DOI Artikel:
Griffith, Francis Ll.: Progress of Egyptology: archaeology, hieroglyphic studies, etc. : F. Ll. Griffith
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12051#0032
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Progress of Egyptology.
follows :—Mr. Garstang and Mr. Harold Jones completed the excavation
begun last year at Esneh. The cemetery there yielded a continuous series
of antiquities, from the Xllth Dynasty through the Hyksos period to the
middle of the XVfflth Dynasty. The continuity of types throughout was
remarkable; and the evidence, according to Mr. G-arstaxg, suggests that the
period between the Xllth and the XVIIIth Dynasties was about two-
thirds as long as the Xllth Dynasty, assuming that the population did not
decrease. Esneh flourished again from about the XXth Dynasty onwards.
While these excavations were going on, a systematic exploration was
made of the desert to the south of Esneh for a distance of sixty miles. At
Hieraconpolis Mr. Jones found the missing head of a fine early figure in
lapis lazuli discovered on the same site by Mr. Quibell in 1698 and
now in the Ashmolean Museum. Camp was then moved into Nubia in the
hope of getting beyond the reach of modern plunderers, and of perhaps
being able to distinguish those features of Early Egyptian culture which
might be considered African rather than Asiatic in origin. Excavations
were made at Kubban and at Dakkeh; but the chief interest attaches to
an undisturbed necropolis at Kostamneh, a few miles to the north of
Dakkeh. Some 200 graves were excavated here, and a complete record of
them made with photographs and notes of every feature of interest which
they disclosed. As yet it is impossible to fix their age.
It may be said that in many respects the objects and funeral customs
reveal a close analogy with pre-dynastic and early dynastic people of Upper
Egypt; but at the same time many vases of pottery were found which
seemed to resemble more closely those sporadic examples which are found
intruding themselves into the Egyptian graves lower down the Nile during
the XHtli Dynasty, or thereabouts, and have been generally attributed by
archaeologists to a re-incursion of some element of the primeval popu-
lation.
These discoveries open up a jiroblem of extreme interest connected with
the early days of the Egyptian civilization. They suggest, in short, that
possibly the primitive type of Egyptian culture, as illustrated in the now
familiar graves of pre-dynastic and archaic times in Central Egypt, may
have persevered and continued in these remoter districts of Upper Egypt,
not merely into the early and historic phase after the founding of the
monarchy, but far down into the Dynasties, possibly even to the Xllth
Dynasty, or later. These considerations are considerably illuminated by
the remarkable survivals in modern Nubia of many small features of the
Egyptian civilization, which is illustrated even by the hair-dressing of the
girls and the manner in which the bread is prepared for baking.
Progress of Egyptology.
follows :—Mr. Garstang and Mr. Harold Jones completed the excavation
begun last year at Esneh. The cemetery there yielded a continuous series
of antiquities, from the Xllth Dynasty through the Hyksos period to the
middle of the XVfflth Dynasty. The continuity of types throughout was
remarkable; and the evidence, according to Mr. G-arstaxg, suggests that the
period between the Xllth and the XVIIIth Dynasties was about two-
thirds as long as the Xllth Dynasty, assuming that the population did not
decrease. Esneh flourished again from about the XXth Dynasty onwards.
While these excavations were going on, a systematic exploration was
made of the desert to the south of Esneh for a distance of sixty miles. At
Hieraconpolis Mr. Jones found the missing head of a fine early figure in
lapis lazuli discovered on the same site by Mr. Quibell in 1698 and
now in the Ashmolean Museum. Camp was then moved into Nubia in the
hope of getting beyond the reach of modern plunderers, and of perhaps
being able to distinguish those features of Early Egyptian culture which
might be considered African rather than Asiatic in origin. Excavations
were made at Kubban and at Dakkeh; but the chief interest attaches to
an undisturbed necropolis at Kostamneh, a few miles to the north of
Dakkeh. Some 200 graves were excavated here, and a complete record of
them made with photographs and notes of every feature of interest which
they disclosed. As yet it is impossible to fix their age.
It may be said that in many respects the objects and funeral customs
reveal a close analogy with pre-dynastic and early dynastic people of Upper
Egypt; but at the same time many vases of pottery were found which
seemed to resemble more closely those sporadic examples which are found
intruding themselves into the Egyptian graves lower down the Nile during
the XHtli Dynasty, or thereabouts, and have been generally attributed by
archaeologists to a re-incursion of some element of the primeval popu-
lation.
These discoveries open up a jiroblem of extreme interest connected with
the early days of the Egyptian civilization. They suggest, in short, that
possibly the primitive type of Egyptian culture, as illustrated in the now
familiar graves of pre-dynastic and archaic times in Central Egypt, may
have persevered and continued in these remoter districts of Upper Egypt,
not merely into the early and historic phase after the founding of the
monarchy, but far down into the Dynasties, possibly even to the Xllth
Dynasty, or later. These considerations are considerably illuminated by
the remarkable survivals in modern Nubia of many small features of the
Egyptian civilization, which is illustrated even by the hair-dressing of the
girls and the manner in which the bread is prepared for baking.