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#0033
Progress of Egyptology.
19
■wall of a private dwelling was marvellously painted, and happily a scrap
survived to show the style. The floors of three rooms in the harim
quarter of the palace were in good condition, covered with paintings of
birds and flowers. These remain in situ, carefully cleaned and guarded,
while specimens of most of the other objects found, including a good
series of the so-called " Aegean " pottery, were in the exhibition.
The duration of the reign of Khuenaten has hitherto been quite un-
certain. A papyrus from Gurob gives the date of the fifth year of
Amenhotep IV. ; in the sixth year we find him under the name of
Khuenaten, at the building of his new capital of Khutaten (Tell el
Amarna), and a date of the eighth year was known there. But a long
series of fragments of inscribed wine-jars from the above exhibition,
prove that the last year of his reign was the seventeenth.
An excellent photograph of the best preserved of the stelae of King
Khuenaten, marking out the limits of the territory of Khutaten, has
been reproduced in the Jiecueil de Travaux, vol. xiv., and the text
restored from other examples by M. Daressy. The text is important,
while the copies of it previously published were extremely illegible.
A fine cast of this stela was exhibited at Oxford Mansion by Professor
Petrie.
For the later histoi-y, after the XVIIIth dynasty, there is little to note.
A native scholar, Abdallah Simaika—a Copt—has written a critical
and well-arranged Essai sur la Province Romaine d'Egypte depute la
Conquete jusqu'a Diocle/ieu. The nationality of the writer is of more
importance even than the results of his studies, excellent as they are.
It almost makes us hope that the best traditions of that progressive
literary class at Cairo (which produced Makrizi, Suyuti and a host of
other investigators in the Middle Ages) may some day be revived so
that it may again take a leading place in the world in treating of the
manners, history, and antiquities of its own country. This, however,
will need first the sweeping away of a vast amount of picturesque and
deeply ingrained prejudice.
Geography.
The map of Lower Egypt in this volume, shows the sites that have
been identified. The latest addition is that by Prof. Naville placing
the Egyptian Bah at Tell Baklieh. The Victe. J. de Rouge's Geographic
des nomes de la Basse Egypte is the most recent publication on the sub-
ject of the Ancient Geography of the Delta, to which the excavations of
d 2
19
■wall of a private dwelling was marvellously painted, and happily a scrap
survived to show the style. The floors of three rooms in the harim
quarter of the palace were in good condition, covered with paintings of
birds and flowers. These remain in situ, carefully cleaned and guarded,
while specimens of most of the other objects found, including a good
series of the so-called " Aegean " pottery, were in the exhibition.
The duration of the reign of Khuenaten has hitherto been quite un-
certain. A papyrus from Gurob gives the date of the fifth year of
Amenhotep IV. ; in the sixth year we find him under the name of
Khuenaten, at the building of his new capital of Khutaten (Tell el
Amarna), and a date of the eighth year was known there. But a long
series of fragments of inscribed wine-jars from the above exhibition,
prove that the last year of his reign was the seventeenth.
An excellent photograph of the best preserved of the stelae of King
Khuenaten, marking out the limits of the territory of Khutaten, has
been reproduced in the Jiecueil de Travaux, vol. xiv., and the text
restored from other examples by M. Daressy. The text is important,
while the copies of it previously published were extremely illegible.
A fine cast of this stela was exhibited at Oxford Mansion by Professor
Petrie.
For the later histoi-y, after the XVIIIth dynasty, there is little to note.
A native scholar, Abdallah Simaika—a Copt—has written a critical
and well-arranged Essai sur la Province Romaine d'Egypte depute la
Conquete jusqu'a Diocle/ieu. The nationality of the writer is of more
importance even than the results of his studies, excellent as they are.
It almost makes us hope that the best traditions of that progressive
literary class at Cairo (which produced Makrizi, Suyuti and a host of
other investigators in the Middle Ages) may some day be revived so
that it may again take a leading place in the world in treating of the
manners, history, and antiquities of its own country. This, however,
will need first the sweeping away of a vast amount of picturesque and
deeply ingrained prejudice.
Geography.
The map of Lower Egypt in this volume, shows the sites that have
been identified. The latest addition is that by Prof. Naville placing
the Egyptian Bah at Tell Baklieh. The Victe. J. de Rouge's Geographic
des nomes de la Basse Egypte is the most recent publication on the sub-
ject of the Ancient Geography of the Delta, to which the excavations of
d 2