DOI article:
Griffith, Francis Ll.: Progress of Egyptology, [1]: Hieroglyphic Studies, etc., 1892-3
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10054#0032
18
Progress of Egyptology.
name. It has long been supposed that the Hyksos power hardly ex-
tended to Upper Egypt; it is therefore of great interest to find the
name of one of the two Apepis—the same that is known from the Mathe-
matical Papyrus—as far south as Gebelen, above Thebes. The cartouche
is published in the Eecueil de Travaux, xiv., p. 26. The fact agrees
well with the account in the Sallier Papyrus of the British Museum,
which represents Apepi as supreme, and Sekenenra as a vassal prince in
Thebes, all Egypt paying tribute to the Hyksos ruler.
Certain chronology commences with the XVIIIth dynasty. One of the
most valuable pieces of evidence is that of the calendar on the verso of
the Ebers Medical Papyrus. This records a propitious coincidence
between the Sothic year and the Solar year, which can be easily
identified, with the help of astronomy, as having taken place in the years
b.c. 90-87, 1550-1547, and 3010-3007. According to the papyrus, the
coincidence happened in the ninth year of a certain king, whose name
long baffled decipherers; but Professor Erman and others have shown
beyond question that it is a cursive rendering of the prenomen of
Amenhotep L, second king of the XVIIIth dynasty. Thus our know-
ledge of the approximate date of the XVIIIth dynasty enables us to fix
the ninth year of Amenhotep I. in or about the years b.c. 1550-1547.
About a century later were written those famous cuneiform tablets
which were found at Tell el Amarna, and which record the correspondence
between the two Pharaohs, Amenhotep III., and Amenhotep IV.
(Khuenaten), and their officers in Syria, as well as the kings of Mitanni
and Babylonia. The whole of these (excepting a few fragments dis-
covered last year by Professor Petrie in the ruins of the house that
belonged to the cuneiform scribe of Pharaoh's court) have now been
published in facsimile, and it will perhaps be long before any more are
found in Egypt. The fact of a similar tablet having been dug up in the
ruins of Lachish (Tell el Hesy) by Mr. Bliss, working for the Palestine
Exploration Fund, is well known, and is one of the most remarkable
coincidences of discovery on record.
Considering the state of the palace and temple at Tell el Aniarna, the
exhibition of Professor Petrie's discoveries held at Oxford Mansion last
year was extraordinarily rich. By carefully clearing the whole area he
had accumulated fragments of statues and chips of architectural decora-
tion in stone and glazed pottery, which reveal new styles and methods of
workmanship carried to an excess of luxury and perfection. In some
cases the walls were actually inlaid with hieroglyphs of alabaster, granite,
and obsidian, and the columns were encased in moulded pottery. The
Progress of Egyptology.
name. It has long been supposed that the Hyksos power hardly ex-
tended to Upper Egypt; it is therefore of great interest to find the
name of one of the two Apepis—the same that is known from the Mathe-
matical Papyrus—as far south as Gebelen, above Thebes. The cartouche
is published in the Eecueil de Travaux, xiv., p. 26. The fact agrees
well with the account in the Sallier Papyrus of the British Museum,
which represents Apepi as supreme, and Sekenenra as a vassal prince in
Thebes, all Egypt paying tribute to the Hyksos ruler.
Certain chronology commences with the XVIIIth dynasty. One of the
most valuable pieces of evidence is that of the calendar on the verso of
the Ebers Medical Papyrus. This records a propitious coincidence
between the Sothic year and the Solar year, which can be easily
identified, with the help of astronomy, as having taken place in the years
b.c. 90-87, 1550-1547, and 3010-3007. According to the papyrus, the
coincidence happened in the ninth year of a certain king, whose name
long baffled decipherers; but Professor Erman and others have shown
beyond question that it is a cursive rendering of the prenomen of
Amenhotep L, second king of the XVIIIth dynasty. Thus our know-
ledge of the approximate date of the XVIIIth dynasty enables us to fix
the ninth year of Amenhotep I. in or about the years b.c. 1550-1547.
About a century later were written those famous cuneiform tablets
which were found at Tell el Amarna, and which record the correspondence
between the two Pharaohs, Amenhotep III., and Amenhotep IV.
(Khuenaten), and their officers in Syria, as well as the kings of Mitanni
and Babylonia. The whole of these (excepting a few fragments dis-
covered last year by Professor Petrie in the ruins of the house that
belonged to the cuneiform scribe of Pharaoh's court) have now been
published in facsimile, and it will perhaps be long before any more are
found in Egypt. The fact of a similar tablet having been dug up in the
ruins of Lachish (Tell el Hesy) by Mr. Bliss, working for the Palestine
Exploration Fund, is well known, and is one of the most remarkable
coincidences of discovery on record.
Considering the state of the palace and temple at Tell el Aniarna, the
exhibition of Professor Petrie's discoveries held at Oxford Mansion last
year was extraordinarily rich. By carefully clearing the whole area he
had accumulated fragments of statues and chips of architectural decora-
tion in stone and glazed pottery, which reveal new styles and methods of
workmanship carried to an excess of luxury and perfection. In some
cases the walls were actually inlaid with hieroglyphs of alabaster, granite,
and obsidian, and the columns were encased in moulded pottery. The