DOI Artikel:
Griffith, Francis Ll.: Progress of Egyptology, [11]: Archeology, Hieroglyphic Studies, etc.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10056#0032
II.—PROG-BESS * OF EGYPTOLOGY.
A.—ARCHAEOLOGY, HIEROGLYPHIC STUDIES, ETC.
Explobations have been actively carried on in Egypt during the past year.
M. Am elineau especially is to be congratulated on the great good fortune
that has attended his first season's work. The results of his excavations at
Abydos recall the sensational discoveries of the days of Mariette : but
at the same time one recollects that Mariette's work, fruitful as it was
for the exhibition rooms of the Bulaq Museum, was done at a frightful
cost of scientific ma-terial. We trust that excavators of the present
day better recognize the responsibilities of their position, and that M.
Am elineau, having secured so great and important a site, will prove him-
self equal to the magnitude of his heavy task, conducting and reporting
upon his excavations in full accordance with the growing demands of
archaeology for exhaustive method in the search and for accuracy and
completeness in the record.
The year has been less prolific in editions of texts copied from
monuments in situ. Surveying, in the widest sense of the word, is
perhaps the most valuable work that can be done in Egyptology,
and we trust that there has been no diminution of such labour by com-
petent persons, but rather an increase : if the publication of the results
is accomplished more slowly, this may perhaps be attributed to a growing
dissatisfaction with the hasty issue of copies badly made to begin with,
and worse printed. Too often, almost every third sign in the printed
texts has had to be corrected according to probabilities by the would-be
reader. During the last twelve months very little thoroughly bad work
has been published, although there is certainly one glaring example in
two terrible volumes. Naturally such work is most noticeable from
the country in which the study of Egyptology is supported by the
Government, and where at one time a foundation offers prizes that tempt
the pot-boiler, while at another a Government Commission compels the
carrying out of a programme in some form, whether good or bad. . Bad
scientific books appearing under official sanction are vastly more
A.—ARCHAEOLOGY, HIEROGLYPHIC STUDIES, ETC.
Explobations have been actively carried on in Egypt during the past year.
M. Am elineau especially is to be congratulated on the great good fortune
that has attended his first season's work. The results of his excavations at
Abydos recall the sensational discoveries of the days of Mariette : but
at the same time one recollects that Mariette's work, fruitful as it was
for the exhibition rooms of the Bulaq Museum, was done at a frightful
cost of scientific ma-terial. We trust that excavators of the present
day better recognize the responsibilities of their position, and that M.
Am elineau, having secured so great and important a site, will prove him-
self equal to the magnitude of his heavy task, conducting and reporting
upon his excavations in full accordance with the growing demands of
archaeology for exhaustive method in the search and for accuracy and
completeness in the record.
The year has been less prolific in editions of texts copied from
monuments in situ. Surveying, in the widest sense of the word, is
perhaps the most valuable work that can be done in Egyptology,
and we trust that there has been no diminution of such labour by com-
petent persons, but rather an increase : if the publication of the results
is accomplished more slowly, this may perhaps be attributed to a growing
dissatisfaction with the hasty issue of copies badly made to begin with,
and worse printed. Too often, almost every third sign in the printed
texts has had to be corrected according to probabilities by the would-be
reader. During the last twelve months very little thoroughly bad work
has been published, although there is certainly one glaring example in
two terrible volumes. Naturally such work is most noticeable from
the country in which the study of Egyptology is supported by the
Government, and where at one time a foundation offers prizes that tempt
the pot-boiler, while at another a Government Commission compels the
carrying out of a programme in some form, whether good or bad. . Bad
scientific books appearing under official sanction are vastly more