It may well be that it was in
+the reign of Merpeba, not in that of Aha or Narmer, that Memphis was
+founded.
+</p>
+<p>
+The XIXth Dynasty lists of course say nothing about Mena or Merpeba
+having founded Memphis; they only give the names of the kings, nothing
+more. The earliest authority for the ascription of Memphis to "Men�s",
+is Herodotus, who was followed in this ascription, as in many other
+matters, by Manetho; but it must be remembered that Manetho was writing
+for the edification of a Greek king (Ptolemy Philadelphus) and his Greek
+court at Alexandria, and had therefore to evince a respect for the great
+Greek classic which he may not always have really felt. Herodotus is
+not, of course, accused of any wilful misstatement in this or in any
+other matter in which his accuracy is suspected. He merely wrote
+down what he was told by the Egyptians themselves, and Merpeba was
+sufficiently near in time to Aha to be easily confounded with him by
+the scribes of the Persian period, who no doubt ascribed everything
+to "Mena" that was done by the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties.
+Therefore it may be considered quite probable that the "Men�s" who
+founded Memphis was Merpeba, the fifth or sixth king of the Ist Dynasty,
+whom Tunure, a thousand years before the time of Herodotus and his
+informants, placed at the head of the Memphite "List of Sakk�ra."
+</p>
+<p>
+The reconquest of the North by Kh�sekhemui doubtless led to a further
+strengthening of Memphis; and it is quite possible that the deeds of
+this king also contributed to make up the sum total of those ascribed to
+the Herodotean and Manethonian Men�s.
+</p>
+<p>
+It may be that a town of the Northerners existed here before the time of
+the Southern Conquest, for Phtah, the local god of Memphis, has a very
+marked character of his own, quite different from that of Khen-tamenti,
+the Osiris of Abydos. He is always represented as a little bow-legged
+hydrocephalous dwarf very like the Phoenician <i>Kabeiroi</i>. It may be
+that here is another connection between the Northern Egyptians and the
+Semites. The name "Phtah," the "Opener," is definitely Semitic. We may
+then regard the dwarf Phtah as originally a non-Egyptian god of the
+Northerners, probably Semitic in origin, and his town also as antedating
+the conquest. But it evidently was to the Southerners that Memphis owed
+its importance and its eventual promotion to the position of capital of
+the united kingdom. Then the dwarf Phtah saw himself rivalled by another
+Phtah of Southern Egyptian origin, who had been installed at Memphis by
+the Southerners. This Phtah was a sort of modified edition of Osiris, in
+mummy-form and holding crook and whip, but with a refined edition of
+the Kabeiric head of the indigenous Phtah. The actual god of "the White
+Wall" was undoubtedly confused vith the dead god of the necropolis,
+whose name was Seker or Sekri (Sokari), "the Coffined." The original
+form of this deity was a mummied hawk upon a coffin, and it is very
+probable that he was imported from the South, like the second Phtah, at
+the time of the conquest, when the great Northern necropolis began
+to grow up as a duplicate of that at Abydos. Later on we find Seker
+confused with the ancient dwarf-god, and it is the latter who was
+afterwards chiefly revered as Phtah-Socharis-Osiris, the protector of
+the necropolis, the mummied Phtah being the generally recognized ruler
+of the City of the White Wall.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is from the name of Seker that the modern Sak-k�ra takes its title.
+Sakk�ra marks the central point of the great Memphite necropolis, as it
+is the nearest point of the western desert to Memphis. Northwards the
+necropolis extended to Griza and Abu Ro�sh, southwards, to Daslmr;
+even the n�cropoles of Lisht and M�d�m may be regarded as appanages of
+Sakk�ra. At Sakk�ra itself Tjeser of the IIId Dynasty had a pyramid,
+which, as we have seen, was probably not his real tomb (which was
+the great mastaba at B�t Khall�f), but a secondary or sham tomb
+corresponding to the "tombs" of the earliest kings at Umm el-Ga'ab in
+the necropolis of Abydos. Many later kings, however, especially of the
+Vith Dynasty, were actually buried at Sakk�ra. Their tombs have all been
+thoroughly described by their discoverer, Prof. Maspero, in his history.
+The last king of the Hid Dynasty, Snefru, was buried away down south at
+M�d�m, in splendid isolation, but he may also have had a second pyramid
+at Sakk�ra or Abu Roash.
+</p>
+<p>
+The kings of the IVth Dynasty were the greatest of the pyramid builders,
+and to them belong the huge edifices of Griza. The Vth Dynasty favoured
+Abus�r, between C�za and Sakk�ra; the Vith, as we have said, preferred
+Sakk�ra itself. With them the end of the Old Kingdom and of Memphite
+dominion was reached; the sceptre fell from the hands of the Memphite
+kings and was taken up by the princes of Herakleopolis (Ahnasyet
+el-Medina, near B�ni Su�f, south of the Eayy�m) and Thebes. Where the
+Herakleopolite kings were buried we do not know; probably somewhere in
+the local necropolis of the Gebel es-Sedment, between Ahnasya and the
+Fayy�m. The first Thebans (the XIth Dynasty) were certainly buried at
+Thebes, but when the Herakleopolites had finally disappeared, and all
+Egypt was again united under one strong sceptre, the Theban kings seem
+to have been drawn northwards. They removed to the seat of the dominion
+of those whom they had supplanted, and they settled in the neighbourhood
+of Herakleopolis, near the fertile province of the Fayy�m, and between
+it and Memphis. Here, in the royal fortress-palace of Itht-taui,
+"Controlling the Two Lands," the kings of the XIIth Dynasty lived,
+and they were buried in the n�cropoles of Dash�r, Lisht, and Illahun
+(Hawara), in pyramids like those of the old Memphite kings. These facts,
+of the situation of Itht-taui, of their burial in the southern an ex of
+the old necropolis of Memphis, and of the fori of their tombs (the
+true Upper Egyptian and Thebian form was a rock-cut gallery and chamber
+driven deep into the hill), show how solicitous were the Amenemhats
+and Senusrets of the suffrages of Lower Egypt, how anxious they were to
+conciliate the ancient royal pride of Memphis.
+</p>
+<p>
+Where the kings of the XIIIth Dynasty and the Hyksos or "Shepherds" were
+buried, we do not know. The kings of the restored Theban empire were
+all interred at Thebes. There are, in fact, no known royal sepulchres
+between the Fayy�m and Abydos. The great kings were mostly buried in
+the neighbourhood of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. The sepulchres of the
+"Middle Empire"&mdash;the XIth to XIIIth Dynasties&mdash;in the neighbourhood
+of the Fayy�m may fairly be grouped with those of the same period at
+Dash�r, which belongs to the necropolis of Memphis, since it is only a
+mile or two south of Sakk�ra.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is chiefly with regard to the sepulchres of the kings that the most
+momentous discoveries of recent years have been made at Thebes, and at
+Sakk�ra, Abus�r, Dash�r, and Lisht, as at Abydos. For this reason we
+deal in succession with the finds in the n�cropoles of Abydos, Memphis,
+and Thebes respectively. And with the sepulchres of the "Old Kingdom,"
+in the Memphite necropolis proper, we have naturally grouped those of
+the "Middle Kingdom" at Dash�r, Lisht, Illahun, and Hawara.
+</p>
+<p>
+Some of these modern discoveries have been commented on and illustrated
+by Prof. Maspero in his great history. But the discoveries that have
+been made since this publication have been very important,&mdash;those at
+Abus�r, indeed, of first-rate importance, though not so momentous as
+those of the tombs of the Ist and IId Dynasties at Abydos, already
+described. At Abu Roash and at G�za, at the northern end of the Memphite
+necropolis, several expeditions have had considerable success, notably
+those of the American Dr. Reisner, assisted by Mr. Mace, who excavated
+the royal tombs at Umm el-Ga'ab for Prof. Petrie, those of the
+German Drs. Steindorff and Borchardt,&mdash;the latter working for the
+<i>Beutsch-Orient Gesellschaft</i>,&mdash;and those of other American excavators.
+Until the full publication of the results of these excavations appears,
+very little can be said about them. Many mastaba-tombs have, it is
+understood, been found, with interesting remains. Nothing of great
+historical importance seems to have been discovered, however. It is
+otherwise when we come to the discoveries of Messrs. Borchardt and
+Sch�fer at Abus�r, south of G�za and north of Sakk�ra. At this place
+results of first-rate historical importance have been attained.
+</p>
+<p>
+The main group of pyramids at Abusir consists of the tombs of the kings
+Sahur�, Neferarikar�, and Ne-user-R�, of the Vth Dynasty. The pyramids
+themselves are smaller than those of G�za, but larger than those of
+Sakk�ra. In general appearance and effect they resemble those of G�za,
+but they are not so imposing, as the desert here is low. Those of G�za,
+Sakk�ra, and Dash�r owe much of their impressiveness to the fact that
+they are placed at some height above the cultivated land. The excavation
+and planning of these pyramids were carried out by Messrs. Borchardt and
+Sch�fer at the expense of Baron von Bissing, the well-known Egyptologist
+of Munich, and of the <i>Deutsch-Orient Gesell-schaft</i> of Berlin. The
+antiquities found have been divided between the museums of Berlin and
+Cairo.
+</p>
+<p>
+One of the most noteworthy discoveries was that of the funerary temple
+of Ne-user-R�, which stood at the base of his pyramid. The plan is
+interesting, and the granite lotus-bud columns found are the most
+ancient yet discovered in Egypt. Much of the paving and the wainscoting
+of the walls was of fine black marble, beautifully polished. An
+interesting find was a basin and drain with lion's-head mouth, to
+carry away the blood of the sacrifices. Some sculptures in relief were
+discovered, including a gigantic representation of the king and the
+goddess Isis, which shows that in the early days of the Vth Dynasty the
+king and the gods were already depicted in exactly the same costume as
+they wore in the days of the Ramses and the Ptolemies. The hieratic art
+of Egypt had, in fact, now taken on itself the final outward appearance
+which it retained to the very end. There is no more of the archaism
+and absence of conventionality, which marks the art of the earliest
+dynasties.
+</p>
+<p>
+We can trace by successive steps the swift development of Egyptian art
+from the rude archaism of the Ist Dynasty to its final consummation
+under the Vth, when the conventions became fixed. In the time of
+Kh�sekhemui, at the beginning of the IId Dynasty, the archaic character
+of the art has already begun to wear off. Under the same dynasty we
+still have styles of unconventional na�vet�, such as the famous Statue
+"No. 1" of the Cairo Museum, bearing the names of Kings Hetepahaui,
+Neb-r�, and Neneter. But with the IVth Dynasty we no longer look for
+unconventionality. Prof. Petrie discovered at Abydos a small ivory
+statuette of Khufu or Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid of G�za.
+The portrait is a good one and carefully executed. It was not till
+the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, indeed, that the Egyptians ceased
+to portray their kings as they really were, and gave them a purely
+conventional type of face. This convention, against which the heretical
+King Amenhetep IV (Akhunaten) rebelled, in order to have himself
+portrayed in all his real ungainliness and ugliness, did not exist till
+long after the time of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width:50%;">
+      <img width="100%"
+      src="images/100.jpg" alt="100.jpg Statue No. 1 of the Cairo Museum, About 3900 B.C.">
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The kings of the XIIth Dynasty especially were most careful that their
+statues should be accurate portraits; indeed, the portraits of Usertsen
+(Senusret) III vary from a young face to an old one, showing that the
+king was faithfully depicted at different periods of his life.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the general conventions of dress and deportment were finally fixed
+under the Vth Dynasty. After this time we no longer have such absolutely
+faithful and original presentments as the other little ivory statuette
+found by Prof. Petrie at Abydos (now in the British Museum), which shows
+us an aged monarch of the Ist Dynasty. It is obvious that the features
+are absolutely true to life, and the figure wears an unconventionally
+party-coloured and bordered robe of a kind which kings of a later day
+may have worn in actual life, but which they would assuredly never be
+depicted as wearing by the artists of their day. To the end of Egyptian
+history, the kings, even the Roman emperors, were represented on the
+monuments clothed in the official costume of their ancestors of the IVth
+and Vth Dynasties, in the same manner as we see Khufu wearing his robe
+in the little figure from Abydos, and Ne-user-R� on the great
+relief from Abus�r. There are one or two exceptions, such as the
+representations of the original genius Akhunaten at Tell el-Amarna and
+the beautiful statue of Ramses II at Turin, in which we see these kings
+wearing the real costume of their time, but such exceptions are very
+rare.
+</p>
+<p>
+The art of Abus�r is therefore of great interest, since it marks the end
+of the development of the priestly art. Secular art might develop as it
+liked, though the crystallizing influence of the ecclesiastical canon is
+always evident here also. But henceforward it was an impiety, which only
+an Akhunaten could commit, to depict a king or a god on the walls of a
+temple otherwise (except so far as, the portrait was concerned) than as
+he had been depicted in the time of the Vth Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+Other buildings have been excavated by the Germans at Abus�r, notably
+the usual town of mastaba-tombs belonging to the chief dignitaries of
+the reign, which is always found at the foot of a royal pyramid of this
+period. Another building of the highest interest, belonging to the same
+age, was also excavated, and its true character was determined. This is
+a building at a place called er-R�gha or Ab� Ghuraib, "Father of Crows,"
+between Abus�r and G�za. It was formerly supposed to be a pyramid, but
+the German excavations have shown that it is really a temple of the
+Sun-god R� of Heliopolis, specially venerated by the kings of the Vth
+Dynasty, who were of Heliopolitan origin. The great pyramid-builders of
+the IVth Dynasty seem to have been the last true Memphites. At the end
+of the reign of Shepseskaf, the last monarch of the dynasty, the sceptre
+passed to a Heliopolitan family. The following VIth Dynasty may again
+have been Memphite, but this is uncertain. The capital continued to be
+Memphis, and from the beginning of the Hid Dynasty to the end of the Old
+Kingdom and the rise of Herakle-opolis and Thebes, Memphis remained the
+chief city of Egypt.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Heliopolitans were naturally the servants of the Sun-god above all
+other gods, and they were the first to call themselves "Sons of the
+Sun," a title retained by the Pharaohs throughout all subsequent
+history. It was Ne-user-R� who built the Sun-temple of Abu Ghuraib,
+on the edge of the desert, north of his pyramid and those of his two
+immediate predecessors at Abusir. As now laid bare by the excavations of
+1900, it is seen to consist of an artificial mound, with a great court
+in front to the eastward. On the mound was erected a truncated obelisk,
+the stone emblem of the Sun-god. The worshippers in the court below
+looked towards the Sun's stone erected upon its mound in the west,
+the quarter of the sun's setting; for the Sun-god of Heliopolis was
+primarily the setting sun, Tum-R�, not R� Harmachis, the rising sun,
+whose emblem is the Great Sphinx at G�za, which looks towards the east.
+The sacred emblem of the Heliopolitan Sun-god reminds us forcibly of the
+Semitic <i>bethels</i> or <i>baetyli</i>, the sacred stones of Palestine, and may
+give yet another hint of the Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan cult.
+In the court of the temple is a huge circular altar of fine alabaster,
+several feet across, on which slain oxen were offered to the Sun, and
+behind this, at the eastern end of the court, are six great basins of
+the same stone, over which the beasts were slain, with drains running
+out of them by which their blood was carried away. This temple is a most
+interesting monument of the civilization of the "Old Kingdom" at the time
+of the Vth Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+At Sakk�ra itself, which lies a short distance south of Abusir, no new
+royal tombs have, as has been said, been discovered of late years. But a
+great deal of work has been done among the private mastaba-tombs by the
+officers of the <i>Service des Antiquit�s</i>, which reserves to itself the
+right of excavation here and at Dash�r. The mastaba of the sage and
+writer Kagernna (or rather Gemnika, "I-have-found-a-ghost," which
+sounds very like an American Indian appellation) is very fine.
+"I-have-found-a-ghost" lived in the reign of the king Tatkar� Assa, the
+"Tancheres" of Manetho, and he wrote maxims like his great contemporary
+Phtahhetep ("Offered to Phtah"), who was also buried at Sakk�ra. The
+officials of the <i>Service des Antiquit�s</i> who cleaned the tomb unluckily
+misread his name Ka-bi-n (an impossible form which could only mean,
+literally translated, "Ghost-soul-of" or "Ghost-soul-to-me"), and they
+have placed it in this form over the entrance to his tomb. This mastaba,
+like those, already known, of Mereruka (sometimes misnamed "Mera")
+and the famous Ti, both also at Sakk�ra, contains a large number of
+chambers, ornamented with reliefs. In the vicinity M. Gr�baut, then
+Director of the Service of Antiquities, discovered a very interesting
+Street of Tombs, a regular Via Sacra, with rows of tombs of the
+dignitaries of the VIth Dynasty on either side of it. They are generally
+very much like one another; the workmanship of the reliefs is fine, and
+the portrait of the owner of the tomb is always in evidence.
+</p>
+<p>
+Several of the smaller mastabas have lately been disposed of to the
+various museums, as they are liable to damage if they remain where they
+stand; moreover, they are not of great value to the Museum of Cairo,
+but are of considerable value to various museums which do not already
+possess complete specimens of this class of tombs. A fine one, belonging
+to the chief Uerarina, is now exhibited in the Assyrian Basement of the
+British Museum; another is in the Museum of Leyden; a third at Berlin,
+and so on. Most of these are simple tombs of one chamber. In the centre
+of the rear wall we always see the <i>stele</i> or gravestone proper,
+built into the fabric of the tomb. Before this stood the low table
+of offerings with a bowl for oblations, and on either side a tall
+incense-altar. From the altar the divine smoke (<i>senetr</i>) arose when
+the <i>hen-ka</i>, or priest of the ghost (literally, "Ghost's Servant"),
+performed his duty of venerating the spirits of the deceased, while the
+<i>Kher-heb</i>, or cantor, enveloped in the mystic folds of the leopard-skin
+and with bronze incense-burner in hand, sang the holy litanies and
+spells which should propitiate the ghost and enable him to win his way
+to ultimate perfection in the next world.
+</p>
+<p>
+The stele is always in the form of a door with pyloni-form cornice. On
+either side is a figure of the deceased, and at the sides are carved
+prayers to Anubis, and at a later date to Osiris, who are implored to
+give the funerary meats and "everything good and pure on which the god
+there (as the dead man in the tomb has been constituted) lives;" often
+we find that the biography and list of honorary titles and dignities of
+the deceased have been added.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sakk�ra was used as a place of burial in the latest as well as in the
+earliest time. The Egyptians of the XXVIth Dynasty, wearied of the long
+decadence and devastating wars which had followed the glorious epoch of
+the conquering Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties, turned for
+a new and refreshing inspiration to the works of the most ancient kings,
+when Egypt was a simple self-contained country, holding no intercourse
+with outside lands, bearing no outside burdens for the sake of pomp and
+glory, and knowing nothing of the decay and decadence which follows in
+the train of earthly power and grandeur. They deliberately turned their
+backs on the worn-out and discredited imperial trappings of the Thothmes
+and Ramses, and they took the supposed primitive simplicity of the
+Snefrus, the Khufus, and the Ne-user-R�s for a model and ensampler to
+their lives. It was an age of conscious and intended archaism, and in
+pursuit of the archaistic ideal the Mem-phites of the Sa�te age had
+themselves buried in the ancient necropolis of Sakk�ra, side by side
+with their ancestors of the time of the Vth and VIth Dynasties. Several
+of these tombs have lately been discovered and opened, and fitted with
+modern improvements. One or two of them, of the Persian period, have
+wells (leading to the sepulchral chamber) of enormous depth, down which
+the modern tourist is enabled to descend by a spiral iron staircase. The
+Serapeum itself is lit with electricity, and in the Tombs of the Kings
+at Thebes nothing disturbs the silence but the steady thumping pulsation
+of the dynamo-engine which lights the ancient sepulchres of the
+Pharaohs. Thus do modern ideas and inventions help us to see and so to
+understand better the works of ancient Egypt. But it is perhaps a little
+too much like the Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. The interiors of
+the later tombs are often decorated with reliefs which imitate those of
+the early period, but with a kind of delicate grace which at once marks
+them for what they are, so that it is impossible to confound them with
+the genuine ancient originals from which they were adapted.
+</p>
+<p>
+Riding from Sakk�ra southwards to Dash�r, we pass on the way the
+gigantic stone mastaba known as the <i>Mastabat el-Fara'�n</i>, "Pharaoh's
+Bench." This was considered to be the tomb of the Vth Dynasty king,
+Unas, until his pyramid was found by Prof. Maspero at Sakk�ra. From its
+form it might be thought to belong to a monarch of the Hid Dynasty, but
+the great size of the stone blocks of which it is built seems to point
+rather to the XIIth. All attempts to penetrate its secret by actual
+excavation have been unavailing.
+</p>
+<p>
+Further south across the desert we see from the Mastabat el-Fara'�n
+four distinct pyramids, symmetrically arranged in two lines, two in each
+line. The two to the right are great stone erections of the usual
+type, like those of G�za and Abus�r, and the southernmost of them has a
+peculiar broken-backed appearance, due to the alteration of the angle
+of inclination of its sides during construction. Further, it is covered
+almost to the ground by the original casing of polished white limestone
+blocks, so that it gives a very good idea of the original appearance
+of the other pyramids, which have lost their casing. These two
+pyramids very probably belong to kings of the Hid Dynasty, as does the
+Step-Pyramid of Sakk�ra. They strongly resemble the G�za type, and
+the northernmost of the two looks very like an understudy of the Great
+Pyramid. It seems to mark the step in the development of the royal
+pyramid which was immediately followed by the Great Pyramid. But no
+excavations have yet proved the accuracy of this view. Both pyramids
+have been entered, but nothing has been found in them. It is very
+probable that one of them is the second pyramid of Snefru.
+</p>
+<p>
+The other two pyramids, those nearest the cultivation, are of very
+different appearance. They are half-ruined, they are black in colour,
+and their whole effect is quite different from that of the stone
+pyramids. For they are built of brick, not of stone. They are pyramids,
+it is true, but of a different material and of a different date from
+those which we have been describing. They are built above the sepulchres
+of kings of the XIIth Dynasty, the Theban house which transferred
+its residence northwards to the neighbourhood of the ancient Northern
+capital. We have, in fact, reached the end of the Old Kingdom at
+Sakk�ra; at Dash�r begin the sepulchres of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramids
+are still built, but they are not always of stone; brick is used,
+usually with stone in the interior. The general effect of these brick
+pyramids, when new, must have been indistinguishable from that of the
+stone ones, and even now, when it has become half-ruined, such a great
+brick pyramid as that of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Dash�r is not
+without impressiveness. After all, there is no reason why a brick
+building should be less admirable than a stone one. And in its own way
+the construction of such colossal masses of bricks as the two eastern
+pyramids of Dash�r must have been as arduous, even as difficult, as that
+of building a moderate-sized stone pyramid. The photograph of the brick
+pyramids of Dash�r on this page shows well the great size of these
+masses of brickwork, which are as impressive as any of the great brick
+structures of Babylonia and Assyria.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0006"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/109.jpg" height="632" width="490"
+alt="109.jpg Exterior of the Southern Brick Pyramid Of Dashur 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     XIITH DYNASTY. Excavated by M. de Morgan, 1895. This is the
+     secondary tomb of Amenemhat III; about 2200 B.C.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The XIIth Dynasty use of brick for the royal tombs was a return to the
+custom of earlier days, for from the time of Aha to that Tjeser, from
+the 1st Dynasty to the Hid, brick had been used for the building of the
+royal mastaba-tombs, out of which the pyramids had developed.
+</p>
+<p>
+At this point, where we take leave of the great pyramids of the Old
+Kingdom, we may notice the latest theory as to the building of these
+monuments, which has of late years been enunciated by Dr. Borchardt, and
+is now generally accepted. The great Prussian explorer Lepsius, when he
+examined the pyramids in the 'forties, came to the conclusion that each
+king, when he ascended the throne, planned a small pyramid for himself.
+This was built in a few years' time, and if his reign were short, or if
+he were unable to enlarge the pyramid for other reasons, it sufficed for
+his tomb. If, however, his reign seemed likely to be one of some length,
+after the first plan was completed he enlarged his pyramid by building
+another and a larger one around it and over it. Then again, when this
+addition was finished, and the king still reigned and was in possession
+of great resources, yet another coating, so to speak, was put on to the
+pyramid, and so on till colossal structures like the First and Second
+Pyramid of Giza, which, we know, belonged to kings who were unusually
+long-lived, were completed. And finally the aged monarch died, and was
+buried in the huge tomb which his long life and his great power had
+enabled him to erect. This view appeared eminently reasonable at the
+time, and it seemed almost as though we ought to be able to tell whether
+a king had reigned long or not by the size of his pyramid, and even
+to obtain a rough idea of the length of his reign by counting the
+successive coats or accretions which it had received, much as we tell
+the age of a tree by the rings in its bole. A pyramid seemed to have
+been constructed something after the manner of an onion or a Chinese
+puzzle-box.
+</p>
+
+<a name="image-0007"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+        <img width="100%"
+        src="images/111.jpg" alt="111.jpg the Pyramids of Giza During The Inundation.">
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Prof. P�trie, however, who examined the Griza pyramids in 1881, and
+carefully measured them all up and finally settled their trigonometrical
+relation, came to the conclusion that Lepsius's theory was entirely
+erroneous, and that every pyramid was built and now stands as it was
+originally planned. Dr.Borchardt, however, who is an architect by profession, has examined
+the pyramids again, and has come to the conclusion that Prof. P�trie's
+statement is not correct, and that there is an element of truth in
+Lepsius's hypothesis. He has shown that several of the pyramids, notably
+the First and Second at Giza, show unmistakable signs of a modified,
+altered, and enlarged plan; in fact, long-lived kings like Khufu seem
+to have added considerably to their pyramids and even to have entirely
+remodelled them on a larger scale. This has certainly been the case with
+the Great Pyramid. We can, then, accept Lepsius's theory as modified by
+Dr. Borchardt.
+</p>
+<p>
+Another interesting point has arisen in connection with the Great
+Pyramid. Considerable difference of opinion has always existed between
+Egyptologists and the professors of European archaeology with regard
+to the antiquity of the knowledge of iron in Egypt. The majority of
+the Egyptologists have always maintained, on the authority of the
+inscriptions, that iron was known to the ancient Egyptians from the
+earliest period. They argued that the word for a certain metal in old
+Egyptian was the same as the Coptic word for "iron." They stated that in
+the most ancient religious texts the Egyptians spoke of the firmament
+of heaven as made of this metal, and they came to the conclusion that it
+was because this metal was blue in colour, the hue of iron or steel; and
+they further pointed out that some of the weapons in the tomb-paintings
+were painted blue and others red, some being of iron, that is to
+say, others of copper or bronze. Finally they brought forward as
+incontrovertible evidence an actual fragment of worked iron, which had
+been found between two of the inner blocks, down one of the air-shafts,
+in the Great Pyramid. Here was an actual piece of iron of the time of
+the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C.
+</p>
+<p>
+This conclusion was never accepted by the students of the development of
+the use of metal in prehistoric Europe, when they came to know of it.
+No doubt their incredulity was partly due to want of appreciation of the
+Egyptological evidence, partly to disinclination to accept a conclusion
+which did not at all agree with the knowledge they had derived from
+their own study of prehistoric Europe. In Southern Europe it was quite
+certain that iron did not come into use till about 1000 B.C.; in Central
+Europe, where the discoveries at Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut exhibit
+the transition from the Age of Bronze to that of Iron, about 800 B.C.
+The exclusively Iron Age culture of La T�ne cannot be dated earlier than
+the eighth century, if as early as that. How then was it possible that,
+if iron had been known to the Egyptians as early as 3500 B.C., its
+knowledge should not have been communicated to the Europeans until over
+two thousand years later? No; iron could not have been really known to
+the Egyptians much before 1000 B.C. and the Egyptological evidence was
+all wrong. This line of argument was taken by the distinguished
+Swedish archaeologist, Prof. Oscar Montelius, of Upsala, whose previous
+experience in dealing with the antiquities of Northern Europe, great as
+it was, was hardly sufficient to enable him to pronounce with authority
+on a point affecting far-away African Egypt. And when dealing with Greek
+prehistoric antiquities Prof. Montelius's views have hardly met with
+that ready agreement which all acknowledge to be his due when he is
+giving us the results of his ripe knowledge of Northern antiquities. He
+has, in fact, forgotten, as most "prehistoric" archaeologists do forget,
+that the antiquities of Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, the Semites,
+the bronze-workers of Benin, the miners of Zimbabwe, and the Ohio
+mound-builders are not to be treated all together as a whole, and that
+hard and fast lines of development cannot be laid down for them, based
+on the experience of Scandinavia.
+</p>
+<p>
+We may perhaps trace this misleading habit of thought to the influence
+of the professors of natural science over the students of Stone Age and
+Bronze Age antiquities. Because nature moves by steady progression and
+develops on even lines&mdash;<i>nihil facit per sal-tum</i>&mdash;it seems to have been
+assumed that the works of man's hands have developed in the same way,
+in a regular and even scheme all over the world. On this supposition it
+would be impossible for the great discovery of the use of iron to have
+been known in Egypt as early as 3500 B.C. for this knowledge to have
+remained dormant there for two thousand years, and then to have
+been suddenly communicated about 1000 B.C. to Greece, spreading with
+lightning-like rapidity over Europe and displacing the use of bronze
+everywhere. Yet, as a matter of fact, the work of man does develop
+in exactly this haphazard way, by fits and starts and sudden leaps of
+progress after millennia of stagnation. Throwsback to barbarism are just
+as frequent. The analogy of natural evolution is completely inapplicable
+and misleading.
+</p>
+<p>
+Prof. Montelius, however, following the "evolutionary" line of thought,
+believed that because iron was not known in Europe till about 1000 B.C.
+it could not have been known in Egypt much earlier; and in an important
+article which appeared in the Swedish ethnological journal <i>Ymer</i> in
+1883, entitled <i>Bronsaldrn i Egypten</i> ("The Bronze Age in Egypt"), he
+essayed to prove the contrary arguments of the Egyptologists wrong. His
+main points were that the colour of the weapons in the frescoes was of
+no importance, as it was purely conventional and arbitrary, and that the
+evidence of the piece of iron from the Great Pyramid was insufficiently
+authenticated, and therefore valueless, in the absence of other definite
+archaeological evidence in the shape of iron of supposed early date. To
+this article the Swedish Egyptologist, Dr. Piehl, replied in the same
+periodical, in an article entitled <i>Bronsaldem i Egypten</i>, in which he
+traversed Prof. Montelius's conclusions from the Egyptological point of
+view, and adduced other instances of the use of iron in Egypt, all,
+it is true, later than the time of the IVth Dynasty. But this protest
+received little notice, owing to the fact that it remained buried in
+a Swedish periodical, while Prof. Montelius's original article was
+translated into French, and so became well-known.
+</p>
+<p>
+For the time Prof. Montelius's conclusions were generally accepted, and
+when the discoveries of the prehistoric antiquities were made by M. de
+Morgan, it seemed more probable than ever that Egypt had gone through a
+regular progressive development from the Age of Stone through those of
+copper and bronze to that of iron, which was reached about 1100 or 1000
+B.C. The evidence of the iron fragment from the Great Pyramid was put on
+one side, in spite of the circumstantial account of its discovery
+which had been given by its finders. Even Prof. P�trie, who in 1881
+had accepted the pyramid fragment as undoubtedly contemporary with that
+building, and had gone so far as to adduce additional evidence for its
+authenticity, gave way, and accepted Montelius's view, which held its
+own until in 1902 it was directly controverted by a discovery of Prof.
+P�trie at Abydos. This discovery consisted of an undoubted fragment of
+iron found in conjunction with bronze tools of VIth Dynasty date; and it
+settled the matter.* The VIth Dynasty date of this piece of iron, which
+was more probably worked than not (since it was buried with tools), was
+held to be undoubted by its discoverer and by everybody else, and, if
+this were undoubted, the IVth Dynasty date of the Great Pyramid fragment
+was also fully established. The discoverers of the earlier fragment had
+no doubt whatever as to its being contemporary with the pyramid, and
+were supported in this by Prof. P�trie in 1881. Therefore it is now
+known to be the fact that iron was used by the Egyptians as early as
+3500 B.C.**
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * See H. R. Hall's note on "The Early Use of Iron in Egypt,"
+     in <i>Man</i> (the organ of the Anthropological Society of
+     London), iii (1903), No. 86.
+
+     ** Prof. Montelius objected to these conclusions in a review
+     of the British Museum "Guide to the Antiquities of the
+     Bronze Age," which was published in Man, 1005 (Jan.), No 7.
+     For an answer to these objections, see Hall, ibid., No. 40.
+</pre>
+<p>
+It would thus appear that though the Egyptians cannot be said to have
+used iron generally and so to have entered the "Iron Age" before about
+1300 B.C. (reign of Ramses II), yet iron was well known to them and had
+been used more than occasionally by them for tools and building purposes
+as early as the time of the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C. Certainly
+dated examples of its use occur under the IVth, VIth, and XIIIth
+Dynasties. Why this knowledge was not communicated to Europe before
+about 1000 B.C. we cannot say, nor are Egyptologists called upon to find
+the reason. So the Great Pyramid has played an interesting part in the
+settlement of a very important question.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was supposed by Prof. P�trie that the piece of iron from the Great
+Pyramid had been part of some arrangement employed for raising the
+stones into position. Herodotus speaks of the machines, which were used
+to raise the stones, as made of little pieces of wood. The generally
+accepted explanation of his meaning used to be that a small crane or
+similar wooden machine was used for hoisting the stone by means
+of pulley and rope; but M. Legrain, the director of the works of
+restoration in the Great Temple of Karnak, has explained it differently.
+Among the "foundation deposits" of the XVIIIth Dynasty at D�r el-Bahari
+and elsewhere, beside the little plaques with the king's name and the
+model hoes and vases, was usually found an enigmatic wooden object like
+a small cradle, with two sides made of semicircular pieces of wood,
+joined along the curved portion by round wooden bars. M. Legrain has now
+explained this as a model of the machine used to raise heavy stones from
+tier to tier of a pyramid or other building, and illustrations of
+the method of its use may be found in Choisy's <i>Art de B�tir chez les
+anciens Egyptiens</i>. There is little doubt that this primitive machine
+is that to which Herodotus refers as having been used in the erection of
+the pyramids.
+</p>
+<p>
+The later historian, Diodorus, also tells us that great mounds or ramps
+of earth were used as well, and that the stones were dragged up these
+to the requisite height. There is no doubt that this statement also is
+correct. We know that the Egyptians did build in this very way, and
+the system has been revived by M. Legrain for his work at Karnak, where
+still exist the remains of the actual mounds and ramps by which the
+great western pylon was erected in Ptolema�c times. Work carried on
+in this way is slow and expensive, but it is eminently suited to the
+country and understood by the people. If they wish to put a great stone
+architrave weighing many tons across the top of two columns, they do not
+hoist it up into position; they rear a great ramp or embankment of earth
+against the two pillars, half-burying them in the process, then drag
+the architrave up the ramp by means of ropes and men, and put it into
+position. Then the ramp is cleared away. This is the ancient system
+which is now followed at Karnak, and it is the system by which, with the
+further aid of the wooden machines, the Great Pyramid and its compeers
+were erected in the days of the IVth Dynasty. <i>Plus cela change, plus
+c'est la m�me chose</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+The brick pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty were erected in the same way,
+for the Egyptians had no knowledge of the modern combination of wooden
+scaffolding and ladders. There was originally a small stone pyramid of
+the same dynasty at Dash�r, half-way between the two brick ones, but
+this has now almost disappeared. It belonged to the king Amenemhat II,
+while the others belonged, the northern to Usertsen (Sen-usret) III, the
+southern to Amenemhat III. Both these latter monarchs had other tombs
+elsewhere, Usertsen a great rock-cut gallery and chamber in the cliff at
+Abydos, Amenemhat a pyramid not very far to the south, at Hawara, close
+to the Fayy�m. It is uncertain whether the Hawara pyramid or that of
+Dash�r was the real burial-place of the king, as at neither place is his
+name found alone. At Hawara it is found in conjunction with that of his
+daughter, the queen-regnant Se-bekneferur� (Skemiophris), at Dash�r with
+that of a king Auabr� Hor, who was buried in a small tomb near that of
+the king, and adjoining the tombs of the king's children. Who King Hor
+was we do not quite know. His name is not given in the lists, and was
+unknown until M. de Morgan's discoveries at Dash�r. It is most probable
+that he was a prince who was given royal honours during the lifetime of
+Amenemhat III, whom he predeceased.* In the beautiful wooden statue
+of him found in his tomb, which is now in the Cairo Museum, he is
+represented as quite a youth. Amenemhat III was certainly succeeded by
+Amenemhat IV, and it is impossible to intercalate Hor between them.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * See below, p. 121. Possibly he was a son of Amenemhat III.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The identification of the owners of the three western pyramids of Dash�r
+is due to M. de Morgan and his assistants, Messrs. Legrain and J�quier,
+who excavated them from 1894 till 1896. The northern pyramid, that of
+Usertsen (Senusret) III, is not so well preserved as the southern. It is
+more worn away, and does not present so imposing an appearance. In
+both pyramids the outer casing of white stone has entirely disappeared,
+leaving only the bare black bricks. Each stood in the midst of a great
+necropolis of dignitaries of the period, as was usually the case.
+Many of the mastabas were excavated by M. de Morgan. Some are of older
+periods than the XIIth Dynasty, one belonging to a priest of King
+Snefru, Aha-f-ka ("Ghost-fighter"), who bore the additional titles of
+"director of prophets and general of infantry." There were pluralists
+even in those days. And the distinction between the privy councillor
+(Geheimrat) and real privy councillor (Wirk-licher-Greheimrat) was quite
+familiar; for we find it actually made, many an old Egyptian officially
+priding himself in his tomb on having been a real privy councillor! The
+Egyptian bureaucracy was already ancient and had its survivals and its
+anomalies even as early as the time of the pyramid-builders.
+</p>
+<p>
+In front of the pyramid of Usertsen (Senusret) III at one time stood the
+usual funerary temple, but it has been totally destroyed. By the side of
+the pyramid were buried some of the princesses of the royal family, in
+a series of tombs opening out of a subterranean gallery, and in this
+gallery were found the wonderful jewels of the princesses Sit-hathor and
+Merit, which are among the greatest treasures of the Cairo Museum. Those
+who have not seen them can obtain a perfect idea of their appearance
+from the beautiful water-colour paintings of them by M. Legrain, which
+are published in M. de Morgan's work on the "Fouilles � Dahchour"
+(Vienna, 1895). Altogether one hundred and seven objects were recovered,
+consisting of all kinds of jewelry in gold and coloured stones. Among
+the most beautiful are the great "pectorals," or breast-ornaments, in
+the shape of pylons, with the names of Usertsen II, Usertsen III, and
+Amenemhat III; the names are surrounded by hawks standing on the sign
+for gold, gryphons, figures of the king striking down enemies, etc., all
+in <i>cloisonn�</i> work, with beautiful stones such as lapis lazuli, green
+felspar, and carnelian taking the place of coloured enamels. The massive
+chains of golden beads and cowries are also very remarkable. These
+treasures had been buried in boxes in the floor of the subterranean
+gallery, and had luckily escaped the notice of plunderers, and so by a
+fortunate chance have survived to tell us what the Egyptian jewellers
+could do in the days of the XIIth Dynasty. Here also were found two
+great Nile barges, full-sized boats, with their oars and other gear
+complete. They also may be seen in the Museum of Cairo. It can only be
+supposed that they had served as the biers of the royal mummies, and had
+been brought up in state on sledges. The actual royal chamber was not
+found, although a subterranean gallery was driven beneath the centre of
+the pyramid.
+</p>
+<p>
+The southern brick pyramid was constructed in the same way as the
+northern one. At the side of it were also found the tombs of members of
+the royal house, including that of the king Hor, already mentioned, with
+its interesting contents. The remains of the mummy of this ephemeral
+monarch, known only from his tomb, were also found. The entrails of the
+king were placed in the usual "canopic jars," which were sealed with the
+seal of Amenemhat III; it is thus that we know that Hor died before him.
+In many of the inscriptions of this king, on his coffin and stelo, a
+peculiarly affected manner of writing the hieroglyphs is found,&mdash;the
+birds are without their legs, the snake has no tail, the bee no head.
+Birds are found without their legs in other inscriptions of this period;
+it was a temporary fashion and soon discarded.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the tomb of a princess named Nubhetep, near at hand, were found more
+jewels of the same style as those of Sit-hathor and Merit. The pyramid
+itself contained the usual passages and chambers, which were reached
+with much difficulty and considerable tunnelling by M. de Morgan. In
+fact, the search for the royal death-chambers lasted from December 5,
+1894, till March 17, 1895, when the excavators' gallery finally struck
+one of the ancient passages, which were found to be unusually extensive,
+contrasting in this respect with the northern pyramid. The royal
+tomb-chamber had, of course, been emptied of what it contained. It must
+be remembered that, in any case, it is probable that the king was not
+actually buried here, but in the pyramid of Hawara.
+</p>
+<p>
+The pyramid of Amenemhat II, which lies between the two brick pyramids,
+was built entirely of stone. Nothing of it remains above ground, but the
+investigation of the subterranean portions showed that it was remarkable
+for the massiveness of its stones and the care with which the masonry
+was executed. The same characteristics are found in the dependent tombs
+of the princesses Ha and Khnumet, in which more jewelry was found. This
+splendid stonework is characteristic of the Middle Kingdom; we find it
+also in the temple of Mentuhetep III at Thebes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Some distance south of Dash�r is M�d�m, where the pyramid of Sneferu
+reigns in solitude, and beyond this again is Lisht, where in the
+years 1894-6 MM. Gautier and J�quier excavated the pyramid of Usertsen
+(Sen-usret) I. The most remarkable find was a cache of the seated
+statues of the king in white limestone, in absolutely perfect condition.
+They were found lying on their sides, just as they had been hidden. Six
+figures of the king in the form of Osiris, with the face painted red,
+were also found. Such figures seem to have been regularly set up in
+front of a royal sepulchre; several were found in front of the funerary
+temple of Mentu-hetep III, Thebes, which we shall describe later. A
+fine altar of gray granite, with representations in relief of the nomes
+bringing offerings, was also recovered. The pyramid of Lisht itself is
+not built of bricks, like those of Dash�r, but of stone. It was not,
+however, erected in so solid a fashion as those of earlier days at G�za
+or Abus�r, and nothing is left of it now but a heap of d�bris. The XIIth
+Dynasty architects built walls of magnificent masonry, as we have
+seen, and there is no doubt that the stone casing of their pyramids
+was originally very fine, but the interior is of brick or rubble; the
+wonderful system of building employed by kings of the IVth Dynasty at
+Giza was not practised.
+</p>
+<p>
+South of Lisht is Illahun, and at the entrance to the province of the
+Fayy�m, and west of this, nearer the Fayy�m, is Hawara, where Prof.
+Petrie excavated the pyramids of Usertsen (Senusret) II and Amenem-hat
+III. His discoveries have already been described by Prof. Maspero in his
+history, so that it will suffice here merely to compare them with the
+results of M. de Morgan's later work at Dash�r and that of MM. Gautier
+and J�quier at Lisht, to note recent conclusions in connection with
+them, and to describe the newest discoveries in the same region.
+</p>
+<p>
+Both pyramids are of brick, lined with stone, like those of Dash�r, with
+some differences of internal construction, since stone walls exist in
+the interior. The central chambers and passages leading to them were
+discovered; and in both cases the passages are peculiarly complex, with
+dumb chambers, great stone portcullises, etc., in order to mislead
+and block the way to possible plunderers. The extraordinary sepulchral
+chamber of the Hawara pyramid, which, though it is over twenty-two feet
+long by ten feet wide over all, is hewn out of one solid block of hard
+yellow quartzite, gives some idea of the remarkable facility of dealing
+with huge stones and the love of utilizing them which is especially
+characteristic of the XIIth Dynasty. The pyramid of Hawara was provided
+with a funerary temple the like of which had never been known in Egypt
+before and was never known afterwards. It was a huge building far larger
+than the pyramid itself, and built of fine limestone and crystalline
+white quartzite, in a style eminently characteristic of the XIIth
+Dynasty. In actual superficies this temple covered an extent of ground
+within which the temples of Karnak, Luxor, and the Ramesseum, at Thebes,
+could have stood, but has now almost entirely disappeared, having been
+used as a quarry for two thousand years. In Roman times this destroying
+process had already begun, but even then the building was still
+magnificent, and had been noted with wonder by all the Greek visitors to
+Egypt from the time of Herodotus downwards. Even before his day it
+had received the name of the "Labyrinth," on account of its supposed
+resemblance to the original labyrinth in Crete.
+</p>
+<p>
+That the Hawara temple was the Egyptian labyrinth was pointed out by
+Lepsius in the 'forties of the last century. Within the last two or
+three years attention has again been drawn to it by Mr. Arthur Evans's
+discovery of the Cretan labyrinth itself in the shape of the Minoan
+or early Mycen�an palace of Knossos, near Candia in Crete. It is
+impossible to enter here into all the arguments by which it has been
+proved that the Knossian palace is the veritable labyrinth of the
+Minotaur legend, nor would it be strictly germane to our subject were we
+to do so; but it may suffice to say here that the word
+
+<a name="image-0008"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<img src="images/125.jpg" height="20" width="107"
+alt="125.jpg (greek Word) ">
+
+has been proved to be of Greek-or rather of pre-Hellenic-origin, and
+would mean in Karian "Place of the Double-Axe," like La-braunda in
+Karia, where Zeus was depicted with a double axe (labrys) in his hand.
+The non-Aryan, "Asianic," group of languages, to which certainly Lycian
+and probably Karian belong, has been shown by the German philologer
+Kretschmer to have spread over Greece into Italy in the period before
+the Aryan Greeks entered Hellas, and to have left undoubted traces of
+its presence in Greek place-names and in the Greek language itself.
+Before the true Hellenes reached Crete, an Asianic dialect must have
+been spoken there, and to this language the word "labyrinth" must
+originally have belonged. The classical labyrinth was "in the Knossian
+territory." The palace of Knossos was emphatically the chief seat of the
+worship of a god whose emblem was the double-axe; it was the Knossian
+"Place of the Double-Axe," the Cretan "Labyrinth."
+</p>
+<p>
+It used to be supposed that the Cretan labyrinth had taken its name from
+the Egyptian one, and the, word itself was supposed to be of Egyptian
+origin. An Egyptian etymology was found for it as "<i>Ro-pi-ro-henet</i>,"
+"Temple-mouth-canal," which might be interpreted, with some violence to
+Egyptian construction, as "The temple at the mouth of the canal," i.e.
+the Bahr Yusuf, which enters the Fayy�m at Hawara. But unluckily this
+word would have been pronounced by the natives of the vicinity as
+"Elphilahune," which is not very much like
+<a name="image-0009"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<img src="images/126.jpg" height="21" width="110"
+alt="126.jpg (greek Word) ">
+
+"<i>Ro-pi-ro-henet</i>" is, in fact, a mere figment of the philological
+imagination, and cannot be proved ever to have existed. The element
+<i>Ro-henet</i>, "canal-mouth" (according to the local pronunciation of the
+Fayy�m and Middle Egypt, called <i>La-hun�</i>), is genuine; it is the
+origin of the modern Illahun (<i>el-Lahun</i>), which is situated at the
+"canal-mouth." However, now that we know that the word labyrinth can be
+explained satisfactorily with the help of Karian, as evidently of Greek
+(pre-Aryan) origin, and as evidently the original name of the Knossian
+labyrinth, it is obvious that there is no need to seek a far-fetched
+explanation of the word in Egypt, and to suppose that the Greeks called
+the Cretan labyrinth after the Egyptian one.
+</p>
+<p>
+The contrary is evidently the case. Greek visitors to Egypt found a
+resemblance between the great Egyptian building, with its numerous halls
+and corridors, vast in extent, and the Knossian palace. Even if very
+little of the latter was visible in the classical period, as seems
+possible, yet the site seems always to have been kept holy and free from
+later building till Roman times, and we know that the tradition of the
+mazy halls and corridors of the labyrinth was always clear, and was
+evidently based on a vivid reminiscence. Actually, one of the most
+prominent characteristics of the Knossian palace is its mazy and
+labyrinthine system of passages and chambers. The parallel between the
+two buildings, which originally caused the Greek visitors to give the
+pyramid-temple of Hawara the name of "labyrinth," has been traced still
+further. The white limestone walls and the shining portals of "Parian
+marble," described by Strabo as characteristic of the Egyptian
+labyrinth, have been compared with the shining white selenite or gypsum
+used at Knossos, and certain general resemblances between the Greek
+architecture of the Minoan age and the almost contemporary Egyptian
+architecture of the XIIth Dynasty have been pointed out.* Such
+resemblances may go to swell the amount of evidence already known, which
+tells us that there was a close connection between Egyptian and Minoan
+art and civilization, established at least as early as 2500 B.C.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * See H. R. Hall, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1905 (Pt.
+     ii). The Temple of the Sphinx at G�za may also be compared
+     with those of Hawara and Knossos. It seems most probable
+     that the Temple of the Sphinx is a XIIth Dynasty building.
+</pre>
+<p>
+For it must be remembered that within the last few years we have learned
+from the excavations in Crete a new chapter of ancient history, which,
+it might almost seem, shows us Greece and Egypt in regular communication
+from nearly the beginnings of Egyptian history. As the excavations which
+have told us this were carried on in Crete, not in Egypt, to describe
+them does not lie within the scope of this book, though a short sketch
+of their results, so far as they affect Egyptian history in later days,
+is given in Chapter VII. Here it may suffice to say that, as far as
+the early period is concerned, Egypt and Crete were certainly in
+communication in the time of the XIIth Dynasty, and quite possibly in
+that of the VIth or still earlier. We have IIId Dynasty Egyptian vases
+from Knossos, which were certainly not imported in later days, for no
+ancient nation had antiquarian tastes till the time of the Sa�tes in
+Egypt and of the Romans still later. In fact, this communication seems
+to go so far back in time that we are gradually being led to perceive
+the possibility that the Minoan culture of Greece was in its origin an
+offshoot from that of primeval Egypt, probably in early Neolithic times.
+That is to say, the Neolithic Greeks and Neolithic Egyptians were both
+members of the same "Mediterranean" stock, which quite possibly may have
+had its origin in Africa, and a portion of which may have crossed the
+sea to Europe in very early times, taking with it the seeds of culture
+which in Egypt developed in the Egyptian way, in Greece in the Greek
+way. Actual communication and connection may not have been maintained
+at first, and probably they were not. Prof. Petrie thinks otherwise, and
+would see in the boats painted on the predynastic Egyptian vases (see
+Chapter I) the identical galleys by which, in late Neolithic
+times, commerce between Crete and Egypt was carried on across the
+Mediterranean. It is certain, however, that these boats are ordinary
+little river craft, the usual Nile <i>fel�kas</i> and <i>gyassas</i> of the time;
+they are depicted together with emblems of the desert and cultivated
+land,-ostriches, antelopes, hills, and palm-trees,-and the thoroughly
+inland and Upper Egyptian character of the whole design springs to the
+eye. There can be no doubt whatever that the predynastic boats were not
+seagoing galleys.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was probably not till the time of the pyramid-builders that
+connection between the Greek Mediterraneans and the Nilotes was
+re-established. Thence-forward it increased, and in the time of the
+XIIth Dynasty, when the labyrinth of Amenemhat III was built, there
+seems to have been some kind of more or less regular communication
+between the two countries.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is certain that artistic ideas were exchanged between them at this
+period. How communication was carried on we do not know, but it was
+probably rather by way of Cyprus and the Syrian coast than directly
+across the open sea. We shall revert to this point when we come to
+describe the connection between Crete and Egypt in the time of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, when Cretan ambassadors visited the Egyptian court and
+were depicted in tomb paintings at Thebes. Between the time of the XIIth
+Dynasty and that of the XVIIIth this connection seems to have been very
+considerably strengthened; for at Knossos have been found an Egyptian
+statuette of an Egyptian named Abnub, who from his name must have lived
+about the end of the XIIIth Dynasty, and the top of an alabastron with
+the royal name of Khian, one of the Hyksos kings.
+</p>
+<p>
+Quite close to Hawara, at Illahun, in the ruins of the town which was
+built by Usertsen's workmen when they were building his pyramid, Prof.
+Petrie found fragments of pottery of types which we now know well from
+excavations in Crete and Cyprus, though they were then unknown. They are
+fragments of the polychrome Cretan ware called, after the name of the
+place where it was first found in Crete, Kamares ware, and of a black
+ware ornamented with small punctures, which are often filled up with
+white. This latter ware has been found elsewhere associated with XIIIth
+Dynasty antiquities. The former is known to belong in Crete to the
+"early Minoan" period, long anterior to the "late Minoan" or "Palace"
+period, which was contemporary with the Egyptian XVIIIth Dynasty.
+We have here another interesting proof of a connection between XIIth
+Dynasty Egypt and early Minoan Crete. The later connection, under the
+XVIIIth and following dynasties, is also illustrated in the same reign
+by Prof. Petrie's finds of late Mycenaean objects and foreign graves at
+Medinet Gurob.*
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * One man who was buried here bore the name An-Tursha,
+     "Pillar of the Tursha." The Tursha were a people of the
+     Mediterranean, possibly Tylissians of Crete.
+</pre>
+<p>
+These excavations at Hawara, Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob were carried out
+in the years 1887-9. Since then Prof. Petrie and his co-workers have
+revisited the same district, and Gurob has been re-examined (in 1904)
+by Messrs. Loat and Ayrton, who discovered there a shrine devoted to
+the worship of fish. This work was carried on at the same time as Prof.
+Petrie's main excavation for the Egypt Exploration Fund at Annas, or
+Ahnas-yet el-Medina, the site of the ancient Henensu, the Herakleopolis
+of the Greeks. Prof. Naville had excavated there for the Egypt
+Exploration Fund in 1892, but had not completely cleared the temple.
+This work was now taken up by Prof. Petrie, who laid the whole building
+bare. It is dedicated to Hershefi, the local deity of Herakleopolis.
+This god, who was called Ar-saphes by the Greeks, and identified with
+Herakles, was in fact a form of Horus with the head of a ram; his name
+means "Terrible-Face." The greater part of the temple dates to the time
+of the XIXth Dynasty, and nothing of the early period is left. We know,
+however, that the Middle Kingdom was the flourishing period of the
+city of Hershefi. For a comparatively brief period, between the age of
+Memphite hegemony and that of Theban dominion, Herakleopolis was the
+capital city of Egypt. The kings of the IXth and Xth Dynasties were
+Herakleopolites, though we know little of them. One, Kheti, is said to
+have been a great tyrant. Another, Nebkaur�, is known only as a figure
+in the "Legend of the Eloquent Peasant," a classical story much in vogue
+in later days. Another, Merikar�, is a more real personage, for we have
+contemporary records of his days in the inscriptions of the tombs at
+Asy�t, from which we see that the princes of Thebes were already wearing
+down the Northerners, in spite of the resistance of the adherents of
+Herakleopolis, among whom the most valiant were the chiefs of Asy�t. The
+civil war eventuated in favour of Thebes, and the Theban XIth Dynasty
+assumed the double crown. The sceptre passed from Memphis and the North,
+and Thebes enters upon the scene of Egyptian history.
+</p>
+<p>
+With this event the Nile-land also entered upon a new era of
+development. The metropolis of the kingdom was once more shifted to the
+South, and, although the kings of the XIIth Dynasty actually resided
+in the North, their Theban origin was never forgotten, and Thebes
+was regarded as the chief city of the country. The XIth Dynasty kings
+actually reigned at Thebes, and there the later kings of the XIIIth
+Dynasty retired after the conquest of the Hyksos. The fact that with
+Thebes were associated all the heroic traditions of the struggle against
+the Hyksos ensured the final stability of the capital there when the
+hated Semites were finally driven out, and the national kingdom
+was re-established in its full extent from north to south. But for
+occasional intervals, as when Akhunaten held his court at Tell el-Amarna
+and Ramses II at Tanis, Thebes remained the national capital for six
+hundred years, till the time of the XXIId Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+Another great change which differentiates the Middle Kingdom
+(XIth-XIIIth Dynasties) from the Old Kingdom was caused by Egypt's
+coming into contact with other outside nations at this period. During
+the whole history of the Old Kingdom, Egyptian relations with the outer
+world had been nil. We have some inkling of occasional connection
+with the Mediterranean peoples, the <i>Ha-nebu</i> or Northerners; we have
+accounts of wars with the people of Sinai and other Bedawin and negroes;
+and expeditions were also sent to the land of Punt (Somaliland) by way
+of the Upper Nile. But we have not the slightest hint of any connection
+with, or even knowledge of, the great nations of the Euphrates valley
+or the peoples of Palestine. The Babylonian king Nar�m-Sin invaded the
+Sinaitic peninsula (the land of Magan) as early as 3750 b. c, about
+the time of the IIId Egyptian Dynasty. The great King Tjeser, of that
+dynasty, also invaded Sinai, and so did Snefru, the last king of the
+dynasty. But we have no hint of any collision between Babylonians and
+Egyptians at that time, nor do either of them betray the slightest
+knowledge of one another's existence. It can hardly be that the two
+civilized peoples of the world in those days were really absolutely
+ignorant of each other, but we have no trace of any connection between
+them, other than the possible one before the founding of the Egyptian
+monarchy.
+</p>
+<p>
+This early connection, however, is very problematical. We have seen that
+there seems to be in early Egyptian civilization an element ultimately
+of Babylonian origin, and that there are two theories as to how it
+reached Egypt. One supposes that it was brought by a Semitic people of
+Arab affinities (represented by the modern Grallas), who crossed the
+Straits of Bab el-Man-deb and reached Egypt either by way of the Wadi
+Hammamat or by the Upper Nile. The other would bring it across the
+Isthmus of Suez to the Delta, where, at Heliopolis, there certainly
+seems to have been a settlement of a Semitic type of very ancient
+culture. In both cases we should have Semites bringing Babylonian
+culture to Egypt. This, as we may remind the reader, was not itself of
+Semitic origin, but was a development due to a non-Semitic people,
+the Sumerians as they are called, who, so far as we know, were the
+aboriginal inhabitants of Babylonia. The Sumerian language was of
+agglutinative type, radically distinct both from the pure Semitic idioms
+and from Egyptian. The Babylonian elements of culture which the early
+Semitic invaders brought with them to Egypt were, then, ultimately of
+Sumerian origin. Sumerian civilization had profoundly influenced the
+Semitic tribes for centuries before the Semitic conquest of Babylonia,
+and when the Sumerians became more and more a conquered race, finally
+amalgamating with their conquerors and losing their racial and
+linguistic individuality, they were conquered by an alien race but not
+by an alien culture. For the culture of the Semites was Sumerian, the
+Semitic races owing their civilization to the Sumerians. That is as
+much as to say that a great deal of what we call Semitic culture is
+fundamentally non-Semitic.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the earliest days, then, Egypt received elements of Sumerian culture
+through a Semitic medium, which introduced Semitic elements into the
+language of the people, and a Semitic racial strain. It is possible.
+that both theories as to the routes of these primeval conquerors are
+true, and that two waves of Semites entered the Nile valley towards
+the close of the Neolithic period, one by way of the Upper Nile or Wadi
+Hammamat, the other by way of Heliopolis.
+</p>
+<p>
+After the reconsolidation of the Egyptian people, with perhaps an
+autocratic class of Semitic origin and a populace of indigenous Nilotic
+race, we have no trace of further connection with the far-away centre of
+Semitic culture in Babylonia till the time of the Theban hegemony.
+Under the XIIth Dynasty we see Egyptians in friendly relations with the
+Bedawin of Idumsea and Southern Palestine. Thus Sanehat, the younger son
+of Amenemhat I, when the death of his royal father was announced, fled
+from the new king Usertsen (Senusret) into Palestine, and there married
+the daughter of the chief Ammuanshi and became a Syrian chief himself,
+only finally returning to Egypt as an old man on the assurance of the
+royal pardon and favour. We have in the reign of Usertsen (Senusret) II
+the famous visit of the Arab chief Abisha (Ab�shu') with his following
+to the court of Khnumhetep, the prince of the Oryx nome in Middle Egypt,
+as we see it depicted on the walls of Khnumhetep's tomb at Beni Hasan.
+We see Usertsen (Senusret) III invading Palestine to chastise the land
+of Sekmem and the vile Syrians.*
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * We know of this campaign from the interesting historical
+     stele of the general Sebek-khu (who took part in it), which
+     was found during Mr. Garstang's excavations at Abydos, not
+     previously referred to above. They were carried out in 1900,
+     and resulted in the complete clearance of a part of the
+     great cemetery which had been created during the XIIth
+     Dynasty. The group of objects from the tombs of this
+     cemetery, and those of XVIIIth Dynasty tombs also found, is
+     especially valuable as showing the styles of objects in use
+     at these two periods (see Garstang, el-Ardbah, 1901).
+</pre>
+<p>
+The arm of Egypt was growing longer, and its weight was being felt in
+regions where it had previously been entirely unknown. Eventually the
+collision came. Egypt collided with an Asiatic power, and got the worst
+of the encounter. So much the worse that the Theban monarchy of the
+Middle Kingdom was overthrown, and Northern Egypt was actually conquered
+by the Asiatic foreigners and ruled by a foreign house for several
+centuries. Who these conquering Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were no
+recent discovery has told us. An old idea was that they were Mongols. It
+was supposed that the remarkable faces of the sphinxes of Tanis, now
+in the Cairo Museum, which bore the names of Hyksos kings, were of
+Mongolian type, as also those of two colossal royal heads discovered
+by M. Naville at Bubastis. But M. Gol�nischeff has now shown that these
+heads are really those of XIIth Dynasty kings, and not of Hyksos at all.
+Messrs. Newberry and Garstang have lately endeavoured to show that this
+type was foreign, and probably connected with that of the Kheta, or
+Hittites, of Northern Syria, who came into prominence as enemies of
+Egypt at a later period. They think that the type was introduced into
+the Egyptian royal family by Nefret, the queen of Usertsen (Senusret)
+II, whom they suppose to have been a Hittite princess. At the same time
+they think it probable that the type was also that of the Hyksos, whom
+they consider to have been practically Hittites. They therefore revive
+the theory of de Cara, which connects the Hyksos with the Hittites and
+these with the Pelasgi and Tyrseni.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is a very interesting theory, which, when carried out to its
+logical conclusion, would connect the Hyksos and Hittites racially with
+the pre-Hellenic "Minoan" Mycenseans of Greece, as well as with the
+Etruscans of Italy. But there is little of certainty in it. It is by no
+means impossible that we may eventually come to know that the Hittites
+(<i>Kheta</i>, the <i>Khatte</i> of the Assyrians) and other tribes of Asia
+Minor were racially akin to the "Minoans" of Greece, but the connection
+between the Hyksos and the Hittites is to seek. The countenances of the
+Kheta on the Egyptian monuments of Ramses II's time have an angular
+cast, and so have those of the Tanis sphinxes, of Queen Nefret, of
+the Bubastis statues, and the statues of Usertsen (Senusret) III
+and Amenemhat III. We might then suppose, with Messrs. Newberry and
+Garstang, that Nefret was a Kheta princess, who gave her peculiar racial
+traits to her son Usertsen (Senusret) III and his son Amenem-hat, were
+it not far more probable that the resemblance between this peculiar
+XIIth Dynasty type and the Kheta face is purely fortuitous.
+</p>
+<p>
+There is really no reason to suppose that the type of face presented by
+Nefret, Usertsen, and Amenemhat is not purely Egyptian. It may be seen
+in many a modern fellah, and the truth probably is that the sculptors
+have in the case of these rulers very faithfully and carefully depicted
+their portraits, and that their faces happen to have been of a rather
+hard and forbidding type. But, if we grant the contention of Messrs.
+Newberry and Garstang for the moment, where is the connection between
+these XIIth Dynasty kings and the Hyksos? All the Tanite monuments with
+this peculiar facial type which would be considered Hyksos are certainly
+of the XIIth Dynasty. The only statue of a Hyksos king, which was
+undoubtedly originally made for him and is not one of the XIIth Dynasty
+usurped, is the small one of Khian at Cairo, discovered by M. Naville at
+Bubastis, and this has no head. So that we have not the slightest idea
+of what a Hyksos looked like. Moreover, the evidence of the Hyksos names
+which are known to us points in quite a different direction. The Kheta,
+or Hittites, were certainly not Semites, yet the Hyksos names are
+definitely Semitic. In fact it is most probable that the Hyksos, or
+Shepherd Kings, were, as the classical authorities say they were, and as
+their name (<i>hiku-semut</i> or <i>hihu-shasu</i>,) "princes of the deserts" or
+("princes of the Bedaw�n") also testifies, purely and simply Arabs.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now it is not a little curious that almost at the same time that a nomad
+Arab race conquered Lower Egypt and settled in it as rulers (just as
+'Amr and the followers of Islam did over two thousand years later),
+another Arab race may have imposed its rule upon Babylonia. Yet this
+may have been the case; for the First Dynasty of Babylon, to which the
+famous Hammurabi belonged, was very probably of Arab origin, to judge by
+the forms of some of the royal names. It is by no means impossible that
+there was some connection between these two conquests, and that both
+Babylonia and Egypt fell, in the period before the year 2000 B.C. before
+some great migratory movement from Arabia, which overran Babylonia,
+Palestine, and even the Egyptian Delta.
+</p>
+<p>
+In this manner Egypt and Babylonia may have been brought together
+in common subjection to the Arab. We do not know whether any regular
+communication between Egypt, under Semitic rule, and Babylonia was now
+established; but we do know that during the Hyksos period there were
+considerable relations between Egypt and over-sea Crete, and relations
+with Mesopotamia may possibly have been established. At any rate, when
+the war of liberation, which was directed by the princes of Thebes, was
+finally brought to a successful conclusion and the Arabs were expelled,
+we find the Egyptians a much changed nation. They had adopted for war
+the use of horse and chariot, which they learnt from their Semitic
+conquerors, whose victory was in all probability largely gained by their
+use, and, generally speaking, they had become much more like the Western
+Asiatic nations. Egypt was no longer isolated, for she had been forcibly
+brought into contact with the foreign world, and had learned much.
+She was no longer self-contained within her own borders. If the Semites
+could conquer her, so could she conquer the Semites. Armed with horse
+and chariot, the Egyptians went forth to battle, and their revenge was
+complete. All Palestine and Syria were Egyptian domains for five hundred
+years after the conquest by Thothmes I and III, and Ashur and Babel sent
+tribute to the Pharaoh of Egypt.
+</p>
+<p>
+The reaction came, and Egypt was thrown prostrate beneath the feet of
+Assyria; but her claim to dominion over the Western Asiatics was never
+abandoned, and was revived in all its pomp by Ptolemy Euergetes, who
+brought back in triumph to Egypt the images of the gods which had been
+removed by Assyrians and Babylonians centuries before. This claim was
+never allowed by the Asiatics, it is true, and their kings wrote to the
+proudest Pharaoh as to an absolute equal. Even the King of Cyprus calls
+the King of Egypt his brother. But Palestine was admitted to be
+an Egyptian possession, and the Phoenicians were always energetic
+supporters of the Egyptian r�gime against the lawless Bedaw�n tribes,
+who were constantly intriguing with the Kheta or Hittite power to the
+north against Egypt.
+</p>
+<p>
+The existence of this extra-Egyptian imperial possession meant that the
+eyes of the Egyptians were now permanently turned in the direction of
+Western Asia, with which they were henceforth in constant and intimate
+communication. The first Theban period and the Hyksos invasion,
+therefore, mark a turning-point in Egyptian history, at which we may
+fitly leave it for a time in order to turn our attention to those
+peoples of Western Asia with whom the Egyptians had now come into
+permanent contact.
+</p>
+<p>
+Just as new discoveries have been made in Egypt, which have modified our
+previous conception of her history, so also have the excavators of
+the ancient sites in the Mesopotamian valley made, during the last few
+years, far-reaching discoveries, which have enabled us to add to and
+revise much of our knowledge of the history of Babylonia and Assyria. In
+Palestine and the Sinaitic peninsula also the spade has been used with
+effect, but a detailed account of work in Sinai and Palestine falls
+within the limits of a description of Biblical discoveries rather than
+of this book. The following chapters will therefore deal chiefly with
+modern discoveries which have told us new facts with regard to the
+history of the ancient Sumerians themselves, and of the Babylonians,
+Elamites, Kassites, and Assyrians, the inheritors of the ancient
+Sumerian civilization, which was older than that of Egypt, and which, as
+we have seen, probably contributed somewhat to its formation. These
+were the two primal civilizations of the ancient world. For two thousand
+years each marched upon a solitary road, without meeting the other.
+Eventually the two roads converged. We have hitherto dealt with the road
+of the Egyptians; we now describe that of the Mesopotamians, up to the
+point of convergence.
+</p>
+<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER IV&mdash;RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA <br />
+AND THE DAWN OF CHALD�AN HISTORY
+</h2>
+<p>
+In the preceding pages it has been shown how recent excavations in Egypt
+have revealed an entirely new chapter in the history of that country,
+and how, in consequence, our theories with regard to the origin of
+Egyptian civilization have been entirely remodelled. Excavations have
+been and are being carried out in Mesopotamia and the adjacent countries
+with no less enthusiasm and energy than in Egypt itself, and, although
+it cannot be said that they have resulted in any sweeping modification
+of our conceptions with regard to the origin and kinship of the early
+races of Western Asia, yet they have lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of the ancient history of the countries in that region of the
+world. This is particularly the case in respect of the Sumerians, who,
+so far as we know at present, were the earliest inhabitants of the
+fertile plains of Mesopotamia. The beginnings of this ancient people
+stretch back into the remote past, and their origin is still shrouded in
+the mists of antiquity. When first we come across them they have already
+attained a high level of civilization. They have built temples and
+palaces and houses of burnt and unburnt brick, and they have reduced
+their system of agriculture to a science, intersecting their country
+with canals for purposes of irrigation and to ensure a good supply of
+water to their cities. Their sculpture and pottery furnish abundant
+evidence that they have already attained a comparatively high level in
+the practice of the arts, and finally they have evolved a complicated
+system of writing which originally had its origin in picture-characters,
+but afterwards had been developed along phonetic lines. To have attained
+to this pitch of culture argues long periods of previous development,
+and we must conclude that they had been settled in Southern Babylonia
+many centuries before the period to which we must assign the earliest of
+their remains at present discovered.
+</p>
+<p>
+That this people were not indigenous to Babylonia is highly probable,
+but we have little data by which to determine the region from which
+they originally came. Prom the fact that they built their ziggurats, or
+temple towers, of huge masses of unburnt brick which rose high above
+the surrounding plain, and that their ideal was to make each "like a
+mountain," it has been argued that they were a mountain race, and the
+home from which they sprang has been sought in Central Asia. Other
+scholars have detected signs of their origin in their language and
+system of writing, and, from the fact that they spoke an agglutinative
+tongue and at the earliest period arranged the characters of their
+script in vertical lines like the Chinese, it has been urged that
+they were of Mongol extraction. Though a case may be made out for this
+hypothesis, it would be rash to dogmatize for or against it, and it is
+wiser to await the discovery of further material on which a more certain
+decision may be based. But whatever their origin, it is certain that the
+Sumerians exercised an extraordinary influence on all races with
+which, either directly or indirectly, they came in contact. The ancient
+inhabitants of Elam at a very early period adopted in principle
+their method of writing, and afterwards, living in isolation in the
+mountainous districts of Persia, developed it on lines of their own. [*
+See Chap. V, and note.] On their invasion of Babylonia the Semites
+fell absolutely under Sumerian influence, and, although they eventually
+conquered and absorbed the Sumerians, their civilization remained
+Sumerian to the core. Moreover, by means of the Semitic inhabitants of
+Babylonia Sumerian culture continued to exert its influence on other
+and more distant races. We have already seen how a Babylonian element
+probably enters into Egyptian civilization through Semitic infiltration
+across the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb or by way of the Isthmus of Suez,
+and it was Sumerian culture which these Semites brought with them.
+In like manner, through the Semitic Babylonians, the Assyrians, the
+Kassites, and the inhabitants of Palestine and Syria, and of some
+parts of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan, all in turn experienced
+indirectly the influence of Sumerian civilization and continued in a
+greater or less degree to reproduce elements of this early culture.
+</p>
+<p>
+It will be seen that the influence of the Sumerians furnishes us with
+a key to much that would otherwise prove puzzling in the history of the
+early races of Western Asia. It is therefore all the more striking to
+recall the fact that but a few years ago the very existence of this
+ancient people was called in question. At that time the excavations in
+Mesopotamia had not revealed many traces of the race itself, and its
+previous existence had been mainly inferred from a number of Sumerian
+compositions inscribed upon Assyrian tablets found in the library
+of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh. These compositions were furnished with
+Assyrian translations upon the tablets on which they were inscribed,
+and it was correctly argued by the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, the late M.
+Oppert, Prof. Schrader, Prof. Sayce, and other scholars that they were
+written in the language of the earlier inhabitants of the country whom
+the Semitic Babylonians had displaced. But M. Hal�vy started a theory to
+the effect that Sumerian was not a language at all, in the proper sense
+of the term, but was a cabalistic method of writing invented by the
+Semitic Babylonian priests.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0010"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/147.jpg" height="790" width="494"
+alt="147.jpg List of Archaic Cuneiform Signs.
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Drawn up by an Assyrian scribe to assist him in his studies
+     of early texts. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The argument on which the upholders of this theory mainly relied was
+that many of the phonetic values of the Sumerian signs were obviously
+derived from Semitic equivalents, and they hastily jumped to the
+conclusion that the whole language was similarly derived from Semitic
+Babylonian, and was, in fact, a purely arbitrary invention of the
+Babylonian priests. This theory ignored all questions of inherent
+probability, and did not attempt to explain why the Babylonian priests
+should have troubled themselves to make such an invention and afterwards
+have stultified themselves by carefully appending Assyrian translations
+to the majority of the Sumerian compositions which they copied out.
+Moreover, the nature of these compositions is not such as we should
+expect to find recorded in a cabalistic method of writing. They contain
+no secret lore of the Babylonian priests, but are merely hymns and
+prayers and religious compositions similar to those employed by the
+Babylonians and Assyrians themselves.
+</p>
+<p>
+But in spite of its inherent improbabilities, M. Hal�vy succeeded in
+making many converts to his theory, including Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch
+and a number of the younger school of German Assyriologists. More
+conservative scholars, such as Sir Henry Rawlinson, M. Oppert, and Prof.
+Schrader, stoutly opposed the theory, maintaining that Sumerian was a
+real language and had been spoken by an earlier race whom the Semitic
+Babylonians had conquered; and they explained the resemblance of some of
+the Sumerian values to Semitic roots by supposing that Sumerian had
+not been suddenly superseded by the language of the Semitic invaders
+of Babylonia, but that the two tongues had been spoken for long periods
+side by side and that each had been strongly influenced by the other.
+This very probable and sane explanation has been fully corroborated
+by subsequent excavations, particularly those that were carried out at
+Telloh in Southern Babylonia by the late M. de Sarzec. In these mounds,
+which mark the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, were
+found thousands of clay tablets inscribed in archaic characters and in
+the Sumerian language, proving that it had actually been the language of
+the early inhabitants of Babylonia; while the examples of their art and
+the representations of their form and features, which were also afforded
+by the diggings at Telloh, proved once for all that the Sumerians were
+a race of strongly marked characteristics and could not be ascribed to a
+Semitic stock.
+</p>
+<p>
+The system of writing invented by the ancient Sumerians was adopted by
+the Semitic Babylonians, who modified it to suit their own language.
+Moreover, the archaic forms of the characters, many of which under the
+Sumerians still retained resemblances to the pictures of objects from
+which they were descended, were considerably changed. The lines, of
+which they were originally composed, gave way to wedges, and the number
+of the wedges of which each sign consisted was gradually diminished, so
+that in the time of the Assyrians and the later Babylonians many of the
+characters bore small resemblance to the ancient Sumerian forms
+from which they had been derived. The reading of Sumerian and early
+Babylonian inscriptions by the late Assyrian scribes was therefore an
+accomplishment only to be acquired as the result of long study, and it
+is interesting to note that as an assistance to the reading of these
+early texts the scribes compiled lists of archaic signs. Sometimes
+opposite each archaic character they drew a picture of the object from
+which they imagined it was derived. This fact is significant as proving
+that the Assyrian scribes recognized the pictorial origin of cuneiform
+writing, but the pictures they drew opposite the signs are rather
+fanciful, and it cannot be said that their guesses were very successful.
+That we are able to criticize the theories of the Assyrians as to the
+origin and forms of the early characters is in the main due to M. de
+Sarzec's labours, from whose excavations many thousands of inscriptions
+of the Sumerians have been recovered.
+</p>
+<p>
+The main results of M. de Sarzec's diggings at Telloh have already been
+described by M. Maspero in his history, and therefore we need not go
+over them again, but will here confine ourselves to the results which
+have been obtained from recent excavations at Telloh and at other sites
+in Western Asia. With the death of M. de Sarzec, which occurred in his
+sixty-fifth year, on May 31, 1901, the wonderfully successful series of
+excavations which he had carried out at Telloh was brought to an end. In
+consequence it was feared at the time that the French diggings on this
+site might be interrupted for a considerable period. Such an event would
+have been regretted by all those who are interested in the early history
+of the East, for, in spite of the treasures found by M. de Sarzec in the
+course of his various campaigns, it was obvious that the site was far
+from being exhausted, and that the tells as yet unexplored contained
+inscriptions and antiquities extending back to the very earliest periods
+of Sumerian history.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0011"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/150.jpg" height="785" width="443"
+alt="150.jpg Fragment of a List Of Archaic Cuneiform Signs. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Opposite each the scribe has drawn a picture of the object
+     from which he imagined it was derived. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The announcement which was made in 1902, that the French government had
+appointed Capt. Gaston Cros as the late M. de Sarzec's successor, was
+therefore received with general satisfaction. The fact that Capt. Cros
+had already successfully carried out several difficult topographical
+missions in the region of the Sahara was a sufficient guarantee that the
+new diggings would be conducted on a systematic and exhaustive scale.
+</p>
+<p>
+The new director of the French mission in Chald�a arrived at Telloh in
+January, 1903, and one of his first acts was to shift the site of the
+mission's settlement from the bank of the Shatt el-Hai, where it had
+always been established in the time of M. de Sarzec, to the mounds where
+the actual digging took place. The Shatt el-Hai had been previously
+chosen as the site of the settlement to ensure a constant supply of
+water, and as it was more easily protected against attack by night.
+But the fact that it was an hour's ride from the diggings caused an
+unnecessary loss of time, and rendered the strict supervision of the
+diggers a matter of considerable difficulty. During the first season's
+work rough huts of reeds, surrounded by a wall of earth and a ditch,
+served the new expedition for its encampment among the mounds of Telloh,
+but last year these makeshift arrangements were superseded by a regular
+house built out of the burnt bricks which are found in abundance on the
+site. A reservoir has also been built, and caravans of asses bring water
+in skins from the Shatt el-Hai to keep it filled with a constant supply
+of water, while the excellent relations which Capt. Cros has established
+with the Karagul Arabs, who occupy Telloh and its neighbourhood, have
+proved to be the best kind of protection for the mission engaged in
+scientific work upon the site.
+</p>
+<p>
+The group of mounds and hillocks, known as Telloh, which marks the site
+of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, is easily distinguished from
+the flat surrounding desert. The mounds extend in a rough oval formation
+running north and south, about two and a half miles long and one and a
+quarter broad. In the early spring, when the desert is covered with a
+light green verdure, the ruins are clearly marked out as a yellow spot
+in the surrounding green, for vegetation does not grow upon them. In the
+centre of this oval, which approximately marks the limits of the ancient
+city and its suburbs, are four large tells or mounds running, roughly,
+north and south, their sides descending steeply on the east, but with
+their western slopes rising by easier undulations from the plain. These
+four principal tells are known as the "Palace Tell," the "Tell of the
+Fruit-house," the "Tell of the Tablets," and the "Great Tell," and,
+rising as they do in the centre of the site, they mark the position of
+the temples and the other principal buildings of the city.
+</p>
+<p>
+An indication of the richness of the site in antiquities was afforded
+to the new mission before it had started regular excavation and while
+it was yet engaged in levelling its encampment and surrounding it with a
+wall and ditch. The spot selected for the camp was a small mound to the
+south of the site of Telloh, and here, in the course of preparing the
+site for the encampment and digging the ditch, objects were found at
+a depth of less than a foot beneath the surface of the soil. These
+included daggers, copper vases, seal-cylinders, rings of lapis and
+cornelian, and pottery. M. de Sarzec had carried out his latest
+diggings in the Tell of the Tablets, and here Capt. Cros continued
+the excavations and came upon the remains of buildings and recovered
+numerous objects, dating principally from the period of Gudea and
+the kings of Ur. The finds included small terra-cotta figures, a
+boundary-stone of Gamil-Sin, and a new statue of Gudea, to which we will
+refer again presently.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the Tell of the Fruit-house M. de Sarzec had already discovered
+numbers of monuments dating from the earlier periods of Sumerian history
+before the conquest and consolidation of Babylonia under Sargon of
+Agade, and had excavated a primitive terrace built by the early king
+Ur-Nin�. Both on and around this large mound Capt. Cros cut an extensive
+series of trenches, and in digging to the north of the mound he found a
+number of objects, including an alabaster tablet of Ente-mena which had
+been blackened by fire. At the foot of the tell he found a copper helmet
+like those represented on the famous Stele of Vultures discovered by
+M. de Sarzec, and among the tablets here recovered was one with an
+inscription of the time of Urukagina, which records the complete
+destruction of the city of Shirpurla during his reign, and will be
+described in greater detail later on in this chapter. On the mound
+itself a considerable area was uncovered with remains of buildings
+still in place, the use of which appears to have been of an industrial
+character. They included flights of steps, canals with raised banks,
+and basins for storing water. Not far off are the previously discovered
+wells of Bannadu, so that it is legitimate to suppose that Capt. Cros
+has here come upon part of the works which were erected at a very early
+period of Sumerian history for the distribution of water to this portion
+of the city.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0012"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/154.jpg" height="996" width="517"
+alt="154.jpg Obelisk of Manishtusu. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     An early Semitic king of the city of Kish in Babylonia. The
+     photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's Delegation en Perse,
+     M'em., t. i, pi. ix.
+</pre>
+<p>
+In the Palace Tell Capt. Cros has sunk a series of deep shafts to
+determine precisely the relations which the buildings of Ur-Bau and
+Gudea, found already on this part of the site, bear to each other, and
+to the building of Adad-nadin-akh�, which had been erected there at
+a much later period. Prom this slight sketch of the work carried out
+during the last two years at Telloh it will have been seen that the
+Prench mission in Chald�a is at present engaged in excavations of a
+most important character, which are being conducted in a regular and
+scientific manner. As the area of the excavations marks the site of the
+chief city of the Sumerians, the diggings there have yielded and
+are yielding material of the greatest interest and value for the
+reconstruction of the early history of Chald�a. After briefly describing
+the character and results of other recent excavations in Mesopotamia and
+the neighbouring lands, we will return to the discoveries at Telloh and
+sketch the new information they supply on the history of the earliest
+inhabitants of the country.
+</p>
+<p>
+Another French mission that is carrying out work of the very greatest
+interest to the student of early Babylonian history is that which is
+excavating at Susa in Persia, under the direction of M. J. de Morgan,
+whose work on the prehistoric and early dynastic sites in Egypt has
+already been described. M. de Morgan's first season's digging at Susa
+was carried out in the years 1897-8, and the success with which he met
+from the very first, when cutting trenches in the mound which marks
+the acropolis of the ancient city, has led him to concentrate his main
+efforts in this part of the ruins ever since. Provisional trenches cut
+in the part of the ruins called "the Royal City," and in others of the
+mounds at Susa, indicate that many remains may eventually be found there
+dating from the period of the Ach�menian Kings of Persia. But it is in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa that M. de Morgan has found monuments
+of the greatest historical interest and value, not only in the history
+of ancient Elam, but also in that of the earliest rulers of Chald�a.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the diggings carried out during the first season's work on the site,
+an obelisk was found inscribed on four sides with a long text of some
+sixty-nine columns, written in Semitic Babylonian by the orders
+of Manishtusu, a very early Semitic king of the city of Kish in
+Babylonia.[* See illustration.] The text records the purchase by the
+King of Kish of immense tracts of land situated at Kish and in
+its neighbourhood, and its length is explained by the fact that it
+enumerates full details of the size and position of each estate, and the
+numbers and some of the names of the dwellers on the estates who were
+engaged in their cultivation. After details have been given of a number
+of estates situated in the same neighbourhood, a summary is appended
+referring to the whole neighbourhood, and the fact is recorded that the
+district dealt with in the preceding catalogue and summary had been duly
+acquired by purchase by Manishtusu, King of Kish. The long text upon
+the obelisk is entirely taken up with details of the purchase of the
+territory, and therefore its subject has not any great historical value.
+Mention is made in it of two personages, one of whom may possibly
+be identified with a Babylonian ruler whose name is known from other
+sources. If the proposed identification t should prove to be correct,
+it would enable us to assign a more precise date to Manishtusu than has
+hitherto been possible. One of the personages in question was a certain
+Urukagina, the son of Engilsa, patesi of Shirpurla, and it has been
+suggested that he is the same Urukagina who is known to have occupied
+the throne of Shirpurla, though this identification would bring
+Manishtusu down somewhat later than is probable from the general
+character of his inscriptions. The other personage mentioned in the text
+is the son of Manishtusu, named Mesalim, and there is more to be said
+for the identification of this prince with Mesilim, the early King of
+Kish, who reigned at a period anterior to that of Eannadu, patesi of
+Shirpurla.
+</p>
+<p>
+The mere fact of so large and important an obelisk, inscribed with a
+Semitic text by an early Babylonian king, being found at Susa was
+an indication that other monuments of even greater interest might be
+forthcoming from the same spot; and this impression was intensified when
+a stele of victory was found bearing an inscription of Naram-Sin, the
+early Semitic King of Agade, who reigned about 3750 B.C. One face of
+this stele is sculptured with a representation of the king conquering
+his enemies in a mountainous country. [* See illustration.] The king
+himself wears a helmet adorned with the horns of a bull, and he carries
+his battle-axe and his bow and an arrow. He is nearly at the summit of
+a high mountain, and up its steep sides, along paths through the
+trees which clothe the mountain, climb his allies and warriors bearing
+standards and weapons. The king's enemies are represented suing for
+mercy as they turn to fly before him. One grasps a broken spear, while
+another, crouching before the king, has been smitten in the throat by an
+arrow from the king's bow. On the plain surface of the stele above the
+king's head may be seen traces of an inscription of Nar�m-Sin engraved
+in three columns in the archaic characters of his period. From the few
+signs of the text that remain, we gather that Nar�m-Sin had conducted
+a campaign with the assistance of certain allied princes, including the
+Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and Lulubi, and it is not improbable that
+they are to be identified with the warriors represented on the stele as
+climbing the mountain behind Nar�m-Sin.
+</p>
+<p>
+In reference to this most interesting stele of Nar�m-Sin we may here
+mention another inscription of this king, found quite recently at
+Susa and published only this year, which throws additional light on
+Nar�m-Sin's allies and on the empire which he and his father Sargon
+founded. The new inscription was engraved on the base of a diorite
+statue, which had been broken to pieces so that only the base with
+a portion of the text remained. From this inscription we learn that
+Nar�m-Sin was the head of a confederation of nine chief allies, or
+vassal princes, and waged war on his enemies with their assistance.
+Among these nine allies of course the Princes of Sidur, Saluni, and
+Lulubi are to be included. The new text further records that Nar�m-Sin
+made an expedition against Magan (the Sinaitic peninsula), and defeated
+Manium, the lord of that region, and that he cut blocks of stone in the
+mountains there and transported them to his city of Agade, where
+from one of them he made the statue on the base of which the text was
+inscribed. It was already known from the so-called "Omens of Sargon
+and Nar�m-Sin" (a text inscribed on a clay tablet from Ashur-bani-pal's
+library at Nineveh which associates the deeds of these two early rulers
+with certain augural phenomena) that Nar�m-Sin had made an expedition
+to Sinai in the course of his reign and had conquered the king of the
+country. The new text gives contemporary confirmation of this assertion
+and furnishes us with additional information with regard to the name of
+the conquered ruler of Sinai and other details of the campaign.
+</p>
+<p>
+That monuments of such great interest to the early history of Chald�a
+should have been found at Susa in Persia was sufficiently startling,
+but an easy explanation was at first forthcoming from the fact that
+Nar�m-Sin's stele of victory had been used by the later Elamite king,
+Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, for an inscription of his own; this he had engraved
+in seven long lines along the great cone in front of Nar�m-Sin, which is
+probably intended to represent the peak of the mountain. From the fact
+that it had been used in this way by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, it seemed
+permissible to infer that it had been captured in the course of a
+campaign and brought to Susa as a trophy of war. But we shall see later
+on that the existence of early Babylonian inscriptions and monuments in
+the mound of the acropolis at Susa is not to be explained in this way,
+but was due to the wide extension of both Sumerian and Semitic influence
+throughout Western Asia from the very earliest periods. This subject
+will be treated more fully in the chapter dealing with the early history
+of Blam.
+</p>
+<p>
+The upper surface of the tell of the acropolis at Susa for a depth of
+nearly two metres contains remains of the buildings and antiquities
+of the Ach�menian kings and others of both later and earlier dates.
+In these upper strata of the mound are found remains of the
+Arab, Sassanian, Parthian, Seleucian, and Persian periods, mixed
+indiscriminately with one another and with Elamite objects and materials
+of all ages, from that of the earliest patesis down to that of the
+Susian kings of the seventh century B.C.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0013"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/160.jpg" height="460" width="722"
+alt="160.jpg Babil. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The most northern of the mounds which now mark the site of
+     the ancient city of Babylon; used for centuries as a quarry
+     for building materials.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The reason of this mixture of the remains of many races and periods is
+that the later builders on the mound made use of the earlier building
+materials which they found preserved within it. Along the skirts of the
+mound may still be seen the foundations of the wall which formed the
+principal defence of the acropolis in the time of Xerxes, and in many
+places not only are the foundations preserved but large pieces of the
+wall itself still rise above the surface of the soil.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0014"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/160a.jpg" height="1056" width="726"
+alt="160a.jpg 'Stele of Victory' 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0015"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/160a-text.jpg" height="140" width="527"
+alt="160a-text.jpg Text for 'Stele of Victory' 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Stele of Nar�m-Sin, an early Semitic King of Agade in
+     Babylonia, who reigned about B. C. 3750. From the photograph
+     by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The plan of the wall is quite irregular, following the contours of the
+mound, and, though it is probable that the wall was strengthened and
+defended at intervals by towers, no trace of these now remains. The
+wall is very thick and built of unburnt bricks, and the system of
+fortification seems to have been extremely simple at this period.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0016"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/161.jpg" height="507" width="711"
+alt="161.jpg Roughly Hewn Sculpture of a Lion Standing over A
+Fallen Man, Found at Babylon. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The group probably represents Babylon or the Babylonian king
+     triumphing over the country's enemies. The Arabs regard the
+     figure as an evil spirit, and it is pitted with the marks of
+     bullets shot at it. They also smear it with filth when they
+     can do so unobserved; in the photograph some newly smeared
+     filth may be seen adhering to the side of the lion.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The earlier citadel or fortress of the city of Susa was built at the top
+of the mound and must have been a more formidable stronghold than that
+of the Ach�menian kings, for, besides its walls, it had the additional
+protection of the steep slopes of the mound.
+</p>
+<p>
+Below the depth of two metres from the surface of the mound are found
+strata in which Elamite objects and materials are, no longer mixed with
+the remains of later ages, but here the latest Elamite remains are found
+mingled with objects and materials dating from the earliest periods of
+Elam's history. The use of un-burnt bricks as the principal material
+for buildings erected on the mound in all ages has been another cause
+of this mixture of materials, for it has little power of resistance to
+water, and a considerable rain-storm will wash away large portions
+of the surface and cause the remains of different strata to be mixed
+indiscriminately with one another. In proportion as the trenches were
+cut deeper into the mound the strata which were laid bare showed remains
+of earlier ages than those in the upper layers, though here also remains
+of different periods are considerably mixed. The only building that has
+hitherto been discovered at Susa by M. de Morgan, the ground plan of
+which was in a comparatively good state of preservation, was a small
+temple of the god Shu-shinak, and this owed its preservation to the
+fact that it was not built of unburnt brick, but was largely composed of
+burnt brick and plaques and tiles of enamelled terra-cotta.
+</p>
+<p>
+But although the diggings of M. de Morgan at Susa have so far afforded
+little information on the subject of Elamite architecture, the separate
+objects found have enabled us to gain considerable knowledge of the
+artistic achievements of the race during the different periods of
+its existence. Moreover, the stel� and stone records that have been
+recovered present a wealth of material for the study of the long history
+of Elam and of the kings who ruled in Babylonia during the earliest
+ages.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0017"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/163.jpg" height="559" width="714"
+alt="163.jpg General View of the Excavations on The Kasr At
+Babylon. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Showing the depth in the mound to which the diggings are
+     carried.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The most famous of M. de Morgan's recent finds is the long code of
+laws drawn up by Hammurabi, the greatest king of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon.* This was engraved upon a huge block of black diorite, and
+was found in the tell of the acropolis in the winter of 1901-2. This
+document in itself has entirely revolutionized current theories as to
+the growth and origin of the principal ancient legal codes. It proves
+that Babylonia was the fountainhead from which many later races borrowed
+portions of their legislative systems. Moreover, the subjects dealt
+with in this code of laws embrace most of the different classes of the
+Babylonian people, and it regulates their duties and their relations
+to one another in their ordinary occupations and pursuits. It therefore
+throws much light upon early Babylonian life and customs, and we shall
+return to it in the chapter dealing with these subjects.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * It will be noted that the Babylonian dynasties are
+     referred to throughout this volume as "First Dynasty,"
+     "Second Dynasty," "Third Dynasty," etc. They are thus
+     distinguished from the Egyptian dynasties, the order of
+     which is indicated by Roman numerals, e.g. "Ist Dynasty,"
+     "IId Dynasty," "IIId Dynasty."
+</pre>
+<p>
+The American excavators at Nippur, under the direction of Mr. Haynes,
+have done much in the past to increase our knowledge of Sumerian and
+early Babylonian history, but the work has not been continued in
+recent years, and, unfortunately, little progress has been made in the
+publication of the material already accumulated. In fact, the leadership
+in American excavation has passed from the University of Pennsylvania to
+that of Chicago. This progressive university has sent out an expedition,
+under the general direction of Prof. R. F. Harper (with Dr. E. J. Banks
+as director of excavations), which is doing excellent work at Bismya,
+and, although it is too early yet to expect detailed accounts of their
+achievements, it is clear that they have already met with considerable
+success. One of their recent finds consists of a white marble statue of
+an early Sumerian king named Daudu, which was set up in the temple of
+E-shar in the city of Udnun, of which he was ruler. From its archaic
+style of workmanship it may be placed in the earliest period of Sumerian
+history, and may be regarded as an earnest of what may be expected to
+follow from the future labours of Prof. Harper's expedition.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0018"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/165.jpg" height="542" width="708"
+alt="165.jpg Within the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+At F�ra and at Ab� Hatab in Babylonia, the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft,
+under Dr. Koldewey's direction, has excavated Sumerian and Babylonian
+remains of the early period. At the former site they unearthed the
+remains of many private houses and found some Sumerian tablets of
+accounts and commercial documents, but little of historical interest;
+and an inscription, which seems to have come from Abu Hatab, probably
+proves that the Sumerian name of the city whose site it marks was
+Kishurra. But the main centre of German activity in Babylonia is the
+city of Babylon itself, where for the last seven years Dr. Koldewey has
+conducted excavations, unearthing the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on
+the mound termed the Kasr, identifying the temple of E-sagila under the
+mound called Tell Amran ibn-Ali, tracing the course of the sacred way
+between E-sagila and the palace-mound, and excavating temples dedicated
+to the goddess Ninmakh and the god Ninib.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0019"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/166.jpg" height="506" width="705"
+alt="166.jpg Excavations in the Temple Op Ninib at Babylon. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     In the middle distance may be seen the metal trucks running
+     on light rails which are employed on the work for the
+     removal of the d�bris from the diggings.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Dr. Andrae, Dr. Koldewey's assistant, has also completed the excavation
+of the temple dedicated to Nab� at Birs Nimrud. On the principal mound
+at this spot, which marks the site of the ancient city of Borsippa,
+traces of the ziggurat, or temple tower, may still be seen rising from
+the soil, the temple of Nab� lying at a lower level below the steep
+slope of the mound, which is mainly made up of d�bris from the
+ziggurat. Dr. Andrae has recently left Babylonia for Assyria, where
+his excavations at Sher-ghat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of
+Ashur, are confidently expected to throw considerable light on the early
+history of that country and the customs of the people, and already he
+has made numerous finds of considerable interest.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0020"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/167.jpg" height="542" width="480"
+alt="167.jpg the Principal Mound of Birs Nimrud, Which Marks
+The Site Of the Ancient City Of Borsippa. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Since the early spring of 1903 excavations have been conducted at
+Kuyunjik, the site of the city of Nineveh, by Messrs. L. W. King and R.
+C. Thompson on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, and have
+resulted in the discovery of many early remains in the lower strata of
+the mound, in addition to the finding of new portions of the two palaces
+already known and partly excavated, the identification of a third
+palace, and the finding of an ancient temple dedicated to Nab�, whose
+existence had already been inferred from a study of the Assyrian
+inscriptions.* All these diggings at Babylon, at Ashur, and at Nineveh
+throw more light upon the history of the country during the Assyrian and
+Neo-Babylonian periods, and will be referred to later in the volume.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * It may be noted that excavations are also being actively
+     carried on in Palestine at the present time. Mr. Macalister
+     has for some years been working for the Palestine
+     Exploration Fund at Gezer; Dr. Schumacher is digging at
+     Megiddo for the German Palestine Society; and Prof. Sellin
+     is at present excavating at Taanach (Ta'annak) and will
+     shortly start work at Dothan. Good work on remains of later
+     historical periods is also being carried on under the
+     auspices of the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft at Ba'albek and
+     in Galilee. It would be tempting to include here a summary
+     of the very interesting results that have recently been
+     achieved in this fruitful field of archaeological research,
+     for it is true that these excavations may strictly be said
+     to bear on the history of a portion of Western Asia. But the
+     problems which they raise would more naturally be discussed
+     in a work dealing with recent excavation and research in
+     relation to the Bible, and to have summarized them
+     adequately would have increased the size of the present
+     volume considerably beyond its natural limits. They have
+     therefore not been included within the scope of the present
+     work.
+</pre>
+<a name="image-0021"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/168.jpg" height="422" width="711"
+alt="168.jpg the Principal Mound at Shekghat, Which Marks The
+Site of Ashuk, the Ancient Capital Of The Assyrians. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, we will return to the diggings described at the beginning
+of this chapter, as affording new information concerning the earliest
+periods of Chald�an history.
+</p>
+<p>
+A most interesting inscription has recently been discovered by Capt.
+Cros at Telloh, which throws considerable light on the rivalry which
+existed between the cities of Shirpurla and Gishkhu, and at the same
+time furnishes valuable material for settling the chronology of the
+earliest rulers whose inscriptions have been found at Mppur and their
+relations to contemporary rulers in Shirpurla.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0022"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/169.jpg" height="423" width="720"
+alt="169.jpg the Mound of Kuyunjik, Which Formed One Of The
+Palace Mounds of the Ancient Assyrian City Of Nineveh. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla were probably situated not far from
+one another, and their rivalry is typical of the history of the early
+city-states of Babylonia. The site of the latter city, as has already
+been said, is marked by the mounds of Telloh on the east bank of the
+Shatt el-Hai, the natural stream joining the Tigris and Euphrates, which
+has been improved and canalized by the dwellers in Southern Babylonia
+from the earliest period.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0023"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/170.jpg" height="420" width="482"
+alt="170.jpg Winged Bull in the Palace of Sennacherib On
+Kuyunjik, the Principal Mound Marking The Site of Nineveh. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The site of Gishkhu may be set with considerable probability not far to
+the north of Telloh on the opposite bank of the Shatt el-Hai. These
+two cities, situated so close to one another, exercised considerable
+political influence, and though less is known of Gishkhu than of
+the more famous Babylonian cities such as Ur, Brech, and Larsam, her
+proximity to Shirpurla gave her an importance which she might not
+otherwise have possessed. The earliest knowledge we possess of the
+relations existing between Gishkhu and Shirpurla refers to the reign of
+Mesilim, King of Kish, the period of whose rule may be provisionally set
+before that of Sargon of Agade, i.e, about 4000 B.C.
+</p>
+<p>
+At this period there was rivalry between the two cities, in consequence
+of which Mesilim, King of Kish, was called in as arbitrator. A record of
+the treaty of delimitation that was drawn up on this occasion has been
+preserved upon the recently discovered cone of Entemena. This document
+tells us that at the command of the god Enlil, described as "the king
+of the countries," Ningirsu, the chief god of Shirpurla, and the god of
+Gishkhu decided to draw up a line of division between their respective
+territories, and that Mesilim, King of Kish, acting under the direction
+of his own god Kadi, marked out the frontier and set up a stele between
+the two territories to commemorate the fixing of the boundary.
+</p>
+<p>
+This policy of fixing the boundary by arbitration seems to have been
+successful, and to have secured peace between Shirpurla and Gishkhu
+for some generations. But after a period which cannot be accurately
+determined a certain patesi of Gishkhu, named Ush, was filled with
+ambition to extend his territory at the expense of Shirpurla. He
+therefore removed the stele which Mesilim had set up, and, invading the
+plain of Shirpurla, succeeded in conquering and holding a district named
+Gu-edin. But Ush's successful raid was not of any permanent benefit to
+his city, for he was in his turn defeated by the forces of Shirpurla,
+and his successor upon the throne, a patesi named Enakalli, abandoned a
+policy of aggression, and concluded with Eannadu, patesi of Shirpurla, a
+solemn treaty concerning the boundary between their realms, the text of
+which has been preserved to us upon the famous Stele of Vultures in the
+Louvre.*
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * A fragment of this stele is also preserved in the British
+     Museum. It is published in Cuneiform Texts in the British
+     Museum, Pt. vii.
+</pre>
+<p>
+According to this treaty Gu-edin was restored to Shirpurla, and a deep
+ditch was dug between the two territories which should permanently
+indicate the line of demarcation. The stele of Mesilim was restored to
+its place, and a second stele was inscribed and set up as a memorial
+of the new treaty. Enakalli did not negotiate the treaty on equal terms
+with Eannadu, for he only secured its ratification by consenting to pay
+heavy tribute in grain for the supply of the great temples of Nin-girsu
+and Nin� in Shirpurla. It would appear that under Eannadu the power
+and influence of Shirpurla were extended over the whole of Southern
+Babylonia, and reached even to the borders of Elam. At any rate, it is
+clear that during his lifetime the city of Gishkhu was content to remain
+in a state of subjection to its more powerful neighbour. But it was
+always ready to seize any opportunity of asserting itself and of
+attempting to regain its independence.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0024"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/172.jpg" height="1028" width="723"
+alt="172.jpg Clay Memorial-tablet of Eannadu. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The characters of the inscription well illustrate the
+     pictorial origin of the Sumerian system of writing.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Accordingly, after Eannadu's death the men of Gishkhu again took the
+offensive. At this time Urlumma, the son and successor of Enakalli, was
+on the throne of Gishkhu, and he organized the forces of the city
+and led them out to battle. His first act was to destroy the frontier
+ditches named after Ningirsu and Nin�, the principal god and goddess of
+Shirpurla, which Eannadu, the powerful foe of Gishkhu, had caused to be
+dug. He then tore down the stele on which the terms of Eannadu's treaty
+had been engraved and broke it into pieces by casting it into the fire,
+and the shrines which Eannadu had built near the frontier, and had
+consecrated to the gods of Shirpurla, he razed to the ground. But
+again Shirpurla in the end proved too strong for Gishkhu. The ruler
+in Shirpurla at this time was Enannadu, who had succeeded his brother
+Eannadu upon the throne. He marched out to meet the invading forces
+of the men of Gishkhu, and a battle was fought in the territory of
+Shirpurla. According to one account, the forces of Shirpurla were
+victorious, while on the cone of Ente-mena no mention is made of
+the issue of the combat. The result may not have been decisive, but
+Enannadu's action at least checked Urlumma's encroachments for the time.
+</p>
+<p>
+It would appear that the death of the reigning patesi in Shirpurla was
+always the signal for an attack upon that city by the men of Gishkhu.
+They may have hoped that the new ruler would prove a less successful
+leader than the last, or that the accession of a new monarch might give
+rise to internal dissensions in the city which would weaken Shirpurla's
+power of resisting a sudden attack. As Eannadu's death had encouraged
+Urlumma to lead out the men of Gishkhu, so the death of Enannadu seemed
+to him a good opportunity to make another bid for victory. But this time
+the result of the battle was not indecisive. Entemena had succeeded his
+father Enannadu, and he led out to victory the forces of Shir-purla. The
+battle was fought near the canal Lumma-girnun-ta, and when the men of
+Gishkhu were put to flight they left sixty of their fellows lying dead
+upon the banks of the canal. Entemena tells us that the bones of these
+warriors were left to bleach in the open plain, but he seems to have
+buried those of the men of Gishkhu who fell in the pursuit, for he
+records that in five separate places he piled up burial-mounds in which
+the bodies of the slain were interred. Entemena was not content with
+merely inflicting a defeat upon the army of Gishkhu and driving it back
+within its own borders, for he followed up his initial advantage and
+captured the capital itself. He deposed and imprisoned Urlumma, and
+chose one of his own adherents to rule as patesi of Gishkhu in his
+stead. The man he appointed for this high office was named Hi, and he
+had up to that time been priest in Nin�b. Entemena summoned him to his
+presence, and, after marching in a triumphal procession from Girsu
+in the neighbourhood of Shirpurla to the conquered city, proceeded to
+invest him with the office of patesi of Gishkhu.
+</p>
+<p>
+Entemena also repaired the frontier ditches named after Ningirsu and
+Nin�, which had been employed for purposes of irrigation as well as for
+marking the frontier; and he gave instructions to Hi to employ the men
+dwelling in the district of Karkar on this work, as a punishment for
+the active part they had taken in the recent raid into the territory of
+Shirpurla. Entemena also restored and extended the system of canals
+in the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates, lining one of the
+principal channels with stone.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0025"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/175.jpg" height="794" width="720"
+alt="175.jpg Marble Gate 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Socket Bearing An Inscription Of Entemena, A Powerful
+     Patesi, Or Viceroy, Of Shirpurla. In the photograph the
+     gate-socket is resting on its side so as to show the
+     inscription, but when in use it was set flat upon the ground
+     and partly buried below the level of the pavement of the
+     building in which it was used. It was fixed at the side of a
+     gateway and the pivot of the heavy gate revolved in the
+     shallow hole or depression in its centre. As stone is not
+     found in the alluvial soil of Babylonia, the blocks for
+     gate-sockets had to be brought from great distances and they
+     were consequently highly prized. The kings and patesis who
+     used them in their buildings generally had their names and
+     titles engraved upon them, and they thus form a valuable
+     class of inscriptions for the study of the early history.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Man-sell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+He thus added greatly to the wealth of Shirpurla by increasing the area
+of territory under cultivation, and he continued to exercise authority
+in Gishkhu by means of officers appointed by himself. A record of his
+victory over Gishkhu was inscribed by Entemena upon a number of clay
+cones, that the fame of it might be preserved in future days to the
+honour of Ningirsu and the goddess Nin�. He ends this record with a
+prayer for the preservation of the frontier. If ever in time to come the
+men of Gishkhu should break out across the frontier-ditch of Ningirsu,
+or the frontier-ditch of Nin�, in order to seize or lay waste the lands
+of Shirpurla, whether they be men of the city of Gishkhu itself or men
+of the mountains, he prays that Enlil may destroy them and that Ningirsu
+may lay his curse upon them; and if ever the warriors of his own city
+should be called upon to defend it, he prays that they may be full of
+courage and ardour for their task.
+</p>
+<p>
+The greater part of this information with regard to the struggles
+between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, between the period of Mesilim, King of
+Kish, and that of Entemena, is supplied by the inscription of the latter
+ruler which has been found written around a small cone of clay. There is
+little doubt that the text was also engraved by the orders of Entemena
+upon a stone stele which was set up, like those of Mesilim and Eannadu,
+upon the frontier. Other copies of the inscription were probably
+engraved and erected in the cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla, and to
+ensure the preservation of the record Entemena probably had numerous
+copies of it made upon small cones of clay which were preserved and
+possibly buried in the structure of the temples of Shirpurla. Entemena's
+foresight in this matter has been justified by results, for, while his
+great memorials of stone have perished, the preservation of one of his
+small cones has sufficed to make known to later ages his own and his
+forefathers' prowess in their continual contests with their ancient rival
+Gishkhu.
+</p>
+<p>
+After the reign of Entemena we have little information with regard to
+the relations between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, though it is probable that
+the effects of his decisive victory continued to exercise a moderating
+influence on Gishkhu's desire for expansion and secured a period
+of peaceful development for Shirpurla without the continual fear of
+encroachments on the part of her turbulent neighbour. We may assume that
+this period of tranquillity continued during the reigns of Enannadu II,
+Enlitarzi, and Lugal-anda, but, when in the reign of Urukagina the men
+of Gishkhu once more emerge from their temporary obscurity, they appear
+as the authors of deeds of rapine and bloodshed committed on a scale
+that was rare even in that primitive age.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the earlier stages of their rivalry Gishkhu had always been defeated,
+or at any rate checked, in her actual conflicts with Shirpurla. When
+taking the aggressive the men of Gishkhu seem generally to have confined
+themselves to the seizure of territory, such as the district of Gu-edin,
+which was situated on the western bank of the Shaft el-Hai and divided
+from their own lands only by the frontier-ditch. If they ever actually
+crossed the Shaft el-Hai and raided the lands on its eastern bank, they
+never ventured to attack the city of Shirpurla itself. And, although
+their raids were attended with some success in their initial stages, the
+ruling patesis of Shirpurla were always strong enough to check them; and
+on most occasions they carried the war into the territory of Gishkhu,
+with the result that they readjusted the boundary on their own terms.
+But it would appear that all these primitive Chal�an cities were subject
+to alternate periods of expansion and defeat, and Shirpurla was not an
+exception to the rule. It was probably not due so much to Urukagina's
+personal qualities or defects as a leader that Shirpurla suffered
+the greatest reverse in her history during his reign, but rather to
+Gishkhu's gradual increase in power at a time when Shirpurla herself
+remained inactive, possibly lulled into a false sense of security by the
+memory of her victories in the past. Whatever may have been the cause of
+Gishkhu's final triumph, it is certain that it took place in Urukagina's
+reign, and that for many years afterwards the hegemony of Southern
+Babylonia remained in her hands, while Shirpurla for a long period
+passed completely out of existence as an independent or semi-independent
+state.
+</p>
+<p>
+The evidence of the catastrophe that befell Shirpurla at this period is
+furnished by a small clay tablet recently found at Telloh during Captain
+Cros's excavations on that site. The document on which the facts in
+question are recorded had no official character, and in all probability
+it had not been stored in any library or record chamber. The actual spot
+at Telloh where it was found was to the north of the mound in which
+the most ancient buildings have been recovered, and at the depth of two
+metres below the surface. No other tablets appear to have been found
+near it, but that fact in itself would not be sufficient evidence on
+which to base any theory as to its not having originally formed part of
+the archives of the city. Its unofficial character is attested by the
+form of the tablet and the manner in which the information upon it is
+arranged. In shape there is little to distinguish the document from the
+tablets of accounts inscribed in the reign of Urukagina, great numbers
+of which have been found recently at Telloh. Roughly square in shape,
+its edges are slightly convex, and the text is inscribed in a series of
+narrow columns upon both the obverse and the reverse. The text itself
+is not a carefully arranged composition, such as are the votive and
+historical inscriptions of early Sumerian rulers. It consists of a
+series of short sentences enumerating briefly and without detail the
+separate deeds of violence and sacrilege performed by the men of Gishkhu
+after their capture of the city. It is little more than a catalogue or
+list of the shrines and temples destroyed during the sack of the city,
+or defiled by the blood of the men of Shirpurla who were slain therein.
+No mention is made in the list of the palace of the Urukagina, or of any
+secular building, or of the dwellings of the citizens themselves. There
+is little doubt that these also were despoiled and destroyed by the
+victorious enemy, but the writer of the tablet is not concerned for the
+moment with the fate of his city or his fellow citizens. He appears to
+be overcome with the thought of the deeds of sacrilege committed against
+his gods; his mind is entirely taken up with the magnitude of the
+insult offered to the god Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla. His bare
+enumeration of the deeds of sacrilege and violence loses little by its
+brevity, and, when he has ended the list of his accusations against the
+men of Gishkhu, he curses the goddess to whose influence he attributes
+their success.
+</p>
+<p>
+No composition at all like this document has yet been recovered, and as
+it is not very long we may here give a translation of the text. It will
+be seen that the writer plunges at once into the subject of his
+charges against the men of Gishkhu. No historical <i>r�sum�</i> prefaces
+his accusations, and he gives no hint of the circumstances that have
+rendered their delivery possible. The temples of his city have been
+profaned and destroyed, and his indignation finds vent in a mere
+enumeration of their titles. To his mind the facts need no comment,
+for to him it is barely conceivable that such sacred places of ancient
+worship should have been defiled. He launches his indictment against
+Gishkhu in the following terms: "The men of Gishkhu have set fire to the
+temple of E-ki [... ], they have set fire to Antashura, and they have
+carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have
+shed blood in the palace of Tirash, they have shed blood in Abzubanda,
+they have shed blood in the shrine of Enlil and in the shrine of the
+Sun-god, they have shed blood in Akhush, and they have carried away the
+silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood in the
+Gikana of the sacred grove of the goddess Ninmakh, and they have carried
+away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood
+in Baga, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have shed blood in Abzu-ega, they have set fire to
+the temple of Gatumdug, and they have carried away the silver and the
+precious stones therefrom, and have destroyed her statue! They have set
+fire to the.... of the temple E-anna of the goddess Ninni, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom, and have
+destroyed her statue! They have shed blood in Shapada, and they have
+carried away the silver and precious stones therefrom! They have....
+in Khenda, they have shed blood in the temple of Nindar in the town
+of Kiab, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
+therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Dumuzi-abzu in the town
+of Kinunir, and they have carried away the silver and the precious
+stones therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Lugaluru, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in E-engura, the temple of the goddess Nin�, and they
+have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
+have shed blood in Sag..., the temple of Amageshtin, and the silver
+and the precious stones of Amageshtin have they carried away! They have
+removed the grain from Ginarbaniru, the field of the god Ningirsu,
+so much of it as was under cultivation! The men of Gishkhu, by the
+despoiling of Shirpurla, have committed a transgression against the god
+Ningirsu! The power that is come unto them, from them shall be taken
+away! Of transgression on the part of Urukagina, King of Girsu, there
+is none. As for Lugalzaggisi, patesi of Gishkhu, may his goddess Ni-daba
+bear on her head (the weight of) this transgression!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Such is the account, which has come down to us from the rough tablet of
+some unknown scribe, of the greatest misfortune experienced by Shirpurla
+during the long course of her history. Many of the great temples
+mentioned in the text as among those which were burnt down and despoiled
+of their treasures are referred to more than once in the votive and
+historical inscriptions of earlier rulers of Shirpurla, who occupied the
+throne before the ill-fated Urukagina. The names of some of them, too,
+are to be found in the texts of the later pate-sis of that city, so
+that it may be concluded that in course of time they were rebuilt and
+restored to their former splendour. But there is no doubt that the
+despoiling and partial destruction of Shirpurla in the reign of
+Urukagina had a lasting effect upon the fortunes of that city, and
+effectively curtailed her influence among the greater cities of Southern
+Babylonia.
+</p>
+<p>
+We may now turn our attention to the leader of the men of Gishkhu, under
+whose direction they achieved their final triumph over their ancient,
+and for long years more powerful, rival Shirpurla. The writer of our
+tablet mentions his name in the closing words of his text when he curses
+him and his goddess for the destruction and sacrilege that they have
+wrought. "As for Lugalzaggisi," he says, "patesi of Gishkhu, may his
+goddess Nidaba bear on her head (the weight of ) this transgression!"
+Now the name of Lugalzaggisi has been found upon a number of fragments
+of vases made of white calcite stalagmite which were discovered by Mr.
+Haynes during his excavations at Nippur. All the vases were engraved
+with the same inscription, so that it was possible by piecing the
+fragments of text together to obtain a more or less complete copy of
+the records which were originally engraved upon each of them. From
+these records we learned for the first time, not only the name of
+Lugalzaggisi, but the fact that he founded a powerful coalition of
+cities in Babylonia at what was obviously a very early period in the
+history of the country. In the text he describes himself as "King of
+Erech, king of the world, the priest of Ana, the hero of Nidaba, the
+son of Ukush, patesi of Gishkhu, the hero of Nidaba, the man who was
+favourably regarded by the sure eye of the King of the Lands (i.e.
+the god Enlil), the great patesi of Enlil, unto whom understanding was
+granted by Enki, the chosen of the Sun-god, the exalted minister of
+Enzu, endowed with strength by the Sun-god, the worshipper of Ninni, the
+son who was conceived by Nidaba, who was nourished by Ninkharsag with
+the milk of life, the attendant of Umu, priestess of Erech, the servant
+who was trained by Nin�gidkhadu, the mistress of Erech, the great
+minister of the gods." Lugalzaggisi then goes on to describe the extent
+of his dominion, and he says: "When the god Enlil, the lord of the
+countries, bestowed upon Lugalzaggisi the kingdom of the world, and
+granted unto him success in the sight of the world, when he filled the
+lands with his power, and conquered them from the rising of the sun unto
+the setting of the same, at that time he made straight his path from the
+Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates unto the Upper Sea, and he granted
+him dominion over all from the rising of the sun unto the setting of the
+same, so that he caused the lands to dwell in peace."
+</p>
+<p>
+Now when first the text of this inscription was published there existed
+only vague indications of the date to be assigned to Lugalzaggisi and
+the kingdom that he founded. It was clear from the titles which he bore,
+that, though Gishkhu was his native place, he had extended his authority
+far beyond that city and had chosen Erech as his capital. Moreover,
+he claimed an empire extending from "the Lower Sea of the Tigris and
+Euphrates unto the Upper Sea." There is no doubt that the Lower Sea here
+mentioned is the Persian Gulf, and it has been suggested that the Upper
+Sea may be taken to be the Mediterranean, though it may possibly have
+been Lake Van or Lake Urmi. But whichever of these views might be
+adopted, it was clear that Lugalzaggisi was a great conqueror, and had
+achieved the right to assume the high-sounding title of lugal halama,
+"king of the world." In these circumstances it was of the first
+importance for the study of primitive Chald�an history and chronology
+to ascertain approximately the period at which Lugalzaggisi reigned.
+</p>
+<p>
+The evidence on which such a question could be provisionally settled was
+of the vaguest and most uncertain character, but such as it was it
+had to suffice, in the absence of more reliable data. In settling all
+problems connected with early Chald�an chronology, the starting-point
+was, and in fact still is, the period of Sargon I, King of Agade,
+inasmuch as the date of his reign is settled, according to the reckoning
+of the scribes of Nabonidus, as about 3800 B.C. It is true that this
+date has been called in question, and ingenious suggestions for amending
+it have been made by some writers, while others have rejected it
+altogether, holding that it merely represented a guess on the part of
+the late Babylonians and could be safely ignored in the chronological
+schemes which they brought forward. But nearly every fresh discovery
+made in the last few years has tended to confirm some point in the
+traditions current among the later Babylonians with regard to the
+earlier history of their country. Consequently, reliance may be placed
+with increased confidence on the truth of such traditions as a
+whole, and we may continue to accept those statements which yet await
+confirmation from documents more nearly contemporary with the early
+period to which they refer. It is true that such a date as that assigned
+by Nabonidus to Sargon is not to be regarded as absolutely fixed, for
+Nabonidus is obviously speaking in round numbers, and we may allow for
+some minor inaccuracies in the calculations of his scribes. But it is
+certain that the later Babylonian priests and scribes had a wealth of
+historical material at their disposal which has not come down to us. We
+may therefore accept the date given by Nabonidus for Sargon of Agade
+and his son Nar�m-Sin as approximately accurate, and this is also the
+opinion of the majority of writers on early Babylonian history.
+</p>
+<p>
+The diggings at Nippur furnished indications that certain inscriptions
+found on that site and written in a very archaic form of script were
+to be assigned to a period earlier than that of Sargon. One class of
+evidence was obtained from a careful study of the different levels at
+which the inscriptions and the remains of buildings were found. At a
+comparatively deep level in the mound inscriptions of Sargon himself
+were recovered, along with bricks stamped with the name of Nar�m-Sin,
+his son. It was, therefore, a reasonable conclusion roughly to date the
+particular stratum in which these objects were found to the period of
+the empire established by Sargon, with its centre at Agade. Later on
+excavations were carried to a lower level, and remains of buildings
+were discovered which appeared to belong to a still earlier period
+of civilization. An altar was found standing in a small enclosure
+surrounded by a kind of curb. Near by were two immense clay vases which
+appeared to have been placed on a ramp or inclined plane leading up to
+the altar, and remains were also found of a massive brick building in
+which was an arch of brick. No inscriptions were actually found at this
+level, but in the upper level assigned to Sargon were a number of texts
+which might very probably be assigned to the pre-Sargonic period. None
+of these were complete, and they had the appearance of having been
+intentionally broken into small fragments. There was therefore something
+to be said for the theory that they might have been inscribed by the
+builders of the construction in the lowest levels of the mound, and that
+they were destroyed and scattered by some conqueror who had laid their
+city in ruins.
+</p>
+<p>
+But all such evidence derived from noting the levels at which
+inscriptions are found is in its nature extremely uncertain and liable
+to many different interpretations, especially if the strata show signs
+of having been disturbed. Where a pavement or building is still intact,
+with the inscribed bricks of the builder remaining in their original
+positions, conclusions may be confidently drawn with regard to the age
+of the building and its relative antiquity to the strata above and below
+it. But the strata in the lowest levels at Nippur, as we have seen, were
+not in this condition, and such evidence as they furnished could only be
+accepted if confirmed by independent data. Such confirmation was to be
+found by examination of the early inscriptions themselves.
+</p>
+<p>
+It has been remarked that most of them were broken into small pieces,
+as though by some invader of the country; but this was not the case with
+certain gate-sockets and great blocks of diorite which were too hard
+and big to be easily broken. Moreover, any conqueror of a city would be
+unlikely to spend time and labour in destroying materials which might
+be usefully employed in the construction of other buildings which he
+himself might erect. Stone could not be obtained in the alluvial plains
+of Babylonia and had to be quarried in the mountains and brought great
+distances.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0026"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/188.jpg" height="688" width="579"
+alt="188.jpg Stone Gate 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Socket Bearing An Inscription of Uk-Engur, An Early King
+     of The City Of Ur. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+From any building of his predecessors which he razed to the ground, an
+invader would therefore remove the gate-sockets and blocks of stone for
+his own use, supposing he contemplated building on the site. If he left
+the city in ruins and returned to his own country, some subsequent king,
+when clearing the ruined site for building operations, might come across
+the stones, and he would not leave them buried, but would use them for
+his own construction. And this is what actually did happen in the case
+of some of the building materials of one of these early kings, from the
+lower strata of Nippur. Certain of the blocks which bore the name of
+Lugalkigubnidudu had been used again by Sargon, King of Agade, who
+engraved his own name upon them without obliterating the name of the
+former king.
+</p>
+<p>
+It followed that Lugalkigubnidudu belonged to the pre-Sargonic period,
+and, although the same conclusive evidence was not forthcoming in the
+case of Lugalzag-gisi, he also without much hesitation was set in
+this early period, mainly on the strength of the archaic forms of the
+characters employed in his inscriptions. In fact, they were held to be
+so archaic that, not only was he said to have reigned before Sargon of
+Agade, but he was set in the very earliest period of Chald�an history,
+and his empire was supposed to have been contemporaneous with the very
+earliest rulers of Shirpurla. The new inscription found by Captain
+Cros will cause this opinion to be considerably modified. While it
+corroborates the view that Lugalzaggisi is to be set in the pre-Sargonic
+period, it proves that he lived and reigned very shortly before him. As
+we have already seen, he was the contemporary of Urukagina, who belongs
+to the middle period of the history of Shirpurla. Lugalzaggisi's capture
+and sack of the city of Shirpurla was only one of a number of conquests
+which he achieved. His father Ukush had been merely patesi of the city
+of Gish-khu, but he himself was not content with the restricted sphere
+of authority which such a position implied, and he eventually succeeded
+in enforcing his authority over the greater part of Babylonia. From
+the fact that he styles himself King of Erech, we may conclude that
+he removed his capital from Ukush to that city, after having probably
+secured its submission by force of arms. In fact, his title of "king of
+the world" can only have been won as the result of many victories, and
+Captain Cros's tablet gives us a glimpse of the methods by which he
+managed to secure himself against the competition of any rival. The
+capture of Shirpurla must have been one of his earliest achievements,
+for its proximity to Gish-khu rendered its reduction a necessary
+prelude to any more extensive plan of conquest. But the kingdom which
+Lugalzaggisi founded cannot have endured long.
+</p>
+<p>
+Under Sargon of Agade, the Semites gained the upper hand in Babylonia,
+and Erech, Grishkhu, and Shirpurla, as well as the other ancient cities
+in the land, fell in turn under his domination and formed part of the
+extensive empire which he ruled.
+</p>
+<p>
+Concerning the later rulers of city-states of Babylonia which succeeded
+the disruption of the empire founded by Sargon of Agade and consolidated
+by Nar�m-Sin, his son, the excavations have little to tell us which has
+not already been made use of by Prof. Maspero in his history of this
+period.*
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * The tablets found at Telloh by the late M. de Sarzec, and
+     published during his lifetime, fall into two main classes,
+     which date from different periods in early Chald�an
+     history. The great majority belong to the period when the
+     city of Ur held pre-eminence among the cities of Southern
+     Babylonia, and they are dated in the reigns of Dungi, Bur-
+     Sin, Gamil-Sin, and Ine-Sin. The other and smaller
+     collection belongs to the earlier period of Sargon and
+     Nar�m-Sin; while many of the tablets found in M. de Sarzec's
+     last diggings, which were published after his death, are to
+     be set in the great gap between these two periods. Some of
+     those recently discovered, which belong to the period of
+     Dungi, contain memoranda concerning the supply of food for
+     the maintenance of officials stopping at Shirpurla in the
+     course of journeys in Babylonia and Elam, and they throw an
+     interesting light on the close and constant communication
+     which took place at this time between the great cities of
+     Mesopotamia and the neighbouring countries.
+</pre>
+<a name="image-0027"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/190.jpg" height="1175" width="621"
+alt="190.jpg Statue of Gudea. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The most famous of the later patesis, or viceroys, of
+     Shirpurla, the Sumerian city in Southern Babylonia now
+     marked by the mounds of Telloh. Photograph by Messrs.
+     Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Ur, Isin, and,Larsam succeeded one another in the position of leading
+city in Babylonia, holding Mppur, Eridu, Erech, Shirpurla, and the other
+chief cities in a condition of semi-dependence upon themselves. We may
+note that the true reading of the name of the founder of the dynasty
+of Ur has now been ascertained from a syllabary to be Ur-Engur; and an
+unpublished chronicle in the British Museum relates that his son Dungi
+cared greatly for the city of Eridu, but sacked Babylon and carried off
+its spoil, together with the treasures from E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk. Such episodes must have been common at this period when each
+city was striving for hegemony. Meanwhile, Shirpurla remained the centre
+of Sumerian influence in Babylonia, and her patesis were content to owe
+allegiance to so powerful a ruler as Dungi, King of Ur, while at all
+times exercising complete authority within their own jurisdiction.
+</p>
+<p>
+During the most recent diggings that have been carried out at Telloh a
+find of considerable value to the history of Sumerian art has been
+made. The find is also of great general interest, since it enables us
+to identify a portrait of Gudea, the most famous of the later Sumerian
+patesis. In the course of excavating the Tell of Tablets Captain Cros
+found a little seated statue made of diorite. It was not found in place,
+but upside down, and appeared to have been thrown with other d�bris
+scattered in that portion of the mound. On lifting it from the trench it
+was seen that the head of the statue was broken off, as is the case
+with all the other statues of Gudea found at Telloh. The statue bore an
+inscription of Gudea, carefully executed and well preserved, but it
+was smaller than other statues of the same ruler that had been
+already recovered, and the absence of the head thus robbed it of any
+extraordinary interest. On its arrival at the Louvre, M. L�on Heuzey was
+struck by its general resemblance to a Sumerian head of diorite formerly
+discovered by M. de Sarzec at Telloh, which has been preserved in the
+Louvre for many years. On applying the head to the newly found statue,
+it was found to fit it exactly, and to complete the monument, and we
+are thus enabled to identify the features of Gudea. Prom a photographic
+reproduction of this statue, it is seen that the head is larger than
+it should be, in proportion to the body, a characteristic which is also
+apparent in a small Sumerian statue preserved in the British Museum.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0028"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/192.jpg" height="577" width="493"
+alt="192.jpg Tablet Inscribed in Sumerian With Details of A
+Survey of Certain Property. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Probably situated in the neighbourhood of Telloh. The
+     circular shape is very unusual, and appears to have been
+     used only for survey-tablets. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Gudea caused many statues of himself to be made out of the hard diorite
+which he brought for that purpose from the Sinaitic peninsula, and from
+the inscriptions preserved upon them it is possible to ascertain the
+buildings in which they were originally placed. Thus one of the statues
+previously found was set up in the temple of Ninkharsag, two others in
+E-ninn�, the temple of the god Ningirsu, three more in the temple of the
+goddess Bau, one in E-anna, the temple of the goddess Ninni, and another
+in the temple of Gatumdug. The newly found statue of the king was made
+to be set up in the temple erected by Gudea at Girsu in honour of the
+god Ningishzida, as is recorded in the inscription engraved on the front
+of the king's robe, which reads as follows:
+</p>
+<p>
+"In the day when the god Ningirsu, the strong warrior of Enlil, granted
+unto the god Ningishzida, the son of Nin�zu, the beloved of the gods,
+(the guardianship of) the foundation of the city and of the hills and
+valleys, on that day Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla, the just man who
+loveth his god, who for his master Ningirsu hath constructed his temple
+E-ninnu, called the shining Imgig, and his temple E-pa, the temple
+of-the seven zones of heaven, and for the goddess Nin�, the queen, his
+lady, hath constructed the temple Sirara-shum, which riseth higher than
+(all) the temples in the world, and hath constructed their temples for
+the great gods of Lagash, built for his god Ningishzida his temple in
+Girsu. Whosoever shall proclaim the god Ningirsu as his god, even as
+I proclaim him, may he do no harm unto the temple of my god! May he
+proclaim the name of this temple! May that man be my friend, and may he
+proclaim my name! Gudea hath made the statue, and 'Unto - Gudea - the
+- builder - of - the - temple - hath life-been-given hath he called its
+name, and he hath brought it into the temple."
+</p>
+<p>
+The long name which Gudea gave to the statue, "Unto - Gudea - the -
+builder - of - the - temple - hath - life-been-given," is characteristic
+of the practice of the Sumerian patesis, who always gave long and
+symbolical names to statues, stelae, and sacred objects dedicated and
+set up in their temples. The occasion on which the temple was built, and
+this statue erected within it, seems to have been the investiture of
+the god Ningishzida with special and peculiar powers, and it possibly
+inaugurated his introduction into the pantheon of Shirpurla. Ningishzida
+is called in the inscription the son of Ninazu, who was the husband of
+the Queen of the Underworld.
+</p>
+<p>
+In one of his aspects he was therefore probably a god of the underworld
+himself, and it is in this character that he was appointed by Ningirsu
+as guardian of the city's foundations. But "the hills and valleys"
+(i.e. the open country) were also put under his jurisdiction, so that
+in another aspect he was a god of vegetation. It is therefore not
+improbable that, like the god Dumuzi, or Tammuz, he was supposed to
+descend into the underworld in winter, ascending to the surface of the
+earth with the earliest green shoots of vegetation in the spring.*
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * Cf. Thureau-Dangin, Rev. d'Assyr., vol. vi. (1904), p. 24.
+</pre>
+<p>
+A most valuable contribution has recently been made to our knowledge of
+Sumerian religion and of the light in which these early rulers regarded
+the cult and worship of their gods, by the complete interpretation of
+the long texts inscribed upon the famous cylinders of Gudea, the patesi
+of Shirpurla, which have been preserved for many years in the Louvre.
+These two great cylinders of baked clay were discovered by the late M.
+de Sarzec so long ago as the year 1877, during the first period of his
+diggings at Telloh, and, although the general nature of their contents
+has long been recognized, no complete translation of the texts inscribed
+upon them had been published until a few months ago. M. Thureau-Dangin,
+who has made the early Sumerian texts his special study, has devoted
+himself to their interpretation for some years past, and he has just
+issued the first part of his monograph upon them. In view of the
+importance of the texts and of the light they throw upon the religious
+beliefs and practices of the early Sumerians, a somewhat detailed
+account of their contents may here be given.
+</p>
+<p>
+The occasion on which the cylinders were made was the rebuilding by
+Gudea of E-ninn�, the great temple of the god Ningirsu, in the city of
+Shirpurla. The two cylinders supplement one another, one of them having
+been inscribed while the work of construction was still in progress, the
+other after the completion of the temple, when the god Ningirsu had been
+installed within his shrine with due pomp and ceremony. It would appear
+that Southern Babylonia had been suffering from a prolonged drought, and
+that the water in the rivers and canals had fallen, so that the crops
+had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. Gudea was at a
+loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country,
+when one night he had a dream, and it was in consequence of this dream
+that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of
+Sumerian temples. By this means he secured the return of Ningirsu's
+favour and that of the other gods, and his country once more enjoyed the
+blessings of peace and prosperity.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the opening words of the first of his cylinders Gudea describes how
+the great gods themselves took counsel and decreed that he should build
+the temple of E-ninn� and thereby restore to his city the supply of
+water it had formerly enjoyed. He records that on the day on which the
+destinies were fixed in heaven and upon earth, Enlil, the chief of the
+gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla, held converse. And Enlil,
+turning to Ningirsu, said: "In my city that which is fitting is not
+done. The stream doth not rise. The stream of Enlil doth not rise. The
+high waters shine not, neither do they show their splendour. The stream
+of Enlil bringeth not good water like the Tigris. Let the King (i.e.
+Ningirsu) therefore proclaim the temple. Let the decrees of the temple
+E-ninn� be made illustrious in heaven and upon earth!" The great gods
+did not communicate their orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed their
+wishes to him by means of a dream. And while the patesi slept a vision
+of the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great
+that it equalled the heavens and the earth. And by the crown he wore
+upon his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. And by his side
+was the divine eagle, the emblem of Shirpurla, and his feet rested upon
+the whirlwind, and a lion was crouching upon his right hand and upon his
+left. And the figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the
+meaning of the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the sun rose from
+the earth and he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she
+carried also a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed
+to take counsel with herself. And while Gudea was gazing he seemed to
+see a second man who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis
+lazuli and on it he drew out the plan of a temple. And before the patesi
+himself it seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion
+was set a mould, and within the mould was a brick, the brick of destiny.
+And on the right hand the patesi beheld an ass which lay upon the
+ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+Such was the dream which Gudea beheld in a vision of the night, and he
+was troubled because he could not interpret it. So he decided to go
+to the goddess Nin�, who could divine all mysteries of the gods, and
+beseech her to tell him the meaning of the vision. But before applying
+to the goddess for her help, he thought it best to secure the mediation
+of the god Ningirsu and the goddess Gatumdug, in order that they should
+use their influence with Nin� to induce her to reveal the interpretation
+of the dream. So the patesi set out to the temple of Ningirsu, and,
+having offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water, he prayed to the
+god that his sister, Nin�, the child of Eridu, might be prevailed upon
+to give him help. And the god hearkened to his prayer. Then Gudea made
+offerings, and before the sleeping-chamber of the goddess Gatumdug he
+offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water. And he prayed to the
+goddess, calling her his queen and the child of the pure heaven, who
+gave life to the countries and befriended and preserved the people or
+the man on whom she looked with favour.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I have no mother," cried Gudea, "but thou art my mother! I have no
+father, but thou art a father to me!" And the goddess Gatumdug gave
+ear to the patesi's prayer. Thus encouraged by her favour and that of
+Ningirsu, Gudea set out for the temple of the goddess Nin�.
+</p>
+<p>
+On his arrival at the temple, the patesi offered a sacrifice and poured
+out fresh water, as he had already done when approaching the presence of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug. And he prayed to Nin�, as the goddess who divines
+the secrets of the gods, beseeching her to interpret the vision that had
+been sent to him; and he then recounted to her the details of his dream.
+When the patesi had finished his story, the goddess addressed him and
+told him that she would explain the meaning of his dream to him. And
+this was the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so
+great that it equalled the heavens and the earth, whose head was that
+of a god, at whose side was the divine eagle, whose feet rested on the
+whirlwind, while a lion couched on his right hand and on his left, was
+her brother, the god Ningirsu. And the words which he uttered were an
+order to the patesi that he should build the temple E-ninn�. And the sun
+which rose from the earth before the patesi was the god Ningishzida,
+for like the sun he goes forth from the earth. And the maiden who held
+a pure reed in her hand, and carried the tablet with the star, was her
+sister, the goddess Nidaba: the star was the pure star of the temple's
+construction, which she proclaimed. And the second man, who was like a
+warrior and carried the slab of lapis lazuli, was the god Nindub, and the
+plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of E-ninn�. And the brick
+which rested in its mould upon the cushion was the sacred brick of
+E-ninn�. And as for the ass which lay upon the ground, that, the goddess
+said, was the patesi himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Having interpreted the meaning of the dream, the goddess Nin� proceeded
+to give Gudea instruction as to how he should go to work to build the
+temple. She told him first of all to go to his treasure-house and bring
+forth his treasures from their sealed cases, and out of these to make
+certain offerings which he was to place near the god Ningirsu, in the
+temple in which he was dwelling at that time. The offerings were to
+consist of a chariot, adorned with pure metal and precious stones;
+bright arrows in a quiver; the weapon of the god, his sacred emblem, on
+which Gudea was to inscribe his own name; and finally a lyre, the music
+of which was wont to soothe the god when he took counsel with himself.
+Nin� added that if the patesi carried out her instructions and made the
+offerings she had specified, Ningirsu would reveal to him the plan on
+which the temple was to be built, and would also bless him. Gudea bowed
+himself down in token of his submission to the commands of the goddess,
+and proceeded to execute them forthwith. He brought out his treasures,
+and from the precious woods and metals which he possessed his craftsmen
+fashioned the objects he was to present, and he set them in Ningirsu's
+temple near to the god. He worked day and night, and, having prepared a
+suitable spot in the precincts of the temple at the place of judgment,
+he spread out upon it as offerings a fat sheep and a kid and the skin of
+a young female kid. Then he built a fire of cypress and cedar and other
+aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour, and, entering the inner chamber
+of the temple, he offered a prayer to Ningirsu. He said that he wished
+to build the temple, but he had received no sign that this was the will
+of the god, and he prayed for a sign.
+</p>
+<p>
+While he prayed the patesi was stretched out upon the ground, and the
+god, standing near his head, then answered him. He said that he who
+should build his temple was none other than Gudea, and that he would
+give him the sign for which he asked. But first he described the plan
+on which the temple was to be built, naming its various shrines and
+chambers and describing the manner in which they were to be fashioned
+and adorned. And the god promised that when Gudea should build the
+temple, the land would once more enjoy abundance, for Ningirsu would
+send a wind which should proclaim to the heavens the return of the
+waters. And on that day the waters would fall from the heavens, the
+water in the ditches and canals would rise, and water would gush out
+from the dry clefts in the ground. And the great fields would once
+more produce their crops, and oil would be poured out plenteously in
+Sumer[sp.] and wool would again be weighed in great abundance. In that
+day the god would go to the mountain where dwelt the whirlwind, and he
+would himself direct the wind which should give the land the breath of
+life. Gudea must therefore work day and night at the task of building
+the temple. One company of men was to relieve another at its toil, and
+during the night the men were to kindle lights so that the plain should
+be as bright as day. Thus the builders would build continuously. Men
+were also to be sent to the mountains to cut down cedars and pines and
+other trees and bring their trunks to the city, while masons were to go
+to the mountains and were to cut and transport huge blocks of stone to
+be used in the construction of the temple. Finally the god gave Gudea
+the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side
+touched as by a flame, and thereby he should know that he was the man
+chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands.
+</p>
+<p>
+Gudea bowed his head in submission, and his first act was to consult the
+omens, and the omens were favourable. He then proceeded to purify the
+city by special rites, so that the mother when angered did not chide her
+son, and the master did not strike his servant's head, and the mistress,
+though provoked by her handmaid, did not smite her face. And Gudea drove
+all the evil wizards and sorcerers from the city, and he purified and
+sanctified the city completely. Then he kindled a great fire of cedar
+and other aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour for the gods, and
+prayers were offered day and night; and the patesi addressed a prayer
+to the Anun-naki, or Spirits of the Earth, who dwelt in Shirpurla,
+and assigned a place to them in the temple. Then, having completed
+his purification of the city itself, he consecrated its immediate
+surroundings. Thus he consecrated the district of Gu-edin, whence the
+revenues of Ningirsu were derived, and the lands of the goddess Nin�
+with their populous villages. And he consecrated the wild and savage
+bulls which no man could turn aside, and the cedars which were sacred
+to Ningirsu, and the cattle of the plains. And he consecrated the armed
+men, and the famous warriors, and the warriors of the Sun-god. And the
+emblems of the god Ningirsu, and of the two great goddesses, Nin� and
+Ninni, he installed before them in their shrines.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Gudea sent far and wide to fetch materials for the construction of
+the temple. And the Elamite came from Elani, and men of Susa came from
+Susa, and men brought wood from the mountains of Sinai and Melukh-kha.
+And into the mountain of cedars, where no man before had penetrated,
+the patesi cut a road, and he brought cedars and beams of other precious
+woods in great quantities to the city. And he also made a road into the
+mountain where stone was quarried, into places where no man before had
+penetrated. And he carried great blocks of stone down from the mountain
+and loaded them into barges and brought them to the city. And the barges
+brought bitumen and plaster, and they were loaded as though they were
+carrying grain, and all manner of great things were brought to the
+city. Copper ore was brought from the mountain of copper in the land of
+Kimash, and gold was brought in powder from the mountains, and silver
+was brought from the mountains and porphyry from the land of Melukhkha,
+and marble from the mountain of marble. And the patesi installed
+goldsmiths and silversmiths, who wrought in these precious metals, for
+the adornment of the temple; and he brought smiths who worked in copper
+and lead, who were priests of Nin-tu-kalama. In his search for fitting
+materials for the building of the temple, Gudea journeyed from the lower
+country to the upper country, and from the upper country to the lower
+country he returned.
+</p>
+<p>
+The only other materials now wanting for the construction of the temple
+were the sun-dried bricks of clay, of which the temple platform and
+the structure of the temple itself were in the main composed. Their
+manufacture was now inaugurated by a symbolical ceremony carried out by
+the patesi in person. At dawn he performed an ablution with the fitting
+rites that accompanied it, and when the day was more advanced he slew
+a bull and a kid as sacrifices, and he then entered the temple of
+Ningirsu, where he prostrated himself. And he took the sacred mould
+and the fair cushion on which it rested in the temple, and he poured a
+libation into the mould. Afterwards, having made offerings of honey and
+butter, and having burnt incense, he placed the cushion and the mould
+upon his head and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed
+clay in the mould, shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its
+mould within the temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood
+around.
+</p>
+<p>
+The next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
+And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And
+Gudea took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he
+carried the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
+manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick
+which he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks
+to be used in its construction. He then marked out the plan of the
+temple, and the text states that he devoted himself to the building of
+the temple like a young man who has begun building a house and allows
+no pleasure to interfere with his task. And he chose out skilled workmen
+and employed them on the building, and he was filled with joy. The gods,
+too, are stated to have helped with the building, for Enki fixed the
+temennu of the temple, and the goddess Nin� looked after its oracles,
+and Gatumdug, the mother of Shir-purla, fashioned bricks for it morning
+and evening, while the goddess Bau sprinkled aromatic oil of cedar-wood.
+Gudea himself laid its foundations, and as he did so he blessed the
+temple seven times, comparing it to the sacred brick, to the holy
+libation-vase, to the divine eagle of Shirpurla, to a terrible couching
+panther, to the beautiful heavens, to the day of offerings, and to the
+morning light which brightens the land. He caused the temple to rise
+towards heaven like a mountain, or like a cedar growing in the desert.
+He built it of bricks of Sumer, and the timbers which he set in place
+were as strong as the dragon of the deep.
+</p>
+<p>
+While he was engaged on the building Gudea took counsel of the god Enki,
+and he built a fountain for the gods, where they might drink. With the
+great stones which he had brought and fashioned he built a reservoir
+and a basin for the temple. And seven of the great stones he set up as
+stel�, and he gave them favourable names. The text then recounts
+the various parts and shrines of the temple, and it describes their
+splendours in similes drawn from the heavens and the earth and the
+abyss, or deep, beneath the earth. The temple itself is described as,
+being like the crescent of the new moon, or like the sun in the midst
+of the stars, or like a mountain of lapis lazuli, or like a mountain of
+shining marble. Parts of it are said to have been terrible and strong as
+a savage bull, or a lion, or the antelope of the abyss, or the monster
+Lakhamu who dwells in the abyss, or the sacred leopard that inspires
+terror. One of the doors of the temple was guarded by a figure of the
+hero who slew the monster with six heads, and at another door was a good
+dragon, and at another a lion; opposite the city were set figures of
+the seven heroes, and facing the rising sun was fixed the emblem of the
+Sun-god. Figures of other heroes and favourable monsters were set up as
+guardians of other portions of the temple. The fastenings of the main
+entrance were decorated with dragons shooting out their tongues, and the
+bolt of the great door was fashioned like a raging hound.
+</p>
+<p>
+After this description of the construction and adornment of the
+temple the text goes on to narrate how Gudea arranged for its material
+endowment. He stalled oxen and sheep, for sacrifice and feasting, in the
+outhouses and pens within the temple precincts, and he heaped up grain
+in its granaries. Its storehouses he filled with spices so that
+they were like the Tigris when its waters are in flood, and in its
+treasure-chambers he piled up precious stones, and silver, and lead in
+abundance. Within the temple precincts he planted a sacred garden which
+was like a mountain covered with vines; and on the terrace he built
+a great reservoir, or tank, lined with lead, in addition to the great
+stone reservoir within the temple itself. He constructed a special
+dwelling-place for the sacred doves, and among the flowers of the temple
+garden and under the shade of the great trees the birds of heaven flew
+about unmolested.
+</p>
+<p>
+The first of the two great cylinders of Gudea ends at this point in the
+description of the temple, and it is evident that its text was composed
+while the work of building was still in progress. Moreover, the writing
+of the cylinder was finished before the actual work of building the
+temple was completed, for the last column of the text concludes with a
+prayer to Ningirsu to make it glorious during the progress of the work,
+the prayer ending with the words, "O Ningirsu, glorify it! Glorify the
+temple of Ningirsu during its construction!" The text of the second of
+the two great cylinders is shorter than that of the first, consisting
+of twenty-four instead of thirty columns of writing, and it was composed
+and written after the temple was completed. Like the first of the
+cylinders, it concludes with a prayer to Ningirsu on behalf of the
+temple, ending with the similar refrain, "O Ningirsu, glorify it!
+Glorify the temple of Ningirsu after its construction!" The first
+cylinder, as we have seen, records how it came about that Gudea decided
+to rebuild the temple E-ninn� in honour of Ningirsu. It describes how,
+when the land was suffering from drought and famine, Gudea had a dream,
+how Nin� interpreted the dream to mean that he must rebuild the temple,
+and how Ningirsu himself promised that this act of piety would restore
+abundance and prosperity to the land. Its text ends with the long
+description of the sumptuous manner in which the patesi carried out the
+work, the most striking points of which we have just summarized. The
+narrative of the second cylinder begins at the moment when the building
+of the temple was finished, and when all was ready for the great god
+Nin-girsu to be installed therein, and its text is taken up with a
+description of the ceremonies and rites with which this solemn function
+was carried out. It presents us with a picture, drawn from life, of the
+worship and cult of the ancient Sumerians in actual operation. In view
+of its importance from the point of view of the study and comparison of
+the Sumerian and Babylonian religious systems, its contents also may be
+summarized. We will afterwards discuss briefly the information furnished
+by both the cylinders on the Sumerian origin of many of the religious
+beliefs and practices which were current among the later Semitic
+inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Gudea had finished building the new temple of E-ninn�, and had
+completed the decoration and adornment of its shrines, and had planted
+its gardens and stocked its treasure-chambers and storehouses, he
+applied himself to the preliminary ceremonies and religious preparations
+which necessarily preceded the actual function of transferring the
+statue of the god Ningirsu from his old temple to his new one. Gudea's
+first act was to install the Anunnaki, or Spirits of the Earth, in the
+new temple, and when he had done this, and had supplied additional
+sheep for their sacrifices and food in abundance for their offerings, he
+prayed to them to give him their assistance and to pronounce a prayer at
+his side when he should lead Ningirsu into his new dwelling-place.
+The text then describes how Gudea went to the old temple of Ningirsu,
+accompanied by his protecting spirits who walked before him and behind
+him. Into the old temple he carried sumptuous offerings, and when he
+had set them before the god, he addressed him in prayer and said: "O
+my King, Ningirsu! O Lord, who curbest the raging waters! O Lord, whose
+word surpasseth all others! O Son of Enlil, O warrior, what commands
+shall I faithfully carry out? O Ningirsu, I have built thy temple, and
+with joy would I lead thee therein, and my goddess Bau would install at
+thy side." We are told that the god accepted Gudea's prayer, and thereby
+he gave his consent to be removed from the old temple of E-ninn� to his
+new one which bore the same name.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the ceremony of the god's removal was not carried out at once, for
+the due time had not arrived. The year ended, and the new year came,
+and then "the month of the temple" began. The third day of the month
+was that appointed for the installation of Ningirsu. Gudea meanwhile had
+sprinkled the ground with oil, and set out offerings of honey and butter
+and wine, and grain mixed with milk, and dates, and food untouched
+by fire, to serve as food for the gods; and the gods themselves had
+assisted in the preparations for the reception of Ningirsu. The god
+Asaru made ready the temple itself, and Ninmada performed the ceremony
+of purification. The god Enki issued oracles, and the god Nindub, the
+supreme priest of Eridu, brought incense. Nin� performed chants within
+the temple, and brought black sheep and holy cows to its folds and
+stalls. This record of the help given by the other gods we may interpret
+as meaning that the priests attached to the other great Sumerian
+temples took part in the preparation of the new temple, and added their
+offerings to the temple stores. To many of the gods, also, special
+shrines within the temple were assigned.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the purification of E-ninn� was completed and the way between
+the old temple and the new made ready, all the inhabitants of the city
+prostrated themselves on the ground. "The city," says Gudea, "was like
+the mother of a sick man who prepareth a potion for him, or like the
+cattle of the plain which lie down together, or like the fierce lion,
+the master of the plain, when he coucheth." During the day and the night
+before the ceremony of removal, prayers and supplications were uttered,
+and at the first light of dawn on the appointed day the god Ningirsu
+went into his new temple "like a whirlwind," the goddess Bau entering
+at his side "like the sun rising over Shirpurla." She entered beside his
+couch, like a faithful wife, whose cares are for her own household, and
+she dwelt beside his ear and bestowed abundance upon Shirpurla.
+</p>
+<p>
+As the day began to brighten and the sun rose, Gudea set out as
+offerings in the temple a fat ox and a fat sheep, and he brought a vase
+of lead and filled it with wine, which he poured out as a libation, and
+he performed incantations. Then, having duly established Ningirsu and
+Bau in the chief shrine, he turned his attention to the lesser gods and
+installed them in their appointed places in the temple, where they would
+be always ready to assist Ningirsu in the temple ceremonies and in the
+issue of his decrees for the welfare of the city and its inhabitants.
+Thus he established the god Galalim, the son of Ningirsu, in a chosen
+spot in the great court in front of the temple, where, under the orders
+of his father, he should direct the just and curb the evil-doer; he
+would also by his presence strengthen and preserve the temple, while
+his special duty was to guard the throne of destiny and, on behalf of
+Ningirsu, to place the sceptre in the hands of the reigning patesi.
+Near to Ningirsu and under his orders Gudea also established the god
+Dunshaga, whose function it was to sanctify the temple and to look after
+its libations and offerings, and to see to the due performance of the
+ceremonies of ablution. This god would offer water to Ningirsu with a
+pure hand, he would pour out libations of wine and strong drink, and
+would tend the oxen, sheep, kids, and other offerings which were brought
+to the temple night and day. To the god Lugalkurdub, who was also
+installed in the temple, was assigned the privilege of holding in his
+hand the mace with the seven heads, and it was his duty to open the door
+of the Gate of Combat. He guarded the sacred weapons of Ningirsu and
+destroyed the countries of his enemies. He was Ningirsu's chief leader
+in battle, and another god with lesser powers was associated with him as
+his second leader.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ningirsu's counsellor was the god Lugalsisa, and he also had his
+appointed place in E-ninn�. It was his duty to receive the prayers
+of Shirpurla and render them propitious; he superintended and blessed
+Ningirsu's journey when he visited Eridu or returned from that city,
+and he made special intercessions for the life of Gudea. The minister of
+Ningirsu's har�m was the god Shakanshabar, and he was installed near to
+Nin-girsu that he might issue his commands, both great and small. The
+keeper of the har�m was the god Urizu, and it was his duty to purify the
+water and sanctify the grain, and he tended Ningirsu's sleeping-chamber
+and saw that all was arranged therein as was fitting. The driver of
+Ningirsu's chariot was the god Ensignun; it was his duty to keep the
+sacred chariot as bright as the stars of heaven, and morning and evening
+to tend and feed Ningirsu's sacred ass, called Ug-kash, and the ass
+of Eridu. The shepherd of Ningirsu's kids was the god Enlulim, and he
+tended the sacred she-goat who suckled the kids, and he guarded her so
+that the serpent should not steal her milk. This god also looked
+after the oil and the strong drink of E-ninn�, and saw that its store
+increased.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ningirsu's beloved musician was the god Ushum-gabkalama, and he was
+installed in E-ninn� that he might take his flute and fill the temple
+court with joy. It was his privilege to play to Ningirsu as he listened
+in his har�m, and to render the life of the god pleasant in E-ninn�.
+Ningirsu's singer was the god Lugaligi-khusham, and he had his appointed
+place in E-ninn�, for he could appease the heart and soften anger; he
+could stop the tears which flowed from weeping eyes, and could lessen
+sorrow in the sighing heart. Gudea also installed in E-ninn� the seven
+twin-daughters of the goddess Bau, all virgins, whom Ningirsu had
+begotten. Their names were Zarzaru, Impa�, Urenunta�a, Khegir-nuna,
+Kheshaga, Gurmu, and Zarmu. Gudea installed them near their father that
+they might offer favourable prayers.
+</p>
+<p>
+The cultivator of the district of Gu-edin was the god Gishbare, and he
+was installed in the temple that he might cause the great fields to be
+fertile, and might make the wheat glisten in Gu-edin, the plain assigned
+to Ningirsu for his revenues. It was this god's duty also to tend the
+machines for irrigation, and to raise the water into the canals and
+ditches of Shirpurla, and thus to keep the city's granaries well filled.
+The god Kal was the guardian of the fishing in Gu-edin, and his chief
+duty was to place fish in the sacred pools. The steward of Gu-edin was
+the god Dimgalabzu, whose duty it was to keep the plain in good order,
+so that the birds might abound there and the beasts might raise their
+young in peace; he also guarded the special privilege, which the plain
+enjoyed, of freedom from any tax levied upon the increase of the
+cattle pastured there. Last of all Gudea installed in E-ninn� the god
+Lugalenurua-zagakam, who looked after the construction of houses in the
+city and the building of fortresses upon the city wall; in the temple it
+was his privilege to raise on high a battle-axe made of cedar.
+</p>
+<p>
+All these lesser deities, having close relations to the god Ningirsu,
+were installed by Gudea in his temple in close proximity to him, that
+they might be always ready to perform their special functions. But the
+greater deities also had their share in the inauguration of the temple,
+and of these Gudea specially mentions Ana, Enlil, Ninkharsag, Enki, and
+Enzu, who all assisted in rendering the temple's lot propitious. For at
+least three of the greater gods (Ana, Enlil, and the goddess Nin-makh)
+Gudea erected shrines near one another and probably within the temple's
+precincts, and, as the passage which records this fact is broken, it is
+possible that the missing portion of the text recorded the building of
+shrines to other deities. In any case, it is clear that the composer
+of the text represents all the great gods as beholding the erection and
+inauguration of Ningirsu's new temple with favour.
+</p>
+<p>
+After the account of the installation of Ningirsu, and his spouse Bau,
+and his attendant deities, the text records the sumptuous offerings
+which Gudea placed within Ningirsu's shrine. These included another
+chariot drawn by an ass, a seven-headed battle-axe, a sword with nine
+emblems, a bow with terrible arrows and a quiver decorated with wild
+beasts and dragons shooting out their tongues, and a bed which was
+set within the god's sleeping-chamber. On the couch in the shrine the
+goddess Bau reclined beside her lord Ningirsu, and ate of the great
+victims which were sacrificed in their honour.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the ceremony of installation had been successfully performed, Gudea
+rested, and for seven days he feasted with his people. During this time
+the maid was the equal of her mistress, and master and servant consorted
+together as friends. The powerful and the humble man lay down side by
+side, and in place of evil speech only propitious words were heard. The
+rich man did not wrong the orphan and the strong man did not oppress the
+widow. The laws of Nin� and Ningirsu were observed, justice was bright
+in the sunlight, and the Sun-god trampled iniquity under foot. The
+building of the temple also restored material prosperity to the land,
+for the canals became full of water and fish swarmed in the pools, the
+granaries were filled with grain and the flocks and herds brought forth
+their increase. The city of Shirpurla was satiated with abundance.
+</p>
+<p>
+Such is a summary of the account which Gudea has left us of his
+rebuilding of the temple E-ninn�, of the reasons which led him to
+undertake the work, and of the results which followed its completion. It
+has often been said that the inscriptions of the ancient Sumerians are
+without much intrinsic value, that they mainly consist of dull votive
+formul�, and that for general interest the best of them cannot be
+compared with the later inscriptions of the Semitic inhabitants
+of Mesopotamia. This reproach, for which until recently there was
+considerable justification, has been finally removed by the working
+out of the texts upon Gudea's cylinders. For picturesque narrative, for
+wealth of detail, and for striking similes, it would be hard to find
+their superior in Babylonian and Assyrian literature. They are, in fact,
+very remarkable compositions, and in themselves justify the claim that
+the Sumerians were possessed of a literature in the proper sense of the
+term.
+</p>
+<p>
+But that is not their only value, for they give a vivid picture of
+ancient Sumerian life and of the ideals and aims which actuated the
+people and their rulers. The Sumerians were essentially an unmilitary
+race. That they could maintain a stubborn fight for their territory is
+proved by the prolonged struggle maintained by Shirpurla against her
+rival Gishkhu, but neither ruler nor people was inflamed by love of
+conquest for its own sake. They were settled in a rich and fertile
+country, which supplied their own wants in abundance, and they were
+content to lead a peaceful life therein, engaged in agricultural and
+industrial pursuits, and devoted wholly to the worship of their gods.
+Gudea's inscriptions enable us to realize with what fervour they carried
+out the rebuilding of a temple, and how the whole resources of the
+nation were devoted to the successful completion of the work. It is true
+that the rebuilding of E-ninn� was undertaken in a critical period when
+the land was threatened with famine, and the peculiar magnificence with
+which the work was carried out may be partly explained as due to the
+belief that such devotion would ensure a return of material prosperity.
+But the existence of such a belief is in itself an index to the people's
+character, and we may take it that the record faithfully represents the
+relations of the Sumerians to their gods, and the important place which
+worship and ritual occupied in the national life.
+</p>
+<p>
+Moreover, the inscriptions of Gudea furnish much valuable information
+with regard to the details of Sumerian worship and the elaborate
+organization of the temples. From them we can reconstruct a picture of
+one of these immense buildings, with its numerous shrines and courts,
+surrounded by sacred gardens and raising its ziggurat, or temple tower,
+high above the surrounding city. Within its dark chambers were the
+mysterious figures of the gods, and what little light could enter would
+have been reflected in the tanks of sacred water sunk to the level of
+the pavement. The air within the shrines must have been heavy with the
+smell of incense and of aromatic woods, while the deep silence would
+have been broken only by the chanting of the priests and the feet of
+those that bore offerings. Outside in the sunlight cedars and other rare
+trees cast a pleasant shade, and birds flew about among the flowers and
+bushes in the outer courts and on the garden terraces. The area covered
+by the temple buildings must have been enormous, for they included the
+dwellings of the priests, stables and pens for the cattle, sheep, and
+kids employed for sacrifice, and treasure-chambers and storehouses and
+granaries for the produce from the temple lands.
+</p>
+<p>
+We also get much information with regard to the nature of the offerings
+and the character of the ceremonies which were performed. We may mention
+as of peculiar interest Gudea's symbolical rite which preceded the
+making of the sun-dried bricks, and the ceremony of the installation of
+Ningirsu in the presence of the prostrate city. The texts also throw
+an interesting light on the truly Oriental manner in which, when
+approaching one deity for help, the cooperation and assistance of other
+deities were first secured. Thus Gudea solicited the intercession of
+Ningirsu and Gatumdug before applying to the goddess Nin� to interpret
+his dream. The extremely human character of the gods themselves is also
+well illustrated. Thus we gather from the texts that Ningirsu's temple
+was arranged like the palace of a Sumerian ruler and that he was
+surrounded by gods who took the place of the attendants and ministers
+of his human counterpart. His son was installed in a place of honour and
+shared with him the responsibility of government. Another god was his
+personal attendant and cupbearer, who offered him fair water and looked
+after the ablutions. Two more were his generals, who secured his country
+against the attacks of foes. Another was his counsellor, who received
+and presented petitions from his subjects and superintended his
+journeys. Another was the head of his har�m, a position of great
+trust and responsibility, while a keeper of the har�m looked after the
+practical details. Another god was the driver of his chariot, and it
+is interesting to note that the chariot was drawn by an ass, for horses
+were not introduced into Western Asia until a much later period. Other
+gods performed the functions of head shepherd, chief musician, chief
+singer, head cultivator and inspector of irrigation, inspector of the
+fishing, land steward, and architect. His household also included his
+wife and his seven virgin daughters. In addition to the account of the
+various functions performed by these lesser deities, the texts also
+furnish valuable facts with regard to the characters and attributes
+of the greater gods and goddesses, such as the attributes of Ningirsu
+himself, and the character of Nin� as the goddess who divined and
+interpreted the secrets of the gods.
+</p>
+<p>
+But perhaps the most interesting conclusions to be drawn from the texts
+relate to the influence exerted by the ancient Sumerians upon Semitic
+beliefs and practices. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
+later Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria drew most of their
+culture from the Sumerians, whom they displaced and absorbed. Their
+system of writing, the general structure of their temples, the ritual of
+their worship, the majority of their religious compositions, and many of
+their gods themselves are to be traced to a Sumerian origin, and much of
+the information obtained from the cylinders of Gudea merely confirms
+or illustrates the conclusions already deduced from other sources. As
+instances we may mention the belief in spirits, which is illustrated by
+the importance attached to the placating of the Anunnaki, or Spirits of
+the Earth, to whom a special place and special offerings were assigned
+in E-ninn�. The Sumerian origin of ceremonies of purification is
+confirmed by Gudea's purification of the city before beginning the
+building of the temple, and again before the transference of the god
+from his old temple to the new one. The consultation of omens, which was
+so marked a feature of Babylonian and Assyrian life, is seen in actual
+operation under the Sumerians; for, even after Gudea had received direct
+instructions from Ningirsu to begin building his temple, he did not
+proceed to carry them out until he had consulted the omens and found
+that they were favourable. Moreover, the references to mythological
+beings, such as the seven heroes, the dragon of the deep, and the god
+who slew the dragon, confirm the opinion that the creation legends and
+other mythological compositions of the Babylonians were derived by them
+from Sumerian sources. But there are two incidents in the narrative
+which are on a rather different plane and are more startling in their
+novelty. One is the story of Gudea's dream, and the other the sign
+which he sought from his god. The former is distinctly apocalyptic in
+character, and both may be parallelled in what is regarded as purely
+Semitic literature. That such conceptions existed among the Sumerians is
+a most interesting fact, and although the theory of independent origin
+is possible, their existence may well have influenced later Semitic
+beliefs.
+</p>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<center>
+PART 13B.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1a.htm">Previous Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Next Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/orig17321-h/v1c.htm b/old/orig17321-h/v1c.htm
new file mode 100644
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@@ -0,0 +1,2740 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+
+<title>
+    Maspero's History of Egypt,
+    by L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Part 13c
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+		body {background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { margin:10%;
+		    text-indent:   1em;
+        margin-top:    .75em;
+        margin-bottom: .75em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; }
+		hr  { width: 50%; }
+    hr.full { width: 100%; }
+    .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 95%; }
+		img {border: 0;}
+    HR  { width: 33%; text-align: center; }
+		blockquote {font-size: 97%; }
+		.figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;}
+    CENTER { padding: 10px;}
+		PRE    { font-size: 90%; margin-left: 20%;}
+    // -->
+</style>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<center>
+PART 13C.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Previous Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1d.htm">Next Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+
+
+<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/spines.jpg" height="967" width="652"
+alt="Book Spines 
+">
+</center>
+
+<h1>
+    HISTORY OF EGYPT
+</h1><br /><br />
+
+
+<h2>
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+<br />
+
+
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+</h2><br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL<br />
+<br />
+
+
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+<br />
+
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+<br />
+<br />
+
+Copyright 1906
+</h3>
+<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="936" width="625"
+alt="Frontispiece1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1-text.jpg" height="171" width="520"
+alt="Frontispiece1-text 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/titlepage1.jpg" height="1198" width="756"
+alt="Titlepage1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<h3>
+(Part 13c)
+</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER V&mdash;ELAM AND BABYLON, THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE KASSITES
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER VI&mdash;EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+</a></p>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+
+<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0001">
+Book Spines 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0002">
+Frontispiece1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0003">
+Frontispiece1-text 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0004">
+Titlepage1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0005">
+230.jpg Clay Tablet, Found at Susa, Bearing An
+Inscription in the Early Proto-elamite Character. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0006">
+231.jpg Clay Tablet, Recently Found at Susa, Bearing An
+Inscription in the Early Proto-elamite Character. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0007">
+231a.jpg Fractions 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0008">
+233.jpg Block of Limestone, Found at Susa, Bearing
+Inscriptions of Karibu-sha-shushinak. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0009">
+240.jpg Brick Stamped With an Inscription Of
+Kudur-maburg 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0010">
+245.jpg Semitic Babylonian Contract-tablet 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0011">
+256.jpg a Kudurru Or "boundary-stone." 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0012">
+260.jpg Kuottrru, Or "boundary-stone." 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0013">
+264a.jpg Upper Part of the Stele Of Hammurabi, King Of
+Babylon. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0014">
+280.jpg Clay Contract Tablet and Its Outer Case 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0015">
+282.jpg a Track in the Desert. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0016">
+283.jpg a Camping-ground in the Desert, Between Birejik
+And Urfa. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0017">
+284.jpg Approach to the City of Samarra, Situated on The
+Left Bank of the Tigris. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0018">
+285.jpg a Small Caravan in the Mountains of Kurdistan. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0019">
+286.jpg the City of Mosul. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0020">
+287.jpg the Village of Nebi Yunus. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0021">
+288.jpg Portrait-sculpture of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0022">
+293.jpg a Modern Machine for Irrigation on The
+Euphrates. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0023">
+297.jpg Kaiks, Or Native Boats on the Euphrates At
+Birejie. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0024">
+298.jpg the Modern Bridge of Boats Across The Tigris
+Opposite Mosul. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0025">
+299.jpg a Small Kelek, or Raft, Upon the Tigris At
+Baghdad. 
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER V&mdash;ELAM AND BABYLON, 
+		<br />
+THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE KASSITES
+</h2>
+<p>
+Up to five years ago our knowledge of Elam and of the part she played in
+the ancient world was derived, in the main, from a few allusions to the
+country to be found in the records of Babylonian and Assyrian kings. It
+is true that a few inscriptions of the native rulers had been found in
+Persia, but they belonged to the late periods of her history, and the
+majority consisted of short dedicatory formulae and did not supply us
+with much historical information. But the excavations carried on since
+then by M. de Morgan at Susa have revealed an entirely new chapter of
+ancient Oriental history, and have thrown a flood of light upon the
+position occupied by Elam among the early races of the East.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lying to the north of the Persian Gulf and to the east of the Tigris,
+and rising from the broad plains nearer the coast to the mountainous
+districts within its borders on the east and north, Elam was one of the
+nearest neighbours of Chald�a. A few facts concerning her relations with
+Babylonia during certain periods of her history have long been known,
+and her struggles with the later kings of Assyria are known in some
+detail; but for her history during the earliest periods we have had to
+trust mainly to conjecture. That in the earlier as in the later periods
+she should have been in constant antagonism with Babylonia might
+legitimately be suspected, and it is not surprising that we should find
+an echo of her early struggles with Chald�a in the legends which were
+current in the later periods of Babylonian history. In the fourth and
+fifth tablets, or sections, of the great Babylonian epic which describes
+the exploits of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, a story is told of an
+expedition undertaken by Gilgamesh and his friend Ba-bani against an
+Elamite despot named Khum-baba. It is related in the poem that Khumbaba
+was feared by all who dwelt near him, for his roaring was like the
+storm, and any man perished who was rash enough to enter the cedar-wood
+in which he dwelt. But Gilgamesh, encouraged by a dream sent him by
+Sha-mash, the Sun-god, pressed on with his friend, and, having entered
+the wood, succeeded in slaying Khumbaba and in cutting off his head.
+This legend is doubtless based on episodes in early Babylonian and
+Elamite history. Khumbaba may not have been an actual historical ruler,
+but at least he represents or personifies the power of Elam, and the
+success of Gilgamesh no doubt reflects the aspirations with which many a
+Babylonian expedition set out for the Elamite frontier.
+</p>
+<p>
+Incidentally it may be noted that the legend possibly had a still closer
+historical parallel, for the name of Khumbaba occurs as a component in
+a proper name upon one of the Elamite contracts found recently by M. de
+Morgan at Mai-Amir. The name in question is written <i>Khumbaba-arad-ili</i>,
+"Khumbaba, the servant of God," and it proves that at the date at which
+the contract was written (about 1300-1000 B.C.) the name of Khumbaba was
+still held in remembrance, possibly as that of an early historical ruler
+of the country.
+</p>
+<p>
+In her struggles with Chald�a, Elam was not successful during the
+earliest historical period of which we have obtained information; and,
+so far as we can tell at present, her princes long continued to own
+allegiance to the Semitic rulers whose influence was predominant from
+time to time in the plains of Lower Mesopotamia. Tradition relates that
+two of the earliest Semitic rulers whose names are known to us, Sargon
+and Nar�m-Sin, kings of Agade, held sway in Elam, for in the "Omens"
+which were current in a later period concerning them, the former is
+credited with the conquest of the whole country, while of the latter it
+is related that he conquered Apirak, an Elamite district, and captured
+its king. Some doubts were formerly cast upon these traditions inasmuch
+as they were found in a text containing omens or forecasts, but these
+doubts were removed by the discovery of contemporary documents by which
+the later traditions were confirmed. Sargon's conquest of Elam, for
+instance, was proved to be historical by a reference to the event in a
+date-formula upon tablets belonging to his reign. Moreover, the event
+has received further confirmation from an unpublished tablet in the
+British Museum, containing a copy of the original chronicle from which
+the historical extracts in the "Omens" were derived. The portion of
+the composition inscribed upon this tablet does not contain the lines
+referring to Sargon's conquest of Elam, for these occurred in an earlier
+section of the composition; but the recovery of the tablet puts beyond
+a doubt the historical character of the traditions preserved upon the
+omen-tablet as a whole, and the conquest of Elam is thus confirmed
+by inference. The new text does recount the expedition undertaken by
+Nar�m-Sin, the son of Sargon, against Apirak, and so furnishes a direct
+confirmation of this event.
+</p>
+<p>
+Another early conqueror of Elam, who was probably of Semitic origin,
+was Alu-usharshid, king of the city of Kish, for, from a number of his
+inscriptions found near those of Sargon at Nippur in Babylonia, we learn
+that he subdued Elam and Para'se, the district in which the city of Susa
+was probably situated. From a small mace-head preserved in the British
+Museum we know of another conquest of Elam by a Semitic ruler of this
+early period. The mace-head was made and engraved by the orders of
+Mutabil, an early governor of the city of D�r-ilu, to commemorate his
+own valour as the man "who smote the head of the hosts" of Elam. Mutabil
+was not himself an independent ruler, and his conquest of Elam must have
+been undertaken on behalf of the suzerain to whom he owed allegiance,
+and thus his victory cannot be classed in the same category as those of
+his predecessors. A similar remark applies to the success against
+the city of Anshan in Elam, achieved by Grudea, the Sumerian ruler
+of Shirpurla, inasmuch as he was a patesi, or viceroy, and not an
+independent king. Of greater duration was the influence exercised over
+Elam by the kings of Ur, for bricks and contract-tablets have been found
+at Susa proving that Dungi, one of the most powerful kings of Ur, and
+Bur-Sin, Ine-Sin, and Oamil-Sin, kings of the second dynasty in that
+city, all in turn included Elam within the limits of their empire.
+</p>
+<p>
+Such are the main facts which until recently had been ascertained
+with regard to the influence of early Babylonian rulers in Elam. The
+information is obtained mainly from Babylonian sources, and until
+recently we have been unable to fill in any details of the picture
+from the Elamite side. But this inability has now been removed by M.
+de Morgan's discoveries. From the inscribed bricks, cones, stel�, and
+statues that have been brought to light in the course of his excavations
+at Susa, we have recovered the name of a succession of native Elamite
+rulers. All those who are to be assigned to this early period, during
+which Elam owed allegiance to the kings of Babylonia, ascribe to
+themselves the title of <i>patesi</i>, or viceroy, of Susa, in acknowledgment
+of their dependence. Their records consist principally of building
+inscriptions and foundation memorials, and they commemorate the
+construction or repair of temples, the cutting of canals, and the like.
+They do not, therefore, throw much light upon the problems connected
+with the external history of Elam during this early period, but we
+obtain from them a glimpse of the internal administration of the
+country. We see a nation without ambition to extend its boundaries, and
+content, at any rate for the time, to owe allegiance to foreign rulers,
+while the energies of its native princes are devoted exclusively to the
+cultivation of the worship of the gods and to the amelioration of the
+conditions of the life of the people in their charge.
+</p>
+<p>
+A difficult but interesting problem presents itself for solution at the
+outset of our inquiry into the history of this people as revealed by
+their lately recovered inscriptions,&mdash;the problem of their race and
+origin. Found at Susa in Elam, and inscribed by princes bearing purely
+Elamite names, we should expect these votive and memorial texts to be
+written entirely in the Elamite language. But such is not the case,
+for many of them are written in good Semitic Babylonian. While some
+are entirely composed in the tongue which we term Elamite or Anzanite,
+others, so far as their language and style is concerned, might have been
+written by any early Semitic king ruling in Babylonia. Why did early
+princes of Susa make this use of the Babylonian tongue?
+</p>
+<p>
+At first sight it might seem possible to trace a parallel in the use of
+the Babylonian language by kings and officials in Egypt and Syria
+during the fifteenth century B.C., as revealed in the letters from
+Tell el-Amarna. But a moment's thought will show that the cases are not
+similar. The Egyptian or Syrian scribe employed Babylonian as a medium
+for his official foreign correspondence because Babylonian at that
+period was the <i>lingua franca</i> of the East. But the object of the
+early Elamite rulers was totally different. Their inscribed bricks and
+memorial stel� were not intended for the eyes of foreigners, but for
+those of their own descendants. Built into the structure of a temple,
+or buried beneath the edifice, one of their principal objects was to
+preserve the name and deeds of the writer from oblivion. Like similar
+documents found on the sites of Assyrian and Babylonian cities, they
+sometimes include curses upon any impious man, who, on finding the
+inscription after the temple shall have fallen into ruins, should in
+any way injure the inscription or deface the writer's name. It will be
+obvious that the writers of these inscriptions intended that they should
+be intelligible to those who might come across them in the future. If,
+therefore, they employed the Babylonian as well as the Elamite language,
+it is clear that they expected that their future readers might be either
+Babylonian or Elamite; and this belief can only be explained on the
+supposition that their own subjects were of mixed race.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is therefore certain that at this early period of Elamite history
+Semitic Babylonians and Elamites dwelt side by side in Susa and retained
+their separate languages. The problem therefore resolves itself into the
+inquiry: which of these two peoples occupied the country first? Were the
+Semites at first in sole possession, which was afterwards disputed by
+the incursion of Elamite tribes from the north and east? Or were the
+Elamites the original inhabitants of the land, into which the Semites
+subsequently pressed from Babylonia?
+</p>
+<p>
+A similar mixture of races is met with in Babylonia itself in the
+early period of the history of that country. There the early Sumerian
+inhabitants were gradually dispossessed by the invading Semite, who
+adopted the civilization of the conquered race, and took over the system
+of cuneiform writing, which he modified to suit his own language. In
+Babylonia the Semites eventually predominated and the Sumerians as a
+race disappeared, but during the process of absorption the two languages
+were employed indiscriminately. The kings of the First Babylonian
+Dynasty wrote their votive inscriptions sometimes in Sumerian, sometimes
+in Semitic Babylonian; at other times they employed both languages
+for the same text, writing the record first in Sumerian and afterwards
+appending a Semitic translation by the side; and in the legal and
+commercial documents of the period the old Sumerian legal forms and
+phrases were retained intact. In Elam we may suppose that the use of the
+Sumerian and Semitic languages was the same.
+</p>
+<p>
+It may be surmised, however, that the first Semitic incursions into Elam
+took place at a much later period than those into Babylonia, and under
+very different conditions. When overrunning the plains and cities of the
+Sumerians, the Semites were comparatively uncivilized, and, so far as we
+know, without a system of writing of their own. The incursions into
+Elam must have taken place under the great Semitic conquerors, such as
+Sar-gon and Nar�m-Sin and Alu-usharshid. At this period they had fully
+adopted and modified the Sumerian characters to express their own
+Semitic tongue, and on their invasion of Elam they brought their system
+of writing with them. The native princes of Elam, whom they conquered,
+adopted it in turn for many of their votive texts and inscribed
+monuments when they wished to write them in the Babylonian language.
+</p>
+<p>
+Such is the most probable explanation of the occurrence in Elam of
+inscriptions in the Old Babylonian language, written by native princes
+concerning purely domestic matters. But a further question now suggests
+itself. Assuming that this was the order in which events took place,
+are we to suppose that the first Semitic invaders of Elam found there a
+native population in a totally undeveloped stage of civilization? Or did
+they find a population enjoying a comparatively high state of culture,
+different from their own, which they proceeded to modify and transform!
+Luckily, we have not to fall back on conjecture for an answer to these
+questions, for a recent discovery at Susa has furnished material from
+which it is possible to reconstruct in outline the state of culture of
+these early Elamites.
+</p>
+<p>
+This interesting discovery consists of a number of clay tablets
+inscribed in the proto-Elamite system of writing, a system which was
+probably the only one in use in the country during the period before the
+Semitic invasion. The documents in question are small, roughly formed
+tablets of clay very similar to those employed in the early periods of
+Babylonian history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them
+offer the greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian
+characters with which we are familiar. Although they cannot be fully
+deciphered at present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts,
+the signs upon them consisting of lists of figures and what are
+probably ideographs for things. Some of the ideographs, such as that for
+"tablet," with which many of the texts begin, are very similar to the
+Sumerian or Babylonian signs for the same objects; but the majority are
+entirely different and have been formed and developed upon a system of
+their own.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/230.jpg" height="666" width="573"
+alt="230.jpg Clay Tablet, Found at Susa, Bearing An
+Inscription in the Early Proto-elamite Character. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's <i>D�l�gation en
+     Perse, Mem.</i>, t. vi, pi. 23.
+</pre>
+<p>
+On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in
+an early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial
+character of the ideographs was still prominent.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0006"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/231.jpg" height="616" width="549"
+alt="231.jpg Clay Tablet, Recently Found at Susa, Bearing An
+Inscription in the Early Proto-elamite Character. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan's <i>D�l�gation
+     en Perse, M�m.</i>, t. vi, pi. 22.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet
+been identified, P�re Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded
+in making out the system of numeration. He has identified the signs for
+unity, 10, 100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for
+these figures are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0007"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/231a.jpg" height="51" width="673"
+alt="231a.jpg Fractions 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The system, too, is different, for it is a decimal, and not a
+sexagesimal, system of numeration.
+</p>
+<p>
+That in its origin this form of writing had some connection with that
+employed and, so far as we know, invented by the ancient Sumerians
+is possible.* But it shows small trace of Sumerian influence, and the
+disparity in the two systems of numeration is a clear indication that,
+at any rate, it broke off and was isolated from the latter at a very
+early period. Having once been adopted by the early Elamites, it
+continued to be used by them for long periods with but small change or
+modification. Employed far from the centre of Sumerian civilization, its
+development was slow, and it seems to have remained in its ideographic
+state, while the system employed by the Sumerians, and adopted by the
+Semitic Babylonians, was developed along syllabic lines.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * It is, of course, also possible that the system of writing
+     had no connection in its origin with that of the Sumerians,
+     and was invented independently of the system employed in
+     Babylonia. In that case, the signs which resemble certain of
+     the Sumerian characters must have been adopted in a later
+     stage of its development. Though it would be rash to
+     dogmatize on the subject, the view that connects its origin
+     with the Sumerians appears on the whole to fit in best with
+     the evidence at present available.
+</pre>
+<p>
+It was without doubt this proto-Elamite system of writing which the
+Semites from Babylonia found employed in Elam on their first incursions
+into that country. They brought with them their own more convenient form
+of writing, and, when the country had once been finally subdued, the
+subject Elamite princes adopted the foreign system of writing and
+language from their conquerors for memorial and monumental inscriptions.
+But the ancient native writing was not entirely ousted, and continued
+to be employed by the common people of Elam for the ordinary purposes
+of daily life. That this was the case at least until the reign of
+Karibu-sha-Shu-shinak, one of the early subject native rulers, is clear
+from one of his inscriptions engraved upon a block of limestone to
+commemorate the dedication of what were probably some temple furnishings
+in honour of the god Shu-shinak.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0008"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/233.jpg" height="733" width="669"
+alt="233.jpg Block of Limestone, Found at Susa, Bearing
+Inscriptions of Karibu-sha-shushinak. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's <i>D�l�gation en
+     Perse</i>, M�m., t. vi, pi. 2.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The main part of the inscription is written in Semitic Babylonian,
+and below there is an addition to the text written in proto-Elamite
+characters, probably enumerating the offerings which the
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak decreed should be made for the future in honour
+of the god.* In course of time this proto-Elamite system of writing by
+means of ideographs seems to have died out, and a modified form of the
+Babylonian system was adopted by the Elamites for writing their own
+language phonetically. It is in this phonetic character that the
+so-called "Anzanite" texts of the later Elamite princes were composed.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     *We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of
+     Karibu-sha-Shushinak. But it is also possible that the
+     second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later
+     period. From its position on the stone it is clear that it
+     was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak's
+     inscription in Semitic Babylonian. See the photographic
+     reproduction.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription
+has been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject
+princes of Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C.
+3000. He styles himself "patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,"
+but we do not know at present to what contemporary king in Babylonia
+he owed allegiance. The longest of his inscriptions that have been
+recovered is engraved upon a stele of limestone and records the building
+of the Gate of Shushinak at Susa and the cutting of a canal; it also
+recounts the offerings which Karibu-sha-Shushinak dedicated on the
+completion of the work. It may here be quoted as an example of the
+class of votive inscriptions from which the names of these early Elamite
+rulers have been recovered. The inscription runs as follows: "For
+the god Shushinak, his lord, Karibu-sha-Shushinak, the son of
+Shimbi-ish-khuk, patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,&mdash;when
+he set the (door) of his Gate in place,... in the Gate of the god
+Shushinak, his lord, and when he had opened the canal of Sidur, he set
+up in face thereof his canopy, and he set planks of cedar-wood for its
+gate. A sheep in the interior thereof, and sheep without, he appointed
+(for sacrifice) to him each day. On days of festival he caused the
+people to sing songs in the Gate of the god Shushinak. And twenty
+measures of fine oil he dedicated to make his gate beautiful. Four
+<i>magi</i> of silver he dedicated; a censer of silver and gold he dedicated
+for a sweet odour; a,sword he dedicated; an axe with four blades
+he dedicated, and he dedicated silver in addition for the mounting
+thereof.... A righteous judgment he judged in the city! As for the man
+who shall transgress his judgment or shall remove his gift, may the
+gods Shushinak and Shamash, Bel and Ea, Ninni and Sin, Mnkharsag and
+Nati&mdash;may all the gods uproot his foundation, and his seed may they
+destroy!"
+</p>
+<p>
+It will be seen that Karibu-sha-Shushinak takes a delight in enumerating
+the details of the offerings he has ordained in honour of his city-god
+Shushinak, and this religious temper is peculiarly characteristic of the
+princes of Elam throughout the whole course of their history. Another
+interesting point to notice in the inscription is that, although the
+writer invokes Shushinak, his own god, and puts his name at the head
+of the list of deities whose vengeance he implores upon the impious, he
+also calls upon the gods of the Babylonians. As he wrote the inscription
+itself in Babylonian, in the belief that it might be recovered by
+some future Semitic inhabitant of his country, so he included in his
+imprecations those deities whose names he conceived would be most
+reverenced by such a reader. In addition to Karibu-sha-Shushinak the
+names of a number of other patesis, or viceroys, have recently
+been recovered, such as Khutran-tepti, and Idadu I and his son
+Kal-Rukhu-ratir, and his grandson Idadu II. All these probably ruled
+after Karibu-sha-Shushinak, and may be set in the early period of
+Babylonian supremacy in Elam.
+</p>
+<p>
+It has been stated above that the allegiance which these early Elamite
+princes owed to their overlords in Babylonia was probably reflected in
+the titles which they bear upon their inscriptions recently found at
+Susa. These titles are "<i>patesi</i> of Susa, <i>shakkannak</i> of Elam," which
+may be rendered as "viceroy of Susa, governor of Elam." But inscriptions
+have been found on the same site belonging to another series of rulers,
+to whom a different title is applied. Instead of referring to themselves
+as viceroys of Susa and governors of Elam, they bear the title of
+<i>sukkal</i> of Elam, of Siparki, and of Susa. Siparki, or Sipar, was
+probably the name of an important section of Elamite territory, and
+the title <i>sukkalu</i>, "ruler," probably carries with it an idea of
+independence of foreign control which is absent from the title of
+<i>patesi</i>. It is therefore legitimate to trace this change of title to
+a corresponding change in the political condition of Elam; and there is
+much to be said for the view that the rulers of Elam who bore the title
+of <i>sukkalu</i> reigned at a period when Elam herself was independent, and
+may possibly have exercised a suzerainty over the neighbouring districts
+of Babylonia.
+</p>
+<p>
+The worker of this change in the political condition of Elam and
+the author of her independence was a king named Kutir-Nakhkhunte or
+Kutir-Na'khunde, whose name and deeds have been preserved in
+later Assyrian records, where he is termed Kudur-Nankhundi and
+Kudur-Nakhundu.* This ruler, according to the Assyrian king
+Ashur-bani-pal, was not content with throwing off the yoke under which
+his land had laboured for so long, but carried war into the country of
+his suzerain and marched through Babylonia devastating and despoiling
+the principal cities. This successful Elamite campaign took place,
+according to the computation of the later Assyrian scribes, about the
+year 2280 B. c, and it is probable that for many years afterwards the
+authority of the King of Elam extended over the plains of Babylonia.
+It has been suggested that Kutir-Nakh-khunte, after including Babylonia
+within his empire, did not remain permanently in Elam, but may have
+resided for a part of each year, at least, in Lower Mesopotamia.
+His object, no doubt, would have been to superintend in person the
+administration of his empire and to check any growing spirit of
+independence among his local governors. He may thus have appointed in
+Susa itself a local governor who would carry on the business of the
+country during his absence, and, under the king himself, would wield
+supreme authority. Such governors may have been the sukkali, who, unlike
+the patesi, were independent of foreign control, but yet did not enjoy
+the full title of "king."
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * For references to the passages where the name occurs, see
+     King, <i>Letters of Hammurabi</i>, vol. i, p. Ivy.
+</pre>
+<p>
+It is possible that the sukkalu who ruled in Elam during the reign of
+Kutir-Nakhkhunte was named Temti-agun, for a short inscription of
+this ruler has been recovered, in which he records that he built and
+dedicated a certain temple with the object of ensuring the preservation
+of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi. If we may identify the Kutir-Va'khundi
+of this text with the great Elamite conqueror, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, it
+follows that Temti-agun, the sukkal of Susa, was his subordinate. The
+inscription mentions other names which are possibly those of rulers of
+this period, and reads as follows: "Temti-agun, sukkal of Susa, the son
+of the sister of Sirukdu', hath built a temple of bricks at Ishme-karab
+for the preservation of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi, and for the
+preservation of the life of Lila-irtash, and for the preservation of his
+own life, and for the preservation of the life of Temti-khisha-khanesh
+and of Pil-kishamma-khashduk." As Lila-irtash is mentioned immediately
+after Kutir-Na'khundi, he was possibly his son, and he may have
+succeeded him as ruler of the empire of Elam and Babylonia, though no
+confirmation of this view has yet been discovered. Temti-khisha-khanesh
+is mentioned immediately after the reference to the preservation of the
+life of Temti-agun himself, and it may be conjectured that the name was
+that of Temti-agun's son, or possibly that of his wife, in which event
+the last two personages mentioned in the text may have been the sons of
+Temti-agun.
+</p>
+<p>
+This short text affords a good example of one class of votive
+inscriptions from which it is possible to recover the names of Elamite
+rulers of this period, and it illustrates the uncertainty which at
+present attaches to the identification of the names themselves and the
+order in which they are to be arranged. Such uncertainty necessarily
+exists when only a few texts have been recovered, and it will disappear
+with the discovery of additional monuments by which the results already
+arrived at may be checked. We need not here enumerate all the names of
+the later Elamite rulers which have been found in the numerous votive
+inscriptions recovered during the recent excavations at Susa. The order
+in which they should be arranged is still a matter of considerable
+uncertainty, and the facts recorded by them in such inscriptions as we
+possess mainly concern the building and restoration of Elamite temples
+and the decoration of shrines, and they are thus of no great historical
+interest. These votive texts are well illustrated by a remarkable find
+of foundation deposits made last year by M. de Morgan in the temple of
+Shushinak at Susa, consisting of figures and jewelry of gold and silver,
+and objects of lead, bronze, iron, stone, and ivory, cylinder-seals,
+mace-heads, vases, etc. This is the richest foundation deposit that has
+been recovered on any ancient site, and its archaeological interest in
+connection with the development of Elamite art is great. But in no other
+way does the find affect our conception of the history of the country,
+and we may therefore pass on to a consideration of such recent
+discoveries as throw new light upon the course of history in Western
+Asia.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the advent of the First Dynasty in Babylon Elam found herself
+face to face with a power prepared to dispute her claims to exercise a
+suzerainty over the plains of Mesopotamia. It is held by many writers
+that the First Dynasty of Babylon was of Arab origin, and there is much
+to be said for this view. M. Pognon was the first to start the theory
+that its kings were not purely Babylonian, but were of either Arab or
+Aramaean extraction, and he based his theory on a study of the forms of
+the names which some of them bore. The name of Samsu-imna, for instance,
+means "the sun is our god," but the form of the words of which the name
+is composed betray foreign influence. Thus in Babylonian the name for
+"sun" or the Sun-god would be <i>Shamash</i> or <i>Shamshu</i>, not <i>Samsu</i>; in
+the second half of the name, while <i>ilu</i> ("god") is good Babylonian, the
+ending <i>na</i>, which is the pronominal suffix of the first person plural,
+is not Babylonian, but Arabic. We need not here enter into a long
+philological discussion, and the instance already cited may suffice to
+show in what way many of the names met in the Babylonian inscriptions
+of this period betray a foreign, and possibly an Arabic, origin. But
+whether we assign the forms of these names to Arabic influence or not,
+it may be regarded as certain that, the First Dynasty of Babylon had
+its origin in the incursion into Babylonia of a new wave of Semitic
+immigration.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0009"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/240.jpg" height="1060" width="729"
+alt="240.jpg Brick Stamped With an Inscription Of
+Kudur-maburg 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The invading Semites brought with them fresh blood and unexhausted
+energy, and, finding many of their own race in scattered cities and
+settlements throughout the country, they succeeded in establishing a
+purely Semitic dynasty, with its capital at Babylon, and set about the
+task of freeing the country from any vestiges of foreign control. Many
+centuries earlier Semitic kings had ruled in Babylonian cities, and
+Semitic empires had been formed there. Sargon and Nar�m-Sin,
+having their capital at Agade, had established their control over a
+considerable area of Western Asia and had held Elam as a province. But
+so far as Elam was concerned Kutir-Nakhkhunte had reversed the balance
+and had raised Elam to the position of the predominant power.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of the struggles and campaigns of the earlier kings of the First Dynasty
+of Babylon we know little, for, although we possess a considerable
+number of legal and commercial documents of the period, we have
+recovered no strictly historical inscriptions. Our main source of
+information is the dates upon these documents, which are not dated by
+the years of the reigning king, but on a system adopted by the early
+Babylonian kings from their Sumerian predecessors. In the later periods
+of Babylonian history tablets were dated in the year of the king who was
+reigning at the time the document was drawn up, but this simple system
+had not been adopted at this early period. In place of this we find that
+each year was cited by the event of greatest importance which occurred
+in that year. This event might be the cutting of a canal, when the year
+in which this took place might be referred to as "the year in which
+the canal named Ai-khegallu was cut;" or it might be the building of a
+temple, as in the date-formula, "the year in which the great temple of
+the Moon-god was built;" or it might be "the conquest of a city, such
+as the year in which the city of Kish was destroyed." Now it will be
+obvious that this system of dating had many disadvantages. An event
+might be of great importance for one city, while it might never have
+been heard of in another district; thus it sometimes happened that the
+same event was not adopted throughout the whole country for designating
+a particular year, and the result was that different systems of
+dating were employed in different parts of Babylonia. Moreover, when a
+particular system had been in use for a considerable time, it required
+a very good memory to retain the order and period of the various events
+referred to in the date-formulae, so as to fix in a moment the date of a
+document by its mention of one of them. In order to assist themselves
+in their task of fixing dates in this manner, the scribes of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon drew up lists of the titles of the years, arranged
+in chronological order under the reigns of the kings to which they
+referred. Some of these lists have been recovered, and they are of the
+greatest assistance in fixing the chronology, while at the same time
+they furnish us with considerable information concerning the history of
+the period of which we should otherwise have been in ignorance.
+</p>
+<p>
+From these lists of date-formul�, and from the dates themselves which
+are found upon the legal and commercial tablets of the period, we learn
+that Kish, Ka-sallu, and Isin all gave trouble to the earlier kings of
+the First Dynasty, and had in turn to be subdued. Elam did not watch the
+diminution of her influence in Babylonia without a struggle to retain
+it. Under Kudur-mabug, who was prince or governor of the districts lying
+along the frontier of Elam, the Elamites struggled hard to maintain
+their position in Babylonia, making the city of Ur the centre from which
+they sought to check the growing power of Babylon. From bricks that have
+been recovered from Mukayyer, the site of the city of Ur, we learn that
+Kudur-mabug rebuilt the temple in that city dedicated to the Moon-god,
+which is an indication of the firm hold he had obtained upon the city.
+It was obvious to the new Semitic dynasty in Babylon that, until Ur and
+the neighbouring city of Larsam had been captured, they could entertain
+no hope of removing the Elamite yoke from Southern Babylonia. It is
+probable that the earlier kings of the dynasty made many attempts to
+capture them, with varying success. An echo of one of their struggles in
+which they claimed the victory may be seen in the date-formula for the
+fourteenth year of the reign of Sin-muballit, Hammurabi's father and
+predecessor on the throne of Babylon. This year was referred to in the
+documents of the period as "the year in which the people of Ur were
+slain with the sword." It will be noted that the capture of the city
+is not commemorated, so that we may infer that the slaughter of the
+Elamites which is recorded did not materially reduce their influence,
+as they were left in possession of their principal stronghold. In fact,
+Elam was not signally defeated in the reign of Kudur-mabug, but in that
+of his son Rim-Sin. From the date-formul� of Hammurabi's reign we learn
+that the struggle between Elam and Babylon was brought to a climax in
+the thirtieth year of his reign, when it is recorded in the formulas
+that he defeated the Elamite army and overthrew Rim-Sin, while in the
+following year we gather that he added the land of E'mutbal, that is,
+the western district of Elam, to his dominions.
+</p>
+<p>
+An unpublished chronicle in the British Museum gives us further details
+of Hammurabi's victory over the Elamites, and at the same time makes it
+clear that the defeat and overthrow of Rim-Sin was not so crushing
+as has hitherto been supposed. This chronicle relates that Hammurabi
+attacked Rim-Sin, and, after capturing the cities of Ur and Larsam,
+carried their spoil to Babylon. Up to the present it has been supposed
+that Hammurabi's victory marked the end of Elamite influence in
+Babylonia, and that thenceforward the supremacy of Babylon was
+established throughout the whole of the country. But from the
+new chronicle we gather that Hammurabi did not succeed in finally
+suppressing the attempts of Elam to regain her former position. It is
+true that the cities of Ur and Larsam were finally incorporated in the
+Babylonian empire, and the letters of Hammurabi to Sin-idinnam, the
+governor whom he placed in authority over Larsam, afford abundant
+evidence of the stringency of the administrative control which he
+established over Southern Babylonia. But R�m-Sin was only crippled for
+the time, and, on being driven from Ur and Larsam, he retired beyond
+the Elamite frontier and devoted his energies to the recuperation of his
+forces against the time when he should feel himself strong enough again
+to make a bid for victory in his struggle against the growing power of
+Babylon. It is probable that he made no further attempt to renew the
+contest during the life of Hammurabi, but after Samsu-iluna, the son
+of Hammurabi, had succeeded to the Babylonian throne, he appeared in
+Babylonia at the head of the forces he had collected, and attempted to
+regain the cities and territory he had lost.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0010"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/245.jpg" height="797" width="688"
+alt="245.jpg Semitic Babylonian Contract-tablet 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Inscribed in the reign of Hammurabi with a deed recording
+     the division of property. The actual tablet is on the right;
+     that which appears to be another and larger tablet on the
+     left is the hollow clay case in which the tablet on the
+     right was originally enclosed. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell
+     &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The portion of the text of the chronicle relating to the war between
+R�m-Sin and Samsu-iluna is broken so that it is not possible to follow
+the campaign in detail, but it appears that Samsu-iluna defeated
+Rim-Sin, and possibly captured him or burnt him alive in a palace in
+which he had taken refuge.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the final defeat of R�m-Sin by Samsu-iluna it is probable that Elam
+ceased to be a thorn in the side of the kings of Babylon and that
+she made no further attempts to extend her authority beyond her own
+frontiers. But no sooner had Samsu-iluna freed his country from all
+danger from this quarter than he found himself faced by a new foe,
+before whom the dynasty eventually succumbed. This fact we learn from
+the unpublished chronicle to which reference has already been made, and
+the name of this new foe, as supplied by the chronicle, will render
+it necessary to revise all current schemes of Babylonian chronology.
+Samsu-iluna's new foe was no other than Iluma-ilu, the first king of the
+Second Dynasty, and, so far from having been regarded as Samsu-iluna's
+contemporary, hitherto it has been imagined that he ascended the throne
+of Babylon one hundred and eighteen years after Samsu-iluna's death.
+The new information supplied by the chronicle thus proves two important
+facts: first, that the Second Dynasty, instead of immediately succeeding
+the First Dynasty, was partly contemporary with it; second, that during
+the period in which the two dynasties were contemporary they were at
+war with one another, the Second Dynasty gradually encroaching on
+the territory of the First Dynasty, until it eventually succeeded in
+capturing Babylon and in getting the whole of the country under its
+control. We also learn from the new chronicle that this Second Dynasty
+at first established itself in "the Country of the Sea," that is to say,
+the districts in the extreme south of Babylonia bordering on the Persian
+Gulf, and afterwards extended its borders northward until it gradually
+absorbed the whole of Babylonia. Before discussing the other facts
+supplied by the new chronicle, with regard to the rise and growth of the
+Country of the Sea, whose kings formed the so-called "Second Dynasty,"
+it will be well to refer briefly to the sources from which the
+information on the period to be found in the current histories is
+derived.
+</p>
+<p>
+All the schemes of Babylonian chronology that have been suggested during
+the last twenty years have been based mainly on the great list of kings
+which is preserved in the British Museum. This document was drawn up in
+the Neo-Babylonian or Persian period, and when complete it gave a list
+of the names of all the Babylonian kings from the First Dynasty of
+Babylon down to the time in which it was written. The names of the kings
+are arranged in dynasties, and details are given as to the length of
+their reigns and the total number of years each dynasty lasted. The
+beginning of the list which gave the names of the First Dynasty is
+wanting, but the missing portion has been restored from a smaller
+document which gives a list of the kings of the First and Second
+Dynasties only. In the great list of kings the dynasties are arranged
+one after the other, and it was obvious that its compiler imagined that
+they succeeded one another in the order in which he arranged them.
+But when the total number of years the dynasties lasted is learned, we
+obtain dates for the first dynasties in the list which are too early to
+agree with other chronological information supplied by the historical
+inscriptions. The majority of writers have accepted the figures of the
+list of kings and have been content to ignore the discrepancies; others
+have sought to reconcile the available data by ingenious emendations of
+the figures given by the list and the historical inscriptions, or have
+omitted the Second Dynasty entirely from their calculations. The new
+chronicle, by showing that the First and Second Dynasties were partly
+contemporaneous, explains the discrepancies that have hitherto proved so
+puzzling.
+</p>
+<p>
+It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed discussion of
+Babylonian chronology, and therefore we will confine ourselves to a
+brief description of the sequence of events as revealed by the new
+chronicle. According to the list of kings, Iluma-ilu's reign was a long
+one, lasting for sixty years, and the new chronicle gives no indication
+as to the period of his reign at which active hostilities with Babylon
+broke out. If the war occurred in the latter portion of his reign, it
+would follow that he had been for many years organizing the forces of
+the new state he had founded in the south of Babylonia before making
+serious encroachments in the north; and in that case the incessant
+campaigns carried on by Babylon against Blam in the reigns of Hammurabi
+and Samsu-iluna would have afforded him the opportunity of establishing
+a firm foothold in the Country of the Sea without the risk of Babylonian
+interference. If, on the other hand, it was in the earlier part of his
+reign that hostilities with Babylon broke out, we may suppose that,
+while Samsu-iluna was devoting all his energies to crush Bim-Sin, the
+Country of the Sea declared her independence of Babylonian control. In
+this case we may imagine Samsu-iluna hurrying south, on the conclusion
+of his Elamite campaign, to crush the newly formed state before it had
+had time to organize its forces for prolonged resistance.
+</p>
+<p>
+Whichever of these alternatives eventually may prove to be correct, it
+is certain that Samsu-iluna took the initiative in Babylon's struggle
+with the Country of the Sea, and that his action was due either to her
+declaration of independence or to some daring act of aggression on the
+part of this small state which had hitherto appeared too insignificant
+to cause Babylon any serious trouble. The new chronicle tells us that
+Samsu-iluna undertook two expeditions against the Country of the Sea,
+both of which proved unsuccessful. In the first of these he penetrated
+to the very shores of the Persian Gulf, where a battle took place in
+which Samsu-iluna was defeated, and the bodies of many of the Babylonian
+soldiers were washed away by the sea. In the second campaign Iluma-ilu
+did not await Samsu-iluna's attack, but advanced to meet him, and again
+defeated the Babylonian army. In the reign of Ab�shu', Samsu-iluna's
+son and successor, Iluma-ilu appears to have undertaken fresh acts of
+aggression against Babylon; and it was probably during one of his raids
+in Babylonian territory that Ab�shu' attempted to crush the growing power
+of the Country of the Sea by the capture of its daring leader, Iluma-ilu
+himself. The new chronicle informs us that, with this object in
+view, Ab�shu' dammed the river Tigris, hoping by this means to cut off
+Iluma-ilu and his army, but his stratagem did not succeed, and Iluma-ilu
+got back to his own territory in safety.
+</p>
+<p>
+The new chronicle does not supply us with further details of the
+struggle between Babylon and the Country of the Sea, but we may conclude
+that all similar attempts on the part of the later kings of the First
+Dynasty to crush or restrain the power of the new state were useless. It
+is probable that from this time forward the kings of the First Dynasty
+accepted the independence of the Country of the Sea upon their southern
+border as an evil which they were powerless to prevent. They must have
+looked back with regret to the good times the country had enjoyed under
+the powerful sway of Hammurabi, whose victorious arms even their ancient
+foes, the Blamites, had been unable to withstand. But, although the
+chronicle does not recount the further successes achieved by the Country
+of the Sea, it records a fact which undoubtedly contributed to hasten
+the fall of Babylon and bring the First Dynasty to an end. It tells us
+that in the reign of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty,
+the men of the land of Khattu (the Hittites from Northern Syria) marched
+against him in order to conquer the land of Akkad; in other words, they
+marched down the Euphrates and invaded Northern Babylonia. The chronicle
+does not state how far the invasion was successful, but the appearance
+of a new enemy from the northwest must have divided the Babylonian
+forces and thus have reduced their power of resisting pressure from the
+Country of the Sea. Samsu-ditana may have succeeded in defeating the
+Hittites and in driving them from his country; but the fact that he
+was the last king of the First Dynasty proves that in his reign Babylon
+itself fell into the hands of the king of the Country of the Sea.
+</p>
+<p>
+The question now arises, To what race did the people of the Country
+of the Sea belong? Did they represent an advance-guard of the Kassite
+tribes, who eventually succeeded in establishing themselves as the Third
+Dynasty in Babylon? Or were they the Elamites who, when driven from Ur
+and Larsam, retreated southwards and maintained their independence on
+the shores of the Persian Gulf? Or did they represent some fresh wave of
+Semitic immigration'? That they were not Kassites is proved by the new
+chronicle which relates how the Country of the Sea was conquered by the
+Kassites, and how the dynasty founded by Iluma-ilu thus came to an end.
+There is nothing to show that they were Elamites, and if the Country of
+the Sea had been colonized by fresh Semitic tribes, so far from opposing
+their kindred in Babylon, most probably they would have proved to them
+a source of additional strength and support. In fact, there are
+indications that the people of the Country of the Sea are to be referred
+to an older stock than the Elamites, the Semites, or the Kassites. In
+the dynasty of the Country of the Sea there is no doubt that we may
+trace the last successful struggle of the ancient Sumerians to retain
+possession of the land which they had held for so many centuries before
+the invading Semites had disputed its possession with them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Evidence of the Sumerian origin of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea may be traced in the names which several of them bear. Ishkibal,
+Grulkishar, Peshgal-daramash, A-dara-kalama, Akur-ul-ana, and
+Melam-kur-kura, the names of some of them, are all good Sumerian names,
+and Shushshi, the brother of Ishkibal, may also be taken as a Sumerian
+name. It is true that the first three kings of the dynasty, Iluma-ilu,
+Itti-ili-nibi, and Damki-ilishu, and the last king of the dynasty,
+Ea-gamil, bear Semitic Babylonian names, but there is evidence that
+at least one of these is merely a Semitic rendering of a Sumerian
+equivalent. Iluma-ilu, the founder of the dynasty, has left inscriptions
+in which his name is written in its correct Sumerian form as
+Dingir-a-an, and the fact that he and some of his successors either bore
+Semitic names or appear in the late list of kings with their Sumerian
+names translated into Babylonian form may be easily explained by
+supposing that the population of the Country of the Sea was mixed and
+that the Sumerian and Semitic tongues were to a great extent employed
+indiscriminately. This supposition is not inconsistent with the
+suggestion that the dynasty of the Country of the Sea was Sumerian, and
+that under it the Sumerians once more became the predominant race in
+Babylonia.
+</p>
+<p>
+The new chronicle also relates how the dynasty of the Country of the
+Sea succumbed in its turn before the incursions of the Kassites. We know
+that already under the First Dynasty the Kassite tribes had begun to
+make incursions into Babylonia, for the ninth year of Samsu-iluna was
+named in the date-formulae after a Kassite invasion, which, as it
+was commemorated in this manner by the Babylonians, was probably
+successfully repulsed. Such invasions must have taken place from time to
+time during the period of supremacy attained by the Country of the Sea,
+and it was undoubtedly with a view to stopping such incursions&mdash;for the
+future that Ea-gamil&mdash;the last king of the Second Dynasty, decided to
+invade Elam and conquer the mountainous districts in which the Kassite
+tribes had built their strongholds. This Elamite campaign of Ea-gamil
+is recorded by the new chronicle, which relates how he was defeated and
+driven from the country by Ulam-Buriash, the brother of Bitiliash the
+Kassite. Ulam-Buriash did not rest content with repelling Ea-gamil's
+invasion of his land, but pursued him across the border and succeeded
+in conquering the Country of the Sea and in establishing there his own
+administration. The gradual conquest of the whole of Babylonia by the
+Kassites no doubt followed the conquest of the Country of the Sea,
+for the chronicle relates how the process of subjugation, begun by
+Ulam-Buriash, was continued by his nephew Agum, and we know from the
+lists of kings that Ea-gamil was the last king of the dynasty founded by
+Iluma-ilu. In this fashion the Second Dynasty was brought to an end, and
+the Sumerian element in the mixed population of Babylonia did not again
+succeed in gaining control of the government of the country.
+</p>
+<p>
+It will be noticed that the account of the earliest Kassite rulers of
+Babylonia which is given by the new chronicle does not exactly tally
+with the names of the kings of the Third Dynasty as found upon the
+list of kings. On this document the first king of the dynasty is named
+Gandash, with whom we may probably identify Ulam-Buriash, the Kassite
+conqueror of the Country of the Sea; the second king is Agum, and the
+third is Bitiliashi. According to the new chronicle Agum was the son
+of Bitiliashi, and it would be improbable that he should have ruled in
+Babylonia before his father. But this difficulty is removed by supposing
+that the two names were transposed by some copyist. The different
+names assigned to the founder of the Kassite dynasty may be due to
+the existence of variant traditions, or Ulam-Buriash may have assumed
+another name on his conquest of Babylonia, a practice which was usual
+with the later kings of Assyria when they occupied the Babylonian
+throne.
+</p>
+<p>
+The information supplied by the new chronicle with regard to the
+relations of the first three dynasties to one another is of the greatest
+possible interest to the student of early Babylonian history. We see
+that the Semitic empire founded at Babylon by Sumu-abu, and consolidated
+by Hammurabi, was not established on so firm a basis as has hitherto
+been believed. The later kings of the dynasty, after Elam had been
+conquered, had to defend their empire from encroachments on the south,
+and they eventually succumbed before the onslaught of the Sumerian
+element, which still remained in the population of Babylonia and had
+rallied in the Country of the Sea. This dynasty in its turn succumbed
+before the invasion of the Kassites from the mountains in the western
+districts of Elam, and, although the city of Babylon retained her
+position as the capital of the country throughout these changes of
+government, she was the capital of rulers of different races, who
+successively fought for and obtained the control of the fertile plains
+of Mesopotamia.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is probable that the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty exercised
+authority not only over Babylonia but also over the greater part of
+Elam, for a number of inscriptions of Kassite kings of Babylonia have
+been found by M. de Morgan at Susa. These inscriptions consist of
+grants of land written on roughly shaped stone stel�, a class which the
+Babylonians themselves called <i>kudurru</i>, while they have been frequently
+referred to by modern writers as "boundary-stones." This latter term
+is not very happily chosen, for it suggests that the actual monuments
+themselves were set up on the limits of a field or estate to mark its
+boundary. It is true that the inscription on a kudurru enumerates the
+exact position and size of the estate with which it is concerned,
+but the kudurru was never actually used to mark the boundary. It was
+preserved as a title-deed, in the house of the owner of the estate or
+possibly in the temple of his god, and formed his charter or title-deed
+to which he could appeal in case of any dispute arising as to his right
+of ownership. One of the kudurrus found by M. de Morgan records the
+grant of a number of estates near Babylon by Nazimaruttash, a king of
+the Third or Kassite Dynasty, to the god Marduk, that is to say they
+were assigned by the king to the service of E-sagila, the great temple
+of Marduk at Babylon.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0011"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+        <img width="100%"
+        src="images/256.jpg"
+alt="256.jpg a Kudurru Or 'boundary-stone.' 
+">
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>
+All the crops and produce from the land were granted for the supply of
+the temple, which was to enjoy the property without the payment of any
+tax or tribute. The text also records the gift of considerable tracts of
+land in the same district to a private individual named Kashakti-Shugab,
+who was to enjoy a similar freedom from taxation so far as the lands
+bestowed upon him were concerned.
+</p>
+<p>
+This freedom from taxation is specially enacted by the document in
+the words: "Whensoever in the days that are to come the ruler of the
+country, or one of the governors, or directors, or wardens of these
+districts, shall make any claim with regard to these estates, or shall
+attempt to impose the payment of a tithe or tax upon them, may all the
+great gods whose names are commemorated, or whose arms are portrayed, or
+whose dwelling-places are represented, on this stone, curse him with an
+evil curse and blot out his name!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Incidentally, this curse illustrates one of the most striking
+characteristics of the kudurrus, or "boundary-stones," viz. the carved
+figures of gods and representations of their emblems, which all of them
+bare in addition to the texts inscribed upon them. At one time it was
+thought that these symbols were to be connected with the signs of the
+zodiac and various constellations and stars, and it was suggested that
+they might have been intended to represent the relative positions of the
+heavenly bodies at the time the document was drawn up. But this text
+of Nazimaruttash and other similar documents that have recently been
+discovered prove that the presence of the figures and emblems of the
+gods upon the stones is to be explained on another and far more simple
+theory. They were placed there as guardians of the property to which the
+kudurru referred, and it was believed that the carving of their figures
+or emblems upon the stone would ensure their intervention in case of
+any attempted infringement of the rights and privileges which it was
+the object of the document to commemorate and preserve. A photographic
+reproduction of one side of the kudurru of Nazi-maruttash is shown in
+the accompanying illustration. There will be seen a representation of
+Gula or Bau, the mother of the gods, who is portrayed as seated on
+her throne and wearing the four-horned head-dress and a long robe
+that reaches to her feet. In the field are emblems of the Sun-god, the
+Moon-god, Ishtar, and other deities, and the representation of divine
+emblems and dwelling-places is continued on another face of the stone
+round the corner towards which Grula is looking. The other two faces of
+the document are taken up with the inscription.
+</p>
+<p>
+An interesting note is appended to the text inscribed upon the stone,
+beginning under the throne and feet of Marduk and continuing under the
+emblems of the gods upon the other side. This note relates the history
+of the document in the following words: "In those days Kashakti-Shugab,
+the son of Nusku-na'id, inscribed (this document) upon a memorial
+of clay, and he set it before his god. But in the reign of
+Marduk-aplu-iddina, king of hosts, the son of Melishikhu, King
+of Babylon, the wall fell upon this memorial and crushed it.
+Shu-khuli-Shugab, the son of Nibishiku, wrote a copy of the ancient
+text upon a new stone stele, and he set it (before the god)." It will be
+seen, therefore, that this actual stone that has been recovered was not
+the document drawn up in the reign of Nazimaruttash, but a copy made
+under Marduk-aplu-iddina, a later king of the Third Dynasty. The
+original deed was drawn up to preserve the rights of Kashakti-Shugab,
+who shared the grant of land with the temple of Marduk. His share was
+less than half that of the temple, but, as both were situated in the
+same district, he was careful to enumerate and describe the temple's
+share, to prevent any encroachment on his rights by the Babylonian
+priests.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is probable that such grants of land were made to private individuals
+in return for special services which they had rendered to the king. Thus
+a broken kudurru among M. de Morgan's finds records the confirmation of
+a man's claims to certain property by Biti-liash II, the claims being
+based on a grant made to the man's ancestor by Kurigalzu for services
+rendered to the king during his war with Assyria. One of the finest
+specimens of this class of charters or title-deeds has been found at
+Susa, dating from the reign of Melishikhu, a king of the Third Dynasty.
+The document in question records a grant of certain property in the
+district of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, near the cities Agade and D�r-Kurigalzu,
+made by Melishikhu to Marduk-aplu-iddina, his son, who succeeded him
+upon the throne of Babylon. The text first gives details with regard to
+the size and situation of the estates included in the grant of land, and
+it states the names of the high officials who were entrusted with the
+duty of measuring them. The remainder of the text defines and secures
+the privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina together with the land,
+and, as it throws considerable light upon the system of land tenure at
+the period, an extract from it may here be translated:
+</p>
+<p>
+"To prevent the encroachment on his land," the inscription runs, "thus
+hath he (i.e. the king) established his (Marduk-aplu-iddina's) charter.
+On his land taxes and tithes shall they not impose; ditches, limits, and
+boundaries shall they not displace; there shall be no plots, stratagems,
+or claims (with regard to his possession); for forced labour or public
+work for the prevention of floods, for the maintenance and repair of
+the royal canal under the protection of the towns of Bit-Sikkamidu
+and Damik-Adad, among the gangs levied in the towns of the district of
+Nin�-Agade, they shall not call out the people of his estate; they are
+not liable to forced labour on the sluices of the royal canal, nor
+are they liable for building dams, nor for closing the canal, nor for
+digging out the bed thereof."
+</p>
+<a name="image-0012"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width:50%;">
+      <img width="100%"
+      src="images/260.jpg"
+alt="260.jpg Kuottrru, Or 'boundary-stone.' 
+">
+</div>
+
+
+<p>
+"A cultivator of his lands, whether hired or belonging to the estate,
+and the men who receive his instructions (i.e. his overseers) shall no
+governor of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab� cause to leave his lands, whether by the
+order of the king, or by the order of the governor, or by the order of
+whosoever may be at B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�. On wood, grass, straw, corn,
+and every other sort of crop, on his carts and yoke, on his ass and
+man-servant, shall they make no levy. During the scarcity of water in
+the canal running between the Bati-Anzanim canal and the canal of the
+royal district, on the waters of his ditch for irrigation shall they
+make no levy; from the ditch of his reservoir shall they not draw water,
+neither shall they divert (his water for) irrigation, and other land
+shall they not irrigate nor water therewith. The grass of his lands
+shall they not mow; the beasts belonging to the king or to a governor,
+which may be assigned to the district of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, shall they
+not drive within his boundary, nor shall they pasture them on his grass.
+He shall not be forced to build a road or a bridge, whether for the
+king, or for the governor who may be appointed in the district of
+B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, neither shall he be liable for any new form of
+forced labour, which in the days that are to come a king, or a governor
+appointed in the district of B�t-Pir-Shad�-rab�, shall institute and
+exact, nor for forced labour long fallen into disuse which may be
+revived anew. To prevent encroachment on his land the king hath fixed
+the privileges of his domain, and that which appertaineth unto it, and
+all that he hath granted unto him; and in the presence of Shamash, and
+Marduk, and Anunitu, and the great gods of heaven and earth, he hath
+inscribed them upon a stone, and he hath left it as an everlasting
+memorial with regard to his estate."
+</p>
+<p>
+The whole of the text is too long to quote, and it will suffice to note
+here that Melishikhu proceeds to appeal to future kings to respect the
+land and privileges which he has granted to his son, Marduk-aplu-iddina,
+even as he himself has respected similar grants made by his predecessors
+on the throne; and the text ends with some very vivid curses against
+any one, whatever his station, who should make any encroachments on the
+privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina, or should alter or do any harm
+to the memorial-stone itself. The emblems of the gods whom Melishikhu
+invokes to avenge any infringement of his grant are sculptured upon one
+side of the stone, for, as has already been remarked, it was believed
+that by carving them upon the memorial-stone their help in guarding the
+stone itself and its enactments was assured.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the portion of the text inscribed upon the stone which has just
+been translated it is seen that the owner of land in Babylonia in the
+period of the Kassite kings, unless he was granted special exemption,
+was liable to furnish forced labour for public works to the state or to
+his district, to furnish grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of
+the king or governor, and to pay various taxes and tithes on his land,
+his water for irrigation, and his crops. From the numerous documents
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon that have been recovered and published
+within the last few years we know that similar customs were prevalent at
+that period, so that it is clear that the successive conquests to which
+the country was subjected, and the establishment of different dynasties
+of foreign kings at Babylon, did not to any appreciable extent affect
+the life and customs of the inhabitants of the country or even the
+general character of its government and administration. Some documents
+of a commercial and legal nature, inscribed upon clay tablets during the
+reigns of the Kassite kings of Babylon, have been found at Nippur,
+but they have not yet been published, and the information we possess
+concerning the life of the people in this period is obtained indirectly
+from kudurrus or boundary-stones, such as those of Nazimaruttash and
+Melishikhu which have been already described. Of documents relating to
+the life of the people under the rule of the kings of the Country of the
+Sea we have none, and, with the exception of the unpublished chronicle
+which has been described earlier in this chapter, our information for
+this period is confined to one or two short votive inscriptions. But the
+case is very different with regard to the reigns of the Semitic kings of
+the First Dynasty of Babylon. Thousands of tablets relating to legal and
+commercial transactions during this period have been recovered, and more
+recently a most valuable series of royal letters, written by Hammurabi
+and other kings of his dynasty, has been brought to light.
+</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<center>
+<img alt="264 (43K)" src="images/264.jpg" height="389" width="490" />
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<a name="image-0013"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/264a.jpg" height="1162" width="750"
+alt="264a.jpg Upper Part of the Stele Of Hammurabi, King Of
+Babylon. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The stele is inscribed with his great code of laws. The Sun-
+     god is represented as seated on a throne in the form of a
+     temple fa�ade, and his feet are resting upon the mountains.
+     Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Moreover, the recently discovered code of laws drawn up by Hammurabi
+contains information of the greatest interest with regard to the
+conditions of life that were prevalent in Babylonia at that period.
+From these three sources it is possible to draw up a comparatively full
+account of early Babylonian life and customs.
+</p>
+<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER VI&mdash;EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+</h2>
+<p>
+In tracing the ancient history of Mesopotamia and the surrounding
+countries it is possible to construct a narrative which has the
+appearance of being comparatively full and complete. With regard to
+Babylonia it may be shown how dynasty succeeded dynasty, and for long
+periods together the names of the kings have been recovered and the
+order of their succession fixed with certainty. But the number and
+importance of the original documents on which this connected narration
+is based vary enormously for different periods. Gaps occur in our
+knowledge of the sequence of events, which with some ingenuity may be
+bridged over by means of the native lists of kings and the genealogies
+furnished by the historical inscriptions. On the other hand, as if to
+make up for such parsimony, the excavations have yielded a wealth of
+material for illustrating the conditions of early Babylonian life which
+prevailed in such periods. The most fortunate of these periods, so far
+as the recovery of its records is concerned, is undoubtedly the period
+of the Semitic kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and in particular
+the reign of its greatest ruler, Hammurabi. When M. Maspero wrote his
+history, thousands of clay tablets, inscribed with legal and commercial
+documents and dated in the reigns of these early kings, had already been
+recovered, and the information they furnished was duly summarized by
+him.* But since that time two other sources of information have been
+made available which have largely increased our knowledge of
+the constitution of the early Babylonian state, its system of
+administration, and the conditions of life of the various classes of the
+population.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * Most of these tablets are preserved in the British Museum.
+     The principal?works in which they have been published are
+     Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum (1896, etc.),
+     Strassmaier's Altbabylonischen Vertr�ge aus Warka, and
+     Meissner's Beitr�ge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht. A
+     number of similar tablets of this period, preserved in the
+     Pennsylvania Museum, will shortly be published by Dr. Ranke.
+</pre>
+<p>
+One of these new sources of information consists of a remarkable series
+of royal letters, written by kings of the First Dynasty, which has been
+recovered and is now preserved in the British Museum. The letters were
+addressed to the governors and high officials of various great cities in
+Babylonia, and they contain the king's orders with regard to details of
+the administration of the country which had been brought to his notice.
+The range of subjects with which they deal is enormous, and there is
+scarcely one of them which does not add to our knowledge of the period.*
+The other new source of information is the great code of laws, drawn up
+by Hammurabi for the guidance of his people and defining the duties and
+privileges of all classes of his subjects, the discovery of which at
+Susa has been described in a previous chapter. The laws are engraved on
+a great stele of diorite in no less than forty-nine columns of writing,
+of which forty-four are preserved,* and at the head of the stele is
+sculptured a representation of the king receiving them from Shamash, the
+Sun-god.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * See King, Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi, 3 vols.
+     (1898-1900).
+</pre>
+<p>
+This code shows to what an extent the administration of law and justice
+had been developed in Babylonia in the time of the First Dynasty. From
+the contracts and letters of the period we already knew that regular
+judges and duly appointed courts of law were in existence, and the code
+itself was evidently intended by the king to give the royal sanction to
+a great body of legal decisions and enactments which already possessed
+the authority conferred by custom and tradition. The means by which such
+a code could have come into existence are illustrated by the system of
+procedure adopted in the courts at this period. After a case had been
+heard and judgment had been given, a summary of the case and of the
+evidence, together with the judgment, was drawn up and written out on
+tablets in due legal form and phraseology. A list of the witnesses was
+appended, and, after the tablet had been dated and sealed, it was stored
+away among the legal archives of the court, where it was ready for
+production in the event of any future appeal or case in which the
+recorded decision was involved. This procedure represents an advanced
+stage in the system of judicial administration, but the care which
+was taken for the preservation of the judgments given was evidently
+traditional, and would naturally give rise in course of time to the
+existence of a recognized code of laws.
+</p>
+<p>
+Moreover, when once a judgment had been given and had been duly recorded
+it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision
+he was severely punished. For not only was he expelled from his
+judgment-seat, and debarred from exercising judicial functions in the
+future, but, if his judgment had involved the infliction of a penalty,
+he was obliged to pay twelve times the amount to the man he had
+condemned. Such an enactment must have occasionally given rise to
+hardship or injustice, but at least it must have had the effect
+of imbuing the judges with a sense of their responsibility and of
+instilling a respect for their decisions in the minds of the people. A
+further check upon injustice was provided by the custom of the elders of
+the city, who sat with the judge and assisted him in the carrying out
+of his duties; and it was always open to a man, if he believed that he
+could not get justice enforced, to make an appeal to the king. It is not
+our present purpose to give a technical discussion of the legal contents
+of the code, but rather to examine it with the object of ascertaining
+what light it throws upon ancient Babylonian life and customs, and the
+conditions under which the people lived.
+</p>
+<p>
+The code gives a good deal of information with regard to the family life
+of the Babylonians, and, above all, proves the sanctity with which the
+marriage-tie was invested. The claims that were involved by marriage
+were not lightly undertaken. Any marriage, to be legally binding, had to
+be accompanied by a duly executed and attested marriage-contract. If a
+man had taken a woman to wife without having carried out this necessary
+preliminary, the woman was not regarded as his wife in the legal sense.
+On the other hand, when once such a marriage-contract had been drawn up,
+its inviolability was stringently secured. A case of proved adultery
+on the part of a man's wife was punished by the drowning of the guilty
+parties, though the husband of the woman, if he wished to save his wife,
+could do so by an appeal to the king. Similarly, death was the penalty
+for a man who ravished another man's betrothed wife while she was still
+living in her father's house, but in this case the girl's innocence
+and inexperience were taken into account, and no penalty was enforced
+against her and she was allowed to go free. Where the adultery of a wife
+was not proved, and only depended on the accusation of the husband, the
+woman could clear herself by swearing her own innocence; if, however,
+the accusation was not brought by the husband himself, but by others,
+the woman could clear herself by submitting to the ordeal by water; that
+is to say, she would plunge into the Euphrates; if the river carried her
+away and she were drowned, it was regarded as proof that the accusation
+was well founded; if, on the contrary, she survived and got safely
+to the bank, she was considered innocent and was forthwith allowed to
+return to her household completely vindicated.
+</p>
+<p>
+It will have been seen that the duty of chastity on the part of a
+married woman was strictly enforced, but the husband's responsibility to
+properly maintain his wife was also recognized, and in the event of
+his desertion she could under certain circumstances become the wife of
+another man. Thus, if he left his city and fled from it of his own free
+will and deserted his wife, he could not reclaim her on his return,
+since he had not been forced to leave the city, but had done so because
+he hated it. This rule did not apply to the case of a man who was taken
+captive in battle. In such circumstances the wife's action was to be
+guided by the condition of her husband's affairs. If the captive husband
+possessed sufficient property on which his wife could be maintained
+during his captivity in a strange land, she had no reason nor excuse
+for seeking another marriage. If under these circumstances she became
+another man's wife, she was to be prosecuted at law, and, her action
+being the equivalent of adultery, she was to be drowned. But the case
+was regarded as altered if the captive husband had not sufficient means
+for the maintenance of his wife during his absence. The woman would then
+be thrown on her own resources, and if she became the wife of another
+man she incurred no blame. On the return of the captive he could reclaim
+his wife, but the children of the second marriage would remain with
+their own father. These regulations for the conduct of a woman, whose
+husband was captured in battle, give an intimate picture of the manner
+in which the constant wars of this early period affected the lives of
+those who took part in them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Under the Babylonians at the period of the First Dynasty divorce was
+strictly regulated, though it was far easier for the man to obtain one
+than for the woman. If we may regard the copies of Sumerian laws, which
+have come down to us from the late Assyrian period, as parts of the code
+in use under the early Sumerians, we must conclude that at this earlier
+period the law was still more in favour of the husband, who could
+divorce his wife whenever he so desired, merely paying her half a mana
+as compensation. Under the Sumerians the wife could not obtain a
+divorce at all, and the penalty for denying her husband was death. These
+regulations were modified in favour of the woman in Hammurabi's code;
+for under its provisions, if a man divorced his wife or his concubine,
+he was obliged to make proper provision for her maintenance. Whether
+she were barren or had borne him children, he was obliged to return
+her marriage portion; and in the latter case she had the custody of the
+children, for whose maintenance and education he was obliged to furnish
+the necessary supplies. Moreover, at the man's death she and her
+children would inherit a share of his property. When there had been no
+marriage portion, a sum was fixed which the husband was obliged to pay
+to his divorced wife, according to his status. In cases where the wife
+was proved to have wasted her household and to have entirely failed in
+her duty, her husband could divorce her without paying any compensation,
+or could make her a slave in his house, and the extreme penalty for
+this offence was death. On the other hand, a woman could not be divorced
+because she had contracted a permanent disease; and, if she desired to
+divorce her husband and could prove that her past life had been seemly,
+she could do so, returning to her father's house and taking her marriage
+portion with her.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is not necessary here to go very minutely into the regulations given
+by the code with regard to marriage portions, the rights of widows,
+the laws of inheritance, and the laws regulating the adoption and
+maintenance of children. The customs that already have been described
+with regard to marriage and divorce may serve to indicate the spirit
+in which the code is drawn up and the recognized status occupied by the
+wife in the Babylonian household. The extremely independent position
+enjoyed by women in the early Babylonian days is illustrated by the
+existence of a special class of women, to which constant reference is
+made in the contracts and letters of the period. When the existence of
+this class of women was first recognized from the references to them in
+the contract-tablets inscribed at the time of the First Dynasty, they
+were regarded as priestesses, but the regulations concerning them which
+occur in the code of Hammurabi prove that their duties were not strictly
+sacerdotal, but that they occupied the position of votaries. The
+majority of those referred to in the inscriptions of this period
+were vowed to the service of E-bab-bara, the temple of the Sun-god at
+Sippara, and of E-sagila, the great temple of Marduk at Babylon, but
+it is probable that all the great temples in the country had classes of
+female votaries attached to them. From the evidence at present
+available it may be concluded that the functions of these women bore no
+resemblance to that of the sacred prostitutes devoted to the service of
+the goddess Ishtar in the city of Erech. They seem to have occupied a
+position of great influence and independence in the community, and
+their duties and privileges were defined and safeguarded by special
+legislation.
+</p>
+<p>
+Generally they lived together in a special building, or convent,
+attached to the temple, but they had considerable freedom and could
+leave the convent and also contract marriage. Their vows, however,
+while securing them special privileges, entailed corresponding
+responsibilities. Even when married a votary was still obliged to remain
+a virgin, and, should her husband desire to have children, she could not
+bear them herself, but must provide him with a maid or concubine. Also
+she had to maintain a high standard of moral conduct, for any breach
+of which severe penalties were enforced. Thus, if a votary who was not
+living in the convent opened a beer-shop, or should enter one for drink,
+she ran the risk of being put to death. But the privileges she enjoyed
+were also considerable, for even when unmarried she enjoyed the status
+of a married woman, and if any man slandered her he incurred the penalty
+of branding on the forehead. Moreover, a married votary, though she
+could not bear her husband children, was secured in her position as the
+permanent head of his household. The concubine she might give to her
+husband was always the wife's inferior, even after bearing him children,
+and should the former attempt to put herself on a level of equality with
+the votary, the latter might brand her as a slave and put her with the
+female slaves. If the concubine proved barren she could be sold. The
+votary could also possess property, and on taking her vows was provided
+with a portion by her father exactly as though she were being given
+in marriage. Her portion was vested in herself and did not become the
+property of the order of votaries, nor of the temple to which she
+was attached. The proceeds of her property were devoted to her own
+maintenance, and on her father's death her brothers looked after
+her interests, or she might farm the property out. Under certain
+circumstances she could inherit property and was not obliged to pay
+taxes on it, and such property she could bequeath at her own death; but
+upon her death her portion returned to her own family unless her father
+had assigned her the privilege of bequeathing it. That the social
+position enjoyed by a votary was considerable is proved by the fact that
+many women of good family, and even members of the royal house, took
+vows. The existence of the order and its high repute indicate a
+very advanced conception of the position of women among the early
+Babylonians.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gather considerable information with
+regard to the various classes of which the community was composed and
+to their relative social positions. For the purposes of legislation
+the community was divided into three main classes or sections, which
+corresponded to well-defined strata in the social system. The lowest
+of these classes consisted of the slaves, who must have formed a
+considerable portion of the population. The class next above them
+comprised the large body of free men, who were possessed of a certain
+amount of property but were poor and humble, as their name, <i>muslik�nu</i>,
+implied. These we may refer to as the middle class. The highest, or
+upper class, in the Babylonian community embraced all the officers and
+ministers attached to the court, the higher officials and servants
+of the state, and the owners of considerable lands and estates. The
+differences which divided and marked off from one another the two great
+classes of free men in the population of Babylonia is well illustrated
+by the scale of payments as compensation for injury which they were
+obliged to make or were entitled to receive. Thus, if a member of the
+upper class were guilty of stealing an ox, or a sheep, or an ass, or
+a pig, or a boat, from a temple or a private house, he had to pay the
+owner thirty times its value as compensation, whereas if the thief were
+a member of the middle class he only had to pay ten times its price, but
+if he had no property and so could not pay compensation he was put to
+death. The penalty for manslaughter was less if the assailant was a man
+of the middle class, and such a man could also divorce his wife more
+cheaply, and was privileged to pay his doctor or surgeon a smaller fee
+for a successful operation.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the privileges enjoyed by a man of the middle class were
+counterbalanced by a corresponding diminution of the value at which
+his life and limbs were assessed. Thus, if a doctor by carrying out an
+operation unskilfully caused the death of a member of the upper class,
+or inflicted a serious injury upon him, such as the loss of an eye, the
+punishment was the amputation of both hands, but no such penalty seems
+to have been exacted if the patient were a member of the middle class.
+If, however, the patient were a slave of a member of the middle class,
+in the event of death under the operation, the doctor had to give the
+owner another slave, and in the event of the slave losing his eye, he
+had to pay the owner half the slave's value. Penalties for assault were
+also regulated in accordance with the social position and standing
+of the parties to the quarrel. Thus, if one member of the upper class
+knocked out the eye or the tooth of one of his equals, his own eye or
+his own tooth was knocked out as a punishment, and if he broke the limb
+of one of the members of his own class, he had his corresponding limb
+broken; but if he knocked out the eye of a member of the middle class,
+or broke his limb, he suffered no punishment in his own person, but was
+fined one mana of silver, and for knocking out the tooth of such a man
+he was fined one-third of a mana. If two members of the same class were
+engaged in a quarrel, and one of them made a peculiarly improper assault
+upon the other, the assailant was only fined, the fine being larger
+if the quarrel was between members of the upper class. But if such an
+assault was made by one man upon another who was of higher rank than
+himself, the assailant was punished by being publicly beaten in the
+presence of the assembly, when he received sixty stripes from a scourge
+of ox-hide. These regulations show the privileges and responsibilities
+which pertained to the two classes of free men in the Babylonian
+community, and they indicate the relative social positions which they
+enjoyed.
+</p>
+<p>
+Both classes of free men could own slaves, though it is obvious that
+they were more numerous in the households and on the estates of members
+of the upper class. The slave was the absolute property of his master
+and could be bought and sold and employed as a deposit for a debt,
+but, though slaves as a class had few rights of their own, in certain
+circumstances they could acquire them. Thus, if the owner of a female
+slave had begotten children by her he could not use her as the payment
+for a debt, and in the event of his having done so he was obliged to
+ransom her by paying the original amount of the debt in money. It was
+also possible for a male slave, whether owned by a member of the upper
+or of the middle class, to marry a free woman, and if he did so, his
+children were free and did not become the property of his master. Also,
+if the free woman whom the slave married brought with her a marriage
+portion from her father's house, this remained her own property on the
+slave's death, and supposing the couple had acquired other property
+during the time they lived together as man and wife, the owner of the
+slave could only claim half of such property, the other half being
+retained by the free woman for her own use and for that of her children.
+</p>
+<p>
+Generally speaking, the lot of the slave was not a particularly hard
+one, for he was a recognized member of his owner's household, and, as a
+valuable piece of property, it was obviously to his owner's interest to
+keep him healthy and in good condition. In fact, the value of the slave
+is attested by the severity of the penalty imposed for abducting a male
+or female slave from the owner's house and removing him or her from
+the city; for a man guilty of this offence was put to death. The same
+penalty was imposed for harbouring and taking possession of a runaway
+slave, whereas a fixed reward was paid by the owner to any one by whom
+a runaway slave was captured and brought back. Special legislation was
+also devised with the object of rendering the theft of slaves difficult
+and their detection easy. Thus, if a brander put a mark upon a slave
+without the owner's consent, he was liable to have his hands cut off,
+and if he could prove that he did so through being deceived by another
+man, that man was put to death. For bad offences slaves were liable to
+severe punishments, such as cutting off the ear, which was the penalty
+for denying his master, and also for making an aggravated assault on a
+member of the upper class of free men. But it is clear that on the whole
+the slave was well looked after. He was also not condemned to remain
+perpetually a slave, for while still in his master's service it was
+possible for him, under certain conditions, to acquire property of his
+own, and if he did so he was able with his master's consent to purchase
+his freedom. If a slave were captured by the enemy and taken to a
+foreign land and sold, and were then brought back by his new owner to
+his own country, he could claim his liberty without having to pay any
+purchase-money to either of his masters.
+</p>
+<p>
+The code of Hammurabi also contains detailed regulations concerning the
+duties of debtors and creditors, and it throws an interesting light
+on the commercial life of the Babylonians at this early period. For
+instance, it reveals the method by which a wealthy man, or a merchant,
+extended his business and obtained large profits by trading with other
+towns. This he did by employing agents who were under certain fixed
+obligations to him, but acted independently so far as their trading was
+concerned. From the merchant these agents would receive money or grain
+or wool or oil or any sort of goods wherewith to trade, and in return
+they paid a fixed share of their profits, retaining the remainder as
+the recompense for their own services. They were thus the earliest of
+commercial travellers. In order to prevent fraud between the merchant
+and the agent special regulations were framed for the dealings they had
+with one another. Thus, when the agent received from the merchant the
+money or goods to trade with, it was enacted that he should at the time
+of the transaction give a properly executed receipt for the amount he
+had received. Similarly, if the agent gave the merchant money in return
+for the goods he had received and in token of his good faith, the
+merchant had to give a receipt to the agent, and in reckoning their
+accounts after the agent's return from his journey, only such amounts as
+were specified in the receipts were to be regarded as legal obligations.
+If the agent forgot to obtain his proper receipt he did so at his own
+risk.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0014"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/280.jpg" height="649" width="663"
+alt="280.jpg Clay Contract Tablet and Its Outer Case 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Dating from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Travelling at this period was attended with some risk, as it is in the
+East at the present day, and the caravan with which an agent travelled
+was liable to attack from brigands, or it might be captured by enemies
+of the country from which it set out. It was right that loss from this
+cause should not be borne by the agent, who by trading with the goods
+was risking his own life, but should fall upon the merchant who had
+merely advanced the goods and was safe in his own city. It is plain,
+however, that disputes frequently arose in consequence of the loss of
+goods through a caravan being attacked and robbed, for the code states
+clearly the responsibility of the merchant in the matter. If in the
+course of his journey an enemy had forced the agent to give up some of
+the goods he was carrying, on his return the agent had to specify the
+amount on oath, and he was then acquitted of all responsibility in the
+matter. If he attempted to cheat his employer by misappropriating the
+money or goods advanced to him, on being convicted of the offence before
+the elders of the city, he was obliged to repay the merchant three times
+the amount he had taken. On the other hand, if the merchant attempted
+to defraud his agent by denying that the due amount had been returned to
+him, he was obliged on conviction to pay the agent six times the amount
+as compensation. It will thus be seen that the law sought to protect the
+agent from the risk of being robbed by his more powerful employer.
+</p>
+<p>
+The merchant sometimes furnished the agent with goods which he was to
+dispose of in the best markets he could find in the cities and towns
+along his route, and sometimes he would give the agent money with which
+to purchase goods in foreign cities for sale on his return. If the
+venture proved successful the merchant and his agent shared the profits
+between them, but if the agent made bad bargains he had to refund to the
+merchant the value of the goods he had received; if the merchant had not
+agreed to risk losing any profit, the amount to be refunded to him was
+fixed at double the value of the goods advanced.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0015"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/282.jpg" height="456" width="721"
+alt="282.jpg a Track in the Desert. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+This last enactment gives an indication of the immense profits which
+were obtained by both the merchant and the agent from this system of
+foreign trade, for it is clear that what was regarded fair profit for
+the merchant was double the value of the goods disposed of. The profits
+of a successful journey would also include a fair return to the agent
+for the trouble and time involved in his undertaking. Many of the
+contract tablets of this early period relate to such commercial
+journeys, which show that various bargains were made between the
+different parties interested, and sometimes such contracts, or
+partnerships, were entered into, not for a single journey only, but for
+long periods. We may therefore conclude that at the time of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon, and probably for long centuries before that period,
+the great trade-routes of the East were crowded with traffic. With the
+exception that donkeys and asses were employed for beasts of burden and
+were not supplemented by horses and camels until a much later period, a
+camping-ground in the desert on one of the great trade-routes must have
+presented a scene similar to that of a caravan camping in the desert at
+the present day.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0016"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/283.jpg" height="274" width="546"
+alt="283.jpg a Camping-ground in the Desert, Between Birejik
+And Urfa. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The rough tracks beaten by the feet of men and beasts are the same
+to-day as they were in that remote period. We can imagine a body of
+these early travellers approaching a walled city at dusk and hastening
+their pace to get there before the gates were shut. Such a picture as
+that of the approach to the city of Samarra, with its mediaeval walls,
+may be taken as having had its counterpart in many a city of the early
+Babylonians. The caravan route leads through the desert to the city
+gate, and if we substitute two massive temple towers for the domes of
+the mosques that rise above the wall, little else in the picture need be
+changed.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0017"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/284.jpg" height="440" width="719"
+alt="284.jpg Approach to the City of Samarra, Situated on The
+Left Bank of the Tigris. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     A small caravan is here seen approaching the city at sunset
+     before the gates are shut. Samarra was only founded in A. D.
+     834, by the Khalif el-Motasim, the son of Har�n er-Rash�d,
+     but customs in the East do not change, and the photograph
+     may be used to illustrate the approach of an early
+     Babylonian caravan to a walled city of the period.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The houses, too, at this period must have resembled the structures of
+unburnt brick of the present day, with their flat mud tops, on which
+the inmates sleep at night during the hot season, supported on poles
+and brushwood. The code furnishes evidence that at that time, also, the
+houses were not particularly well built and were liable to fall, and,
+in the event of their doing so, it very justly fixes the responsibility
+upon the builder. It is clear from the penalties for bad workmanship
+enforced upon the builder that considerable abuses had existed in the
+trade before the time of Hammurabi, and it is not improbable that the
+enforcement of the penalties succeeded in stamping them out. Thus, if
+a builder built a house for a man, and his work was not sound and the
+house fell and crushed the owner so that he died, it was enacted that
+the builder himself should be put to death. If the fall of the house
+killed the owner's son, the builder's own son was to be put to death.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0018"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/285.jpg" height="685" width="507"
+alt="285.jpg a Small Caravan in the Mountains of Kurdistan. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+If one or more of the owner's slaves were killed, the builder had to
+restore him slave for slave. Any damage which the owner's goods might
+have suffered from the fall of the house was to be made good by the
+builder. In addition to these penalties the builder was obliged to
+rebuild the house, or any portion of it that had fallen through
+not being properly secured, at his own cost. On the other hand, due
+provisions were made for the payment of the builder for sound work; and
+as the houses of the period rarely, if ever, consisted of more than one
+story, the scale of payment was fixed by the area of ground covered by
+the building.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0019"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/286.jpg" height="452" width="717"
+alt="286.jpg the City of Mosul. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Situated on the right bank of the Tigris opposite the mounds
+     which mark the site of the ancient city of Nineveh. The
+     flat-roof ednouses which may be distinguished in the
+     photograph are very similar in form and construction to
+     those employed by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
+</pre>
+<p>
+From the code of Hammurabi we also gain considerable information with
+regard to agricultural pursuits in ancient Babylonia, for elaborate
+regulations are given concerning the landowner's duties and
+responsibilities, and his relations to his tenants. The usual practice
+in hiring land for cultivation was for the tenant to pay his rent in
+kind, by assigning a certain proportion of the crop, generally a third
+or a half, to the owner. If a tenant hired certain land for cultivation
+he was bound to till it and raise a crop, and should he neglect to do
+so he had to pay the owner what was reckoned as the average rent of the
+land, and he had also to break up the land and plough it before handing
+it back. As the rent of a field was usually reckoned at harvest, and its
+amount depended on the size of the crop, it was only fair that damage to
+the crop from flood or storm should not be made up by the tenant; thus
+it was enacted by the code that any loss from such a cause should be
+shared equally by the owner of the field and the farmer, though if the
+latter had already paid his rent at the time the damage occurred he
+could not make a claim for repayment.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0020"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/287.jpg" height="450" width="715"
+alt="287.jpg the Village of Nebi Yunus. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Built on one of the mounds marking the site of the Assyrian
+     city of Nineveh. The mosque in the photograph is built over
+     the traditional site of the prophet Jonah's tomb. The flat-
+     roofed houses of the modern dwellers on the mound can be
+     well seen in the picture.
+</pre>
+<p>
+It is clear from the enactments of the code that disputes were frequent,
+not only between farmers and landowners, but also between farmers and
+shepherds. It is certain that the latter, in the attempt to find pasture
+for the flocks, often allowed their sheep to feed off the farmers' fields
+in the spring. This practice the code set itself to prevent by fixing a
+scale of compensation to be paid by any shepherd who caused his sheep to
+graze on cultivated land without the owner's consent. If the offence was
+committed in the early spring, when the crop was still small, the farmer
+was to harvest the crop and receive a considerable price in kind as
+compensation for the shepherd. But if it occurred later on in the
+spring, when the sheep had been brought in from the meadows and turned
+into the great common field at the city gate, the offence would less
+probably be due to accident and the damage to the crop would be greater.
+In these circumstances the shepherd had to take over the crop and pay
+the farmer very heavily for his loss.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0021"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/288.jpg" height="994" width="714"
+alt="288.jpg Portrait-sculpture of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     From a stone slab in the British Museum.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The planting of gardens and orchards was encouraged, and a man was
+allowed to use a field for this purpose without paying a yearly rent. He
+might plant it and tend it for four years, and in the fifth year of
+his tenancy the original owner of the field took half of the garden
+in payment, while the other half the planter of the garden kept for
+himself. If a bare patch had been left in the garden it was to be
+reckoned in the planter's half. Regulations were framed to ensure the
+proper carrying out of the planting, for if the tenant neglected to do
+this during the first four years, he was still liable to plant the plot
+he had taken without receiving his half, and he had to pay the owner
+compensation in addition, which varied in amount according to the
+original condition of the land. If a man hired a garden, the rent he
+paid to the owner was fixed at two-thirds of its produce. Detailed
+regulations are also given in the code concerning the hire of cattle
+and asses, and the compensation to be paid to the owner for the loss or
+ill-treatment of his beasts. These are framed on the just principle that
+the hirer was responsible only for damage or loss which he could have
+reasonably prevented. Thus, if a lion killed a hired ox or ass in the
+open country, or if an ox was killed by lightning, the loss fell upon
+the owner and not on the man who hired the beast. But if the hirer
+killed the ox through carelessness or by beating it unmercifully, or if
+the beast broke its leg while in his charge, he had to restore another
+ox to the owner in place of the one he had hired. For lesser damages to
+the beast the hirer had to pay compensation on a fixed scale. Thus, if
+the ox had its eye knocked out during the period of its hire, the man
+who hired it had to pay to the owner half its value; while for a broken
+horn, the loss of the tail, or a torn muzzle, he paid a quarter of the
+value of the beast.
+</p>
+<p>
+Fines were also levied for carelessness in looking after cattle, though
+in cases of damage or injury, where carelessness could not be proved,
+the owner of a beast was not held responsible. A bull might go wild at
+any time and gore a man, however careful and conscientious the owner
+might be, and in these circumstances the injured man could not bring an
+action against the owner. But if a bull had already gored a man, and,
+although it was known to be vicious, the owner had not blunted its horns
+or shut it up, in the event of its goring and killing a free man, he had
+to pay half a mana of silver. One-third of a mana was the price paid for
+a slave who was killed. A landed proprietor who might hire farmers to
+cultivate his fields inflicted severe fines for acts of dishonesty with
+regard to the cattle, provender, or seed-corn committed to their charge.
+If a man stole the provender for the cattle he had to make it good, and
+he was also liable to the punishment of having his hands cut off. In
+the event of his being convicted of letting out the oxen for hire, or
+stealing the seed-corn so that he did not produce a crop, he had to pay
+very heavy compensation, and, if he could not pay, he was liable to be
+torn to pieces by the oxen in the field he should have cultivated.
+</p>
+<p>
+In a dry land like Babylonia, where little rain falls and that in only
+one season of the year, the irrigation of his fields forms one of the
+most important duties of the agriculturist. The farmer leads the water
+to his fields along small irrigation-canals or channels above the level
+of the soil, their sides being formed of banks of earth. It is clear
+that similar methods were employed by the early Babylonians. One such
+channel might supply the fields of several farmers, and it was the duty
+of each man through whose land the channel flowed to keep its banks on
+his land in repair. If he omitted to strengthen his bank or dyke, and
+the water forced a breach and flooded his neighbour's field, he had to
+pay compensation in kind for any crop that was ruined; while if he could
+not pay, he and his goods were sold, and his neighbours, whose fields
+had been damaged through his carelessness, shared the money.
+</p>
+<p>
+The land of Babylonian farmers was prepared for irrigation before it was
+sown by being divided into a number of small square or oblong tracts,
+each separated from the others by a low bank of earth, the seed being
+afterwards sown within the small squares or patches. Some of the banks
+running lengthwise through the field were made into small channels, the
+ends of which were carried up to the bank of the nearest main irrigation
+canal. No system of gates or sluices was employed, and when the farmer
+wished to water one of his fields he simply broke away the bank opposite
+one of his small channels and let the water flow into it. He would let
+the water run along this small channel until it reached the part of
+his land he wished to water. He then blocked the channel with a little
+earth, at the same time breaking down its bank so that the water flowed
+over one of the small squares and thoroughly soaked it. When this square
+was finished he filled up the bank and repeated the process for the
+next square, and so on until he had watered the necessary portion of
+the field. When this was finished he returned to the main channel and
+stopped the flow of the water by blocking up the hole he had made in the
+dyke. The whole process was, and to-day still is, extremely simple,
+but it needs care and vigilance, especially in the case of extensive
+irrigation when water is being carried into several parts of an estate
+at once. It will be obvious that any carelessness on the part of the
+irrigator in not shutting off the water in time may lead to extensive
+damage, not only to his own fields, but to those of his neighbours. In
+the early Babylonian period, if a farmer left the water running in his
+channel, and it flooded his neighbour's field and hurt his crop, he had
+to pay compensation according to the amount of damage done.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was stated above that the irrigation-canals and little channels were
+made above the level of the soil so that the water could at any point
+be tapped and allowed to flow over the surrounding land; and in a flat
+country like Babylonia it will be obvious that some means had to be
+employed for raising the water from its natural level to the higher
+level of the land. As we should expect, reference is made in the
+Babylonian inscriptions to irrigation-machines, and, although their
+exact form and construction are not described, they must have been very
+similar to those employed at the present day. The modern inhabitants of
+Mesopotamia employ four sorts of contrivances for raising the water into
+their irrigation-channels; three of these are quite primitive, and are
+those most commonly employed. The method which gives the least trouble
+and which is used wherever the conditions allow is a primitive form of
+water-wheel. This can be used only in a river with a good current.
+The wheel is formed of rough boughs and branches nailed together, with
+spokes joining the outer rims to a roughly hewn axle. A row of rough
+earthenware cups or bottles are tied round the outer rim for picking
+up the water, and a few rough paddles are fixed so that they stick out
+beyond the rim. The wheel is then fixed in place near the bank of the
+river, its axle resting in pillars of rough masonry.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0022"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/293.jpg" height="366" width="718"
+alt="293.jpg a Modern Machine for Irrigation on The
+Euphrates. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+As the current turns the wheel, the bottles on the rim dip below the
+surface and are raised up full. At the top of the wheel is fixed a
+trough made by hollowing half the trunk of a date-palm, and into this
+the bottles pour their water, which is conducted from the trough by
+means of a small aqueduct into the irrigation-channel on the bank.
+</p>
+<p>
+The convenience of the water-wheel will be obvious, for the water is
+raised without the labour of man or beast, and a constant supply is
+secured day and night so long as the current is strong enough to turn
+the wheel. The water can be cut off by blocking the wheel or tying it
+up. These wheels are most common on the Euphrates, and are usually set
+up where there is a slight drop in the river bed and the water runs
+swiftly over shallows. As the banks are very high, the wheels are
+necessarily huge contrivances in order to reach the level of the fields,
+and their very rough construction causes them to creak and groan as they
+turn with the current. In a convenient place in the river several of
+these are sometimes set up side by side, and the noise of their combined
+creakings can be heard from a great distance. Some idea of what one of
+these machines looks like can be obtained from the illustration. At Hit
+on the Euphrates a line of gigantic water-wheels is built across the
+river, and the noise they make is extraordinary.
+</p>
+<p>
+Where there is no current to turn one of these wheels, or where the bank
+is too high, the water must be raised by the labour of man or beast. The
+commonest method, which is the one employed generally on the Tigris, is
+to raise it in skins, which are drawn up by horses, donkeys, or cattle.
+A recess with perpendicular sides is cut into the bank, and a wooden
+spindle on wooden struts is supported horizontally over the recess. A
+rope running over the spindle is fastened to the skin, while the funnel
+end of the skin is held up by a second rope, running over a lower
+spindle, until its mouth is opposite the trough into which the water
+is to be poured. The beasts which are employed for raising the skin
+are fastened to the ends of the ropes, and they get a good purchase for
+their pull by being driven down a short cutting or inclined plane in the
+bank. To get a constant flow of water, two skins are usually employed,
+and as one is drawn up full the other is let down empty.
+</p>
+<p>
+The third primitive method of raising water, which is commoner in Egypt
+than in Mesopotamia at the present day, is the <i>shadduf</i>, and is worked
+by hand. It consists of a beam supported in the centre, at one end of
+which is tied a rope with a bucket or vessel for raising the water, and
+at the other end is fixed a counterweight.* On an Assyrian bas-relief
+found at Kuyunjik are representations of the shadduf in operation,
+two of them being used, the one above the other, to raise the water to
+successive levels. These were probably the contrivances usually employed
+by the early Babylonians for raising the water to the level of their
+fields, and the fact that they were light and easily removed must have
+made them tempting objects to the dishonest farmer. Hammurabi therefore
+fixed a scale of compensation to be paid to the owner by a detected
+thief, which varied according to the class and value of the machine
+he stole. The rivers and larger canals of Babylonia were used by the
+ancient inhabitants not only for the irrigation of their fields, but
+also as waterways for the transport of heavy materials. The recently
+published letters of Hammurabi and Ab�shu' contain directions for the
+transportation of corn, dates, sesame seed, and wood, which were ordered
+to be brought in ships to Babylon, and the code of Hammurabi refers to
+the transportation by water of wool and oil. It is therefore clear that
+at this period considerable use was made of vessels of different size
+for conveying supplies in bulk by water. The method by which the size of
+such ships and barges was reckoned was based on the amount of grain
+they were capable of carrying, and this was measured by the <i>gur</i>, the
+largest measure of capacity. Thus mention is made in the inscriptions of
+vessels of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and
+seventy-five gur capacity. A boat-builder's fee for building a vessel of
+sixty gur was fixed at two shekels of silver, and it was proportionately
+less for boats of smaller capacity. To ensure that the boat-builder
+should not scamp his work, regulations were drawn up to fix on him the
+responsibility for unsound work. Thus if a boat-builder were employed to
+build a vessel, and he put faulty work into its construction so that it
+developed defects within a year of its being launched, he was obliged to
+strengthen and rebuild it at his own expense.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * The fourth class of machine for raising water employed in
+     Mesopotamia at the present day consists of an endless chain
+     of iron buckets running over a wheel. This is geared by
+     means of rough wooden cogs to a horizontal wheel, the
+     spindle of which has long poles fixed to it, to which horses
+     or cattle are harnessed. The beasts go round in a circle and
+     so turn the machine. The contrivance is not so primitive as
+     the three described above, and the iron buckets are of
+     European importation.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The hire of a boatman was fixed at six gur of corn to be paid him
+yearly, but it is clear that some of the larger vessels carried crews
+commanded by a chief boatman, or captain, whose pay was probably on
+a larger scale. If a man let his boat to a boatman, the latter was
+responsible for losing or sinking it, and he had to replace it. A
+boatman was also responsible for the safety of his vessel and of any
+goods, such as corn, wool, oil, or dates, which he had been hired to
+transport, and if they were sunk through his carelessness he had to make
+good the loss. If he succeeded in refloating the boat after it had been
+sunk, he was only under obligation to pay the owner half its value in
+compensation for the damage it had sustained. In the case of a collision
+between two vessels, if one was at anchor at the time, the owner of the
+other vessel had to pay compensation for the boat that was sunk and its
+cargo, the owner of the latter estimating on oath the value of what
+had been sunk. Boats were also employed as ferries, and they must have
+resembled the primitive form of ferry-boat in use at the present day,
+which is heavily built of huge timbers, and employed for transporting
+beasts as well as men across a river.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0023"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/297.jpg" height="415" width="541"
+alt="297.jpg Kaiks, Or Native Boats on the Euphrates At
+Birejie. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Employed for ferrying caravans across the river.
+</pre>
+<p>
+There is evidence that under the Assyrians rafts floated on inflated
+skins were employed for the transport of heavy goods, and these have
+survived in the keleks of the present day. They are specially adapted
+for the transportation of heavy materials, for they are carried down by
+the current, and are kept in the course by means of huge sweeps or oars.
+Being formed only of logs of wood and skins, they are not costly, for
+wood is plentiful in the upper reaches of the rivers. At the end of
+their journey, after the goods are landed, they are broken up. The wood
+is sold at a profit, and the skins, after being deflated, are packed on
+to donkeys to return by caravan.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0024"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/298.jpg" height="355" width="713"
+alt="298.jpg the Modern Bridge of Boats Across The Tigris
+Opposite Mosul. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+It is not improbable that such rafts were employed on the Tigris and the
+Euphrates from the earliest periods of Chald�an history, though boats
+would have been used on the canals and more sluggish waterways.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the preceding pages we have given a sketch of the more striking
+aspects of early Babylonian life, on which light has been thrown by
+recently discovered documents belonging to the period of the First
+Dynasty of Babylon. We have seen that, in the code of laws drawn up
+by Hammurabi, regulations were framed for settling disputes and fixing
+responsibilities under almost every condition and circumstance which
+might arise among the inhabitants of the country at that time; and the
+question naturally arises as to how far the code of laws was in actual
+operation.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0025"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width:50%;">
+        <img width="100%"
+        src="images/299.jpg"
+alt="299.jpg a Small Kelek, Ok Raft, Upon the Tigris At
+Baghdad. 
+">
+</div>
+
+
+<p>
+It is conceivable that the king may have held admirable convictions, but
+have been possessed of little power to carry them out and to see
+that his regulations were enforced. Luckily, we have not to depend on
+conjecture for settling the question, for Hammurabi's own letters which
+are now preserved in the British Museum afford abundant evidence of the
+active control which the king exercised over every department of his
+administration and in every province of his empire. In the earlier
+periods of history, when each city lived independently of its neighbours
+and had its own system of government, the need for close and frequent
+communication between them was not pressing, but this became apparent
+as soon as they were welded together and formed parts of an extended
+empire. Thus in the time of Sargon of Agade, about 3800 B.C., an
+extensive system of royal convoys was established between the principal
+cities. At Telloh the late M. de Sarzec came across numbers of lumps of
+clay bearing the seal impressions of Sargon and of his son Nar�m-Sin,
+which had been used as seals and labels upon packages sent from Agade
+to Shirpurla. In the time of Dungi, King of Ur, there was a constant
+interchange of officials between the various cities of Babylonia and
+Elam, and during the more recent diggings at Telloh there have been
+found vouchers for the supply of food for their sustenance when stopping
+at Shirpurla in the course of their journeys. In the case of Hammurabi
+we have recovered some of the actual letters sent by the king himself to
+Sin-idinnam, his local governor in the city of Larsam, and from them we
+gain considerable insight into the principles which guided him in the
+administration of his empire.
+</p>
+<p>
+The letters themselves, in their general characteristics, resembled the
+contract tablets of the period which have been already described. They
+were written on small clay tablets oblong in shape, and as they were
+only three or four inches long they could easily be carried about the
+person of the messenger into whose charge they were delivered. After the
+tablet was written it was enclosed in a thin envelope of clay, having
+been first powdered with dry clay to prevent its sticking to the
+envelope. The name of the person for whom the letter was intended was
+written on the outside of the envelope, and both it and the tablet were
+baked hard to ensure that they should not be broken on their travels.
+The recipient of the letter, on its being delivered to him, broke the
+outer envelope by tapping it sharply, and it then fell away in pieces,
+leaving the letter and its message exposed. The envelopes were very
+similar to those in which the contract tablets of the period were
+enclosed, of which illustrations have already been given, their only
+difference being that the text of the tablet was not repeated on the
+envelope, as was the case with the former class of documents.
+</p>
+<p>
+The royal letters that have been recovered throw little light on
+military affairs and the prosecution of campaigns, for, being addressed
+to governors of cities and civil officials, most of them deal with
+matters affecting the internal administration of the empire. One letter
+indeed contains directions concerning the movements of two hundred
+and forty soldiers of "the King's Company" who had been stationed in
+Assyria, and another letter mentions certain troops who were quartered
+in the city of Ur. A third deals with the supply of clothing and oil
+for a section of the Babylonian army, and troops are also mentioned
+as having formed the escort for certain goddesses captured from the
+Elamites; while directions are sent to others engaged in a campaign upon
+the Elamite frontier. The letter which contains directions for the
+safe escort of the captured Elamite goddesses, and the one ordering the
+return of these same goddesses to their own shrines, show that
+foreign deities, even when captured from an enemy, were treated by the
+Babylonians with the same respect and reverence that was shown by them
+to their own gods and goddesses. Hammurabi gave directions in the first
+letter for the conveyance of the goddesses to Babylon with all due pomp
+and ceremony, sheep being supplied for sacrifice upon the journey,
+and their usual rites being performed by their own temple-women and
+priestesses. The king's voluntary restoration of the goddesses to their
+own country may have been due to the fact that, after their transference
+to Babylon, the army of the Babylonians suffered defeat in Elam. This
+misfortune would naturally have been ascribed by the king and the
+priests to the anger of the Elamite goddesses at being detained in a
+foreign land, and Hammurabi probably arrived at his decision that they
+should be escorted back in the hope of once more securing victory for
+the Babylonian arms.
+</p>
+<p>
+The care which the king exercised for the due worship of his own gods
+and the proper supply of their temples is well illustrated from the
+letters that have been recovered, for he superintended the collection
+of the temple revenues, and the herdsmen and shepherds attached to the
+service of the gods sent their reports directly to him. He also took
+care that the observances of religious rites and ceremonies were duly
+carried out, and on one occasion he postponed the hearing of a lawsuit
+concerning the title to certain property which was in dispute, as it
+would have interfered with the proper observance of a festival in
+the city of Ur. The plaintiff in the suit was the chief of the temple
+bakers, and it was his duty to superintend the preparation of certain
+offerings for the occasion. In order that he should not have to leave
+his duties, the king put off the hearing of the case until after the
+festival had been duly celebrated. The king also exercised a strict
+control over the priests themselves, and received reports from the chief
+priests concerning their own subordinates, and it is probable that the
+royal sanction was obtained for all the principal appointments. The
+guild of soothsayers was an important religious class at this time,
+and they also were under the king's direct control. A letter written by
+Ammiditana, one of the later kings of the First Dynasty, to three high
+officials of the city of Sippar, contains directions with regard to
+certain duties to be carried out by the soothsayers attached to the
+service of the city, and indicates the nature of their functions.
+Ammiditana wrote to the officials in question, stating that there was a
+scarcity of corn in the city of Shagga, and he therefore ordered them
+to send a supply thither. But before the corn was brought into the city
+they were told to consult the soothsayers, who were to divine the future
+and ascertain whether the omens were favourable. If they proved to be
+so, the corn was to be brought in. We may conjecture that the king took
+this precaution, as he feared the scarcity of corn in Shagga was due
+to the anger of some local deity or spirit, and that, if this were the
+case, the bringing in of the corn would only lead to fresh troubles.
+This danger it was the duty of the soothsayers to prevent.
+</p>
+<p>
+Another class of the priesthood, which we may infer was under the king's
+direct control, was the astrologers, whose duty it probably was to make
+reports to the king of the conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, with a
+view to ascertaining whether they portended good or evil to the
+state. No astrological reports written in this early period have
+been recovered, but at a later period under the Assyrian empire the
+astrologers reported regularly to the king on such matters, and it is
+probable that the practice was one long established. One of Hammurabi's
+letters proves that the king regulated the calendar, and it is
+legitimate to suppose that he sought the advice of his astrologers as
+to the times when intercalary months were to be inserted. The letter
+dealing with the calendar was written to inform Sin-idinnam, the
+governor of Larsam, that an intercalary month was to be inserted. "Since
+the year (i.e. the calendar) hath a deficiency," he writes, "let the
+month which is now beginning be registered as a second Elul," and the
+king adds that this insertion of an extra month will not justify any
+postponement in the payment of the regular tribute due from the city of
+Larsam, which had to be paid a month earlier than usual to make up for
+the month that was inserted. The intercalation of additional months
+was due to the fact that the Babylonian months were lunar, so that the
+calendar had to be corrected at intervals to make it correspond to the
+solar year.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the description already given of the code of laws drawn up by
+Hammurabi it will have been seen that the king attempted to incorporate
+and arrange a set of regulations which should settle any dispute likely
+to arise with regard to the duties and privileges of all classes of
+his subjects. That this code was not a dead letter, but was actively
+administered, is abundantly proved by many of the letters of Hammurabi
+which have been recovered. From these we learn that the king took a very
+active part in the administration of justice in the country, and that he
+exercised a strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the
+capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities
+and towns of Babylonia. Any private citizen was entitled to make a
+direct appeal to the king for justice, if he thought he could not obtain
+it in his local court, and it is clear from Hammurabi's letters that he
+always listened to such an appeal and gave it adequate consideration.
+The king was anxious to stamp out all corruption on the part of those
+who were invested with authority, and he had no mercy on any of his
+officers who were convicted of taking bribes. On one occasion when he
+had been informed of a case of bribery in the city of D�r-gurgurri, he
+at once ordered the governor of the district in which D�r-gurgurri lay
+to investigate the charge and send to Babylon those who were proved to
+be guilty, that they might be punished. He also ordered that the bribe
+should be confiscated and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise
+provision which must have tended to discourage those who were inclined
+to tamper with the course of justice, while at the same time it enriched
+the state. It is probable that the king tried all cases of appeal in
+person when it was possible to do so. But if the litigants lived at
+a considerable distance from Babylon, he gave directions to his local
+officials on the spot to try the case. When he was convinced of
+the justice of any claim, he would decide the case himself and send
+instructions to the local authorities to see that his decision was duly
+carried out. It is certain that many disputes arose at this period in
+consequence of the extortions of money-lenders. These men frequently
+laid claim in a fraudulent manner to fields and estates which they had
+received in pledge as security for seed-corn advanced by them. In
+cases where fraud was proved Hammurabi had no mercy, and summoned the
+money-lender to Babylon to receive punishment, however wealthy and
+powerful he might be.
+</p>
+<p>
+A subject frequently referred to in Hammurabi's letters is the
+collection of revenues, and it is clear that an elaborate system was in
+force throughout the country for the levying and payment of tribute
+to the state by the principal cities of Babylonia, as well as for the
+collection of rent and revenue from the royal estates and from the lands
+which were set apart for the supply of the great temples. Collectors of
+both secular and religious tribute sent reports directly to the king,
+and if there was any deficit in the supply which was expected from a
+collector he had to make it up himself; but the king was always ready
+to listen to and investigate a complaint and to enforce the payment of
+tribute or taxes so that the loss should not fall upon the collector.
+Thus, in one of his letters Hammurabi informs the governor of
+Larsam that a collector named Sheb-Sin had reported to him, saying
+"Enubi-Marduk hath laid hands upon the money for the temple of
+B�t-il-kittim (i.e. the great temple of the Sun-god at Larsam) which is
+due from the city of D�r-gurgurri and from the (region round about the)
+Tigris, and he hath not rendered the full sum; and Gimil-Marduk hath
+laid hands upon the money for the temple of B�t-il-kittim which is due
+from the city.of Rakhabu and from the region round about that city, and
+he hath not (paid) the full amount. But the palace hath exacted the full
+sum from me." It is probable that both Enubi-Marduk and Gimil-Marduk
+were money-lenders, for we know from another letter that the former had
+laid claim to certain property on which he had held a mortgage, although
+the mortgage had been redeemed. In the present case they had probably
+lent money or seed-corn to certain cultivators of land near D�r-gurgurri
+and Rakhabu and along the Tigris, and in settlement of their claims they
+had seized the crops and had, moreover, refused to pay to the king's
+officer the proportion of the crops that was due to the state as
+taxes upon the land. The governor of Larsam, the principal city in the
+district, had rightly, as the representative of the palace (i.e.
+the king), caused the tax-collector to make up the deficiency, but
+Hammurabi, on receiving the subordinate officer's complaint, referred
+the matter back to the governor. The end of the letter is wanting, but
+we may infer that Hammurabi condemned the defaulting money-lenders to
+pay the taxes due, and fined them in addition, or ordered them to be
+sent to the capital for punishment.
+</p>
+<p>
+On another occasion Sheb-Sin himself and a second tax-collector named
+Sin-mushtal appear to have been in fault and to have evaded coming to
+Babylon when summoned thither by the king. It had been their duty to
+collect large quantities of sesame seed as well as taxes paid in money.
+When first summoned, they had made the excuse that it was the time of
+harvest and they would come after the harvest was over. But as they
+did not then make their appearance, Hammurabi wrote an urgent letter
+insisting that they should be despatched with the full amount of the
+taxes due, in the company of a trustworthy officer who would see that
+they duly arrived at the capital.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tribute on flocks and herds was also levied by the king, and collectors
+or assessors of the revenue were stationed in each district, whose duty
+it was to report any deficit in the revenue accounts. The owners of
+flocks and herds were bound to bring the young cattle and lambs that
+were due as tribute to the central city of the district in which they
+dwelt, and they were then collected into large bodies and added to the
+royal flocks and herds; but, if the owners attempted to hold back any
+that were due as tribute, they were afterwards forced to incur the extra
+expense and trouble of driving the beasts to Babylon. The flocks and
+herds owned by the king and the great temples were probably enormous,
+and yielded a considerable revenue in themselves apart from the tribute
+and taxes due from private owners. Shepherds and herdsmen were placed in
+charge of them, and they were divided into groups under chief shepherds,
+who arranged the districts in which the herds and flocks were to be
+grazed, distributing them when possible along the banks and in the
+neighbourhood of rivers and canals which would afford good pasturage and
+a plentiful supply of water. The king received reports from the chief
+shepherds and herdsmen, and it was the duty of the governors of the
+chief cities and districts of Babylonia to make tours of inspection
+and see that due care was taken of the royal flocks and sheep. The
+sheep-shearing for all the flocks that were pastured near the capital
+took place in Babylon, and the king used to send out summonses to his
+chief shepherds to inform them of the day when the shearing would take
+place; and it is probable that the governors of the other great cities
+sent out similar orders to the shepherds of flocks under their charge.
+Royal and priestly flocks were often under the same chief officer, a
+fact which shows the very strict control the king exercised over the
+temple revenues.
+</p>
+<p>
+The interests of the agricultural population were strictly looked
+after by the king, who secured a proper supply of water for purposes of
+irrigation by seeing that the canals and waterways were kept in a proper
+state of repair and cleaned out at regular intervals. There is also
+evidence that nearly every king of the First Dynasty of Babylon cut new
+canals, and extended the system of irrigation and transportation which
+had been handed down to him from his fathers. The draining of the
+marshes and the proper repair of the canals could only be carried out
+by careful and continuous supervision, and it was the duty of the local
+governors to see that the inhabitants of villages and owners of land
+situated on the banks of a canal should keep it in proper order. When
+this duty had been neglected complaints were often sent to the king,
+who gave orders to the local governor to remedy the defect. Thus on one
+occasion it had been ordered that a canal at Erech which had silted
+up should be deepened, but the dredging had not been carried out
+thoroughly, so that the bed of the canal soon silted up again and boats
+were prevented from entering the city. In these circumstances Hammurabi
+gave pressing orders that the obstruction was to be removed and the
+canal made navigable within three days.
+</p>
+<p>
+Damage was often done to the banks of canals by floods which followed
+the winter rains, and a letter of Ab�shu' gives an interesting account of
+a sudden rise of the water in the Irnina canal so that it overflowed its
+banks. The king was building a palace at the city of K�r-Irnina, which
+was supplied by the Irnina canal, and every year it was possible to put
+so much work into the building. But one year, when little more than a
+third of the year's work was done, the building operations were stopped
+by flood, the canal having overflowed its banks so that the water rose
+right up to the wall of the town. In return for the duty of keeping
+the canals in order, the villagers along the banks had the privilege of
+fishing in its waters in the portion which was in their charge, and
+any poaching by other villagers in this part of the stream was strictly
+forbidden. On one occasion, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Hammurabi's son
+and successor, the fishermen of the district of Rabim went down in their
+boats to the district of Shakanim and caught fish there contrary to the
+law. So the inhabitants of Shakanim complained of this poaching to the
+king, who sent a palace official to the authorities of Sippar, near
+which city the districts in question lay, with orders to inquire into
+the matter and take steps to prevent all such poaching for the future.
+</p>
+<p>
+The regulation of transportation on the canals was also under the royal
+jurisdiction. The method of reckoning the size of ships has already
+been described, and there is evidence that the king possessed numerous
+vessels of all sizes for the carrying of grain, wool, and dates, as well
+as for the wood and stone employed in his building operations. Each ship
+seems to have had its own crew, under the command of a captain, and it
+is probable that officials who regulated the transportation from the
+centres where they were stationed were placed in charge of separate
+sections of the rivers and of the canals.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is obvious, from the account that has been given of the numerous
+operations directly controlled and superintended by the king, that
+he had need of a very large body of officials, by whose means he was
+enabled to carry out successfully the administration of the country.
+In the course of the account we have made mention of the judges and
+judicial officers, the assessors and collectors of revenue, and the
+officials of the palace who were under the king's direct orders. It is
+also obvious that different classes of officers were in charge of all
+the departments of the administration. Two classes of officials,
+who were placed in charge of the public works and looked after and
+controlled the public slaves, and probably also had a good deal to do
+with the collection of the revenue, had special privileges assigned
+to them, and special legislation was drawn up to protect them in the
+enjoyment of the same. As payment for their duties they were each
+granted land with a house and garden, they were assigned the use of
+certain sheep and cattle with which to stock their land, and in addition
+they received a regular salary. They were in a sense personal retainers
+of the king and were liable to be sent at any moment on a special
+mission to carry out the king's commands. Disobedience was severely
+punished; for, if such an officer, when detailed for a special mission,
+did not go but hired a substitute, he was liable to be put to death and
+the substitute he had hired could take his office. Sometimes an officer
+was sent for long periods some distance from his home to take charge
+of a garrison, and when this was done his home duties were performed by
+another man, who temporarily occupied his house and land, but gave it
+back to the officer on his return. If such an officer had a son old
+enough to perform his duty in his father's absence, he was allowed to
+do so and to till his father's lands; but if the son was too young,
+the substitute who took the officer's place had to pay one-third of
+the produce of the land to the child's mother for his education. Before
+departing on his journey to the garrison it was the officer's duty to
+arrange for the proper cultivation of his land and the discharge of his
+local duties during his absence. If he omitted to do so and left
+his land and duties neglected for more than a year, and another had
+meanwhile taken his place, on his return he could not reclaim his land
+and office. It will be obvious, therefore, that his position was a
+specially favoured one and much sought after, and these regulations
+ensured that the duties attaching to the office were not neglected.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the course of his garrison duty or when on special service, these
+officers ran some risk of being captured by the enemy, and in that event
+regulations were drawn up for their ransom. If the captured officer was
+wealthy and could pay for his own ransom, he was bound to do so, but
+if he had not the necessary means his ransom was to be paid out of the
+local temple treasury, and, when the funds in the temple treasury
+did not suffice, he was to be ransomed by the state. It was specially
+enacted that his land and garden and house were in no case to be sold
+in order to pay for his ransom. These were inalienably attached to the
+office which he held, and he was not allowed to sell them or the sheep
+and cattle with which they were stocked. Moreover, he was not allowed
+to bequeath any of this property to his wife or daughter, so that his
+office would appear to have been hereditary and the property attached to
+it to have been entailed on his son if he succeeded him. Such succession
+would not, of course, have taken place if the officer by his own neglect
+or disobedience had forfeited his office and its privileges during his
+lifetime.
+</p>
+<p>
+It has been suggested with considerable probability that these officials
+were originally personal retainers and follows of Sumu-abu, the founder
+of the First Dynasty of Babylon. They were probably assigned lands
+throughout the country in return for their services to the king, and
+their special duties were to preserve order and uphold the authority of
+their master. In the course of time their duties were no doubt modified,
+but they retained their privileges and they must have continued to be a
+very valuable body of officers, on whose personal loyalty the king could
+always rely. In the preceding chapter we have already seen how grants of
+considerable estates were made by the Kassite kings of the Third Dynasty
+to followers who had rendered conspicuous services, and at the same time
+they received the privilege of holding such lands free of all liability
+to forced labour and the payment of tithes and taxes. We may conclude
+that the class of royal officers under the kings of the First Dynasty
+had a similar origin.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the present chapter, from information recently made available, we
+have given some account of the system of administration adopted by the
+early kings of Babylon, and we have described in some detail the
+various classes of the Babylonian population, their occupations, and the
+conditions under which they lived. In the two preceding chapters we have
+dealt with the political history of Western Asia from the very earliest
+period of the Sumerian city-states down to the time of the Kassite
+kings. In the course of this account we have seen how Mesopotamia in the
+dawn of history was in the sole possession of the Sumerian race and how
+afterwards it fell in turn under the dominion of the Semites and the
+kings of Elam. The immigration of fresh Semitic tribes at the end of the
+third millennium before Christ resulted in the establishment in Babylon
+of the Semitic kings who are known as First Dynasty kings; and under the
+sway of Hammurabi, the greatest of this group of kings, the empire thus
+established in Western Asia had every appearance of permanence. Although
+Elam no longer troubled Babylon, a great danger arose from a new and
+unexpected quarter. In the Country of the Sea&mdash;which comprised the
+districts in the extreme south of Babylonia on the shores of the Persian
+Gulf&mdash;the Sumerians had rallied their forces, and they now declared
+themselves independent of Babylonian control. A period of conflict
+followed between the kings of the First Dynasty and the kings of the
+Country of the Sea, in which the latter more than held their own; and,
+when the Hittite tribes of Syria invaded Northern Babylonia in the reign
+of Samsu-ditana, Babylon's power of resistance was so far weakened that
+she fell an easy prey to the rulers of the Country of the Sea. But the
+reappearance of the Sumerians in the r�le of leading race in Western
+Asia was destined not to last long, and was little more than the last
+flicker of vitality exhibited by this ancient and exhausted race. Thus
+the Second Dynasty fell in its turn before the onslaught of the Kassite
+tribes who descended from the mountainous districts in the west of Elam,
+and, having overrun the whole of Mesopotamia, established a new dynasty
+at Babylon, and adopted Babylonian civilization.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the advent of the Kassite kings a new chapter opens in the history
+of Western Asia. Up to that time Egypt and Babylon, the two chief
+centres of ancient civilization, had no doubt indirectly influenced one
+another, but they had not come into actual contact. During the period of
+the Kassite kings both Babylon and Assyria established direct relations
+with Egypt, and from that time forward the influence they exerted upon
+one another was continuous and unbroken. We have already traced the
+history of Babylon up to this point in the light of recent discoveries,
+and a similar task awaits us with regard to Assyria. Before we enter
+into a discussion of Assyria's origin and early history in the light of
+recent excavation and research, it is necessary that we should return
+once more to Egypt, and describe the course of her history from the
+period when Thebes succeeded in displacing Memphis as the capital city.
+</p>
+
+
+
+<center>
+PART 13C.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Previous Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1d.htm">Next Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+
+
+</body>
+</html>
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+
+<title>
+    Maspero's History of Egypt,
+    by L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Part 13d
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+		body {background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { margin:10%;
+		    text-indent:   1em;
+        margin-top:    .75em;
+        margin-bottom: .75em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; }
+		hr  { width: 50%; }
+    hr.full { width: 100%; }
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+</head>
+<body>
+
+<br />
+
+<center>
+PART 13D.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ 
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Previous Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+
+<br /> 
+
+
+<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/spines.jpg" height="967" width="652"
+alt="Book Spines 
+">
+</center>
+
+<h1>
+    HISTORY OF EGYPT
+</h1><br />
+
+<h2>
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+<br />
+
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+</h2>
+<h3>
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+<br />
+<br />
+
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+<br />
+<br />
+
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+<br />
+<br />
+
+Copyright 1906
+</h3>
+<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="936" width="625"
+alt="Frontispiece1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1-text.jpg" height="171" width="520"
+alt="Frontispiece1-text 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/titlepage1.jpg" height="1198" width="756"
+alt="Titlepage1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<h4>
+(Part 13d)
+</h4>
+
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER VII&mdash;TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER VIII&mdash;THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0003">
+CHAPTER IX&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+
+<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0001">
+Book Spines 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0002">
+Frontispiece1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0003">
+Frontispiece1-text 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0004">
+Titlepage1 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0005">
+320.jpg Statue of Mera 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0006">
+324.jpg XIth Dynasty Wall: D�r El-bahari. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0007">
+325.jpg XVIIIth Dynasty Wall, Dbr El-bahari. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0008">
+326.jpg Excavation of the North Lower Colonnade Of The
+XIth Dynasty Temple, Der El-bahari, 1904. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0009">
+327.jpg Granite Threshold and Octagonal Sandstone
+Pillars 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0010">
+328.jpg Excavation of the Tomb Of a Priestess, 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0011">
+330.jpg Cases of Antiquities Leaving D�r El-bahari For
+Transport to Cairo. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0012">
+331.jpg Shipping Cases of Antiquities on Board the Nile
+Steamer at Luxor, for the Egypt Exploration Fund. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0013">
+338.jpg Statue of Queen Teta-shera 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0014">
+344.jpg the Two Temples of Des El-bahari.  Excavated By
+Prof. Naville, 1893-8 and 1903-6, for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0015">
+346.jpg the Upper Court and Trilithon Gate 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0016">
+350.jpg the Tomb-mountain of Amenhetef III, in The
+Western Valley, Thebes. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0017">
+356.jpg the Tomb-hill of Shekh 'abd El-kubna, Thebes. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0018">
+358.jpg Wall-painting from a Tomb 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0019">
+360.jpg Fresco in the Tomb of Senmut at Thebes.  About
+1500 B.C.
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0020">
+368.jpg Page Image to Display Greek Words 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0021">
+369.jpg Page Image to Display Greek Words 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0022">
+372.jpg the Valley of The Tombs Of The Queens at Thebes. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0023">
+374.jpg the Nile-bank at Luxor 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0024">
+376.jpg the Great Temple Of Kaknak. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0025">
+379.jpg the Great Temple Of Kaknak. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0026">
+381.jpg Portrait-group of a Great Noble and his Wife 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0027">
+382.jpg a Tomb Fitted up As an Explorer's Residence. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0028">
+387.jpg 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0029">
+396.jpg Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription Of
+Arik-den-ilu. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0030">
+397.jpg Entrance Into One of the Galleries Or Tunnels Cut
+Into the Principal Mound at Sherghat. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0031">
+408.jpg Stone Tablet. Bearing an Inscription Of
+Tukulti-ninib I 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0032">
+410.jpg the Ziggurat, Or Temple Tower, of The Assyrian
+City of Calah. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0033">
+413.jpg Work in Progress on One of the Rock-inscriptions
+Of Sennacherib 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0034">
+414.jpg the Principal Rock Sculptures in The Gorge of The
+Gomel 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0035">
+415.jpg the Rock and Citadel of Van. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0036">
+417.jpg Ancient Flight of Steps and Gallery on the Face
+Of the Rock-citadel of Van.
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0037">
+419.jpg Part of the Ancient Fortifications Of The City Of
+Van, Between the Citadel and The Lake. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0038">
+425.jpg Within the Shrine Of E-makh, The Temple Of The
+Goddess Nin-makh. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0039">
+426.jpg Trench in the Babylonian Plain 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0040">
+447.jpg the Great Dam of Aswan 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0041">
+449.jpg the Kiosk at Philae in Process of Underpinning
+And Restoration, January, 1902. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0042">
+450.jpg the Ancient Quay Of Phil�, November, 1904. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0043">
+452.jpg the Rook of Konosso in January, 1902, Before The
+Building of the Dam and Formation Of The Reservoir. 
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#image-0044">
+454.jpg the Isle of Konosso, With Its Inscriptions 
+</a></p>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER VII&mdash;TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+We have seen that it was in the Theban period that Egypt emerged from
+her isolation, and for the first time came into contact with Western
+Asia. This grand turning-point in Egyptian history seemed to be the
+appropriate place at which to pause in the description of our latest
+knowledge of Egyptian history, in order to make known the results of
+archaeological discovery in Mesopotamia and Western Asia generally. The
+description has been carried down past the point of convergence of the
+two originally isolated paths of Egyptian and Babylonian civilization,
+and what new information the latest discoveries have communicated to us
+on this subject has been told in the preceding chapters. We now have to
+retrace our steps to the point where we left Egyptian history and resume
+the thread of our Egyptian narrative.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Hyksos conquest and the rise of Thebes are practically
+contemporaneous. The conquest took place perhaps three or four hundred
+years after the first advancement of Thebes to the position of capital
+of Egypt, but it must be remembered that this position was not retained
+during the time of the XIIth Dynasty. The kings of that dynasty, though
+they were Thebans, did not reign at Thebes. Their royal city was in the
+North, in the neighbourhood of Lisht and M�d�m, where their pyramids
+were erected, and their chief care was for the lake province of the
+Fayy�m, which was largely the creation of Amenemhat III, the Moeris
+of the Greeks. It was not till Thebes became the focus of the
+national resistance to the Hyksos that its period of greatness began.
+Henceforward it was the undisputed capital of Egypt, enlarged and
+embellished by the care and munificence of a hundred kings, enriched by
+the tribute of a hundred conquered nations.
+</p>
+<p>
+But were we to confine ourselves to the consideration only of the latest
+discoveries of Theban greatness after the expulsion of the Hyksos, we
+should be omitting much that is of interest and importance. For the
+Egyptians the first grand climacteric in their history (after the
+foundation of the monarchy) was the transference of the royal power from
+Memphis and Herakleopolis to a Theban house. The second, which followed
+soon after, was the Hyksos invasion. The two are closely connected in
+Theban history; it is Thebes that defeated Herakleopolis and conquered
+Memphis; it is Theban power that was overthrown by the Hyksos; it is
+Thebes that expelled them and initiated the second great period of
+Egyptian history. We therefore resume our narrative at a point before
+the great increase of Theban power at the time of the expulsion of the
+Hyksos, and will trace this power from its rise, which followed
+the defeat of Herakleopolis and Memphis. It is upon this epoch&mdash;the
+beginning of Theban power&mdash;that the latest discoveries at Thebes have
+thrown some new light.
+</p>
+<p>
+More than anywhere else in Egypt excavations have been carried on at
+Thebes, on the site of the ancient capital of the country. And here, if
+anywhere, it might have been supposed that there was nothing more to be
+found, no new thing to be exhumed from the soil, no new fact to be added
+to our knowledge of Egyptian history. Yet here, no less than at Abydos,
+has the archaeological exploration of the last few years been especially
+successful, and we have seen that the ancient city of Thebes has a great
+deal more to tell us than we had expected.
+</p>
+<p>
+The most ancient remains at Thebes were discovered by Mr. Newberry in
+the shape of two tombs of the VIth Dynasty, cut upon the face of the
+well-known hill of Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna, on the west bank of the Nile
+opposite Luxor. Every winter traveller to Egypt knows, well the ride
+from the sandy shore opposite the Luxor temple, along the narrow pathway
+between the gardens and the canal, across the bridges and over the
+cultivated land to the Ramesseum, behind which rises Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna,
+with its countless tombs, ranged in serried rows along the scarred and
+scarped face of the hill. This hill, which is geologically a fragment of
+the plateau behind which some gigantic landslip was sent sliding in the
+direction of the river, leaving the picturesque gorge and cliffs of D�r
+el-Bahari to mark the place from which it was riven, was evidently the
+seat of the oldest Theban necropolis. Here were the tombs of the Theban
+chiefs in the period of the Old Kingdom, two of which have been found
+by Mr. Newberry. In later times, it would seem, these tombs were largely
+occupied and remodelled by the great nobles of the XVIIIth Dynasty, so
+that now nearly all the tombs extant on Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna belong to
+that dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of the Thebes of the IXth and Xth Dynasties, when the Herakleopolites
+ruled, we have in the British Museum two very remarkable statues&mdash;one of
+which is here illustrated&mdash;of the steward of the palace, Mera. The tomb
+from which they came is not known. Both are very beautiful examples
+of the Egyptian sculptor's art, and are executed in a style eminently
+characteristic of the transition period between the work of the Old and
+Middle Kingdoms. As specimens of the art of the Hierakonpolite period,
+of which we have hardly any examples, they are of the greatest interest.
+Mera is represented wearing a different head-dress in each figure; in
+one he has a short wig, in the other a skullcap.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/320.jpg" height="1138" width="566"
+alt="320.jpg Statue of Mera 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+When the Herakleopolite dominion was finally overthrown, in spite of the
+valiant resistance of the princes of Asy�t, and the Thebans assumed the
+Pharaonic dignity, thus founding the XIth Dynasty, the Theban necropolis
+was situated in the great bay in the cliffs, immediately north of Sh�kh
+Abd el-K�rna, which is known as D�r el-Bahari. In this picturesque part
+of Western Thebes, in many respects perhaps the most picturesque
+place in Egypt, the greatest king of the XIth Dynasty, Neb-hapet-R�
+Mentuhetep, excavated his tomb and built for the worship of his ghost
+a funerary temple, which he called <i>Akh-aset</i>, "Glorious-is-its-
+Situation," a name fully justified by its surroundings. This temple is
+an entirely new discovery, made by Prof. Naville and Mr. Hall in 1903.
+The results obtained up to date have been of very great importance,
+especially with regard to the history of Egyptian art and architecture,
+for our sources of information were few and we were previously not very
+well informed as to the condition of art in the time of the XIth
+Dynasty.
+</p>
+<p>
+The new temple lies immediately to the south of the great XVIIIth
+Dynasty temple at D�r el-Bahari, which has always been known, and which
+was excavated first by Mariette and later by Prof. Naville, for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund. To the results of the later excavations we shall
+return. When they were finally completed, in the year 1898, the great
+XVIIIth Dynasty temple, which was built by Queen Hatshepsu, had been
+entirely cleared of d�bris, and the colonnades had been partially
+restored (under the care of Mr. Somers Clarke) in order to make a roof
+under which to protect the sculptures on the walls. The whole mass of
+d�bris, consisting largely of fallen <i>talus</i> from the cliffs above,
+which had almost hidden the temple, was removed; but a large tract lying
+to the south of the temple, which was also covered with similar mounds
+of d�bris, was not touched, but remained to await further investigation.
+It was here, beneath these heaps of d�bris, that the new temple was
+found when work was resumed by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1903. The
+actual tomb of the king has not yet been revealed, although that of
+Neb-hetep Mentuhetep, who may have been his immediate predecessor,
+was discovered by Mr. Carter in 1899. It was known, however, and still
+uninjured in the reign of Ramses IX of the XXth Dynasty. Then, as we
+learn from the report of the inspectors sent to examine the royal tombs,
+which is preserved in the Abbott Papyrus, they found the <i>pyramid-tomb</i>
+of King Xeb-hapet-R� which is in Tjesret (the ancient Egyptian name for
+D�r el-Bahari); it was intact. We know, therefore, that it was intact
+about 1000 B.C. The description of it as a pyramid-tomb is interesting,
+for in the inscription of Tetu, the priest of Akh-aset, who was buried
+at Abydos, Akh-aset is said to have been a pyramid. That the newly
+discovered temple was called Akh-aset we know from several inscriptions
+found in it. And the most remarkable thing about this temple is that in
+its centre there was a pyramid. This must be the pyramid-tomb which was
+found intact by the inspectors, so that the tomb itself must be close
+by. But it does not seem to have been beneath the pyramid, below which
+is only solid rock. It is perhaps a gallery cut in the cliffs at the
+back of the temple.
+</p>
+<p>
+The pyramid was then a dummy, made of rubble within a revetment of heavy
+flint nodules, which was faced with fine limestone. It was erected on a
+pyloni-form base with heavy cornice of the usual Egyptian pattern. This
+central pyramid was surrounded by a roofed hall or ambulatory of small
+octagonal pillars, the outside wall of which was decorated with coloured
+reliefs, depicting various scenes connected with the <i>sed-heb</i> or
+jubilee-festival of the king, processions of the warriors and magnates
+of the realm, scenes of husbandry, boat-building, and so forth, all of
+which were considered appropriate to the chapel of a royal tomb at that
+period. Outside this wall was an open colonnade of square pillars.
+The whole of this was built upon an artificially squared rectangular
+platform of natural rock, about fifteen feet high. To north and south of
+this were open courts. The southern is bounded by the hill; the northern
+is now bounded by the Great Temple of Hat-shepsu, but, before this was
+built, there was evidently a very large open court here. The face of the
+rock platform is masked by a wall of large rectangular blocks of fine
+white limestone, some of which measure six feet by three feet six
+inches. They are beautifully squared and laid in bonded courses of
+alternate sizes, and the walls generally may be said to be among the
+finest yet found in Egypt. We have already remarked that the architects
+of the Middle Kingdom appear to have been specially fond of fine masonry
+in white stone. The contrast between these splendid XIth Dynasty walls,
+with their great base-stones of sandstone, and the bad rough masonry of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty temple close by, is striking. The XVIIIth Dynasty
+architects and masons had degenerated considerably from the standard of
+the Middle Kingdom.
+</p>
+<p>
+This rock platform was approached from the east in the centre by an
+inclined plane or ramp, of which part of the original pavement of wooden
+beams remains <i>in situ</i>.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0006"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/324.jpg" height="612" width="716"
+alt="324.jpg Xith Dynasty Wall: D�r El-bahari. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Excavated by Mr. Hall, 1904, for the Egypt Exploration Fund.
+</pre>
+<p>
+To right and left of this ramp are colonnades, each of twenty-two square
+pillars, all inscribed with the name and titles of Mentuhetep. The walls
+masking the platform in these colonnades were sculptured with various
+scenes, chiefly representing boat processions and campaigns against the
+Aamu or nomads of the Sinaitic peninsula. The design of the colonnades
+is the same as that of the Great Temple, and the whole plan of this
+part, with its platform approached by a ramp flanked by colonnades,
+is so like that of the Great Temple that we cannot but assume that the
+peculiar design of the latter, with its tiers of platforms approached by
+ramps flanked by colonnades, is not an original idea, but was directly
+copied by the XVIIIth Dynasty architects from the older XIth Dynasty
+temple which they found at D�r el-Bahari when they began their work.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0007"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/325.jpg" height="608" width="493"
+alt="325.jpg Xviiith Dynasty Wall, Dbr El-bahari. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Excavated by M. Naville, 1896; repaired by Mr. Howard
+     Carter, 1904.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The supposed originality of Hatshepsu's temple is then non-existent;
+it was a copy of the older design, in fact, a magnificent piece of
+archaism. But Hatshepsu's architects copied this feature only; the
+actual arrangements <i>on</i> the platforms in the two temples are as
+different as they can possibly be. In the older we have a central
+pyramid with a colonnade round it, in the newer may be found an open
+court in front of rock-cave shrines.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0008"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/326.jpg" height="562" width="481"
+alt="326.jpg Excavation of the North Lower Colonnade Of The
+Xith Dynasty Temple, Der El-bahari, 1904. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Before the XIth Dynasty temple was set up a series of statues of King
+Mentuhetep and of a later king, Amenhetep I, in the form of Osiris, like
+those of Usertsen (Senusret) I at Lisht already mentioned. One of these
+statues is in the British Museum. In the south court were discovered
+six statues of King Usertsen (Senusret) III, depicting him at different
+periods of his life. Pour of the heads are preserved, and, as the
+expression of each differs from that of the other, it is quite evident
+that some show him as a young, others as an old, man.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0009"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/327.jpg" height="748" width="719"
+alt="327.jpg Granite Threshold and Octagonal Sandstone
+Pillars 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Of The XIth Dynasty Temple At Dee El-Bahari. About 2500 B.C.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The face is of the well-known hard and lined type which is seen also in
+the portraits of Amenemhat III, and was formerly considered to be that
+of the Hyksos. Messrs. Newberry and Garstang, as we have seen, consider
+it to be so, indirectly, as they regard the type as having been
+introduced into the XIIth Dynasty by Queen Nefret, the mother of
+Usertsen (Sen-usret) III. This queen, they think, <i>was</i> a Hittite
+princess, and the Hittites were practically the same thing as the
+Hyksos. We have seen, however, that there is very little foundation for
+this view, and it is more than probable that this peculiar physiognomy
+is of a type purely Egyptian in character.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0010"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/328.jpg" height="511" width="555"
+alt="328.jpg Excavation of the Tomb Of a Priestess, 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     On The Platform Of The XIth Dynasty Temple, Der El-Bahari,
+     1904.
+</pre>
+<p>
+On the platform, around the central pyramid, were buried in small
+chamber-tombs a number of priestesses of the goddess Hathor, the
+mistress of the desert and special deity of D�r el-Bahari. They were
+all members of the king's har�m, and they bore the title of "King's
+Favourite." As told in a previous chapter, all were buried at one
+time, before the final completion of the temple, and it is by no means
+impossible that they were strangled at the king's death and buried round
+him in order that their ghosts might accompany him in the next world,
+just as the slaves were buried around the graves (or secondary graves)
+of the 1st Dynasty kings at Aby-dos. They themselves, as also already
+related, took with them to the next world little waxen figures which
+when called upon could by magic be turned into ghostly slaves. These
+images were <i>ushabtiu,</i> "answerers," the predecessors of the little
+figures of wood, stone, and pottery which are found buried with the
+dead in later times. The priestesses themselves were, so to speak, human
+<i>ushabtiu,</i> for royal use only, and accompanied the kings to their final
+resting-place.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the priestesses was buried the usual funerary furniture
+characteristic of the period. This consisted of little models of
+granaries with the peasants bringing in the corn, models of bakers and
+brewers at work, boats with their crews, etc., just as we find them
+in the XIth and XIIth Dynasty tombs at el-Bersha and Beni Hasan. These
+models, too, were supposed to be transformed by magic into actual
+workmen who would work for the deceased, heap up grain for her, brew
+beer for her, ferry her over the ghostly Nile into the tomb-world, or
+perform any other services required.
+</p>
+<p>
+Some of the stone sarcophagi of the priestesses are very elaborately
+decorated with carved and painted reliefs depicting each deceased
+receiving offerings from priests, one of whom milks the holy cows of
+Hathor to give her milk. The sarcophagi were let down into the tomb in
+pieces and there joined together, and they have been removed in the same
+way. The finest is a unique example of XIth Dynasty art, and it is now
+preserved in the Museum of Cairo.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0011"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/330.jpg" height="576" width="715"
+alt="330.jpg Cases of Antiquities Leaving D�r El-bahari For
+Transport to Cairo. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+In memory of the priestesses there were erected on the platform behind
+the pyramid a number of small shrines, which were decorated with the
+most delicately coloured carvings in high relief, representing chiefly
+the same subjects as those on the sarcophagi. The peculiar style of
+these reliefs was previously unknown. In connection with them a most
+interesting possibility presents itself.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0012"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/331.jpg" height="575" width="529"
+alt="331.jpg Shipping Cases of Antiquities on Board the Nile
+Steamer at Luxor, for the Egypt Exploration Fund. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+We know the name of the chief artist of Mentuhetep's reign. He was
+called Mertisen, and he thus describes himself on his tombstone from
+Abydos, now in the Louvre: "I was an artist skilled in my art. I knew
+my art, how to represent the forms of going forth and returning, so that
+each limb may be in its proper place. I knew how the figure of a man
+should walk and the carriage of a woman, the poising of the arm to
+bring the hippopotamus low, the going of the runner. I knew how to make
+amulets, which enable us to go without fire burning us and without the
+flood washing us away. No man could do this but I, and the eldest son
+of my body. Him has the god decreed to excel in art, and I have seen
+the perfections of the work of his hands in every kind of rare stone,
+in gold and silver, in ivory and ebony." Now since Mertisen and his son
+were the chief artists of their day, it is more than probable that they
+were employed to decorate their king's funerary chapel. So that in all
+probability the XIth Dynasty reliefs from D�r el-Bahari are the work
+of Mertisen and his son, and in them we see the actual "forms of going
+forth and returning, the poising of the arm to bring the hippopotamus
+low, the going of the runner," to which he refers on his tombstone. This
+adds a note of personal interest to the reliefs, an interest which is
+often sadly wanting in Egypt, where we rarely know the names of the
+great artists whose works we admire so much. We have recovered the names
+of the sculptor and painter of Seti I's temple at Abydos and that of the
+sculptor of some of the tombs at Tell el-Amarna, but otherwise very few
+names of the artists are directly associated with the temples and tombs
+which they decorated, and of the architects we know little more. The
+great temple of D�r el-Bahari was, however, we know, designed by Senmut,
+the chief architect to Queen Hatshepsu.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is noticeable that Mertisen's art, if it is Mertisen's, is of a
+peculiar character. It is not quite so fully developed as that of the
+succeeding XIIth Dynasty. The drawing of the figures is often peculiar,
+strange lanky forms taking the place of the perfect proportions of the
+IVth-VIth and the XIIth Dynasty styles. Great elaboration is bestowed
+upon decoration, which is again of a type rather archaic in character
+when compared with that of the XIIth Dynasty. We are often reminded of
+the rude sculptures which used to be regarded as typical of the art of
+the XIth Dynasty, while at the same time we find work which could not
+be surpassed by the best XIIth Dynasty masters. In fact, the art of
+Neb-hapet-R�'s reign was the art of a transitional period. Under the
+decadent Memphites of the VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties, Egyptian art
+rapidly fell from the high estate which it had attained under the Vth
+Dynasty, and, though good work was done under the Hierakonpolites, the
+chief characteristic of Egyptian art at the time of the Xth and early
+XIth Dynasties is its curious roughness and almost barbaric appearance.
+When, however, the kings of the XIth Dynasty reunited the whole land
+under one sceptre, and the long reign of Neb-hapet-R� Mentuhetep enabled
+the reconsolidation of the realm to be carried out by one hand, art
+began to revive, and, just as to Neb-hapet-R� must be attributed the
+renascence of the Egyptian state under the hegemony of Thebes, so must
+the revival of art in his reign be attributed to his great artists,
+Mertisen and his son. They carried out in the realm of art what their
+king had carried out in the political realm, and to them must be
+attributed the origin of the art of the Middle Kingdom which under the
+XIIth Dynasty attained so high a pitch of excellence. The sculptures
+of the king's temple at D�r el-Bahari, then, are monuments of the
+renascence of Egyptian art, after the state of decadence into which it
+had fallen during the long civil wars between South and North; it is
+a reviving art, struggling out of barbarism to regain perfection, and
+therefore has much about it that seems archaic, stiff, and curious when
+compared with later work. To the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptian it would no
+doubt have seemed hopelessly old-fashioned and even semi-barbarous, and
+he had no qualms about sweeping it aside whenever it appeared in the
+way of the work of his own time; but to us this very strangeness
+gives additional charm and interest, and we can only be thankful that
+Mertisen's work has lasted (in fragments only, it is true) to our own
+day, to tell us the story of a little known chapter in the history of
+ancient Egyptian art.
+</p>
+<p>
+From this description it will have been seen that the temple is an
+important monument of the Egyptian art and architecture of the Middle
+Kingdom. It is the only temple of that period of which considerable
+traces have been found, and on that account the study of it will be of
+the greatest interest. It is the best preserved of the older temples of
+Egypt, and at Thebes it is by far the most ancient building recovered.
+Historically it has given us a new king of the XIth Dynasty,
+Sekh�he-tep-R� Mentuhetep, and the name of the queen of Neb-hapet-R�
+Mentuhetep, Aasheit, who seems to have been an Ethiopian, to judge from
+her portrait, which has been discovered. It is interesting to note that
+one of the priestesses was a negress.
+</p>
+<p>
+The name Neb-hapet-R� may be unfamiliar to those readers who are
+acquainted with the lists of the Egyptian kings. It is a correction
+of the former reading, "Neb-kheru-R�," which is now known from these
+excavations to be erroneous. Neb-hapet-R� (or, as he used to be called,
+Neb-kheru-R�) is Mentuhetep III of Prof. Petrie's arrangement. Before
+him there seem to have come the kings Mentuhetep Neb-hetep (who is also
+commemorated in this temple) and Neb-taui-R�; after him, Sekh�hetep-R�
+Mentuhetep IV and Se�nkhkar� Mentuhetep V, who were followed by an
+Antef, bearing the banner or hawk-name Uah-�nkh. This king was followed
+by Amenemhat I, the first king of the XIIth Dynasty. Antef Uah-�nkh may
+be numbered Antef I, as the prince Antefa, who founded the XIth Dynasty,
+did not assume the title of king.
+</p>
+<p>
+Other kings of the name of Antef also ruled over Egypt, and they used to
+be regarded as belonging to the XIth Dynasty; but Prof. Steindorff
+has now proved that they really reigned after the XIIIth Dynasty, and
+immediately before the Sekenenr�s, who were the fighters of the Hyksos
+and predecessors of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The second names of Antef III
+(Seshes-R�-up-maat) and Antef IV (Seshes-R�-her-her-maat) are exactly
+similar to those of the XIIIth Dynasty kings and quite unlike those of
+the Mentuheteps; also at Koptos a decree of Antef II (Nub-kheper-R�) has
+been found inscribed on a doorway of Usertsen (Senusret) I; so that
+he cannot have preceded him. Prof. Petrie does not yet accept these
+conclusions, and classes all the Antefs together with the Mentuheteps in
+the XIth Dynasty. He considers that he has evidence from Herakleopolis
+that Antef Xub-kheper-R� (whom he numbers Antef V) preceded the XIIth
+Dynasty, and he supposes that the decree of Nub-kheper-R� at Koptos is
+a later copy of the original and was inscribed during the XIIth Dynasty.
+But this is a difficult saying. The probabilities are that Prof.
+Steindorff is right. Antef Uah-�nkh must, however, have preceded the
+XIIth Dynasty, since an official of that period refers to his father's
+father as having lived in Uah-�nkh 's time.
+</p>
+<p>
+The necropolis of D�r el-Bahari was no doubt used all through the period
+of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties, and many tombs of that period have been
+found there. A large number of these were obliterated by the building
+of the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, in the northern part of the
+cliff-bay. We know of one queen's tomb of that period which runs right
+underneath this temple from the north, and there is another that is
+entered at the south side which also runs down underneath it. Several
+tombs were likewise found in the court between it and the XIth Dynasty
+temple. We know that the XVIIIth Dynasty temple was largely built over
+this court, and we can see now the XIth Dynasty mask-wall on the west of
+the court running northwards underneath the mass of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple. In all probability, then, when the temple of Hatshepsu
+was built, the larger portion of the Middle Kingdom necropolis (of
+chamber-tombs reached by pits), which had filled up the bay to the north
+of the Mentuhetep temple, was covered up and obliterated, just as
+the older VIth Dynasty gallery tombs of Sh�kh Abd el-K�rna had been
+appropriated and altered at the same period.
+</p>
+<p>
+The kings of the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties were not buried at Thebes,
+as we have seen, but in the North, at Dash�r, Lisht, and near the
+Fayymn, with which their royal city at Itht-taui had brought them into
+contact. But at the end of the XIIIth Dynasty the great invasion of the
+Hyksos probably occurred, and all Northern Egypt fell under the Arab
+sway. The native kings were driven south from the Fayymn to Abydos,
+Koptos, and Thebes, and at Thebes they were buried, in a new necropolis
+to the north of D�r el-Bahari (probably then full), on the flank of a
+long spur of hill which is now called Dra' Abu-'l-Negga, "Abu-'l-Negga's
+Arm." Here the Theban kings of the period between the XIIIth and XVIIth
+Dynasties, Upuantemsaf, Antef Nub-kheper-R�, and his descendants, Antefs
+III and IV, were buried. In their time the pressure of foreign invasion
+seems to have been felt, for, to judge from their coffins, which show
+progressive degeneration of style and workmanship, poverty now afflicted
+Upper Egypt and art had fallen sadly from the high standard which it had
+reached in the days of the XIth and XIIth Dynasties. Probably the later
+Antefs and Sebekemsafs were vassals of the Hyksos. Their descendants
+of the XVIIth Dynasty were buried in the same necropolis of Dra'
+Abu-'l-Negga, and so were the first two kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty,
+Aahmes and Amenhetep I. The tombs of the last two have not yet been
+found, but we know from the Abbott Papyrus that Amenhetep's was
+here, for, like that of Menttihetep III, it was found intact by the
+inspectors. It was a gallery-tomb of very great length, and will be a
+most interesting find when it is discovered, as it no doubt eventually
+will be. Aahmes had a tomb at Abydos, which was discovered by Mr.
+Currelly, working for the Egypt Exploration Fund. This, however, like
+the Abydene tomb of Usert-sen (Senusret) III, was in all likelihood a
+sham or secondary tomb, the king having most probably been buried at
+Thebes, in the Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. The Abydos tomb is of interesting
+construction. The entrance is by a simple pit, from which a gallery
+runs round in a curving direction to a great hall supported by eighteen
+square pillars, beyond which is a further gallery which was never
+finished. Nothing was found in the tomb. On the slope of the mountain,
+due west of and in a line with the tomb, Mr. Currelly found a
+terrace-temple analogous to those of D�r el-Bahari, approached not
+by means of a ramp but by stairways at the side. It was evidently the
+funerary temple of the tomb.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0013"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/338.jpg" height="1033" width="703"
+alt="338.jpg Statue of Queen Teta-shera 
+">
+<br />
+
+<img alt="338-text (14K)" src="images/338-text.jpg" height="133" width="537" />
+</center>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+     Grandmother of Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos and
+     founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty. About 1700 B. C. British
+     Museum. From the photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The secondary tomb of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Abydos, which has
+already been mentioned, was discovered in the preceding year by Mr. A.
+E. P. Weigall, and excavated by Mr. Currelly in 1903. It lies north of
+the Aahmes temple, between it and the main cemetery of Abydos. It is a
+great <i>b�b</i> or gallery-tomb, like those of the later kings at Thebes,
+with the usual apparatus of granite plugs, barriers, pits, etc., to
+defy plunderers. The tomb had been plundered, nevertheless, though it is
+probable that the robbers were vastly disappointed with what they
+found in it. Mr. Currelly ascribes the absence of all remains to the
+plunderers, but the fact is that there probably never was anything in
+it but an empty sarcophagus. Near the tomb Mr. Weigall discovered
+some dummy mastabas, a find of great interest. Just as the king had a
+secondary tomb, so secondary mastabas, mere dummies of rubble like the
+XIth Dynasty pyramid at D�r el-Bahari, were erected beside it to look
+like the tombs of his courtiers. Some curious sinuous brick walls which
+appear to act as dividing lines form a remarkable feature of this sham
+cemetery. In a line with the tomb, on the edge of the cultivation,
+is the funerary temple belonging to it, which was found by Mr.
+Randall-Maclver in 1900. Nothing remains but the bases of the fluted
+limestone columns and some brick walls. A headless statue of Usertsen
+was found.
+</p>
+<p>
+We have an interesting example of the custom of building a secondary
+tomb for royalties in these two n�cropoles of Dra' Abu-'l-Negga and
+Abydos. Queen Teta-shera, the grandmother of Aahmes, a beautiful
+statuette of whom may be seen in the British Museum, had a small pyramid
+at Abydos, eastward of and in a line with the temple and secondary tomb
+of Aahmes. In 1901 Mr. Mace attempted to find the chamber, but could
+not. In the next year Mr. Currelly found between it and the Aahmes
+tomb a small chapel, containing a splendid stele, on which Aahmes
+commemorates his grandmother, who, he says, was buried at Thebes and had
+a <i>mer-�h�t</i> at Abydos, and he records his determination to build her
+also a pyramid at Abydos, out of his love and veneration for her memory.
+It thus appeared that the pyramid to the east was simply a dummy,
+like Usertsen's mastabas, or the Mentuhetep pyramid at D�r el-Bahari.
+Teta-shera was actually buried at Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. Her secondary
+pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was in the "holy ground" at
+Abydos, though it was not an imitation <i>b�b</i>, but a dummy pyramid of
+rubble. This well illustrates the whole custom of the royal primary and
+secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had obtained in the case of
+royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty, when Aha had two
+tombs, one at Nak�da and the other at Abydos. It is probable that all
+the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings being really
+buried elsewhere. After their time we know for certain that Tjeser and
+Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly Usertsen
+(Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III and
+Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs. Ramses III
+also had two tombs, both at Thebes. The reasons for this custom were
+two: first, the desire to elude plunderers, and second, the wish to give
+the ghost a <i>pied-�-terre</i> on the sacred soil of Abydos or Sakk�ra.
+</p>
+<p>
+As the inscription of Aahmes which records the building of the dummy
+pyramid of Teta-shera is of considerable interest, it may here be
+translated. The text reads: "It came to pass that when his Majesty the
+king, even the king of South and North, Neb-pehti-R�, Son of the Sun,
+Aahmes, Giver of Life, was taking his pleasure in the <i>tjadu</i>-hall,
+the hereditary princess greatly favoured and greatly prized, the king's
+daughter, the king's sister, the god's wife and great wife of the king,
+Nefret-ari-Aahmes, the living, was in the presence of his Majesty. And
+the one spake unto the other, seeking to do honour to These There,*
+which consisteth in the pouring of water, the offering upon the altar,
+the painting of the stele at the beginning of each season, at the
+Festival of the New Moon, at the feast of the month, the feast of the
+going-forth of the <i>Sem</i>-priest, the Ceremonies of the Night, the Feasts
+of the Fifth Day of the Month and of the Sixth, the <i>Hak</i>-festival, the
+<i>Uag</i>-festival, the feast of Thoth, the beginning of every season of
+heaven and earth. And his sister spake, answering him: 'Why hath one
+remembered these matters, and wherefore hath this word been said?
+Prithee, what hath come into thy heart?' The king spake, saying: 'As for
+me, I have remembered the mother of my mother, the mother of my father,
+the king's great wife and king's mother Teta-shera, deceased, whose
+tomb-chamber and <i>mer-ah�t</i> are at this moment upon the soil of Thebes
+and Abydos. I have spoken thus unto thee because my Majesty desireth to
+cause a pyramid and chapel to be made for her in the Sacred Land, as a
+gift of a monument from my Majesty, and that its lake should be dug, its
+trees planted, and its offerings prescribed; that it should be provided
+with slaves, furnished with lands, and endowed with cattle, with
+<i>hen-ka</i> priests and <i>kher-heb</i> priests performing their duties, each
+man knowing what he hath to do.' Behold! when his Majesty had thus
+spoken, these things were immediately carried out. His Majesty did these
+things on account of the greatness of the love which he bore her, which
+was greater than anything. Never had ancestral kings done the like for
+their mothers. Behold! his Majesty extended his arm and bent his hand,
+and made for her the king's offering to Geb, to the Ennead of Gods, to
+the lesser Ennead of Gods... [to Anubis] in the God's Shrine, thousands
+of offerings of bread, beer, oxen, geese, cattle... to [the Queen
+Teta-shera]." This is one of the most interesting inscriptions
+discovered in Egypt in recent years, for the picturesqueness of its
+diction is unusual.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * A polite periphrasis for the dead.
+</pre>
+<p>
+As has already been said, the king Amenhetep I was also buried in the
+Dra' Abu-'l-Negga, but the tomb has not yet been found. Amenhetep I and
+his mother, Queen Nefret-ari-Aahmes, who is mentioned in the inscription
+translated above, were both venerated as tutelary demons of the Western
+Necropolis of Thebes after their deaths, as also was Mentuhetep III. At
+D�r el-Bahari both kings seem to have been worshipped with Hathor, the
+Mistress of the Waste. The worship of Amen-R� in the XVIIIth Dynasty
+temple of D�r el-Bahari was a novelty introduced by the priests of Amen
+at that time. But the worship of Hathor went on side by side with that
+of Amen in a chapel with a rock-cut shrine at the side of the Great
+Temple. Very possibly this was the original cave-shrine of Hathor, long
+before Mentuhetep's time, and was incorporated with the Great Temple and
+beautified with the addition of a pillared hall before it, built
+over part of the XIth Dynasty north court and wall, by Hatshepsu's
+architects.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Great Temple, the excavation of which for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+was successfully brought to an end by Prof. Naville in 1898, was erected
+by Queen Hatshepsu in honour of Amen-R�, her father Thothmes I, and her
+brother-husband Thothmes II, and received a few additions from Thothmes
+III, her successor. He, however, did not complete it, and it fell into
+disrepair, besides suffering from the iconoclastic zeal of the heretic
+Akhunaten, who hammered out some of the beautifully painted scenes upon
+its walls. These were badly restored by Ramses II, whose painting is
+easily distinguished from the original work by the dulness and badness
+of its colour.
+</p>
+<p>
+The peculiar plan and other remarkable characteristics of this temple
+are well known. Its great terraces, with the ramps leading up to them,
+flanked by colonnades, which, as we have seen, were imitated from the
+design of the old XIth Dynasty temple at its side, are familiar from a
+hundred illustrations, and the marvellously preserved colouring of its
+delicate reliefs is known to every winter visitor to Egypt, and can be
+realized by those who have never been there through the medium of Mr.
+Howard Carter's wonderful coloured reproductions, published in Prof.
+Naville's edition of the temple by the Egypt Exploration Fund. The Great
+Temple stands to-day clear of all the d�bris which used to cover it, a
+lasting monument to the work of the greatest of the societies which busy
+themselves with the unearthing of the relics of the ancient world.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0014"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/344.jpg" height="674" width="716"
+alt="344.jpg the Two Temples of Des El-bahari.  Excavated By
+Prof. Naville, 1893-8 and 1903-6, for the Egypt Exploration Fund
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The two temples of D�r el-Bahari will soon stand side by side, as they
+originally stood, and will always be associated with the name of the
+society which rescued them from oblivion, and gave us the treasures
+of the royal tombs at Abydos. The names of the two men whom the Egypt
+Exploration Fund commissioned to excavate D�r el-Bahari and Abydos, and
+for whose work it exclusively supplied the funds, Profs. Naville and
+Petrie, will live chiefly in connection with their work at D�r el-Bahari
+and Abydos.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Egyptians called the two temples <i>Tjeserti</i>, "the two holy places,"
+the new building receiving the name of <i>Tjeser-tjesru</i>, "Holy of
+Holies," and the whole tract of D�r el-Bahari the appellation <i>Tjesret</i>,
+"the Holy." The extraordinary beauty of the situation in which they are
+placed, with its huge cliffs and rugged hillsides, may be appreciated
+from the photograph which is taken from a steep path half-way up the
+cliff above the Great Temple. In it we see the Great Temple in the
+foreground with the modern roofs of two of its colonnades, devised in
+order to protect the sculptures beneath them, the great trilithon gate
+leading to the upper court, and the entrance to the cave-shrine of
+Amen-R�, with the niches of the kings on either side, immediately at the
+foot of the cliff. In the middle distance is the duller form of the XIth
+Dynasty temple, with its rectangular platform, the ramp leading up
+to it, and the pyramid in the centre of it, surrounded by pillars,
+half-emerging from the great heaps of sand and d�bris all around. The
+background of cliffs and hills, as seen in the photograph, will serve to
+give some idea of the beauty of the surroundings,&mdash;an arid beauty, it is
+true, for all is desert. There is not a blade of vegetation near; all
+is salmon-red in colour beneath a sky of ineffable blue, and against the
+red cliffs the white temple stands out in vivid contrast.
+</p>
+<p>
+The second illustration gives a nearer view of the great trilithon
+gate in the upper court, at the head of the ramp. The long hill of Dra'
+Abu-'l-Negga is seen bending away northward behind the gate.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0015"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/346.jpg" height="772" width="707"
+alt="346.jpg the Upper Court and Trilithon Gate 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Of The Xviiith Dynasty Temple At D�k El-Bahari. About 1500
+     B.C.
+</pre>
+<p>
+This is the famous gate on which the jealous Thothmes III chiselled out
+Hatshepsu's name in the royal cartouches and inserted his own in
+its place; but he forgot to alter the gender of the pronouns in the
+accompanying inscription, which therefore reads "King Thothmes III, she
+made this monument to her father Amen."
+</p>
+<p>
+Among Prof. Naville's discoveries here one of the most important is that
+of the altar in a small court to the north, which, as the inscription
+says, was made in honour of the god R�-Harmachis "of beautiful white
+stone of Anu." It is of the finest white limestone known. Here also were
+found the carved ebony doors of a shrine, now in the Cairo Museum. One
+of the most beautiful parts of the temple is the Shrine of Anubis, with
+its splendidly preserved paintings and perfect columns and roof of
+white limestone. The effect of the pure white stone and simplicity of
+architecture is almost Hellenic.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Shrine of Hathor has been known since the time of Mariette, but in
+connection with it some interesting discoveries have been made during
+the excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple. In the court between the two
+temples were found a large number of small votive offerings, consisting
+of scarabs, beads, little figures of cows and women, etc., of blue
+glazed <i>fa�ence</i> and rough pottery, bronze and wood, and blue glazed
+ware ears, eyes, and plaques with figures of the sacred cow, and other
+small objects of the same nature. These are evidently the ex-votos of
+the XVIIIth Dynasty fellah�n to the goddess Hathor in the rock-shrine
+above the court. When the shrine was full or the little ex-votos broken,
+the sacristans threw them over the wall into the court below, which thus
+became a kind of dust-heap. Over this heap the sand and d�bris gradually
+collected, and thus they were preserved. The objects found are of
+considerable interest to anthropological science.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Great Temple was built, as we have said, in honour of Thothmes I
+and II, and the deities Amen-R� and Hathor. More especially it was the
+funerary chapel of Thothmes I. His tomb was excavated, not in the Dra'
+Abu-l-Negga, which was doubtless now too near the capital city and not
+in a sufficiently dignified position of aloofness from the common herd,
+but at the end of the long valley of the Wadiy�n, behind the cliff-hill
+above D�r el-Bahari. Hence the new temple was oriented in the direction
+of his tomb. Immediately behind the temple, on the other side of the
+hill, is the tomb which was discovered by Lepsius and cleared in 1904
+for Mr. Theodore N. Davis by Mr. Howard Carter, then chief inspector of
+antiquities at Thebes. Its gallery is of very small dimensions, and it
+winds about in the hill in corkscrew fashion like the tomb of Aahmes at
+Aby-dos. Owing to its extraordinary length, the heat and foul air in the
+depths of the tomb were almost insupportable and caused great difficulty
+to the excavators. When the sarcophagus-chamber was at length reached,
+it was found to contain the empty sarcophagi of Thothmes I and of
+Hatshepsu. The bodies had been removed for safe-keeping in the time of
+the XXIst Dynasty, that of Thothmes I having been found with those
+of Set! I and Ramses II in the famous pit at D�r el-Bahari, which was
+discovered by M. Maspero in 1881. Thothmes I seems to have had another
+and more elaborate tomb (No. 38) in the Valley of the Tombs of the
+Kings, which was discovered by M. Loret in 1898. Its frescoes had been
+destroyed by the infiltration of water.
+</p>
+<p>
+The fashion of royal burial in the great valley behind D�r el-Bahari
+was followed during the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth Dynasties. Here in the
+eastern branch of the Wadiy�n, now called the <i>Bib�n el-Mul�k</i>, "the
+Tombs of the Kings," the greater number of the mightiest Theban Pharaohs
+were buried. In the western valley rested two of the kings of the
+XVIIIth Dynasty, who desired even more remote burial-places, Amenhetep
+III and Ai. The former chose for his last home a most kingly site.
+Ancient kings had raised great pyramids of artificial stone over their
+graves. Amenhetep, perhaps the greatest and most powerful Pharaoh of
+them all, chose to have a natural pyramid for his grave, a mountain for
+his tumulus. The illustration shows us the tomb of this monarch, opening
+out of the side of one of the most imposing hills in the Western Valley.
+No other king but Amenhetep rested beneath this hill, which thus marks
+his grave and his only.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is in the Eastern Valley, the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings
+properly speaking, that the tombs of Thothmes I and Hatshepsu lie, and
+here the most recent discoveries have been made. It is a desolate spot.
+As we come over the hill from D�r el-Bahari we see below us in the
+glaring sunshine a rocky canon, with sides sometimes sheer cliff,
+sometimes sloped by great falls of rock in past ages. At the bottom
+of these slopes the square openings of the many royal tombs can be
+descried. [See illustration.] Far below we see the forms of tourists
+and the tomb-guards accompanying them, moving in and out of the openings
+like ants going in and out of an ants' nest. Nothing is heard but the
+occasional cry of a kite and the ceaseless rhythmical throbbing of the
+exhaust-pipe of the electric light engine in the unfinished tomb of
+Ramses XI. Above and around are the red desert hills. The Egyptians
+called it "The Place of Eternity."
+</p>
+<a name="image-0016"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/350.jpg" height="581" width="710"
+alt="350.jpg the Tomb-mountain of Amenhetef Iii, in The
+Western Valley, Thebes. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+In this valley some remarkable discoveries have been made during the
+last few years. In 1898 M. Gr�baut discovered the tomb of Amenhetep
+II, in which was found the mummy of the king, intact, lying in its
+sarcophagus in the depths of the tomb. The royal body now lies there
+for all to see. The tomb is lighted with electricity, as are all the
+principal tombs of the kings. At the head of the sarcophagus is a single
+lamp, and, when the party of visitors is collected in silence around the
+place of death, all the lights are turned out, and then the single
+light is switched on, showing the royal head illuminated against the
+surrounding blackness. The effect is indescribably weird and impressive.
+The body has only twice been removed from the tomb since its burial, the
+second time when it was for a brief space taken up into the sunlight to
+be photographed by Mr.. Carter, in January, 1902. The temporary removal
+was carefully carried out, the body of his Majesty being borne up
+through the passages of the tomb on the shoulders of the Italian
+electric light workmen, preceded and followed by impassive Arab
+candle-bearers. The workmen were most reverent in their handling of the
+body of "<i> il gran r�</i>," as they called him.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the tomb were found some very interesting objects, including a model
+boat (afterwards stolen), across which lay the body of a woman. This
+body now lies, with others found close by, in a side chamber of the
+tomb. One may be that of Hatshepsu. The walls of the tomb-chamber are
+painted to resemble papyrus, and on them are written chapters of the
+"Book of What Is in the Underworld," for the guidance of the royal
+ghost.
+</p>
+<p>
+In 1902-3 Mr. Theodore Davis excavated the tomb of Thothmes IV. It
+yielded a rich harvest of antiquities belonging to the funeral state of
+the king, including a chariot with sides of embossed and gilded leather,
+decorated with representations of the king's warlike deeds, and much
+fine blue pottery, all of which are now in the Cairo Museum. The
+tomb-gallery returns upon itself, describing a curve. An interesting
+point with regard to it is that it had evidently been violated even in
+the short time between the reigns of its owner and Horem-heb, probably
+in the period of anarchy which prevailed at Thebes during the reign
+of the heretic Akhunaten; for in one of the chambers is a hieratic
+inscription recording the repair of the tomb in the eighth year of
+Horemheb by Maya, superintendent of works in the Tombs of the Kings. It
+reads as follows: "In the eighth year, the third month of summer, under
+the Majesty of King Tjeser-khepru-R� Sotp-n-R�, Son of the Sun, Horemheb
+Meriamen, his Majesty (Life, health, and wealth unto him!) commanded
+that orders should be sent unto the Fanbearer on the King's Left Hand,
+the King's Scribe and Overseer of the Treasury, the Overseer of the
+Works in the Place of Eternity, the Leader of the Festivals of Amen
+in Karnak, Maya, son of the judge Aui, born of the Lady Ueret, that he
+should renew the burial of King Men-khepru-R�, deceased, in the August
+Habitation in Western Thebes." Men-khepru-R� was the prenomen or
+throne-name of Thothmes IV. Tied round a pillar in the tomb is still a
+length of the actual rope used by the thieves for crossing the chasm,
+which, as in many of the tombs here, was left open in the gallery to bar
+the way to plunderers. The mummy of the king was found in the tomb of
+Amenhetep II, and is now at Cairo.
+</p>
+<p>
+The discovery of the tomb of Thothmes I and Hat-shepsu has already been
+described. In 1905 Mr. Davis made his latest find, the tomb of Iuaa
+and Tuaa, the father and mother of Queen Tii, the famous consort of
+Amenhetep III and mother of Akhunaten the heretic. Readers of Prof.
+Maspero's history will remember that Iuaa and Tuaa are mentioned on one
+of the large memorial scarabs of Amenhetep III, which commemorates his
+marriage. The tomb has yielded an almost incredible treasure of funerary
+furniture, besides the actual mummies of Tii's parents, including a
+chariot overlaid with gold. Gold overlay of great thickness is found on
+everything, boxes, chairs, etc. It was no wonder that Egypt seemed the
+land of gold to the Asiatics, and that even the King of Babylon begs
+this very Pharaoh Amenhetep to send him gold, in one of the letters
+found at Tell el-Amarna, "for gold is as water in thy land." It is
+probable that Egypt really attained the height of her material wealth
+and prosperity in the reign of Amenhetep III. Certainly her dominion
+reached its farthest limits in his time, and his influence was felt from
+the Tigris to the Sudan. He hunted lions for his pleasure in Northern
+Mesopotamia, and he built temples at Jebel Barkal beyond Dongola. We see
+the evidence of lavish wealth in the furniture of the tomb of Iuaa and
+Tuaa. Yet, fine as are many of these gold-overlaid and overladen objects
+of the XVIIIth Dynasty, they have neither the good taste nor the charm
+of the beautiful jewels from the XIIth Dynasty tombs at Dash�r. It is
+mere vulgar wealth. There is too much gold thrown about. "For gold is as
+water in thy land." In three hundred years' time Egypt was to know what
+poverty meant, when the poor priest-kings of the XXIst Dynasty could
+hardly keep body and soul together and make a comparatively decent show
+as Pharaohs of Egypt. Then no doubt the latter-day Thebans sighed for
+the good old times of the XVIIIth Dynasty, when their city ruled a
+considerable part of Africa and Western Asia and garnered their riches
+into her coffers. But the days of the XIIth Dynasty had really been
+better still. Then there was not so much wealth, but what there was (and
+there was as much gold then, too) was used sparingly, tastefully, and
+simply. The XIIth Dynasty, not the XVIIIth, was the real Golden Age of
+Egypt.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the funeral panoply of a tomb like that of Iuaa and Tuaa we can
+obtain some idea of the pomp and state of Amenhetep III. But the remains
+of his Theban palace, which have been discovered and excavated by Mr. C.
+Tytus and Mr. P. E. Newberry, do not bear out this idea of magnificence.
+It is quite possible that the palace was merely a pleasure house,
+erected very hastily and destined to fall to pieces when its owner tired
+of it or died, like the many palaces of the late Khedive Ismail. It
+stood on the border of an artificial lake, whereon the Pharaoh and his
+consort Tii sailed to take their pleasure in golden barks. This is now
+the cultivated rectangular space of land known as the Birket Hab�, which
+is still surrounded by the remains of the embankment built to retain its
+waters, and becomes a lake during the inundation. On the western shore
+of this lake Amenhetep erected the "stately pleasure dome," the
+remains of which still cover the sandy tract known as el-Malkata, "the
+Salt-pans," south of the great temple of Med�net Hab�. These remains
+consist merely of the foundations and lowest wall-courses of a
+complicated and rambling building of many chambers, constructed of
+common unburnt brick and plastered with white stucco on walls and
+floors, on which were painted beautiful frescoes of fighting bulls,
+birds of the air, water-fowl, fish-ponds, etc., in much the same style
+as the frescoes of Tell el-Amarna executed in the next reign. There
+were small pillared halls, the columns of which were of wood, mounted
+on bases of white limestone. The majority still remain in position. In
+several chambers there are small da�ses, and in one the remains of a
+throne, built of brick and mud covered with plaster and stucco, upon
+which the Pharaoh Amenhetep sat. This is the palace of him whom the
+Greeks called Memnon, who ruled Egypt when Israel was in bondage and
+when the dynasty of Minos reigned in Crete. Here by the side of his
+pleasure-lake the most powerful of Egyptian Pharaohs whiled away his
+time during the summer heats. Evidently the building was intended to be
+of the lightest construction, and never meant to last; but to our ideas
+it seems odd that an Egyptian Pharaoh should live in a mud palace. Such
+a building is, however, quite suited to the climate of Egypt, as are the
+modern crude brick dwellings of the fellah�n. In the ruins of the
+palace were found several small objects of interest, and close by was
+an ancient glass manufactory of Amenhetep III's time, where much of the
+characteristic beautifully coloured and variegated opaque glass of the
+period was made.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0017"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/356.jpg" height="536" width="708"
+alt="356.jpg the Tomb-hill of Shekh 'abd El-kubna, Thebes. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The tombs of the magnates of Amenhetep III's reign and of the reigns
+of his immediate predecessors were excavated, as has been said, on the
+eastern slope of the hill of Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna, where was the earliest
+Theban necropolis. No doubt many of the early tombs of the time of the
+VIth Dynasty were appropriated and remodelled by the XVIIIth Dynasty
+magnates. We have an instance of time's revenge in this matter, in the
+case of the tomb of Imadua, a great priestly official of the time of
+the XXth Dynasty. This tomb previously belonged to an XVIIIth Dynasty
+worthy, but Imadua appropriated it three hundred years later and covered
+up all its frescoes with the much begilt decoration fashionable in his
+period. Perhaps the XVIIIth Dynasty owner had stolen it from an original
+owner of the time of the VIth Dynasty. The tomb has lately been cleared
+out by Mr. Newberry.
+</p>
+<p>
+Much work of the same kind has been done here of late years by Messrs.
+Newberry and R. L. Mond, in succession. To both we are indebted for the
+excavation of many known tombs, as well as for the discovery of many
+others previously unknown. Among the former was that of Sebekhetep,
+cleared by Mr. Newberry. Se-bekhetep was an official of the time of
+Thothmes III. From his tomb, and from others in the same hill, came many
+years ago the fine frescoes shown in the illustration, which are among
+the most valued treasures of the Egyptian department of the British
+Museum. They are typical specimens of the wall-decoration of an XVIIIth
+Dynasty tomb. On one may be seen a bald-headed peasant, with staff in
+hand, pulling an ear of corn from the standing crop in order to see if
+it is ripe. He is the "Chief Reaper," and above him is a prayer that the
+"great god in heaven" may increase the crop. To the right of him is a
+charioteer standing beside a car and reining back a pair of horses, one
+black, the other bay. Below is another charioteer with two white
+horses. He sits on the floor of the car with his back to them, eating
+or resting, while they nibble the branches of a tree close by. Another
+scene is that of a scribe keeping tally of offerings brought to the
+tomb, while fellahm are bringing flocks of geese and other fowl, some in
+crates. The inscription above is apparently addressed by the goose-herd
+to the man with the crates. It reads: "Hasten thy feet because of the
+geese! Hearken! thou knowest not the next minute what has been said
+to thee!" Above, a re�s with a stick bids other peasants squat on the
+ground before addressing the scribe, and he is saying to them: "Sit ye
+down to talk." The third scene is in another style; on it may be seen
+Semites bringing offerings of vases of gold, silver, and copper to the
+royal presence, bowing themselves to the ground and kissing the dust
+before the throne. The fidelity and accuracy with which the racial type
+of the tribute-bearers is given is most extraordinary; every face
+seems a portrait, and each one might be seen any day now in the Jewish
+quarters of Whitechapel.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0018"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/358.jpg" height="762" width="1087"
+alt="358.jpg Wall-painting from a Tomb 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The first two paintings are representative of a very common style of
+fresco-pictures in these tombs. The care with which the animals
+are depicted is remarkable. Possibly one of the finest Egyptian
+representations of an animal is the fresco of a goat in the tomb of
+Gen-Amen, discovered by Mr. Mond. There is even an attempt here at
+chiaroscuro, which is unknown to Egyptian art generally, except at Tell
+el-Amarna. Evidently the Egyptian painters reached the apogee of
+their art towards the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The third, the
+representation of tribute-bearers, is of a type also well known at
+this period. In all the chief tombs we have processions of Egyptians,
+Westerners, Northerners, Easterners, and Southerners, bringing tribute
+to the Pharaoh. The North is represented by the Semites, the East by the
+Punites (when they occur), the South by negroes, the West by the Keftiu
+or people of Crete and Cyprus. The representations of the last-named
+people have become of the very highest interest during the last few
+years, on account of the discoveries in Crete, which have revealed to
+us the state and civilization of these very Keftiu. Messrs. Evans
+and Halbherr have discovered at Knossos and Phaistos the cities and
+palace-temples of the king who sent forth their ambassadors to far-away
+Egypt with gifts for the mighty Pharaoh; these ambassadors were painted
+in the tombs of their hosts as representative of the quarter of the
+world from which they came.
+</p>
+<p>
+The two chief Egyptian representations of these people, who since they
+lived in Greece may be called Greeks, though their more proper title
+would be "Pe-lasgians," are to be found in the tombs of Rekhmar� and
+Senmut, the former a vizier under Thothmes III, the latter the
+architect of Hatshepsu's temple at D�r el-Bahari. Senmut's tomb is a
+new rediscovery. It was known, as Rekhmar�'s was, in the early days of
+Egyptological science, and Prisse d'Avennes copied its paintings. It was
+afterwards lost sight of until rediscovered by Mr. Newberry and Prof.
+Steindorff.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0019"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/360.jpg" height="775" width="716"
+alt="360.jpg Fresco in the Tomb of Senmut at Thebes.  About
+1500 B.c.
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The tomb of Rekhmar� (No. 35) is well known to every visitor to Thebes,
+but it is difficult to get at that of Senmut (No. 110); it lies at the
+top of the hill round to the left and overlooking D�r el-Bahari,
+an appropriate place for it, by the way. In some ways Senmut's
+representations are more interesting than Rekhmar�'s. They are more
+easily seen, since they are now in the open air, the fore hall of the
+tomb having been ruined; and they are better preserved, since they have
+not been subjected to a century of inspection with naked candles and
+pawing with greasy hands, as have Rekhmar�'s frescoes. Further, there
+is no possibility of mistaking what they represent. From right to
+left, walking in procession, we see the Minoan gift-bearers from Crete,
+carrying in their hands and on their shoulders great cups of gold and
+silver, in shape like the famous gold cups found at Vaphio in Lakonia,
+but much larger, also a ewer of gold and silver exactly like one of
+bronze discovered by Mr. Evans two years ago at Knossos, and a huge
+copper jug with four ring-handles round the sides. All these vases are
+specifically and definitely Mycenaean, or rather, following the new
+terminology, Minoan. They are of Greek manufacture and are carried on
+the shoulders of Pelasgian Greeks. The bearers wear the usual Mycenaean
+costume, high boots and a gaily ornamented kilt, and little else, just
+as we see it depicted in the fresco of the Cupbearer at Knossos and
+in other Greek representations. The coiffure, possibly the most
+characteristic thing about the Mycenaean Greeks, is faithfully
+represented by the Egyptians both here and in Rekhmar�'s tomb. The
+Mycenaean men allowed their hair to grow to its full natural length,
+like women, and wore it partly hanging down the back, partly tied up
+in a knot or plait (the <i>kepas</i> of the dandy Paris in the Iliad) on the
+crown of the head. This was the universal fashion, and the Keftiu are
+consistently depicted by the XVIIIth Dynasty Egyptians as following it.
+The faces in the Senmut fresco are not so well portrayed as those in the
+Rekhmar� fresco. There it is evident that the first three ambassadors
+are faithfully depicted, as the portraits are marked. The procession
+advances from left to right. The first man, "the Great Chief of the
+Kefti and the Isles of the Green Sea," is young, and has a remarkably
+small mouth with an amiable expression. His complexion is fair rather
+than dark, but his hair is dark brown. His lieutenant, the next in
+order, is of a different type,&mdash;elderly, with a most forbidding visage,
+Roman nose, and nutcracker jaws. Most of the others are very much
+alike,&mdash;young, dark in complexion, and with long black hair hanging
+below their waists and twisted up into fantastic knots and curls on the
+tops of their heads. One, carrying on his shoulder a great silver vase
+with curving handles and in one hand a dagger of early European Bronze
+Age type, is looking back to hear some remark of his next companion.
+Any one of these gift-bearers might have sat for the portrait of
+the Knossian Cupbearer, the fresco discovered by Mr. Evans in the
+palace-temple of Minos; he has the same ruddy brown complexion, the same
+long black hair dressed in the same fashion, the same parti-coloured
+kilt, and he bears his vase in much the same way. We have only to allow
+for the difference of Egyptian and Mycenaean ways of drawing. There is
+no doubt whatever that these Keftiu of the Egyptians were Cretans of the
+Minoan Age. They used to be considered Phoenicians, but this view was
+long ago exploded. They are not Semites, and that is quite enough.
+Neither are they Asiatics of any kind. They are purely and simply
+Mycenaean, or rather Minoan, Greeks of the pre-Hellenic period&mdash;Pelasgi,
+that is to say.
+</p>
+<p>
+Probably no discovery of more far-reaching importance to our knowledge
+of the history of the world generally and of our own culture especially
+has ever been made than the finding of Mycen� by Schliemann, and
+the further finds that have resulted therefrom, culminating in the
+discoveries of Mr. Arthur Evans at Knossos. Naturally, these discoveries
+are of extraordinary interest to us, for they have revealed the
+beginnings and first bloom of the European civilization of to-day. For
+our culture-ancestors are neither the Egyptians, nor the Assyrians, nor
+the Hebrews, but the Hellenes, and they, the Aryan-Greeks, derived most
+of their civilization from the pre-Hellenic people whom they found in
+the land before them, the Pelasgi or "Mycen�an" Greeks, "Minoans," as we
+now call them, the Keftiu of the Egyptians. These are the ancient Greeks
+of the Heroic Age, to which the legends of the Hellenes refer; in their
+day were fought the wars of Troy and of the Seven against Thebes, in
+their day the tragedy of the Atridse was played out to its end, in their
+day the wise Minos ruled Knossos and the <i>�gean</i>. And of all the events
+which are at the back of these legends we know nothing. The hi�roglyphed
+tablets of the pre-Hellenic Greeks lie before us, but we cannot read
+them; we can only see that the Minoan writing in many ways resembled
+the Egyptian, thus again confirming our impression of the original early
+connection of the two cultures.
+</p>
+<p>
+In view of this connection, and the known close relations between Crete
+and Egypt, from the end of the XIIth Dynasty to the end of the XVIIIth,
+we might have hoped to recover at Knossos a bilingual inscription in
+Cretan and Egyptian hieroglyphs which would give us the key to the
+Minoan script and tell us what we so dearly wish to know. But this hope
+has not yet been realized. Two Egyptian inscriptions have been found at
+Knossos, but no bilingual one. A list of Keftian names is preserved in
+the British Museum upon an Egyptian writing-board from Thebes with what
+is perhaps a copy of a single Cretan hieroglyph, a vase; but again,
+nothing bilingual. A list of "Keftian words" occurs at the head of a
+papyrus, also in the British Museum, but they appear to be nonsense,
+a mere imitation of the sounds of a strange tongue. Still we need
+not despair of finding the much desired Cretan-Egyptian bilingual
+inscription yet. Perhaps the double text of a treaty between Crete and
+Egypt, like that of Ramses II with the Hittites, may come to light.
+Meanwhile we can only do our best with the means at our hand to trace
+out the history of the relations of the oldest European culture with
+the ancient civilization of Egypt. The tomb-paintings at Thebes are very
+important material. Eor it is due to them that the voice of the doubter
+has finally ceased to be heard, and that now no archaeologist questions
+that the Egyptians were in direct communication with the Cretan
+Mycen�ans in the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, some fifteen hundred years
+before Christ, for no one doubts that the pictures of the Keftiu are
+pictures of Mycenaeans.
+</p>
+<p>
+As we have seen, we know that this connection was far older than the
+time of the XVIIIth Dynasty, but it is during that time and the Hyksos
+period that we have the clearest documentary proof of its existence,
+from the statuette of Abnub and the alabastron lid of King Khian,
+found at Knossos, down to the Mycenaean pottery fragments found at Tell
+el-Amarna, a site which has been utterly abandoned since the time of
+the heretic Akhunaten (B.C. 1430), so that there is no possibility of
+anything found there being later than his time. That the connection
+existed as late as the time of the XXth Dynasty we know from the
+representations of golden <i>B�gelkannen</i> or false-necked vases of
+Mycenaean form in the tomb of Ramses III in the Bib�n el-Mul�k, and of
+golden cups of Vaphio type in the tomb of Imadua, already mentioned.
+This brings the connection down to about 1050 B.C.
+</p>
+<p>
+After that date we cannot hope to find any certain evidence of
+connection, for by that time the Mycenaean civilization had probably
+come to an end. In the days of the XIIth and XVIIIth Dynasties a great
+and splendid power evidently existed in Crete, and sent its peaceful
+ambassadors, the Keftiu who are represented in the Theban tombs, to
+Egypt. But with the XIXth Dynasty the name of the Keftiu disappears from
+Egyptian records, and their place is taken by a congeries of warring
+seafaring tribes, whose names as given by the Egyptians seem to be forms
+of tribal and place names well known to us in the Greece of later days.
+We find the Akaivasha (<i>Axaifol</i>, Achaians), Shakalsha (Sagalassians of
+Pisidia), Tursha (Tylissians of Crete?), and Shardana (Sardians) allied
+with the Libyans and Mashauash (Maxyes) in a land attack upon Egypt in
+the days of Meneptah, the successor of Ramses II&mdash;just as in the later
+days of the XXVIth Dynasty the Northern pirates visited the African
+shore of the Mediterranean, and in alliance with the predatory Libyans
+attacked Egypt.
+</p>
+<p>
+Prof. Petrie has lately [History of Egypt, iii, pp. Ill, I12.] proffered
+an alternative view, which would make all these tribes Tunisians and
+Algerians, thus disposing of the identification of the Akaivasha with
+the Achaians, and making them the ancient representatives of the town
+of el-Aghwat (Roman Agbia) in Tunis. But several difficulties might be
+pointed out which are in the way of an acceptance of this view, and it
+is probable that the older identifications with Greek tribes must still
+be retained, so that Meneptah's Akaivasha are evidently the ancient
+representatives of the Achai(v)ans, the Achivi of the Roman poets. The
+terminations <i>sha</i> and <i>na</i>, which appear in these names, are merely
+ethnic and locative affixes belonging to the Asianic language system
+spoken by these tribes at that time, to which the language of the Minoan
+Cretans (which is written in the Knossian hieroglyphs) belonged. They
+existed in ancient Lycian in the forms <i>azzi</i> and <i>nna</i>, and we find
+them enshrined in the Asia Minor place-names terminating in <i>assos</i>
+and <i>nda</i>, as Halikarnassos, Sagalassos (Shakalasha in Meneptah's
+inscription), Oroanda, and Labraunda (which, as we have seen, is the
+same as the [Greek word], a word of pre-Hellenic origin, both meaning
+"Place of the Double Axe") The identification of these <i>sha</i> and <i>nal</i>
+terminations in the Egyptian transliterations of the foreign names, with
+the Lycian affixes referred to, was made some five years ago,* and is
+now generally accepted. We have, then, to find the equivalents of
+these names, to strike off the final termination, as in the case of
+Akaiva-sha, where Akaiva only is the real name, and this seems to be
+the Egyptian equivalent of <i>Axaifol</i>, Achivi. It is strange to meet with
+this great name on an Egyptian monument of the thirteenth century B.C.
+But yet not so strange, when we recollect that it is precisely to that
+period that Greek legend refers the war of Troy, which was an attack
+by Greek tribes from all parts of the �gean upon the Asianic city
+at Hissarlik in the Troad, exactly parallel to the attacks of the
+Northerners on Egypt. And Homer preserves many a reminiscence of early
+Greek visits, peaceful and the reverse, to the coast of Egypt at this
+period. The reader will have noticed that one no longer treats the siege
+of Troy as a myth. To do so would be to exhibit a most uncritical mind;
+even the legends of King Arthur have a historic foundation, and those of
+the Nibelungen are still more probable.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * See Hall, Oldest Civilization of Greece, p. 178/.
+</pre>
+
+
+<a name="image-0020"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img alt="366 (179K)" src="images/366.jpg" height="1064" width="668" />
+<br />
+
+<img alt="367 (193K)" src="images/367.jpg" height="1054" width="681" />
+
+<img src="images/368.jpg" height="1051" width="678"
+alt="368.jpg Page Image to Display Greek Words 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0021"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/369.jpg" height="1055" width="677"
+alt="369.jpg Page Image to Display Greek Words 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+In the eighth year of Ramses III the second Northern attack was made,
+by the Pulesta (<i>Pelishtim</i>, Philistines), Tjakaray, Shakalasha
+(Sagalassians), Vashasha, and Danauna or Daanau, in alliance with North
+Syrian tribes. The Danauna are evidently the ancient representatives of
+the <i>Aavao�</i>, the Danaans who formed the bulk of the Greek army against
+Troy under the leadership of the long-haired Achaians, [Greek words]
+(like the Keftiu). The Vashasha have been identified by the writer with
+the Axians, the [Greek word] of Crete. Prof. Petrie compares the name
+of the Tjakaray with that of the (modern) place Zakro in Crete.
+Identifications with modern place-names are of doubtful value;
+for instance, we cannot but hold that Prof. Petrie errs greatly in
+identifying the name of the Pidasa (another tribe mentioned in Ramses
+II's time) with that of the river Pidias in Cyprus. "Pidias" is a purely
+modern corruption of the ancient Pediseus, which means the "plain-river"
+(because it flows through the central plain of the island), from the
+Greek [Greek word]. If, then, we make the Pidasa Cypriotes we assume
+that pure Greek was spoken in Cyprus as early as 1100 b. c, which is
+highly improbable. The Pidasa were probably Le-leges (Pedasians); the
+name of Pisidia may be the same, by metathesis. Pedasos is a name always
+connected with the much wandering tribe of the Leleges, where-ever they
+are found in Lakonia or in Asia Minor. We believe them to have been
+known to the Egyptians as Pidasa. The identification of the Tjakaray
+with Zakro is very tempting. The name was formerly identified with
+that of the Teukrians, but the v in the word Tewpot lias always been a
+stumbling-block in the way. Perhaps Zakro is neither more nor less than
+the Tetkpoc-name, since the legendary Teucer, the archer, was connected
+with the eastern or Eteokretan end of Crete, where Zakro lies. In
+Mycen�an times Zakro was an important place, so that the Tjakaray may
+be the Teukroi, after all, and Zakro may preserve the name. At any rate,
+this identification is most alluring and, taken in conjunction with
+the other cumulative identifications, is very probable; but the
+identification of the Pid�a with the river Pedi�us in Cyprus is
+neither alluring nor probable.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the time of Ramses II some of these Asia Minor tribes had marched
+against Egypt as allies of the Hittites. We find among them the Luka or
+Lycians, the Dardenui (Dardanians, who may possibly have been at that
+time in the Troad, or elsewhere, for all these tribes were certainly
+migratory), and the Masa (perhaps the Mysians). With the Cretans of
+Ramses Ill's time must be reckoned the Pulesta, who are certainly the
+Philistines, then most probably in course of their traditional migration
+from Crete to Palestine. In Philistia recent excavations by Mr. Welch
+have disclosed the unmistakable presence of a late Mycen�an culture,
+and we can only ascribe this to the Philistines, who were of Cretan
+origin.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus we see that all these Northern tribal names hold together with
+remarkable persistence, and in fact refuse to be identified with any
+tribes but those of Asia Minor and the �gean. In them we see the broken
+remnants of the old Minoan (Keftian) power, driven hither and thither
+across the seas by intestinal feuds, and "winding the skein of grievous
+wars till every man of them perished," as Homer says of the heroes after
+the siege of Troy. These were in fact the wanderings of the heroes, the
+period of <i>Sturm und Drang</i> which succeeded the great civilized epoch of
+Minos and his thalassocracy, of Knossos, Phaistos, and the Keftius.
+On the walls of the temple of Med�net Hab�, Ramses III depicted the
+portraits of the conquered heroes who had fallen before the Egyptian
+onslaught, and he called them heroes, <i>tuher</i> in Egyptian, fully
+recognizing their Berserker gallantry. Above all in interest are the
+portraits of the Philistines, those Greeks who at this very time seized
+part of Palestine (which takes its name from them), and continued to
+exist there as a separate people (like the Normans in France) for at
+least two centuries. Goliath the giant was, then, a Greek; certainly he
+was of Cretan descent, and so a Pelasgian.
+</p>
+<p>
+Such are the conclusions to which modern discovery in Crete has impelled
+us with regard to the pictures of the Keftiu at Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna. It
+is indeed a new chapter in the history of the relations of ancient Egypt
+with the outside world that Dr. Arthur Evans has opened for us. And in
+this connection some American work must not be overlooked. An expedition
+sent out by the University of Pennsylvania, under Miss Harriet Boyd,
+has discovered much of importance to Mycen�an study in the ruins of an
+ancient town at Gournia in Crete, east of Knossos. Here, however, little
+has been found that will bear directly on the question of relations
+between Mycenaean Greece and Egypt.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Theban n�cropoles of the New Empire are by no means exhausted by a
+description of the Tombs of the Kings and Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna; but few
+new discoveries have been made anywhere except in the picturesque valley
+of the Tombs of the Queens, south of Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna. Here the
+Italian Egyptologist, Prof. Schiaparelli, has lately discovered and
+excavated some very fine tombs of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties. The best
+is that of Queen Nefertari, one of the wives of Ramses II. The colouring
+of the reliefs upon these walls is extraordinarily bright, and the
+portraits of the queen, who has a very beautiful face, with aquiline
+nose, are wonderfully preserved. She was of the dark type, while another
+queen, Titi by name, who was buried close by, was fair, and had a
+retrouss� nose. Prof. Schiaparelli also discovered here the tombs of
+some princes of the XXth Dynasty, who died young. All the tombs are
+much alike, with a single short gallery, on the walls of which are
+mythological scenes, figures of the prince and of his father, the king,
+etc., painted in a crude style, which shows a great degeneration from
+that of the XVIIIth Dynasty tombs.
+</p>
+<p>
+We now leave the great necropolis and turn to the later temples of the
+Western Bank at Thebes. These were of a funerary character, like those
+of D�r el-Bahari, already described. The most imposing of all in some
+respects is the Ramesseum, where lies the huge granite colossus of
+Ramses II, prostrate and broken, which Diodorus knew as the statue of
+Osymandyas. This name is a late corruption of Ramses II's throne-name,
+User-maat-R�, pronounced �simare. The temple has been cleared by
+Mr. Howard Carter for the Egyptian government, and the small town of
+priests' houses, magazines, and cellars, to the west of it, has been
+excavated by him. This is quite a little Pompeii, with its small
+streets, its houses with the stucco still clinging to the walls, its
+public altar, its market colonnade, and its gallery of statues. The
+statues are only of brick like the walls, and roughly shaped and
+plastered, but they were portraits, undoubtedly, of celebrities of
+the time, though we do not know of whom. On either side are the long
+magazines in which were kept the possessions of the priests of the
+Ramesseum, the grain from the lands with which they were endowed, and
+everything meet to be offered to the ghost of the king whom they served.
+The plan of the place had evidently been altered after the time of
+Ramses II, as remains of overbuilding were found here and there. The
+magazines were first investigated in 1896 by Prof. Petrie, who also
+found in the neighbourhood the remains of a number of small royal
+funerary temples of the XVIIIth Dynasty, all looking in the direction of
+the hill, beyond which lay the tombs of the kings.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0022"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/372.jpg" height="687" width="716"
+alt="372.jpg the Valley of The Tombs Of The Queens at Thebes. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     In which Prof. Schiaparelli discovered the tomb of Ramses
+     II's wife (1904).
+</pre>
+<p>
+We may now turn to Luxor, where immediately above the landing-place of
+the steamers and dahabiyas rise the stately coloured colonnades of the
+Temple of Luxor. Unfortunately, modern excavations have not been
+allowed to pursue their course to completion here, as in the first great
+colonnaded court, which was added by Ramses II to the original building
+of Amenhetep III, Tutankhamen, and Horemheb, there still remains
+the Mohammedan Mosque of Abu-'l-Hagg�g, which may not be removed.
+Abu-'l-Hagg�g, "the Father of Pilgrims" (so called on account of the
+number of pilgrims to his shrine), was a very holy sh�kh, and his memory
+is held in the greatest reverence by the Luksuris. It is unlucky that
+this mosque was built within the court of the Great Temple, and it
+cannot be removed till Moslem religious prejudices become at least
+partially ameliorated, and then the work of completely excavating the
+Temple of Luxor may be carried out.
+</p>
+<p>
+Between Luxor and Karnak lay the temple of the goddess Mut, consort of
+Amen and protectress of Thebes. It stood in the part of the city known
+as Asheru. This building was cleared in 1895 at the expense and under
+the supervision of two English ladies, Miss Benson and Miss Gourlay.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0023"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/374.jpg" height="520" width="488"
+alt="374.jpg the Nile-bank at Luxor 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     With A Dahab�ya And A Steamer Of The Anglo-American Nile
+     Company.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The temple had always been remarkable on account of the prodigious
+number of seated figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhemet, or
+Pakhet, which it contains, dedicated by Amenhetep III and Sheshenk I;
+most of those in the British Museum were brought from this temple.
+The excavators found many more of them, and also some very interesting
+portrait-statues of the late period which had been dedicated there.
+The most important of these was the head and shoulders of a statue of
+Mentuemhat, governor of Thebes at the time of the sack of the city by
+Ashur-bani-pal of Assyria in 668 B.C. In Miss Benson's interesting book,
+<i>The Temple of Mut in Asher</i>, it is suggested, on the authority of Prof.
+Petrie, that his facial type is Cypriote, but this speculation is a
+dangerous one, as is also the similar speculation that the wonderful
+portrait-head of an old man found by Miss Benson [* Plate vii of her
+book.] is of Philistine type. We have only to look at the faces of
+elderly Egyptians to-day to see that the types presented by Mentuemhat
+and Miss Benson's "Philistine" need be nothing but pure Egyptian. The
+whole work of the clearing was most efficiently carried out, and the
+Cairo Museum obtained from it some valuable specimens of Egyptian
+sculpture.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Great Temple of Karnak is one of the chief cares of the Egyptian
+Department of Antiquities. Its paramount importance, so to speak, as the
+cathedral temple of Egypt, renders its preservation and exploration a
+work of constant necessity, and its great extent makes this work one
+which is always going on and which probably will be going on for many
+years to come. The Temple of Karnak has cost the Egyptian government
+much money, yet not a piastre of this can be grudged. For several years
+past the works have been under the charge of M. Georges Legrain, the
+well-known engineer and draughtsman who was associated with M. de
+Morgan in the work at Dash�r. His task is to clear out the whole temple
+thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have left
+undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has fallen.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0024"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/376.jpg" height="723" width="714"
+alt="376.jpg the Great Temple Op Kaknak. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was
+     erected by Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by
+     Thothmes III. No general work of restoration is
+     contemplated, nor would this be in the slightest degree
+     desirable. Up to the present M. Legrain has certainly
+     carried out all three branches of his task with great
+     success. An unforeseen event has, however, considerably
+     complicated and retarded the work.
+</pre>
+<p>
+In October, 1899, one of the columns of the side aisles of the great
+Hypostyle Hall fell, bringing down with it several others. The whole
+place was a chaotic ruin, and for a moment it seemed as though the whole
+of the Great Hall, one of the wonders of the world, would collapse.
+The disaster was due to the gradual infiltration of water from the Nile
+beneath the structure, whose foundations, as is usual in Egypt, were of
+the flimsiest description. Even the most imposing Egyptian temples
+have jerry-built foundations; usually they are built on the top of the
+wall-stumps of earlier buildings of different plan, filled in with a
+confused mass of earlier slabs and weak rubbish of all kinds. Had the
+Egyptian buildings been built on sure foundations, they would have been
+preserved to a much greater extent even than they are. In such a climate
+as that of Egypt a stone building well built should last for ever.
+</p>
+<p>
+M. Legrain has for the last five years been busy repairing the damage.
+All the fallen columns are now restored to the perpendicular, and the
+capitals and architraves are in process of being hoisted into their
+original positions. The process by which M. Legrain carries out this
+work has been already described. He works in the old Egyptian fashion,
+building great inclines or ramps of earth up which the pillar-drums,
+the capitals, and the architrave-blocks are hauled by manual labour, and
+then swung into position. This is the way in which the Egyptians built
+Karnak, and in this way, too, M. Le-grain is rebuilding it. It is a slow
+process, but a sure one, and now it will not be long before we shall
+see the hall, except its roof, in much the same condition as it was when
+Seti built it. Lovers of the picturesque will, however, miss the famous
+leaning column, hanging poised across the hall, which has been a main
+feature in so many pictures and photographs of Karnak. This fell in the
+catastrophe of 1899, and naturally it has not been possible to restore
+it to its picturesque, but dangerous, position.
+</p>
+<p>
+The work at Karnak has been distinguished during the last two years by
+two remarkable discoveries. Outside the main temple, to the north of
+the Hypostyle Hall, M. Legrain found a series of private sanctuaries or
+shrines, built of brick by personages of the XVIIIth Dynasty and later,
+in order to testify their devotion to Amen. In these small cells were
+found some remarkable statues, one of which is illustrated. It is one of
+the most perfect of its kind. A great dignitary of the XVIIIth Dynasty
+is seen seated with his wife, their daughter standing between them.
+Round his neck are four chains of golden rings, with which he had been
+decorated by the Pharaoh for his services. It is a remarkable group,
+interesting for its style and workmanship as well as for its subject. As
+an example of the formal hieratic type of portraiture it is very fine.
+</p>
+<p>
+The other and more important discovery of the two was made by M. Legrain
+on the south side of the Hypo-style Hall.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0025"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/379.jpg" height="777" width="715"
+alt="379.jpg the Great Temple Of Kaknak. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The left-hand obelisk is the highest in Egypt, and was erected by
+Hatshepsu; the right-hand obelisk was put up by Thothmes III.
+</p>
+<p>
+M. de Morgan in the work at Dash�r. His task is to clear out the whole
+temple thoroughly, to discover in it what previous investigators have
+left undiscovered, and to restore to its original position what has
+fallen. Tentative excavations, begun in an unoccupied tract under the
+wall of the hall, resulted in the discovery of parts of statues; the
+place was then regularly excavated, and the result has been amazing.
+The ground was full of statues, large and small, at some unknown period
+buried pell-mell, one on the top of another. Some are broken, but the
+majority are perfect, which is in itself unusual, and is due very much
+to the soft, muddy soil in which they have lain. Statues found on dry
+desert land are often terribly cracked, especially when they are of
+black granite, the crystals of which seem to have a greater tendency to
+disintegration than have those of the red syenite. The Karnak statues
+are figures of pious persons, who had dedicated portraits of themselves
+in the temple of Amen, together with those of great men whom the king
+had honoured by ordering their statues placed in the temple during their
+lives.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of this number was the great sage Amenhetep, son of Hapi, the founder of
+the little desert temple of D�r el-Med�na, near D�r el-Bahari, who was
+a sort of prime minister under Amenhetep III, and was venerated in later
+days as a demigod. His statue was found with the others by M. Legrain.
+Among them is a figure made entirely of green felspar, an unusual
+material for so large a statuette. A fine portrait of Thothmes III was
+also found. The illustration shows this wonderfully fruitful excavation
+in progress, with the diggers at work in the black mud soil, in the
+foreground the basket-boys carrying away the rubbish on their shoulders,
+and the massive granite walls of the Great Hypostyle Hall of Seti in the
+background. The huge size of the roof-blocks is noticeable. These are
+not the actual uppermost roof-blocks, but only the architraves from
+pillar to pillar; the original roof consisted of similar blocks laid
+across in the transverse direction from architrave to architrave. An
+Egyptian granite temple was in fact built upon the plan of a child's box
+of bricks; it was but a modified and beautified Stonehenge.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0026"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/381.jpg" height="788" width="717"
+alt="381.jpg Portrait-group of a Great Noble and his Wife 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Of The Time Of The Xviiith Dynasty. Discovered by M. Legrain
+     at Karnak.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Other important discoveries have been made by M. Legrain in the course
+of his work.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0027"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/382.jpg" height="563" width="487"
+alt="382.jpg a Tomb Fitted up As an Explorer's Residence. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     The Tomb of Pentu (No. 5) at Tell el-Amarna, inhabited by
+     Mr. de G. Davies during his work for the Archaeological
+     Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund). About 1400 B.C.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Among them are statues of the late Middle Kingdom, including one of King
+Usertsen (Senusret) IV of the XIIIth Dynasty. There are also reliefs of
+the reign of Amenhetep I, which are remarkable for the delicacy of their
+workmanship and the sureness of their technique.
+</p>
+<p>
+We know that the temple was built as early as the time of TJsertsen,
+for in it have been found one or two of his blocks; and no doubt the
+original shrine, which was rebuilt in the time of Philip Arrhidseus, was
+of the same period, but hitherto no remains of the centuries between his
+time and that of Hatshepsu had been found. With M. Legrain's work in the
+greatest temple of Thebes we finish our account of the new discoveries
+in the chief city of ancient Egypt, as we began it with the work of M.
+Naville in the oldest temple there.
+</p>
+<p>
+One of the most interesting questions connected with the archaeology
+of Thebes is that which asks whether the heretical disk-worshipper
+Akhunaten (Amenhetep IV) erected buildings there, and whether any
+trace of them has ever been discovered. To those who are interested in
+Egyptian history and religion the transitory episode of the disk-worship
+heresy is already familiar. The precise character of the heretical
+dogma, which Amenhetep IV proclaimed and desired his subjects to.
+accept, has lately been well explained by Mr. de Garis Davies in his
+volumes, published by the "Archaeological Survey of Egypt" branch of
+the Egypt Exploration Fund, on the tombs of el-Amarna. He shows that the
+heretical doctrine was a monotheism of a very high order. Amenhetep IV
+(or as he preferred to call himself, Akhunaten, "Glory of the Disk") did
+not, as has usually been supposed, merely worship the Sun-disk itself
+as the giver of life, and nothing more. He venerated the glowing disk
+merely as the visible emanation of the deity behind it, who dispensed
+heat and life to all living things through its medium. The disk was, so
+to speak, the window in heaven through which the unknown God, the "Lord
+of the Disk," shed a portion of his radiance on the world. Now, given
+an ignorance of the true astronomical character of the sun, we see how
+eminently rational a religion this was. In effect, the sun is the source
+of all life upon this earth, and so Akhunaten caused its rays to be
+depicted each with a hand holding out the sign of life to the earth. The
+monotheistic worship of the sun alone is certainly the highest form of
+pagan religion, but Akhunaten saw further than this. His doctrine was
+that there was a deity behind the sun, whose glory shone through it and
+gave us life. This deity was unnamed and unnamable; he was "the Lord
+of the Disk." We see in his heresy, therefore, the highest attitude
+to which religious ideas had attained before the days of the Hebrew
+prophets.
+</p>
+<p>
+This religion seems to have been developed out of the philosophical
+speculations of the priests of the Sun at Heliopolis. Akhunaten with
+unwise iconoclastic zeal endeavoured to root out the worship of the
+ancient gods of Egypt, and especially that of Amen-B�, the ruler of the
+Egyptian pantheon, whose primacy in the hearts of the people made him
+the most redoubtable rival of the new doctrine. But the name of the
+old Sun-god B�-Harmaehis was spared, and it is evident that Akhunaten
+regarded him as more or less identical with his god.
+</p>
+<p>
+It has been supposed by Prof. Petrie that Queen Tii, the mother of
+Akhunaten, was of Mitannian (Armenian) origin, and that she brought the
+Aten religion to Egypt from her native land, and taught it to her son.
+Certainly it seems as though the new doctrine had made some headway
+before the death of Amenhetep III, but we have no reason to attribute it
+to Tii, or to suppose that she brought it with her from abroad. There is
+no proof whatever that she was not a native Egyptian, and the mummies of
+her parents, Iuaa and Tuaa, are purely Egyptian in facial type. It
+seems undoubted that the Aten cult was a development of pure Egyptian
+religious thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+At first Akhunaten tried to establish his religion at Thebes alongside
+that of Amen and his attendant pantheon. He seems to have built a temple
+to the Aten there, and we see that his courtiers began to make tombs for
+themselves in the new realistic style of sculptural art, which the king,
+heretical in art as in religion, had introduced. The tomb of Barnes at
+Sh�kh 'Abd el-K�rna has on one side of the door a representation of
+the king in the old regular style, and on the other side one in the new
+realistic style, which depicts him in all the native ugliness in which
+this strange truth-loving man seems to have positively gloried. We
+find, too, that he caused a temple to the Aten to be erected in far-away
+Napata, the capital of Nubia, by Jebel Barkal in the Sudan. The facts
+as to the Theban and Napata temples have been pointed out by Prof.
+Breasted, of Chicago.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the opposition of the Theban priesthood was too strong. Akhunaten
+shook the dust of the capital off his feet and retired to the isolated
+city of Akhet-aten, "the Glory of the Disk," at the modern Tell
+el-Amarna, where he could philosophize in peace, while his kingdom was
+left to take care of itself. He and his wife Nefret-iti, who seems to
+have been a faithful sharer of his views, reigned over a select court
+of Aten-worship-ping nobles, priests, and artists. The artists had under
+Akhunaten an unrivalled opportunity for development, of which they had
+already begun to take considerable advantage before the end of his reign
+and the restoration of the old order of ideas. Their style takes on
+itself an almost bizarre freedom, which reminds us strongly of the
+similar characteristic in Mycenaean art. There is a strange little
+relief in the Berlin Museum of the king standing cross-legged, leaning
+on a staff, and languidly smelling a flower, while the queen stands
+by with her garments blown about by the wind. The artistic monarch's
+graceful attitude is probably a faithful transcript of a characteristic
+pose.
+</p>
+<p>
+We see from this what an Egyptian artist could do when his shackles were
+removed, but unluckily Egypt never produced another king who was at the
+same time an original genius, an artist, and a thinker. When Akhunaten
+died, the Egyptian artists' shackles were riveted tighter than ever.
+The reaction was strong. The kingdom had fallen into anarchy, and the
+foreign empire which his predecessors had built up had practically
+been thrown to the winds by Akhunaten. The whole is an example of the
+confusion and disorganization which ensue when a philosopher rules. Not
+long after the heretic's death the old religion was fully restored, the
+cult of the disk was blotted out, and the Egyptians returned joyfully
+to the worship of their myriad deities. Akhunaten's ideals were too high
+for them. The d�bris of the foreign empire was, as usual in such
+cases, put together again, and customary law and order restored by
+the conservative reactionaries who succeeded him. Henceforth Egyptian
+civilization runs an uninspired and undeveloping course till the days
+of the Sa�tes and the Ptolemies. This point in the history of Egypt,
+therefore, forms a convenient stopping-place at which to pause, while
+we turn once more to Western Asia, and ascertain to what extent recent
+excavations and research have thrown new light upon the problems
+connected with the rise and history of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian
+Empires.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0028"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/387.jpg" height="361" width="521"
+alt="387.jpg 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER VIII&mdash;THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF
+</h2>
+<center>
+RECENT RESEARCH
+</center>
+<p>
+The early history of Assyria has long been a subject on which historians
+were obliged to trust largely to conjecture, in their attempts to
+reconstruct the stages by which its early rulers obtained their
+independence and laid the foundations of the mighty empire over which
+their successors ruled. That the land was colonized from Babylonia and
+was at first ruled as a dependency of the southern kingdom have long
+been regarded as established facts, but until recently little was known
+of its early rulers and governors, and still less of the condition of
+the country and its capital during the early periods of their existence.
+Since the excavations carried out by the British Museum at Kala
+Sherghat, on the western bank of the Tigris, it has been known that
+the mounds at that spot mark the site of the city of Ashur, the first
+capital of the Assyrians, and the monuments and records recovered
+during those excavations have hitherto formed our principal source of
+information for the early history of the country.* Some of the oldest
+records found in the course of these excavations were short votive texts
+inscribed by rulers who bore the title of <i>ishshakku</i>, corresponding to
+the Sumerian and early Babylonian title of patesi, and with some such
+meaning as "viceroy." It was rightly conjectured from the title which
+they bore that these early rulers owed allegiance to the kings of
+Babylon and were their nominees, or at any rate their tributaries. The
+names of a few of these early viceroys were recovered from their votive
+inscriptions and from notices in later historical texts, but it was
+obvious that our knowledge of early Assyrian history would remain very
+fragmentary until systematic excavations in Assyria were resumed. Three
+years ago (1902) the British Museum resumed excavations at Kuyunjik, the
+site of Nineveh. The work was begun and carried out under the direction
+of Mr. L. W. King, but since last summer has been continued by Mr. R. C.
+Thompson. Last year, too, excavations were reopened at Sherghat by
+the Deutsch-Orient Ge-sellschaft, at first under the direction of Dr.
+Koldewey, and afterwards under that of Dr. Andrae, by whom they are
+at present being carried on. This renewed activity on the sites of the
+ancient cities of Assyria is already producing results of considerable
+interest, and the veil which has so long concealed the earlier periods
+in the history of that country is being lifted.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * For the texts and translations of these documents, see
+     Budge and King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, pp. iff.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Shortly before these excavations in Assyria were set on foot an
+indication was obtained from an early Babylonian text that the history
+of Assyria as a dependent state or province of Babylon must be pushed
+back to a far more remote period than had hitherto been supposed. In one
+of Hammurabi's letters to Sin-idinnam, governor of the city of Larsam,
+to which reference has already been made, directions are given for
+the despatch to the king of "two hundred and forty men of 'the King's
+Company' under the command of Nannar-iddina... who have left the country
+of Ashur and the district of Shitullum." From this most interesting
+reference it followed that the country to the north of Babylonia was
+known as Assyria at the time of the kings of the First Dynasty of
+Babylon, and the fact that Babylonian troops were stationed there
+by Hammurabi proved that the country formed an integral part of the
+Babylonian empire.
+</p>
+<p>
+These conclusions were soon after strikingly confirmed by two passages
+in the introductory sections of Hammurabi's code of laws which was
+discovered at Susa. Here Hammurabi records that he "restored his (i.e.
+the god Ashur's) protecting image unto the city of Ashur," and a few
+lines farther on he describes himself as the king "who hath made
+the names of Ishtar glorious in the city of Nineveh in the temple of
+E-mish-mish." That Ashur should be referred to at this period is what we
+might expect, inasmuch as it was known to have been the earliest capital
+of Assyria; more striking is the reference to Nineveh, proving as it
+does that it was a flourishing city in Hammurabi's time and that the
+temple of Ishtar there had already been long established. It is true
+that Gudea, the Sumerian patesi of Shirpurla, records that he rebuilt
+the temple of the goddess Ninni (Ishtar) at a place called Nina. Now
+Nina may very probably be identified with Nineveh, but many writers have
+taken it to be a place in Southern Babylonia and possibly a district of
+Shirpurla itself. No such uncertainty attaches to Hammurabi's reference
+to Nineveh, which is undoubtedly the Assyrian city of that name.
+Although no account has yet been published of the recent excavations
+carried out at Nineveh by the British Museum, they fully corroborate the
+inference drawn with regard to the great age of the city. The series of
+trenches which were cut deep into the lower strata of Kuyunjik revealed
+numerous traces of very early habitations on the mound.
+</p>
+<p>
+Neither in Hammurabi's letters, nor upon the stele inscribed with his
+code of laws, is any reference made to the contemporary governor or
+ruler of Assyria, but on a contract tablet preserved in the Pennsylvania
+Museum a name has been recovered which will probably be identified
+with that of the ruler of Assyria in Hammurabi's reign. In legal and
+commercial documents of the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon the
+contracting parties frequently swore by the names of two gods (usually
+Shamash and Marduk) and also that of the reigning king. Now it has been
+found by Dr. Banke that on this document in the Pennsylvania Museum the
+contracting parties swear by the name of Hammurabi and also by that of
+Shamshi-Adad. As only gods and kings are mentioned in the oath formulas
+of this period, it follows that Shamshi-Adad was a king, or at any rate
+a patesi or ishshakku. Now from its form the name Shamshi-Adad must
+be that of an Assyrian, not that of a Babylonian, and, since he is
+associated in the oath formula with Hammurabi, it is legitimate to
+conclude that he governed Assyria in the time of Hammurabi as a
+dependency of Babylon. An early Assyrian ishshakku of this name, who was
+the son of Ishme-Dagan, is mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser I, but he cannot
+be identified with the ruler of the time of Hammurabi, since,
+according to Tiglath-Pileser, he ruled too late, about 1800 B.C.
+A brick-inscription of another Shamshi-Adad, however, the son of
+Igur-kapkapu, is preserved in the British Museum, and it is probable
+that we may identify him with Hammurabi's Assyrian viceroy. Erishum and
+his son Ikunum, whose inscriptions are also preserved in the British
+Museum, should certainly be assigned to an early period of Assyrian
+history.
+</p>
+<p>
+The recent excavations at Sherghat are already yielding the names
+of other early Assyrian viceroys, and, although the texts of the
+inscriptions in which their names occur have not yet been published, we
+may briefly enumerate the more important of the discoveries that have
+been made. Last year a small cone or cylinder was found which, though
+it bears only a few lines of inscription, restores the names of no less
+than seven early Assyrian viceroys whose existence was not previously
+known. The cone was inscribed by Ashir-r�m-nish�shu, who gives his own
+genealogy and records the restoration of the wall of the city of Ashur,
+which he states had been rebuilt by certain of his predecessors on
+the throne. The principal portion of the inscription reads as
+follows: "Ashir-r�m-nish�shu, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of
+Ashir-nirari, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of Ashir-rabi, the
+viceroy. The city wall which Kikia, Ikunum, Shar-kenkate-Ashir, and
+Ashir-nirari, the son of Ishme-Dagan, my forefathers, had built, was
+fallen, and for the preservation of my life... I rebuilt it." Perhaps no
+inscription has yet been recovered in either Assyria or Babylonia which
+contained so much new information packed into so small a space. Of the
+names of the early viceroys mentioned in it only one was previously
+known, i.e. the name of Ikunum, the son of Erishum, is found in a late
+copy of a votive text preserved in the British Museum. Thus from these
+few lines the names of three rulers in direct succession have been
+recovered, viz., Ashir-rabi, Ashir-nirari, and Ashur-r�m-nish�shu, and
+also those of four earlier rulers, viz., Kikia, Shar-kenkate-Ashir,
+Ishme-Dagan, and his son Ashir-nirari. Another interesting point about
+the inscription is the spelling of the name of the national god of the
+Assyrians. In the later periods it is always written <i>Ashur</i>, but at
+this early time we see that the second vowel is changed and that at
+first the name was written <i>Ashir</i>, a form that was already known
+from the Cappadocian cuneiform inscriptions. The form Ashir is a good
+participial construction and signifies "the Beneficent," "the Merciful
+One."
+</p>
+<p>
+Another interesting find, which was also made last year, consists of
+four stone tablets, each engraved with the same building-inscription
+of Shalmaneser I, a king who reigned over Assyria about 1300 B.C. In
+recording his rebuilding of E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of the god
+Ashur in the city of Ashur, he gives a brief summary of the temple's
+history with details as to the length of time which elapsed between
+the different periods during which it had been previously restored. The
+temple was burned in Shalmaneser's time, and, when recording this fact
+and the putting out of the fire, he summarizes the temple's history in a
+long parenthesis, as will be seen from the following translation of the
+extract: "When E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of Ashur, my lord, which
+Ushpia (variant <i>Aushpia</i>), the priest of Ashur, my forefather, had
+built aforetime,&mdash;and it fell into decay and Erishu, my forefather,
+the priest of Ashur, rebuilt it; 159 years passed by after the reign of
+Erishu, and that temple fell into decay, and Shamshi-Adad, the priest
+of Ashur, rebuilt it; (during) 580 years that temple which Shamshi-Adad,
+the priest of Ashur, had built, grew hoary and old&mdash;(when) fire broke
+out in the midst thereof..., at that time I drenched that temple (with
+water) in (all) its circuit."
+</p>
+<p>
+From this extract it will be seen that Shalmaneser gives us, in Ushpia
+or Aushpia, the name of a very early Assyrian viceroy, who in his belief
+was the founder of the great temple of the god Ashur. He also tells us
+that 159 years separated Erishu from a viceroy named Shamshi-Adad, and
+that 580 years separated Shamshi-Adad from his own time. When these
+inscriptions were first found they were hailed with considerable
+satisfaction by historians, as they gave what seemed to be valuable
+information for settling the chronology of the early patesis. But
+confidence in the accuracy of Shalmaneser's reckoning was somewhat
+shaken a few months afterwards by the discovery of a prism of
+Esarhaddon, who gave in it a history of the same temple, but ascribed
+totally different figures for the periods separating the reigns
+of Erishu and Shamshi-Adad, and the temple's destruction by fire.
+Esarhaddon agrees with Shalmaneser in ascribing the founding of the
+temple to Ushpia, but he states that only 126 years (instead of 159
+years) separated Erishu (whom he spells Irishu), the son of Ilu-shumma,
+from Shamshi-Adad, the son of B�l-kabi; and he adds that 434 years
+(instead of 580 years) elapsed between Shamshi-Adad's restoration of the
+temple and the time when it was burned down. As Shalmaneser I lived over
+six hundred years earlier than Esarhaddon, he was obviously in a better
+position to ascertain the periods at which the events recorded took
+place, but the discrepancy between the figures he gives and those of
+Esarhaddon is disconcerting. It shows that Assyrian scribes could make
+bad mistakes in their reckoning, and it serves to cast discredit on the
+absolute accuracy of the chronological notices contained in other
+late Assyrian inscriptions. So far from helping to settle the unsolved
+problems of Assyrian chronology, these two recent finds at Sherghat
+have introduced fresh confusion, and Assyrian chronology for the earlier
+periods is once more cast into the melting pot.
+</p>
+<p>
+In addition to the recovery of the names of hitherto unknown early
+rulers of Assyria, the recent excavations at Sherghat have enabled us to
+ascertain the true reading of the name of Shalmaneser I's grandfather,
+who reigned a considerable time after Assyria had gained her
+independence. The name of this king has hitherto been read as Pudi-ilu,
+but it is now shown that the signs composing the first part of the name
+are not to be taken phonetically, but as ideographs, the true reading of
+the name being Arik-d�n-ilu, the signification of which is "Long
+(i.e. far-reaching) is the judgment of God." Arik-d�n-ilu was a great
+conqueror, as were his immediate descendants, all of whom extended the
+territory of Assyria. By strengthening the country and increasing her
+resources they enabled Arik-d�n-ilu 's great-grandson, Tukulti-Ninib I,
+to achieve the conquest of Babylon itself. Concerning Tukulti-Ninib's
+reign and achievements an interesting inscription has recently been
+discovered. This is now preserved in the British Museum, and before
+describing it we may briefly refer to another phase of the excavations
+at Sherghat.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0029"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/396.jpg" height="1157" width="601"
+alt="396.jpg Stone Object Bearing a Votive Inscription Of
+Arik-den-ilu. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     An early independent King of Assyria, who reigned about B.C.
+     1350. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell &amp; Co.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The mounds of Sherghat rise a considerable height above the level of
+the plain, and are to a great extent of natural and not of artificial
+formation. In fact, the existence of a group of high natural mounds at
+this point on the bank of the Tigris must have led to its selection
+by the early Assyrians as the site on which to build their first
+stronghold. The mounds were already so high, from their natural
+formation, that there was no need for the later Assyrian kings
+to increase their height artificially (as they raised the chief
+palace-mound at Nineveh), and the remains of the Assyrian buildings of
+the early period are thus only covered by a few feet of d�bris and not
+by masses of unburnt brick and artificially piled up soil. This fact
+has considerably facilitated the systematic uncovering of the principal
+mound that is now being carried out by Dr. Andrae.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0030"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/397.jpg" height="447" width="489"
+alt="397.jpg Entrance Into One of the Galleries Or Tunnels Cut
+Into the Principal Mound at Sherghat. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Work has hitherto been confined to the northwest corner of the mound
+around the ziggurat, or temple tower, and already considerable traces of
+Assyrian buildings have been laid bare in this portion of the site. The
+city wall on the northern side has been uncovered, as well as quays with
+steps leading down to the water along the river front. Part of the
+great temple of the god Ashur has been excavated, though a considerable
+portion of it must be still covered by the modern Turkish fort at the
+extreme northern point of the mounds; also part of a palace erected
+by Ashur-nasir-pal has been identified. In fact, the work at Sherghat
+promises to add considerably to our knowledge of ancient Assyrian
+architecture.
+</p>
+<p>
+The inscription of Tukulti-Ninib I, which was referred to above as
+having been recently acquired by the trustees of the British Museum,
+affords valuable information for the reconstruction of the history of
+Assyria during the first half of the thirteenth century B.C.* It is seen
+from the facts summarized that for our knowledge of the earlier
+history of the country we have to depend to a large extent on short
+brick-inscriptions and votive texts supplemented by historical
+references in inscriptions of the later period. The only historical
+inscription of any length belonging to the early Assyrian period,
+which had been published up to a year ago, was the famous memorial slab
+containing an inscription of Adad-nirari I, which was acquired by the
+late Mr. George Smith some thirty years ago. Although purchased in
+Mosul, the slab had been found by the natives in the mounds at Sherghat,
+for the text engraved upon it in archaic Assyrian characters records the
+restoration of a part of the temple of the god Ashur in the ancient city
+of Ashur, the first capital of the Assyrians, now marked by the
+mounds of Sherghat, which have already been described. The object of
+Adad-nirari in causing the memorial slab to be inscribed was to record
+the restoration of the portion of the temple which he had rebuilt,
+but the most important part of the inscription was contained in the
+introductory phrases with which the text opens. They recorded
+the conquests achieved not only by Adad-nirari but by his father
+Arik-d�n-ilu, his grandfather B�l-nirari, and his great-grandfather
+Ashur-uballit. They thus enabled the historian to trace the gradual
+extension and consolidation of the Assyrian empire during a critical
+period in its early history.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * For the text and translation of the inscription, see King,
+     Studies it Eastern History, i (1904).
+</pre>
+<p>
+The recently recovered memorial slab of Tukulti-Ninib I is similar to
+that of his grandfather Adad-nirari I, and ranks in importance with it
+for the light it throws on the early struggles of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninib
+'s slab, like that of Adad-nirari, was a foundation memorial intended to
+record certain building operations carried out by order of the king.
+The building so commemorated was not the restoration of a portion of
+a temple, but the founding of a new city, in which the king erected
+no less than eight temples dedicated to various deities, while he also
+records that he built a palace therein for his own habitation, that he
+protected the city by a strongly fortified wall, and that he cut a canal
+from the Tigris by which he ensured a continuous supply of fresh water.
+These were the facts which the memorial was primarily intended to
+record, but, like the text of Adad-nirari I, the most interesting events
+for the historian are those referred to in the introductory portions of
+the inscription. Before giving details concerning the founding of the
+new city, named Kar-Tukulti-Mnib, "the Fortress of Tukulti-Mnib,"
+the king supplies an account of the military expeditions which he
+had conducted during the course of his reign up to the time when the
+foundation memorial was inscribed. These introductory paragraphs record
+how the king gradually conquered the peoples to the north and northeast
+of Assyria, and how he finally undertook a successful campaign against
+Babylon, during which he captured the city and completely subjugated
+both Northern and Southern Babylonia. Tukulti-Mnib's reign thus marks an
+epoch in the history of his country.
+</p>
+<p>
+We have already seen how, during the early ages of her history, Assyria
+had been merely a subject province of the Babylonian empire. Her rulers
+had been viceroys owing allegiance to their overlords in Babylon,
+under whose orders they administered the country, while garrisons of
+Babylonian soldiers, and troops commanded by Babylonian officers, served
+to keep the country in a state of subjection. Gradually, however, the
+country began to feel her feet and long for independence. The conquest
+of Babylon by the kings of the Country of the Sea afforded her the
+opportunity of throwing off the Babylonian yoke. In the fifteenth
+century the Assyrian kings were powerful enough to have independent
+relations with the kings of Egypt, and, during the two centuries which
+preceded Tukulti-Mnib's reign.
+</p>
+<p>
+Assyria's relations with Babylon were the cause of constant friction due
+to the northern kingdom's growth in power and influence. The frontier
+between the two countries was constantly in dispute, and, though
+sometimes rectified by treaty, the claims of Assyria often led to war
+between the two countries. The general result of these conflicts was
+that Assyria gradually extended her authority farther southwards, and
+encroached upon territory which had previously been Babylonian. The
+successes gained by Ashur-uballit, B�l-nirari, and Adad-nirari I against
+the contemporary Babylonian kings had all resulted in the cession of
+fresh territory to Assyria and in an increase of her international
+importance. Up to the time of Tukulti-Mnib no Assyrian king had actually
+seated himself upon the Babylonian throne. This feat was achieved by
+Tukulti-Mnib, and his reign thus marks an important step in the gradual
+advance of Assyria to the position which she later occupied as the
+predominant power in Western Asia.
+</p>
+<p>
+Before undertaking his campaign against Babylon, Tukulti-Mnib secured
+himself against attack from other quarters, and his newly discovered
+memorial inscription supplies considerable information concerning the
+steps he took to achieve this object. In his inscription the king does
+not number his military expeditions, and, with the exception of the
+first one, he does not state the period of his reign in which they
+were undertaken. The results of his campaigns are summarized in four
+paragraphs of the text, and it is probable that they are not described
+in chronological order, but are arranged rather according to the
+geographical position of the districts which he invaded and subdued.
+Tukulti-Ninib records that his first campaign took place at the
+beginning of his sovereignty, in the first year of his reign, and it was
+directed against the tribes and peoples inhabiting the territory on the
+east of Assyria. Of the tribes which he overran and conquered on this
+occasion the most important was the Kuti, who probably dwelt in the
+districts to the east of the Lower Z�b. They were a turbulent race and
+they had already been conquered by Arik-d�n-ilu and Adad-nirari I, but
+on neither occasion had they been completely subdued, and they had soon
+regained their independence. Their subjugation by Tukulti-Ninib was
+a necessary preliminary to any conquest in the south, and we can well
+understand why it was undertaken by the king at the beginning of his
+reign. Other conquests which were also made in the same region were the
+Ukuman� and the lands of Elkhu-nia, Sharnida, and Mekhri, mountainous
+districts which probably lay to the north of the Lower Z�b. The country
+of Mekhri took its name from the mekhru-tree, a kind of pine or fir,
+which grew there in abundance upon the mountainsides, and was highly
+esteemed by the Assyrian kings as affording excellent wood for building
+purposes. At a later period Ashur-nasir-pal invaded the country in the
+course of his campaigns and brought back beams of mekhru-wood, which he
+used in the construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar
+in Nineveh.
+</p>
+<p>
+The second group of tribes and districts enumerated by Tukulti-Ninib as
+having been subdued in his early years, before his conquest of Babylon,
+all lay probably to the northwest of Assyria. The most powerful among
+these peoples were the Shubari, who, like the Kut� on the eastern
+border of Assyria, had already been conquered by Adad-nirari I, but had
+regained their independence and were once more threatening the border on
+this side. The third group of his conquests consisted of the districts
+ruled over by forty kings of the lands of Na'iri, which was a general
+term for the mountainous districts to the north of Assyria, including
+territory to the west of Lake Van and extending eastwards to the
+districts around Lake Urmi. The forty kings in this region whom
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts of having subdued were little more than chieftains
+of the mountain tribes, each one possessing authority over a few
+villages scattered among the hills and valleys. But the men of Na'iri
+were a warlike and hardy race, and, if left long in undisturbed
+possession of their native fastnesses, they were tempted to make raids
+into the fertile plains of Assyria. It was therefore only politic for
+Tukulti-Ninib to traverse their country with fire and sword, and, by
+exacting heavy tribute, to keep the fear of Assyrian power before their
+eyes. From the king's records we thus learn that he subdued and crippled
+the semi-independent races living on his borders to the north, to the
+northwest, and to the east. On the west was the desert, from which
+region he need fear no organized attack when he concentrated his army
+elsewhere, for his permanent garrisons were strong enough to repel and
+punish any incursion of nomadic tribes. He was thus in a position to try
+conclusions with his hereditary foe in the south, without any fear of
+leaving his land open to invasion in his absence.
+</p>
+<p>
+The campaign against Babylon was the most important one undertaken by
+Tukulti-Ninib, and its successful issue was the crowning point of his
+military career. The king relates that the great gods Ashur, Bel, and
+Shamash, and the goddess Ishtar, the queen of heaven and earth, marched
+at the head of his warriors when he set out upon the expedition. After
+crossing the border and penetrating into Babylonian territory he seems
+to have had some difficulty in forcing Bitiliashu, the Kassite king who
+then occupied the throne of Babylon, to a decisive engagement. But by
+a skilful disposition of his forces he succeeded in hemming him in, so
+that the Babylonian army was compelled to engage in a pitched battle.
+The result of the fighting was a complete victory for the Assyrian arms.
+Many of the Babylonian warriors fell fighting, and Bitiliashu himself
+was captured by the Assyrian soldiers in the midst of the battle.
+Tukulti-Ninib boasts that he trampled his lordly neck beneath his feet,
+and on his return to Assyria he carried his captive back in fetters to
+present him with the spoils of the campaign before Ashur, the national
+god of the Assyrians.
+</p>
+<p>
+Before returning to Assyria, however, Tukulti-Ninib marched with his
+army throughout the length and breadth of Babylonia, and achieved
+the subjugation of the whole of the Sumer and Akkad. He destroyed the
+fortifications of Babylon to ensure that they should not again be used
+against himself, and all the inhabitants who did not at once submit to
+his decrees he put co the sword. He then appointed his own officers
+to rule the country and established his own system of administration,
+adding to his previous title of "King of Assyria," those of "King of
+Karduniash (i. e. Babylonia)" and "King of Sumer and Akkad." It was
+probably from this period that he also adopted the title of "King of the
+Poor Quarters of the World." As a mark of the complete subjugation of
+their ancient foe, Tukulti-Ninib and his army carried back with them
+to Assyria not only the captive Babylonian king, but also the statue of
+Marduk, the national god of Babylon. This they removed from B-sagila,
+his sumptuous temple in Babylon, and they looted the sacred treasures
+from the treasure-chambers, and carried them off together with the spoil
+of the city.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tukulti-Ninib no doubt left a sufficient proportion of his army in
+Babylon to garrison the city and support the governors and officials
+into whose charge he committed the administration of the land, but he
+himself returned to Assyria with the rich spoil of the campaign, and
+it was probably as a use for this large increase of wealth and material
+that he decided to found another city which should bear his own name and
+perpetuate it for future ages. The king records that he undertook this
+task at the bidding of Bel (i.e. the god Ashur), who commanded that he
+should found a new city and build a dwelling-place for him therein.
+In accordance with the desire of Ashur and the gods, which was thus
+conveyed to him, the king founded the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+he erected therein temples dedicated not only to Ashur, but also to the
+gods Adad, and Sha-mash, and Ninib, and Nusku, and Nergal, and Imina-bi,
+and the goddess Ishtar. The spoils from Babylon and the temple treasures
+from E-sagila were doubtless used for the decoration of these temples
+and the adornment of their shrines, and the king endowed the temples and
+appointed regular offerings, which he ordained should be their property
+for ever. He also built a sumptuous palace for his own abode when he
+stayed in the city, which he constructed on a mound or terrace of earth,
+faced with brick, and piled high above the level of the city. Finally,
+he completed its fortification by the erection of a massive wall around
+it, and the completion of this wall was the occasion on which his
+memorial tablet was inscribed.
+</p>
+<p>
+The memorial tablet was buried and bricked up within the actual
+structure of the wall, in order that in future ages it might be read by
+those who found it, and so it might preserve his name and fame. After
+finishing the account of his building operations in the new city and
+recording the completion of the city wall from its foundation to its
+coping stone, the king makes an appeal to any future ruler who should
+find it, in the following words: "In the days that are to come, when
+this wall shall have grown old and shall have fallen into ruins, may
+a future prince repair the damaged parts thereof, and may he anoint my
+memorial tablet with oil, and may he offer sacrifices and restore
+it unto its place, and then Ashur will hearken unto his prayers. But
+whosoever shall destroy this wall, or shall remove my memorial tablet or
+my name that is inscribed thereon, or shall leave Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, the
+city of my dominion, desolate, or shall destroy it, may the lord Ashur
+overthrow his kingdom, and may he break his weapons, and may he cause
+his warriors to be defeated, and may he diminish his boundaries, and may
+he ordain that his rule shall be cut off, and on his days may he bring
+sorrow, and his years may he make evil, and may he blot out his name and
+his seed from the land!"
+</p>
+<p>
+By such blessings and curses Tukulti-Ninib hoped to ensure the
+preservation of his name and the rebuilding of his city, should it at
+any time be neglected and fall into decay. Curiously enough, it was in
+this very city that Tukulti-Ninib met his own fate less than seven years
+after he had founded it. At that time one of his own sons, who bore the
+name of Ashur-nasir-pal, conspired against his father and stirred up the
+nobles to revolt. The insurrection was arranged when Tukulti-Ninib was
+absent from his capital and staying in Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, where he was
+probably protected by only a small bodyguard, the bulk of his veteran
+warriors remaining behind in garrison at Ashur. The insurgent nobles,
+headed by Ashur-nasir-pal, fell upon the king without warning when
+he was passing through the city without any suspicion of risk from a
+treacherous attack. The king defended himself and sought refuge in a
+neighbouring house, but the conspirators surrounded the building and,
+having forced an entrance, slew him with the sword. Thus Tukulti-Ninib
+perished in the city he had built and beautified with the spoils of his
+campaigns, where he had looked forward to passing a peaceful and secure
+old age. Of the fate of the city itself we know little except that its
+site is marked to-day by a few mounds which rise slightly above the
+level of the surrounding desert. The king's memorial tablet only has
+survived. For some 3,200 years it rested undisturbed in the foundations
+of the wall of unburnt brick, where it was buried by Tukulti-Ninib on
+the completion of the city wall.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0031"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/408.jpg" height="1031" width="715"
+alt="408.jpg Stone Tablet. Bearing an Inscription Of
+Tukulti-ninib I 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     King of Assyria, about B. C. 1275.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Thence it was removed by the hands of modern Arabs, and it is now
+preserved in the British Museum, where the characters of the inscription
+may be seen to be as sharp and uninjured as on the day when the Assyrian
+graver inscribed them by order of the king.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the account of his first campaign, which is preserved upon
+the memorial tablet, it is stated that the peoples conquered by
+Tukulti-Ninib brought their yearly tribute to the city of Ashur. This
+fact is of considerable interest, for it proves that Tukulti-Ninib
+restored the capital of Assyria to the city of Ashur, removing it from
+Calah, whither it had been transferred by his father Shalmaneser I. The
+city of Calah had been founded and built by Shalmaneser I in the same
+way that his son Tukulti-Ninib built the city of Kar-Tukulti-Ninib, and
+the building of both cities is striking evidence of the rapid growth
+of Assyria and her need of expansion around fresh centres prepared for
+administration and defence. The shifting of the Assyrian capital to
+Calah by Shalmaneser I was also due to the extension of Assyrian power
+in the north, in consequence of which there was need of having the
+capital nearer the centre of the country so enlarged. Ashur's recovery
+of her old position under Tukulti-Ninib I was only a temporary check to
+this movement northwards, and, so long as Babylon remained a conquered
+province of the Assyrian empire, obviously the need for a capital
+farther north than Ashur would not have been pressing.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0032"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+        <img width="100%"
+        src="images/410.jpg"
+alt="410.jpg the Ziggurat, Or Temple Tower, of The Assyrian
+City of Calah. 
+">
+</div>
+
+
+<p>
+But with Tukulti-Ninib's death Babylon regained her independence and
+freed herself from Assyrian control, and the centre of the northern
+kingdom was once more subject to the influences which eventually
+resulted in the permanent transference of her capital to Nineveh. To the
+comparative neglect into which Ashur and Calah consequently fell, we
+may probably trace the extensive remains of buildings belonging to the
+earlier periods of Assyrian history which have been recovered and still
+remain to be found, in the mounds that mark their sites.
+</p>
+<p>
+We have given some account of the results already achieved from the
+excavations carried out during the last two years at Sherghat, the site
+of the city of Ashur. That much remains to be done on the site of Calah,
+the other early capital of Assyria, is evident from even a cursory
+examination of the present condition of the mounds that mark the
+location of the city. These mounds are now known by the name of Nimr�d
+and are situated on the left or eastern bank of the Tigris, a short
+distance above the point at which it is joined by the stream of the
+Upper Z�b, and the great mound which still covers the remains of the
+ziggurat, or temple tower, can be seen from a considerable distance
+across the plain. During the excavations formerly carried out here for
+the British Museum, remains of palaces were recovered which had been
+built or restored by Shal-maneser I, Ashur-nasir-pal, Shalmaneser II,
+Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon, Esarhaddon, and Ashur-etil-il�ni. After the
+conclusion of the diggings and the removal of many of the sculptures to
+England, the site was covered again with earth, in order to protect the
+remains of Assyrian buildings which were left in place. Since that time
+the soil has sunk and been washed away by the rains so that many of the
+larger sculptures are now protruding above the soil, an example of which
+is seen in the two winged bulls in the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal. It
+is improbable that the mounds of Nimr�d will yield such rich results
+as Sherghat, but the site would probably well repay prolonged and
+systematic excavation.
+</p>
+<p>
+We have hitherto summarized and described the principal facts,
+with regard to the early history of Babylonia and Assyria and the
+neighbouring countries, which have been obtained from the excavations
+conducted recently on the sites of ancient cities. From the actual
+remains of the buildings that have been unearthed we have secured
+information with regard to the temples and palaces of ancient rulers and
+the plans on which they were designed. Erom the objects of daily life
+and of religious use which have been recovered, such as weapons of
+bronze and iron, and vessels of metal, stone, and clay, it is possible
+for the archaeologist to draw conclusions with regard to the customs of
+these early peoples; while from a study of their style and workmanship
+and of such examples of their sculpture as have been brought to light,
+he may determine the stage of artistic development at which they had
+arrived. The clay tablets and stone monuments that have been recovered
+reveal the family life of the people, their commercial undertakings,
+their system of legislation and land tenure, their epistolary
+correspondence, and the administration under which they lived, while the
+royal inscriptions and foundation-memorials throw light on the religious
+and historical events of the period in which they were inscribed.
+Information on all these points has been acquired as the result of
+excavation, and is based on the discoveries in the ruins of early cities
+which have remained buried beneath the soil for some thousands of years.
+But for the history of Assyria and of the other nations in the north
+there is still another source of information to which reference must now
+be made.
+</p>
+<p>
+The kings of Assyria were not content with recording their achievements
+on the walls of their buildings, on stelae set up in their palaces and
+temples, on their tablets of annals preserved in their archive-chambers,
+and on their cylinders and foundation-memorials concealed within the
+actual structure of the buildings themselves. They have also left
+records graven in the living rock, and these have never been buried,
+but have been exposed to wind and weather from the moment they
+were engraved. Records of irrigation works and military operations
+successfully undertaken by Assyrian kings remain to this day on the
+face of the mountains to the north and east of Assyria. The kings of
+one great mountain race that had its capital at Van borrowed from the
+Assyrians this method of recording their achievements, and, adopting the
+Assyrian character, have left numerous rock-inscriptions in their own
+language in the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan. In some instances
+the action of rain and frost has nearly if not quite obliterated the
+record, and a few have been defaced by the hand of man. But as the
+majority are engraved in panels cut on the sheer face of the rock, and
+are inaccessible except by means of ropes and tackle, they have escaped
+mutilation. The photograph reproduced will serve to show the means that
+must be adopted for reaching such rock-inscriptions in order to examine
+or copy them.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0033"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/413.jpg" height="714" width="497"
+alt="413.jpg Work in Progress on One of the Rock-inscriptions
+Of Sennacherib 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     In The Gorge Of The River Gomel, Near Bavian.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The inscription shown in the photograph is one of those cut by
+Sennacherib in the gorge near Bavian, through which the river Gomel
+flows, and can be reached only by climbing down ropes fixed to the top
+of the cliff. The choice of such positions by the kings who caused the
+inscriptions to be engraved was dictated by the desire to render it
+difficult to destroy them, but it has also had the effect of delaying to
+some extent their copying and decipherment by modern workers.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0034"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/414.jpg" height="672" width="485"
+alt="414.jpg the Principal Rock Sculptures in The Gorge of The
+Gomel 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Near Bavian In Assyria.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Considerable progress, however, has recently been made in identifying
+and copying these texts, and we may here give a short account of what
+has been done and of the information furnished by the inscriptions that
+have been examined.
+</p>
+<p>
+Recently considerable additions have been made to our knowledge of the
+ancient empire of Van and of its relation to the later kings of Assyria
+by the labours of Prof Lehmann and Dr. Belck on the inscriptions which
+the kings of that period caused to be engraved upon the rocks among the
+mountains of Armenia.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0035"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/415.jpg" height="669" width="502"
+alt="415.jpg the Rock and Citadel of Van. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The flat roofs of the houses of the city of Van may be seen to the left
+of the photograph nestling below the rock.
+</p>
+<p>
+The centre and capital of this empire was the ancient city which stood
+on the site of the modern town of Van at the southwest corner of the
+lake which bears the same name. The city was built at the foot of a
+natural rock which rises precipitously from the plain, and must have
+formed an impregnable stronghold against the attack of the foe.
+</p>
+<p>
+In this citadel at the present day remain the ancient galleries and
+staircases and chambers which were cut in the living rock by the kings
+who made it their fortress, and their inscriptions, engraved upon the
+face of the rock on specially prepared and polished surfaces, enable us
+to reconstruct in some degree the history of that ancient empire. From
+time to time there have been found and copied other similar texts, which
+are cut on the mountainsides or on the massive stones which formed part
+of the construction of their buildings and fortifications. A complete
+collection of these texts, together with translations, will shortly be
+published by Prof. Lehmann. Meanwhile, this scholar has discussed and
+summarized the results to be obtained from much of his material, and
+we are thus already enabled to sketch the principal achievements of the
+rulers of this mountain race, who were constantly at war with the later
+kings of Assyria, and for two centuries at least disputed her claim to
+supremacy in this portion of Western Asia.
+</p>
+<p>
+The country occupied by this ancient people of Van was the great
+table-land which now forms Armenia. The people themselves cannot
+be connected with the Armenians, for their language presents no
+characteristics of those of the Indo-European family, and it is equally
+certain that they are not to be traced to a Semitic origin. It is true
+that they employed the Assyrian method of writing their inscriptions,
+and their art differs only in minor points from that of the Assyrians,
+but in both instances this similarity of culture was directly borrowed
+at a time when the less civilized race, having its centre at Van, came
+into direct contact with the Assyrians.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0036"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/417.jpg" height="670" width="488"
+alt="417.jpg Ancient Flight of Steps and Gallery on the Face
+Of the Rock-citadel of Van.
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The exact date at which this influence began to be exerted is not
+certain, but we have records of immediate relations with Assyria in the
+second half of the ninth century before Christ. The district inhabited
+by the Vannic people was known to the Assyrians by the name of Urartu,
+and although the inscriptions of the earlier Assyrian kings do not
+record expeditions against that country, they frequently make mention of
+campaigns against princes and petty rulers of the land of Na'iri. They
+must therefore for long have exercised an indirect, if not a direct,
+influence on the peoples and tribes which lay more to the north.
+</p>
+<p>
+The earliest evidence of direct contact between the Assyrians and the
+land of Urartu which we at present possess dates from the reign of
+Ashur-nasir-pal, and in the reign of his son Shalmaneser II three
+expeditions were undertaken against the people of Van. The name of the
+king of Urartu at this time was Arame, and his capital city, Arzasku,
+probably lay to the north of Lake Van. On all three occasions the
+Assyrians were victorious, forcing Arame to abandon his capital
+and capturing his cities as far as the sources of the Euphrates.
+Subsequently, in the year 833 B.C., Shalmaneser II made another attack
+upon the country, which at that time was under the sway of Sarduris I.
+Under this monarch the citadel of Van became the great stronghold of the
+people of Urartu, for he added to the natural strength of the position
+by the construction of walls built between the rock of Van and the
+harbour. The massive blocks of stone of which his fortifications
+were composed are standing at the present day, and they bear eloquent
+testimony to the energy with which this monarch devoted himself to the
+task of rendering his new citadel impregnable. The fortification and
+strengthening of Van and its citadel was carried on during the reigns of
+his direct successors and descendants, Ispui-nis, Menuas, and Argistis
+I, so that when Tiglath-pile-ser III brought fire and sword into the
+country and laid siege to Van in the reign of Sarduris II, he could not
+capture the citadel.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0037"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/419.jpg" height="674" width="481"
+alt="419.jpg Part of the Ancient Fortifications Of The City Of
+Van, Between the Citadel and The Lake. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+It was not difficult for the Assyrian king to assault and capture the
+city itself, which lay at the foot of the citadel as it does at the
+present day, but the latter, within the fortifications of which Sarduris
+and his garrison withdrew, proved itself able to withstand the Assyrian
+attack. The expedition of Tiglath-pileser III did not succeed in
+crushing the Vannic empire, for Rusas I, the son and successor of
+Sarduris II, allied himself to the neighbouring mountain races and gave
+considerable trouble to Sargon, the Assyrian king, who was obliged to
+undertake an expedition to check their aggressions.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was probably Rusas I who erected the buildings on Toprak Kala, the
+hill to the east of Van, traces of which remain to the present day. He
+built a palace and a temple, and around them he constructed a new city
+with a reservoir to supply it with water, possibly because the slopes
+of Toprak Kala rendered it easier of defence than the city in the
+plain (beneath the rock and citadel) which had fallen an easy prey to
+Tiglath-pileser III. The site of the temple on Toprak Kala has been
+excavated by the trustees of the British Museum, and our knowledge of
+Vannic art is derived from the shields and helmets of bronze and small
+bronze figures and fittings which were recovered from this building. One
+of the shields brought to the British Museum from the Toprak Kala, where
+it originally hung with others on the temple walls, bears the name of
+Argistis II, who was the son and successor of Rusas I, and who attempted
+to give trouble to the Assyrians by stirring the inhabitants of the land
+of Kummukh (Kommagene) to revolt against Sargon. His son, Rusas II,
+was the contemporary of Esarhaddon, and from some recently discovered
+rock-inscriptions we learn that he extended the limits of his kingdom on
+the west and secured victories against Mushki (Meshech) to the southeast
+of the Halys and against the Hittites in Northern Syria. Rusas III
+rebuilt the temple on Toprak Kala, as we know from an inscription of his
+on one of the shields from that place in the British Museum. Both he and
+Sarduris III were on friendly terms with the Assyrians, for we know that
+they both sent embassies to Ashur-bani-pal.
+</p>
+<p>
+By far the larger number of rock-inscriptions that have yet been found
+and copied in the mountainous districts bordering on Assyria were
+engraved by this ancient Vannic people, and Drs. Lehmann and Belck have
+done good service by making careful copies and collations of all those
+which are at present known. Work on other classes of rock-inscriptions
+has also been carried on by other travellers. A new edition of the
+inscriptions of Sennacherib in the gorge of the Gomel, near the village
+of Bavian, has been made by Mr. King, who has also been fortunate enough
+to find a number of hitherto unknown inscriptions in Kurdistan on the
+Judi Dagh and at the sources of the Tigris. The inscriptions at
+the mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb, "the Dog River," in Syria, have
+been reexamined by Dr. Knudtzon, and the long inscription which
+Nebuchadnezzar II cut on the rocks at Wadi Brissa in the Lebanon,
+formerly published by M. Pognon, has been recopied by Dr. Weissbach.
+Finally, the great trilingual inscription of Darius Hystaspes on the
+rock at Bisutun in Persia, which was formerly copied by the late Sir
+Henry Raw-linson and used by him for the successful decipherment of the
+cuneiform inscriptions, was completely copied last year by Messrs. King
+and Thompson.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     Messrs. King and Thompson are preparing a new edition of
+     this inscription.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The main facts of the history of Assyria under her later kings and of
+Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods were many years
+ago correctly ascertained, and recent excavation and research have done
+little to add to our knowledge of the history of these periods. It was
+hoped that the excavations conducted by Dr. Koldewey at Babylon would
+result in the recovery of a wealth of inscriptions and records referring
+to the later history of the country, but unfortunately comparatively
+few tablets or inscriptions have been found, and those that have been
+recovered consist mainly of building-inscriptions and votive texts. One
+such building-inscription contains an interesting historical reference.
+It occurs on a barrel-cylinder of clay inscribed with a text of
+Nabopolassar, and it was found in the temple of Ninib and records the
+completion and restoration of the temple by the king. In addition to
+recording the building operations he had carried out in the temple,
+Nabopolassar boasts of his opposition to the Assyrians. He says: "As for
+the Assyrians who had ruled all peoples from distant days and had set
+the people of the land under a heavy yoke, I, the weak and humble man
+who worshippeth the Lord of Lords (i.e. the god Marduk), through the
+mighty power of Nab� and Marduk, my lords, held back their feet from the
+land of Akkad and cast off their yoke."
+</p>
+<p>
+It is not yet certain whether the Babylonians under Nabopolassar
+actively assisted Cyaxares and the Medes in the siege and in the
+subsequent capture of Nineveh in 606 B.C. but this newly discovered
+reference to the Assyrians by Nabopolassar may possibly be taken
+to imply that the Babylonians were passive and not active allies of
+Cyaxares. If the cylinder were inscribed after the fall of Nineveh we
+should have expected Nabopolassar, had he taken an active part in the
+capture of the city, to have boasted in more definite terms of his
+achievement. On his stele which is preserved at Constantinople,
+Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire, who himself
+suffered defeat at the hands of Cyrus, King of Persia, ascribed the fall
+of Nineveh to the anger of Marduk and the other gods of Babylon because
+of the destruction of their city and the spoliation of their temples by
+Sennacherib in 689 B.C. We see the irony of fate in the fact that Cyrus
+also ascribed the defeat and deposition of Nabonidus and the fall of
+Babylon to Marduk's intervention, whose anger he alleges was aroused
+by the attempt of Nabonidus to concentrate the worship of the local
+city-gods in Babylon.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus it will be seen that recent excavation and research have not
+yet supplied the data for filling in such gaps as still remain in our
+knowledge of the later history of Assyria and Babylon. The closing
+years of the Assyrian empire and the military achievements of the great
+Neo-Babylonian rulers, Nabopolassar, Nerig-lissar, and Nebuchadnezzar
+II, have not yet been found recorded in any published Assyrian or
+Babylonian inscription, but it may be expected that at any moment
+some text will be discovered that will throw light upon the problems
+connected with the history of those periods which still await solution.
+Meanwhile, the excavations at Babylon, although they have not added
+much to our knowledge of the later history of the country, have been
+of immense service in revealing the topography of the city during the
+Neo-Babylonian period, as well as the positions, plans, and characters
+of the principal buildings erected by the later Babylonian kings. The
+discovery of the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II on the mound of the Kasr,
+of the small but complete temple E-makh, of the temple of the goddess
+Nin-makh to the northeast of the palaces, and of the sacred road
+dividing them and passing through the Great Gate of Ishtar (adorned with
+representations of lions, bulls, and dragons in raised brick upon its
+walls) has enabled us to form some conception of the splendour and
+magnificence of the city as it appeared when rebuilt by its last native
+rulers. Moreover, the great temple E-sagila, the famous shrine of the
+god Marduk, has been identified and partly excavated beneath the huge
+mound of Tell Amran ibn-Ali, while a smaller and less famous temple of
+Ninib has been discovered in the lower mounds which lie to the eastward.
+Finally, the sacred way from E-sagila to the palace mound has been
+traced and uncovered. We are thus enabled to reconstitute the scene of
+the most solemn rite of the Babylonian festival of the New Year, when
+the statue of the god Marduk was carried in solemn procession along this
+road from the temple to the palace, and the Babylonian king made his
+yearly obeisance to the national god, placing his own hands within those
+of Marduk, in token of his submission to and dependence on the divine
+will.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0038"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/425.jpg" height="524" width="711"
+alt="425.jpg Within the Shrine Op E-makh, The Temple Op The
+Goddess Nin-makh. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Though recent excavations have not led to any startling discoveries
+with regard to the history of Western Asia during the last years of
+the Babylonian empire, research among the tablets dating from the
+Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods has lately added considerably to our
+knowledge of Babylonian literature. These periods were marked by great
+literary activity on the part of the priests at Babylon, Sippar, and
+elsewhere, who, under the royal orders, scoured the country for all
+remains of the early literature which was preserved in the ancient
+temples and archives of the country, and made careful copies and
+collections of all they found. Many of these tablets containing
+Neo-Babylonian copies of earlier literary texts are preserved in the
+British Museum, and have been recently published, and we have thus
+recovered some of the principal grammatical, religious, and magical
+compositions of the earlier Babylonian period.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0039"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/426.jpg" height="543" width="714"
+alt="426.jpg Trench in the Babylonian Plain 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     Between The Mound Of The Kasr And Tell Amran Ibn-Ali,
+     Showing A Section Of The Paved Sacred Way.
+</pre>
+<p>
+Among the most interesting of such recent finds is a series of tablets
+inscribed with the Babylonian legends concerning the creation of the
+world and man, which present many new and striking parallels to the
+beliefs on these subjects embodied in Hebrew literature. We have not
+space to treat this subject at greater length in the present work, but
+we may here note that discovery and research in its relation to the
+later empires that ruled at Babylon have produced results of literary
+rather than of historical importance. But we should exceed the space
+at our disposal if we attempted even to skim this fascinating field of
+study in which so much has recently been achieved. For it is time we
+turned once more to Egypt and directed our inquiry towards ascertaining
+what recent research has to tell us with regard to her inhabitants
+during the later periods of her existence as a nation of the ancient
+world.
+</p>
+<a name="2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    CHAPTER IX&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+</h2>
+<p>
+Before we turned from Egypt to summarize the information, afforded by
+recent discoveries, upon the history of Western Asia under the kings
+of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, we noted that the Asiatic
+empire of Egypt was regained by the reactionary kings of the XIXth
+Dynasty, after its temporary loss owing to the vagaries of Akhunaten.
+Palestine remained Egyptian throughout the period of the judges until
+the foundation of the kingdom of Judah. With the decline of military
+spirit in Egypt and the increasing power of the priesthood, authority
+over Asia became less and less a reality. Tribute was no longer paid,
+and the tribes wrangled without a restraining hand, during the reigns of
+the successors of Ramses III. By the time of the priest-kings of Thebes
+(the XXIst Dynasty) the authority of the Pharaohs had ceased to be
+exercised in Syria. Egypt was itself divided into two kingdoms, the one
+ruled by Northern descendants of the Ramessids at Tanis, the other by
+the priestly monarchs at Thebes, who reigned by right of inheritance as
+a result of the marriage of the daughter of Ramses with the high
+priest Amenhetep, father of Herhor, the first priest-king. The Thebans
+fortified Gebel�n in the South and el-H�bi in the North against attack,
+and evidently their relations with the Tanites were not always friendly.
+</p>
+<p>
+In Syria nothing of the imperial power remained. The prestige of the god
+Amen of Thebes, however, was still very great. We see this clearly from
+a very interesting papyrus of the reign of Herhor, published in 1899 by
+Mr. Golenischeff, which describes the adventures of Uenuamen, an envoy
+sent (about 1050 B.C.) to Phoenicia to bring wood from the mountains of
+Lebanon for the construction of a great festival bark of the god Amen
+at Thebes. In the course of his mission he was very badly treated
+(We cannot well imagine Thothmes III or Amenhetep III tolerating
+ill-treatment of their envoy!) and eventually shipwrecked on the coast
+of the land of Alashiya or Cyprus. He tells us in the papyrus, which
+seems to be the official report of his mission, that, having been given
+letters of credence to the Prince of Byblos from the King of Tanis,
+"to whom Amen had given charge of his North-land," he at length reached
+Phoenicia, and after much discussion and argument was able to prevail
+upon the prince to have the wood which he wanted brought down from
+Lebanon to the seashore.
+</p>
+<p>
+Here, however, a difficulty presented itself,&mdash;the harbour was filled
+with the piratical ships of the Cretan Tjakaray, who refused to allow
+Uenuamen to return to Egypt. They said, 'Seize him; let no ship of his
+go unto the land of Egypt!' "Then," says Uenuamen in the papyrus, "I sat
+down and wept. The scribe of the prince came out unto me; he said unto
+me, 'What ail-eth thee?' I replied, 'Seest thou not the birds which fly,
+which fly back unto Egypt? Look at them, they go unto the cool canal,
+and how long do I remain abandoned here? Seest thou not those who would
+prevent my return?' He went away and spoke unto the prince, who began
+to weep at the words which were told unto him and which were so sad. He
+sent his scribe out unto me, who brought me two measures of wine and a
+deer. He sent me Tentnuet, an Egyptian singing-girl who was with him,
+saying unto her, 'Sing unto him, that he may not grieve!' He sent word
+unto me, 'Eat, drink, and grieve not! To-morrow shalt thou hear all that
+I shall say.' On the morrow he had the people of his harbour summoned,
+and he stood in the midst of them, and he said unto the Tjakaray, 'What
+aileth you?' They answered him, 'We will pursue the piratical ships
+which thou sendest unto Egypt with our unhappy companions.' He said unto
+them, 'I cannot seize the ambassador of Amen in my land. Let me send him
+away and then do ye pursue after him to seize him!' He sent me on board,
+and he sent me away... to the haven of the sea. The wind drove me upon
+the land of Alashiya. The people of the city came out in order to slay
+me. I was dragged by them to the place where Hatiba, the queen of the
+city, was. I met her as she was going out of one of her houses into
+the other. I greeted her and said unto the people who stood by her, 'Is
+there not one among you who understandeth the speech of Egypt?' One
+of them replied, 'I understand it.' I said unto him, 'Say unto thy
+mistress: even as far as the city in which Amen dwelleth (i. e. Thebes)
+have I heard the proverb, "In all cities is injustice done; only in
+Alashiya is justice to be found," and now is injustice done here every
+day!' She said, 'What is it that thou sayest?' I said unto her, 'Since
+the sea raged and the wind drove me upon the land in which thou livest,
+therefore thou wilt not allow them to seize my body and to kill me, for
+verily I am an ambassador of Amen. Remember that I am one who will be
+sought for always. And if these men of the Prince of Byblos whom they
+seek to kill (are killed), verily if their chief finds ten men of thine,
+will he not kill them also?' She summoned the men, and they were brought
+before her. She said unto me, 'Lie down and sleep...'"
+</p>
+<p>
+At this point the papyrus breaks off, and we do not know how Uenuamen
+returned to Egypt with his wood. The description of his casting-away and
+landing on Alashiya is quite Homeric, and gives a vivid picture of the
+manners of the time. The natural impulse of the islanders is to kill
+the strange castaway, and only the fear of revenge and of the wrath of a
+distant foreign deity restrains them. Alashiya is probably Cyprus, which
+also bore the name Yantinay from the time of Thothmes III until the
+seventh century, when it is called Yatnan by the Assyrians. A king
+of Alashiya corresponded with Amenhetep III in cuneiform on terms of
+perfect equality, three hundred years before: "Brother," he writes,
+"should the small amount of the copper which I have sent thee be
+displeasing unto thy heart, it is because in my land the hand of Nergal
+my lord slew all the men of my land (i.e. they died of the plague), and
+there was no working of copper; and this was, my brother, not pleasing
+unto thy heart. Thy messenger with my messenger swiftly will I send, and
+whatsoever amount of copper thou hast asked for, O my brother, I,
+even I, will send it unto thee." The mention by Herhor's envoy of
+Nesibinebdad (Smendes), the King of Tanis, a powerful ruler who in
+reality constantly threatened the existence of the priestly monarchy
+at Thebes, as "him to whom Amen has committed the wardship of his
+North-land," is distinctly amusing. The hard fact of the independence of
+Lower Egypt had to be glozed somehow.
+</p>
+<p>
+The days of Theban power were coming to an end and only the prestige
+of the god Amen remained strong for two hundred years more. But the
+alliance of Amen and his priests with a band of predatory and destroying
+foreign conquerors, the Ethiopians (whose rulers were the descendants
+of the priest-kings, who retired to Napata on the succession of the
+powerful Bubastite dynasty of Shishak to that of Tanis, abandoning
+Thebes to the Northerners), did much to destroy the prestige of Amen
+and of everything connected with him. An Ethiopian victory meant only
+an Assyrian reconquest, and between them Ethiopians and Assyrians had
+well-nigh ruined Egypt. In the Sa�te period Thebes had declined greatly
+in power as well as in influence, and all its traditions were anathema
+to the leading people of the time, although not of course in Akhunaten's
+sense.
+</p>
+<p>
+With the Sa�te period we seem almost to have retraced our steps and to
+have reentered the age of the Pyramid Builders. All the pomp and glory
+of Thothmes, Amenhetep, and Ramses were gone. The days of imperial Egypt
+were over, and the minds of men, sickened of foreign war, turned for
+peace and quietness to the simpler ideals of the IVth and Vth Dynasties.
+We have already seen that an archaistic revival of the styles of the
+early dynasties is characteristic of this late period, and that men
+were buried at Sakk�ra and at Thebes in tombs which recall in form and
+decoration those of the courtiers of the Pyramid Builders. Everywhere
+we see this fashion of archaism. A Theban noble of this period named
+Aba was buried at Thebes. Long ago, nearly three thousand years before,
+under the VIth Dynasty, there had lived a great noble of the same name,
+who was buried in a rock-tomb at D�r el-Gebr�w�, in Middle Egypt. This
+tomb was open and known in the days of the second Aba, who caused to be
+copied and reproduced in his tomb in the Asas�f at Thebes most of the
+scenes from the bas-relief with which it had been decorated. The tomb
+of the VIth Dynasty Aba has lately been copied for the Archaeological
+Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund) by Mr. de Garis Davies, who has
+found the reliefs of the XXVIth Dynasty Aba of considerable use to him
+in reconstituting destroyed portions of their ancient originals.
+</p>
+<p>
+During late years important discoveries of objects of this era have been
+few. One of the most noteworthy is that of a contemporary inscription
+describing the battle of Momemphis, which is mentioned by Herodotus (ii,
+163, 169). We now have the official account of this battle, and know
+that it took place in the third year of the reign of Amasis&mdash;not before
+he became king. This was the fight in which the unpatriotic king,
+Apries, who had paid for his partiality for the Greeks of Nau-kratis
+with the loss of his throne, was finally defeated. As we see from this
+inscription, he was probably murdered by the country people during his
+flight.
+</p>
+<p>
+The following are the most important passages of the inscription: "His
+Majesty (Amasis) was in the Festival-Hall, discussing plans for his
+whole land, when one came to say unto him, 'H��-ab-R� (Apries) is rowing
+up; he hath gone on board the ships which have crossed over. Haunebu
+(Greeks), one knows not their number, are traversing the North-land,
+which is as if it had no master to rule it; he (Apries) hath summoned
+them, they are coming round him. It is he who hath arranged their
+settlement in the Peh-�n (the An-dropolite name); they infest the whole
+breadth of Egypt, those who are on thy waters fly before them!'... His
+Majesty mounted his chariot, having taken lance and bow in his hand...
+(the enemy) reached Andropolis; the soldiers sang with joy on the
+roads... they did their duty in destroying the enemy. His Majesty fought
+like a lion; he made victims among them, one knows not how many. The
+ships and their warriors were overturned, they saw the depths as do the
+fishes. Like a flame he extended, making a feast of fighting. His heart
+rejoiced.... The third year, the 8th Athyr, one came to tell Majesty:
+'Let their vile-ness be ended! They throng the roads, there are
+thousands there ravaging the land; they fill every road. Those who are
+in ships bear thy terror in their hearts. But it is not yet finished.'
+Said his Majesty unto his soldiers: '...Young men and old men, do this
+in the cities and nomes!'... Going upon every road, let not a day pass
+without fighting their galleys!'... The land was traversed as by the
+blast of a tempest, destroying their ships, which were abandoned by the
+crews. The people accomplished their fate, killing the prince (Apries)
+on his couch, when he had gone to repose in his cabin. When he saw his
+friend overthrown... his Majesty himself buried him (Apries), in order
+to establish him as a king possessing virtue, for his Majesty decreed
+that the hatred of the gods should be removed from him."
+</p>
+<p>
+This is the event to which we have already referred in a preceding
+chapter, as proving the great amelioration of Egyptian ideas with regard
+to the treatment of a conquered enemy, as compared with those of other
+ancient nations. Amasis refers to the deposed monarch as his "friend,"
+and buries him in a manner befitting a king at the charges of Amasis
+himself. This act warded off from the spirit of Apries the just anger
+of the gods at his partiality for the "foreign devils," and ensured his
+reception by Osiris as a king neb menkh, "possessing virtues."
+</p>
+<p>
+The town of Naukratis, where Apries established himself, had been
+granted to the Greek traders by Psametik I a century or more before. Mr.
+D. G. Hogarth's recent exploration of the site has led to a considerable
+modification of our first ideas of the place, which were obtained
+from Prof. Petrie 's excavations. Prof. Petrie was the discoverer of
+Naukratis, and his diggings told us what Naukratis was like in the first
+instance, but Mr. Hogarth has shown that several of his identifications
+were erroneous and that the map of the place must be redrawn. The chief
+error was in the placing of the Hellenion (the great meeting-place of
+the Greeks), which is now known to be in quite a different position from
+that assigned to it by Prof. Petrie. The "Great Temenos" of Prof. Petrie
+has now been shown to be non-existent. Mr. Hogarth has also pointed out
+that an old Egyptian town existed at Nau-kratis long before the Greeks
+came there. This town is mentioned on a very interesting stele of black
+basalt (discovered at Tell Gaif, the site of Naukratis, and now in the
+Cairo Museum), under the name of "Permerti, which is called Nukrate."
+The first is the old Egyptian name, the second the Greek name adapted
+to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stele was erected by Tekhtnebf, the last
+native king of Egypt, to commemorate his gifts to the temples of Ne�th
+on the occasion of his accession at Sais. It is beautifully cut, and the
+inscription is written in a curious manner, with alphabetic spellings
+instead of ideographs, and ideographs instead of alphabetic spellings,
+which savours fully of the affectation of the learned pedant who drafted
+it; for now, of course, in the fourth century before Christ, nobody but
+a priestly antiquarian could read hieroglyphics. Demotic was the only
+writing for practical purposes.
+</p>
+<p>
+We see this fact well illustrated in the inscriptions of the Ptolema�c
+temples. The accession of the Ptolemies marked a great increase in the
+material wealth of Egypt, and foreign conquest again came in fashion.
+Ptolemy Euergetes marched into Asia in the grand style of a Ramses and
+brought back the images of gods which had been carried off by Esarhaddon
+or Nebuchadnezzar II centuries before. He was received on his return
+to Egypt with acclamations as a true successor of the Pharaohs. The
+imperial spirit was again in vogue, and the archaistic simplicity and
+independence of the Sa�tes gave place to an archaistic imperialism, the
+first-fruits of which were the repair and building of temples in the
+great Pharaonic style. On these we see the Ptolemies masquerading as
+Pharaohs, and the climax of absurdity is reached when Ptolemy Auletes
+(the Piper) is seen striking down Asiatic enemies in the manner of
+Amen-hetep or Ramses! This scene is directly copied from a Ramesside
+temple, and we find imitations of reliefs of Ramses II so slavish that
+the name of the earlier king is actually copied, as well as the relief,
+and appears above the figure of a Ptolemy. The names of the nations who
+were conquered by Thothmes III are repeated on Ptolemaic sculptures to
+do duty for the conquered of Euergetes, with all sorts of mistakes
+in spelling, naturally, and also with later interpolations. Such an
+inscription is that in the temple of Kom Ombo, which Prof. Say ce has
+held to contain the names of "Caphtor and Casluhim" and to prove the
+knowledge of the latter name in the fourteenth century before Christ.
+The name of Caphtor is the old Egyptian Keftiu (Crete); that of Casluhim
+is unknown in real Old Egyptian inscriptions, and in this Ptolemaic list
+at Kom Ombo it may be quite a late interpolation in the lists, perhaps
+no older than the Persian period, since we find the names of Parsa
+(Persia) and Susa, which were certainly unknown to Thothmes III,
+included in it. We see generally from the Ptolemaic inscriptions that
+nobody could read them but a few priests, who often made mistakes. One
+of the most serious was the identification of Keftiu with Phoenicia in
+the Stele of Canopus. This misled modern archaeologists down to the
+time of Dr. Evans's discoveries at Knossos, though how these utterly
+un-Semitic looking Keftiu could have been Phoenicians was a puzzle to
+everybody. We now know, of course, that they were Mycenaean or
+Minoan Cretans, and that the Ptolemaic antiquaries made a mistake in
+identifying the land of Keftiu with Phoenicia.
+</p>
+<p>
+We must not, however, say too much in dispraise of the Ptolemaic
+Egyptians and their works. We have to be grateful to them indeed for the
+building of the temples of Edfu and Dendera, which, owing to their later
+date, are still in good preservation, while the best preserved of the
+old Pharaonic fanes, such as Medinet Hab�, have suffered considerably
+from the ravages of time. Eor these temples show us to-day what an
+old Egyptian temple, when perfect, really looked like. They are, so to
+speak, perfect mummies of temples, while of the old buildings we have
+nothing but the disjointed and damaged skeletons.
+</p>
+<p>
+A good deal of repairing has been done to these buildings, especially
+to that at Edfu, of late years. But the main archaeological interest of
+Ptolemaic and Roman times has been found in the field of epigraphy and
+the study of papyri, with which the names of Messrs. Kenyon, Grenfell,
+and Hunt are chiefly connected. The treasures which have lately been
+obtained by the British Museum in the shape of the manuscripts of
+Aristotle's "Constitution of Athens," the lost poems of Bacchylides, and
+the Mimes of Herondas, all of which have been published for the trustees
+of that institution by Mr. Kenyon, are known to those who are interested
+in these subjects. The long series of publications of Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt, issued at the expense of the Egypt Exploration Fund
+(Graeco-Roman branch), with the exception of the volume of discoveries
+at Teb-tunis, which was issued by the University of California, is also
+well known.
+</p>
+<p>
+The two places with which Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt's work has been
+chiefly connected are the Fayy�m and Behnes�, the site of the ancient
+Permje or Oxyr-rhynchus. The lake-province of the Fayy�m, which attained
+such prominence in the days of the XIIth Dynasty, seems to have had
+little or no history during the whole period of the New Empire, but in
+Ptolemaic times it revived and again became one of the richest and
+most important provinces of Egypt. The town of Arsino� was founded at
+Crocodilopolis, where are now the mounds of Kom el-F�ris (The Mound of
+the Horseman), near Medinet el-Payyum, and became the capital of the
+province. At Illah�n, just outside the entrance to the Fayy�m, was the
+great Nile harbour and entrep�t of the lake-district, called Ptolema�s
+Hormos.
+</p>
+<p>
+The explorations of Messrs. Hogarth, Grenfell, and Hunt in the years
+of 1895-6 and 1898-9 resulted in the identification of the sites of the
+ancient cities of Karanis (Kom Ush�m), Bacchias (Omm el-'Atl), Euhemeria
+(Kasr el-Ban�t), Theadelphia (Har�t), and Philoteris (Wadfa). The work
+for the University of California in 18991900 at Umm el-Baragat showed
+that this place was Tebtunis. Dime, on the northern coast of the Birket
+Kar�n, the modern representative of the ancient Lake Moeris, is now
+known to be the ancient Sokno-paiou Nesos (the Isle of Soknopaios), a
+local form of Sebek, the crocodile-god of the Fayy�m. At Karanis this
+god was worshipped under the name of Petesuchos ("He whom Sebek
+has given"), in conjunction with Osiris Pnepher�s (P-nefer-ho,
+"the beautiful of face"); at Tebtunis he became Seknebtunis., i.e.
+Sebek-neb-Teb-tunis (Sebek, lord of Tebtunis). This is a typical example
+of the portmanteau pronunciations of the latter-day Egyptians.
+</p>
+<p>
+Many very interesting discoveries were made during the course of the
+excavations of these places (besides Mr. Hogarth's find of the temple
+of Petesuchos and Pnepher�s at Karanis), consisting of Roman pottery
+of varied form and Roman agricultural implements, including a perfect
+plough.* The main interest of all, however, lies, both here and at
+Behnes�, in the papyri. They consist of Greek and Latin documents of
+all ages from the early Ptolemaic to the Christian. In fact, Messrs.
+Grenfell and Hunt have been unearthing and sifting the contents of the
+waste-paper baskets of the ancient Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptians, which
+had been thrown out on to dust-heaps near the towns. Nothing perishes
+in,, the dry climate and soil of Egypt, so the contents of the ancient
+dust-heaps have been preserved intact until our own day, and have been
+found by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt, just as the contents of the houses
+of the ancient Indian rulers of Chinese Turkestan, at Niya and Khotan,
+with their store of Kha-roshthi documents, have been preserved intact in
+the dry Tibetan desert climate and have been found by Dr. Stein.** There
+is much analogy between the discoveries of Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in
+Egypt and those of Dr. Stein in Turkestan.
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * Illustrated on Plate IX of Fay�m Towns and Their Papyri.
+
+     ** See Dr. Stein's Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, London,
+     1903.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The Gr�co-Egyptian documents are of all kinds, consisting of letters,
+lists, deeds, notices, tax-assessments, receipts, accounts, and business
+records of every sort and kind, besides new fragments of classical
+authors and the important "Sayings of Jesus," discovered at Behnes�,
+which have been published in a special popular form by the Egypt
+Exploration Fund.*
+</p>
+<pre>
+     * Aoyla 'Itjffov, 1897, and New Sayings of Jesus, 1904.
+</pre>
+<p>
+These last fragments of the oldest Christian literature, which are
+of such great importance and interest to all Christians, cannot be
+described or discussed here. The other documents are no less
+important to the student of ancient literature, the historian, and the
+sociologist. The classical fragments include many texts of lost authors,
+including Menander. We will give a few specimens of the private
+letters and documents, which will show how extremely modern the ancient
+Egyptians were, and how little difference there actually is between our
+civilization and theirs, except in the-matter of mechanical invention.
+They had no locomotives and telephones; otherwise they were the same. We
+resemble them much more than we resemble our mediaeval ancestors or even
+the Elizabethans.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is a boy's letter to his father, who would not take him up to town
+with him to see the sights: "Theon to his father Theon, greeting. It was
+a fine thing of you not to take me with you to the city! If you won't
+take me with you to Alexandria, I won't write you a letter, or speak to
+you, or say good-bye to you; and if you go to Alexandria I won't take
+your hand or ever greet you again. That is what will happen if you
+won't take me. Mother said to Archelaus, 'It quite upsets him to be left
+behind.' It was good of you to send me presents on the 12th, the day
+you sailed. Send me a lyre, I implore you. If you don't, I won't eat, I
+won't drink: there now!'" Is not this more like the letter of a spoiled
+child of to-day than are the solemnly dutiful epistles of even our
+grandfathers and grandmothers when young? The touch about "Mother said
+to Archelaus, 'It quite upsets him to be left behind'" is delightfully
+like the modern small boy, and the final request and threat are also
+eminently characteristic.
+</p>
+<p>
+Here is a letter asking somebody to redeem the writer's property from
+the pawnshop: "Now please redeem my property from Sarapion. It is
+pledged for two minas. I have paid the interest up to the month Epeiph,
+at the rate of a stater per mina. There is a casket of incense-wood,
+and another of onyx, a tunic, a white veil with a real purple border, a
+handkerchief, a tunic with a Laconian stripe, a garment of purple linen,
+two armlets, a necklace, a coverlet, a figure of Aphrodite, a cup, a big
+tin flask, and a wine-jar. From Onetor get the two bracelets. They have
+been pledged since the month Tybi of last year for eight... at the
+rate of a stater per mina. If the cash is insufficient owing to the
+carelessness of Theagenis, if, I say, it is insufficient, sell the
+bracelets and make up the money." Here is an affectionate letter of
+invitation: "Greeting, my dear Serenia, from Petosiris. Be sure, dear,
+to come up on the 20th for the birthday festival of the god, and let me
+know whether you are coming by boat or by donkey, that we may send for
+you accordingly. Take care not to forget."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here is an advertisement of a gymnastic display:
+</p>
+<p>
+"The assault-at-arms by the youths will take place to-morrow, the 24th.
+Tradition, no less than the distinguished character of the festival,
+requires that they should do their utmost in the gymnastic display. Two
+performances." Signed by Dioskourides, magistrate of Oxyrrhynchus.
+</p>
+<p>
+Here is a report from a public physician to a magistrate: "To
+Claudianus, the mayor, from Dionysos, public physician. I was to-day
+instructed by you, through Herakleides your assistant, to inspect the
+body of a man who had been found hanged, named Hierax, and to report to
+you my opinion of it. I therefore inspected the body in the presence
+of the aforesaid Herakleides at the house of Epagathus in the Broadway
+ward, and found it hanged by a noose, which fact I accordingly report."
+Dated in the twelfth year of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 173).
+</p>
+<p>
+The above translations are taken, slightly modified, from those in The
+Oxyrrhynchus Papyri, vol. i. The next specimen, a quaint letter, is
+translated from the text in Mr. Grenfell's Greek Papyri (Oxford, 1896),
+p. 69: "To Noumen, police captain and mayor, from Pokas son of On�s,
+unpaid policeman. I have been maltreated by Peadius the priest of the
+temple of Sebek in Crocodilopolis. On the first epagomenal day of the
+eleventh year, after having abused me about... in the aforesaid temple,
+the person complained against sprang upon me and in the presence of
+witnesses struck me many blows with a stick which he had. And as part of
+my body was not covered, he tore my shirt, and this fact I called upon
+the bystanders to bear witness to. Wherefore I request that if it seems
+proper you will write to Klearchos the headman to send him to you, in
+order that, if what I have written is true, I may obtain justice at your
+hands."
+</p>
+<p>
+A will of Hadrian's reign, taken from the Oxyrrhynchus Papyri (i, p.
+173), may also be of interest: "This is the last will and testament,
+made in the street (i.e. at a street notary's stand), of Pekysis, son of
+Hermes and Didyme, an inhabitant of Oxyrrhynchus, being sane and in his
+right mind. So long as I live, I am to have powers over my property,
+to alter my will as I please. But if I die with this will unchanged, I
+devise my daughter Ammonous whose mother is Ptolema, if she survive me,
+but if not then her children, heir to my shares in the common house,
+court, and rooms situate in the Cretan ward. All the furniture,
+movables, and household stock and other property whatever that I shall
+leave, I bequeath to the mother of my children and my wife Ptolema, the
+freedwoman of Demetrius, son of Hermippus, with the condition that
+she shall have for her lifetime the right of using, dwelling in, and
+building in the said house, court, and rooms. If Ammonous should die
+without children and intestate, the share of the fixtures shall belong
+to her half-brother on the mother's side, Anatas, if he survive, but if
+not, to... No one shall violate the terms of this my will under pain of
+paying to my daughter and heir Ammonous a fine of 1,000 drachmae and to
+the treasury an equal sum." Here follow the signatures of testator and
+witnesses, who are described, as in a passport, one of them as follows:
+"I, Dionysios, son of Dionysios of the same city, witness the will of
+Pekysis. I am forty-six years of age, have a curl over my right temple,
+and this is my seal of Dionysoplaton."
+</p>
+<p>
+During the Roman period, which we have now reached in our survey, the
+temple building of the Ptolemies was carried on with like energy. One of
+the best-known temples of the Roman period is that at Philse, which
+is known as the "Kiosk," or "Pharaoh's Bed." Owing to the great
+picturesqueness of its situation, this small temple, which was built in
+the reign of Trajan, has been a favourite subject for the painters of
+the last fifty years, and next to the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and Karnak,
+it is probably the most widely known of all Egyptian buildings. Recently
+it has come very much to the front for an additional reason. Like all
+the other temples of Philse, it had been arch�ologically surveyed and
+cleared by Col. H. Gr. Lyons and Dr. Borchardt, but further work of a
+far-reaching character was rendered necessary by the building of the
+great Aswan dam, below the island of Philse, one of the results of
+which has been the partial submergence of the island and its temples,
+including the picturesque Kiosk. The following account, taken from the
+new edition (1906) of Murray's <i>Guide to Egypt and the Sudan</i>, will
+suffice better than any other description to explain what the dam is,
+how it has affected Philse, and what work has been done to obviate the
+possibility of serious damage to the Kiosk and other buildings.
+</p>
+<p>
+"In 1898 the Egyptian government signed a contract with Messrs. John
+Aird &amp; Co. for the construction of the great reservoir and dam at
+Shell�l, which serves for the storage of water at the time of the flood
+Nile. The river is 'held up' here sixty-five feet above its old normal
+level. A great masonry dyke, 150 feet high in places, has been carried
+across the Bab el-Kebir of the First Cataract, and a canal and four
+locks, two hundred feet long and thirty feet wide, allow for the passage
+of traffic up and down the river.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0040"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%"
+      src="images/447.jpg"
+alt="447.jpg the Great Dam of Asw.n 
+">
+
+<pre>
+Showing Water Rushing
+Through The Sluices
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>
+The dam is 2,185 yards long and over ninety feet thick at the base; in
+places it rises one hundred feet above the bed of the river. It is built
+of the local red granite, and at each end the granite dam is built into
+the granite hillside. Seven hundred and eight thousand cubic yards of
+masonry were used. The sluices are 180 in number, and are arranged at
+four different levels. The sight of the great volume of water pouring
+through them is a very fine one. The Nile begins to rise in July, and at
+the end of November it is necessary to begin closing the sluice-gates
+to hold up the water. By the end of February the reservoir is usually
+filled and Phil� partially submerged, so that boats can sail in and out
+of the colonnades and Pharaoh's Bed. By the beginning of July the water
+has been distributed, and it then falls to its normal level.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is of course regrettable that the engineers were unable to find
+another site for the dam, as it seemed inevitable that some damage would
+result to the temples of Phil� from their partial submergence. Korosko
+was proposed as a site, but was rejected for cogent reasons, and
+apparently Shell�l was the only possible place. Further, no serious
+person, who places the greatest good of the greatest number above
+considerations of the picturesque and the 'interesting,' will deny
+that if it is necessary to sacrifice Phil� to the good of the people of
+Egypt, Phil� must go. 'Let the dead bury their dead.' The concern of the
+rulers of Egypt must be with the living people of Egypt rather than with
+the dead bones of the past; and they would not be doing their duty did
+they for a moment allow artistic and archaeological considerations to
+outweigh in their minds the practical necessities of the country. This
+does not in the least imply that they do not owe a lesser duty to the
+monuments of Egypt, which are among the most precious relics of the past
+history of mankind. They do owe this lesser duty, and with regard to
+Philae it has been conscientiously fulfilled. The whole temple, in order
+that its stability may be preserved under the stress of submersion, has
+been braced up and underpinned, under the superintendence of Mr. Ball,
+of the Survey Department, who has most efficiently carried out this
+important work, at a cost of �22,000.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0041"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/449.jpg" height="533" width="463"
+alt="449.jpg the Kiosk at Philae in Process of Underpinning
+And Restoration, January, 1902. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+Steel girders have been fixed across the island from quay to quay,
+and these have been surrounded by cement masonry, made water-tight
+by forcing in cement grout. Pharaoh's Bed and the colonnade have been
+firmly underpinned in cement masonry, and there is little doubt that the
+actual stability of Philae is now more certain than that of any other
+temple in Egypt. The only possible damage that can accrue to it is
+the partial discolouration of the lower courses of the stonework of
+Pharaoh's Bed, etc., which already bear a distinct high-water mark. Some
+surface disintegration from the formation of salt crystals is perhaps
+inevitable here, but the effects of this can always be neutralized
+by careful washing, which it should be an important charge of the
+Antiquities Department to regularly carry out."
+</p>
+<a name="image-0042"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/450.jpg" height="772" width="720"
+alt="450.jpg the Ancient Quay Op Phil�, November, 1904. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<pre>
+     This is entirely covered when the reservoir is full, and the
+     palm-trees are farther submerged.
+</pre>
+<p>
+The photographs accompanying the present chapter show the dam, the Kiosk
+in process of conservation and underpinning (1902), and the shores of
+the island as they now appear in the month of November, with the water
+nearly up to the level of the quays. A view is also given of the island
+of Konosso, with its inscriptions, as it is now. The island is simply a
+huge granite boulder of the kind characteristic of the neighbourhood of
+Shell�l (Phila?) and Aswan.
+</p>
+<p>
+On the island of Elephantine, opposite Aswan, an interesting discovery
+has lately been made by Mr. Howard Carter. This is a remarkable well,
+which was supposed by the ancients to lie immediately on the tropic. It
+formed the basis of Eratosthenes' calculations of the measurement of the
+earth. Important finds of documents written in Aramaic have also been
+made here; they show that there was on the island in Ptolemaic times a
+regular colony of Syrian merchants.
+</p>
+<p>
+South of Aswan and Philse begins Nubia. The Nubian language, which is
+quite different from Arabic, is spoken by everybody on the island of
+Elephantine, and its various dialects are used as far south as Dongola,
+where Arabic again is generally spoken till we reach the land of the
+negroes, south of Khartum. In Ptolemaic and Roman days the Nubians were
+a powerful people, and the whole of Nubia and the modern North Sudan
+formed an independent kingdom, ruled by queens who bore the title or
+name of Candace. It was the eunuch of a Candace who was converted to
+Christianity as he was returning from a mission to Jerusalem to salute
+Jehovah. "Go and join thyself unto his chariot" was the command to
+Philip, and when the Ethiopian had heard the gospel from his lips he
+went on his way rejoicing. The capital of this Candace was at Mero�, the
+modern Bagarawiya, near Shendi. Here, and at Naga not far off, are
+the remains of the temples of the Can-daces, great buildings of
+semi-barbaric Egyptian style. For the civilization of the Nubians, such
+as it was, was of Egyptian origin. Ever since Egyptian rule had been
+extended southwards to Jebel Barkal, beyond Dongola, in the time of
+Amenhetep II, Egyptian culture had influenced the Nubians. Amenhetep III
+built a temple to Amen at Napat�, the capital of Nubia, which lay
+under the shadow of Mount Barkal; Akhunaten erected a sanctuary of the
+Sun-Disk there; and Ramses II also built there.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0043"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/452.jpg" height="338" width="715"
+alt="452.jpg the Rook of Konosso in January, 1902, Before The
+Building of the Dam and Formation Of The Reservoir. 
+">
+</center>
+
+<p>
+The place in fact was a sort of appanage of the priests of Amen at
+Thebes, and when the last priest-king evacuated Thebes, leaving it to
+the Bubastites of the XXIId Dynasty, it was to distant Napata that he
+retired. Here a priestly dynasty continued to reign until, two centuries
+later, the troubles and misfortunes of Egypt seemed to afford an
+opportunity for the reassertion of the exiled Theban power. Piankhi
+Mera-men returned to Egypt in triumph as its rightful sovereign, but his
+successors, Shabak, Shabatak, and Tirha-kah, had to contend constantly
+with the Assyrians. Finally ITrdamaneh, Tirhakah's successor, returned
+to Nubia, leaving Egypt, in the decadence of the Assyrian might, free to
+lead a quiet existence under Psametik I and the succeeding monarchs of
+the XXVIth Dynasty. When Cambyses conquered Egypt he aspired to conquer
+Nubia also, but his army was routed and destroyed by the Napatan king,
+who tells us in an inscription how he defeated "the man Kambasauden,"
+who had attacked him. At Napata the Nubian monarchs, one of the greatest
+of whom in Ptolemaic times was Ergam-enes, a contemporary of Ptolemy
+Philopator, continued to reign. But the first Roman governor of Egypt,
+�lius Gallus, destroyed Napata, and the Nubians removed their capital
+to Mero�, where the Candaces reigned.
+</p>
+<p>
+The monuments of this Nubian kingdom, the temples of Jebel Barkal, the
+pyramids of Nure close by, the pyramids of Bagarawiya, the temples of
+Wadi Ben Naga, Mesawwarat en-Naga, and Mesawwarat es-Sufra ("Mesawwarat"
+proper), were originally investigated by Cailliaud and afterwards by
+Lepsius. During the last few years they and the pyramids excavated by
+Dr. E. A. Wallis-Budge, of the British Museum, for the Sudan government,
+have been again explored. As the results of his work are not yet
+fully published, it is possible at present only to quote the following
+description from Cook's <i>Handbook for Egypt and the Sudan</i> (by Dr.
+Budge), p. 6, of work on the pyramids of Jebel Barkal: "the writer
+excavated the shafts of one of the pyramids here in 1897, and at the
+depth of about twenty-five cubits found a group of three chambers, in
+one of which were a number of bones of the sheep which was sacrificed
+there about two thousand years ago, and also portions of a broken
+amphora which had held Rho-dian wine. A second shaft, which led to the
+mummy-chamber, was partly emptied, but at a further depth of twenty
+cubits water was found. The high-water mark of the reservoir when full
+is &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; and, as there were no visible means for pumping it out, the
+mummy-chamber could not be entered." With regard to the Bagaraw�ya
+pyramids, Dr. Budge writes, on p. 700 of the same work, � propos of the
+story of the Italian Ferlini that he found Roman jewelry in one of these
+pyramids: "In 1903 the writer excavated a number of the pyramids of
+Mero� for the Governor-General of the Sudan, Sir F. R. Wingate, and
+he is convinced that the statements made by Ferlini are the result of
+misapprehension on his part. The pyramids are solid throughout, and the
+bodies are buried under them. When the details are complete the proofs
+for this will be published." Dr. Budge has also written upon the subject
+of the orientation of the Jebel Barkal and Nure pyramids.
+</p>
+<a name="image-0044"><!--IMG--></a>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+        <img width="100%"
+        src="images/454.jpg"
+alt="454.jpg the Isle of Konosso, With Its Inscriptions 
+">
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>
+It is very curious to find the pyramids reappearing in Egyptian
+tomb-architecture in the very latest period of Egyptian history. We
+find them when Egyptian civilization was just entering upon its vigorous
+manhood, then they gradually disappear, only to revive in its decadent
+and exiled old age. The Ethiopian pyramids are all of much more
+elongated form than the old Egyptian ones. It is possible that they may
+be a survival of the archaistic movement of the XXVIth Dynasty, to which
+we have already referred.
+</p>
+<p>
+These are not the latest Egyptian monuments in the Sudan, nor are the
+temples of Naga and Mesawwarat the most ancient, though they belong
+to the Roman period and are decidedly barbarian as to their style and,
+especially, as to their decoration. The southernmost as well as latest
+relic of Egypt in the Sudan is the Christian church of Soba, on the Blue
+Mie, a few miles above Khartum. In it was found a stone ram, an emblem
+of Amen-R�, which had formerly stood in the temple of Naga and had been
+brought to Soba perhaps under the impression that it was the Christian
+Lamb. It was removed to the garden of the governor-general's palace at
+Khartum, where it now stands.
+</p>
+<p>
+The church at Soba is a relic of the Christian kingdom of Alua, which
+succeeded the realm of the Candaces. One of its chief seats was at
+Dongola, and all Nubia is covered with the ruins of its churches. It
+was, of course, an offshoot of the Christianity of Egypt, but a late
+one, since Isis was still worshipped at Philse in the sixth century,
+long after the Edict of Theodosius had officially abolished paganism
+throughout the Roman world, and the Nubians were at first zealous
+votaries of the goddess of Philo. So also when Egypt fell beneath the
+sway of the Moslem in the seventh century, Nubia remained an independent
+Christian state, and continued so down to the twelfth century, when the
+soldiers of Islam conquered the country.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of late pagan and early Christian Egypt very much that is new has been
+discovered during the last few years. The period of the Lower Empire
+has yielded much to the explorers of Oxyrrhynchus, and many papyri of
+interest belonging to this period have been published by Mr. Kenyon in
+his <i>Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the British Museum</i>, especially
+the letters of Flavius Abin�us, a military officer of the fourth
+century. The papyri of this period are full of the high-flown titles
+and affected phraseology which was so beloved of Byzantine scribes.
+"Glorious Dukes of the Theba�d," "most magnificent counts and
+lieutenants," "all-praiseworthy secretaries," and the like strut across
+the pages of the letters and documents which begin "In the name of Our
+Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the God and Saviour of us all, in
+the year x of the reign of the most divine and praised, great, and
+beneficent Lord Flavius Heraclius (or other) the eternal Augustus and
+Auto-krator, month x, year x of the In diction." It is an extraordinary
+period, this of the sixth and seventh centuries, which we have now
+entered, with its bizarre combination of the official titulary of
+the divine and eternal C�sars Imperatores Augusti with the initial
+invocation of Christ and the Trinity. It is the transition from the
+ancient to the modern world, and as such has an interest all its own.
+</p>
+<p>
+In Egypt the struggle between the adherents of Chalcedon, the "Melkites"
+or Imperialists of the orthodox Greek rite, and the Eutychians or
+Mono-physites, the followers of the patriarch Dioskoros, who rejected
+Chalcedon, was going on with unabated fury, and was hardly stopped even
+by the invasion of the pagan Persians. The last effort of the party of
+Constantinople to stamp out the Monophysite heresy was made when Cyril
+was patriarch and governor of Egypt. According to an ingenious theory
+put forward by Mr. Butler, in his <i>Arab Conquest of Egypt</i>, it is Cyril
+the patriarch who was the mysterious Mukaukas, the [Greek word], or
+"Great and Magnificent One," who played so doubtful a part in the
+epoch-making events of the Arab conquest by Amr in A.D. 639-41. Usually
+this Mukaukas has been regarded as a "noble Copt," and the Copts have
+generally been credited with having assisted the Islamites against
+the power of Constantinople. This was a very natural and probable
+conclusion, but Mr. Butler will have it that the Copts resisted the
+Arabs valiantly, and that the treacherous Mukaukas was none other than
+the Constantinopolitan patriarch himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the papyri it is interesting to note the gradual increase of Arab
+names after the conquest, more especially in those of the Archduke
+Rainer 's collection from the Fayy�m, which was so near the new capital
+city, Fust�t. In Upper Egypt the change was not noticeable for a long
+time, and in the great collection of Coptic <i>ostraka</i> (inscriptions on
+slips of limestone and sherds of pottery, used as a substitute for paper
+or parchment), found in the ruins of the Coptic monastery established,
+on the temple site of D�r el-Bahari, we find no Arab names. These
+documents, part of which have been published by Mr. W. E. Crum for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund, while another part will shortly be issued for
+the trustees of the British Museum by Mr. Hall, date to the seventh and
+eighth centuries. Their contents resemble those of the earlier papyri
+from Oxyrrhynchus, though they are not of so varied a nature and are
+generally written by persons of less intelligence, i.e. the monks and
+peasants of the monasteries and villages of Tj�me, or Western Thebes.
+During the late excavation of the XIth Dynasty temple of D�r el-Bahari,
+more of these <i>ostraka</i> were found, which will be published for the
+Egypt Exploration Fund by Messrs. Naville and Hall. Of actual buildings
+of the Coptic period the most important excavations have been those of
+the French School of Cairo at B�w�t, north of Asy�t. This work, which
+was carried on by M. Jean Cl�dat, has resulted in the discovery of very
+important frescoes and funerary inscriptions, belonging to the monastery
+of a famous martyr, St. Apollo. With these new discoveries of Christian
+Egypt our work reaches its fitting close. The frontier which divides the
+ancient from the modern world has almost been crossed. We look back from
+the monastery of B�w�t down a long vista of new discoveries until, four
+thousand years before, we see again the Great Heads coming to the Tomb
+of Den, Narmer inspecting the bodies of the dead Northerners, and,
+far away in Babylonia, Nar�m-Sin crossing the mountains of the East to
+conquer Elam, or leading his allies against the prince of Sinai.
+</p>
+<p>
+THE END.
+
+
+
+<center>
+PART 13D.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ 
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="volume1.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Previous Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ 
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+
+<br /> <br />
+
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/orig17321-h/volume1.htm b/old/orig17321-h/volume1.htm
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/old/orig17321-h/volume1.htm
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>
+    Maspero's History of Egypt, Volume 13
+    by L. W. King and H. R. Hall
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+		body {background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { margin:10%;
+		    text-indent:   1em;
+        margin-top:    .75em;
+        margin-bottom: .75em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; }
+		hr  { width: 50%; }
+    hr.full { width: 100%; }
+    .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 95%; }
+		img {border: 0;}
+    HR  { width: 33%; text-align: center; }
+		blockquote {font-size: 97%; }
+		.figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;}
+    CENTER { padding: 10px;}
+		PRE    { font-size: 90%; margin-left: 20%;}
+    // -->
+</style>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+
+<br />
+<center>
+Volume XIII.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1a.htm">Part A.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Part B.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Part C.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1d.htm">Part D.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+<br />
+
+
+<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/spines.jpg" height="967" width="652"
+alt="Book Spines 
+">
+</center>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<center>
+<img alt="cover (168K)" src="images/cover.jpg" height="1012" width="728" />
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+<h1>
+    HISTORY OF EGYPT
+</h1>
+<center>
+CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+</center>
+<center>
+IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERY
+</center>
+<center><b>
+BY L. W. KING and H. R. HALL
+</b></center>
+<center>
+<p>
+Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum
+</p>
+<p>
+Containing over 1200 colored plates and illustrations.
+</p>
+<p>
+Copyright 1906
+</p>
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="936" width="625"
+alt="Frontispiece1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/frontispiece1-text.jpg" height="171" width="520"
+alt="Frontispiece1-text 
+">
+</center>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/titlepage1.jpg" height="1198" width="756"
+alt="Titlepage1 
+">
+</center>
+
+<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a>
+<center>
+<img src="images/versa1.jpg" height="730" width="511"
+alt="Versa1 
+">
+</center>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<h2>Listing of Special Color Plates and Photographs</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr><td>
+Stele of Vultures</td><td><a href="v1a.htm#image-0013">In Context&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/038.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+Stele of Victory</td><td><a href="v1b.htm#image-0014">In Context</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/160a.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+Statue of Queen Teta-shera&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="v1d.htm#image-0013">In Context</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/338.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+Wall Painting</td><td><a href="v1d.htm#image-0018">In Context</a>
+</td><td><a href="images/358.jpg">Quick Image</a></td></tr><tr><td>
+
+
+</table>
+</center>
+
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr><td>
+
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0001">
+PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_PREF">
+PREFACE
+</a></p>
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1a.htm">PART I.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1a.htm#2H_4_0003">
+EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1a.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER I&mdash;THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC EGYPT
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1a.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER II&mdash;ABYDOS AND THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1b.htm">PART II.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1b.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER III&mdash;MEMPHIS AND THE PYRAMIDS
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1b.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER IV&mdash;RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN WESTERN ASIA AND THE DAWN OF CHALD�AN HISTORY
+</a></p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1c.htm">PART III.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1c.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER V&mdash;ELAM AND BABYLON, THE COUNTRY OF THE SEA AND THE KASSITES
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1c.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER VI&mdash;EARLY BABYLONIAN LIFE AND CUSTOMS
+</a></p>
+<br />
+
+<p><big><b><a href="v1d.htm">PART IV.</a></b></big></p>
+
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1d.htm#2HCH0001">
+CHAPTER VII&mdash;TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF THEBES
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1d.htm#2HCH0002">
+CHAPTER VIII&mdash;THE ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRES IN THE LIGHT OF
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="v1d.htm#2HCH0003">
+CHAPTER IX&mdash;THE LAST DAYS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
+</a></p>
+
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr>
+
+<a name="2H_4_0001"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+<h2>
+    PUBLISHERS' NOTE
+</h2>
+<p>
+It should be noted that many of the monuments and sites of excavations
+in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Kurdistan described in this volume
+have been visited by the authors in connection with their own work in
+those countries. The greater number of the photographs here published
+were taken by the authors themselves. Their thanks are due to M. Ernest
+Leroux, of Paris, for his kind permission to reproduce a certain number
+of plates from the works of M. de Morgan, illustrating his recent
+discoveries in Egypt and Persia, and to Messrs. W. A. Mansell &amp; Co., of
+London, for kindly allowing them to make use of a number of photographs
+issued by them.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_PREF"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br><br><br><br></div>
+
+<h2>
+    PREFACE
+</h2>
+<p>
+The present volume contains an account of the most important additions
+which have been made to our knowledge of the ancient history of Egypt
+and Western Asia during the few years which have elapsed since the
+publication of Prof. Maspero's <i>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
+l'Orient Classique</i>, and includes short descriptions of the excavations
+from which these results have been obtained. It is in no sense a
+connected and continuous history of these countries, for that has
+already been written by Prof. Maspero, but is rather intended as an
+appendix or addendum to his work, briefly recapitulating and describing
+the discoveries made since its appearance. On this account we
+have followed a geographical rather than a chronological system of
+arrangement, but at the same time the attempt has been made to suggest
+to the mind of the reader the historical sequence of events.
+</p>
+<p>
+At no period have excavations been pursued with more energy and
+activity, both in Egypt and Western Asia, than at the present time, and
+every season's work obliges us to modify former theories, and extends
+our knowledge of periods of history which even ten years ago were
+unknown to the historian. For instance, a whole chapter has been added
+to Egyptian history by the discovery of the Neolithic culture of the
+primitive Egyptians, while the recent excavations at Susa are revealing
+a hitherto totally unsuspected epoch of proto-Elamite civilization.
+Further than this, we have discovered the relics of the oldest
+historical kings of Egypt, and we are now enabled to reconstitute from
+material as yet unpublished the inter-relations of the early dynasties
+of Babylon. Important discoveries have also been made with regard to
+isolated points in the later historical periods. We have therefore
+attempted to include the most important of these in our survey of recent
+excavations and their results. We would again remind the reader that
+Prof. Maspero's great work must be consulted for the complete history of
+the period, the present volume being, not a connected history of Egypt
+and Western Asia, but a description and discussion of the manner in
+which recent discovery and research have added to and modified our
+conceptions of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization.
+</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<br />
+<center>
+Volume XIII.
+
+<table summary="" border="3" cellpadding="4">
+<tbody><tr><td>
+ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1a.htm">Part A.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1b.htm">Part B.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1c.htm">Part C.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td><td>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="v1d.htm">Part D.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+</td></tr>
+</tbody></table>
+</center>
+<br />
+
+
+</body>
+</html>