DOI article:
Griffith, Francis Ll.: Progress of Egyptology: archaeology, hieroglyphic studies, etc.
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12423#0028
18
Peogbess of Egyptology.
nearly a hundred plates of photographs and drawings, including a
considerable number of inscriptions previously unrecorded (cf. the last
Arch. Rep., p. 16). Two Meroitic texts are figured, but the camera by
exception has treated them very badly.
Two Bulletins have been issued by The Archaeological Survey of Nubia,
which is proceeding under the direction of Captain H. G-. Lyons. The
first describes the work done down to the end of last November. Dr.
Beisneb, in charge of the Survey, superintended the excavations, assisted
by Mr. Pieth and Mr. Blackman. For the present, until the completion
of the new works, the danger to antiquities is limited to a possible raising
of the water-level by 1^ metres, and it was ascertained that this threatens
the land only as far south as Dakka, a distance of 80 miles. To begin
with, between the Dam and the end of the island of El Hessa, in a length of
only two miles, no less than eleven cemeteries were found, the examination
of which occupied more than two months. The antiquities discovered, as
was anticipated, were of no great value : but the evidence obtained by the
careful records of Dr. Beisneu, and from the observations of Dr. Elliot
Smith and Mr. Wood Jones on the mummies and skeletons, are of first-
rate importance. The ages of the burials could be distinguished by
analogies from Egyptian soil. The earliest group precisely resembles the
prehistoric Egyptians both in skeletons and antiquities : the next,
belonging to the age of the Old Kingdom, shows "a strong negro (or
Nubian ?) mixture," and the periods of the Middle Kingdom and the
Empire are similarly represented. There are cemeteries of slaves, of
criminals put to death by hanging, etc., and of foreign Christian monks.
Among the last occurs the only recorded instance of gout on a body
from Egypt, and another late cemetery furnished an example of
appendicitis.
The second Bulletin brings the record down to the end of the season
(March 31). Beyond the neighbourhood of Philae progress was naturally
more rapid, although several important sites were investigated. In all
about 25 miles have now been searched on both banks. An additional
assistant was appointed to aid in collecting and examining the vast
numbers of bodies and skeletons discovered: to deal with the archaeo-
logical material was comparatively easy for the practised hand of Dr.
Eeisner and his excellently trained men. Of inscriptions none were
found beyond some Greek stelae in a Christian cemetery at Ginari near
Kardassy. Altogether, however, the results are most important and
interesting. By the deposits of alluvium it is found that the Nile level
had sunk before the earliest prehistoric graves were made, and that
Peogbess of Egyptology.
nearly a hundred plates of photographs and drawings, including a
considerable number of inscriptions previously unrecorded (cf. the last
Arch. Rep., p. 16). Two Meroitic texts are figured, but the camera by
exception has treated them very badly.
Two Bulletins have been issued by The Archaeological Survey of Nubia,
which is proceeding under the direction of Captain H. G-. Lyons. The
first describes the work done down to the end of last November. Dr.
Beisneb, in charge of the Survey, superintended the excavations, assisted
by Mr. Pieth and Mr. Blackman. For the present, until the completion
of the new works, the danger to antiquities is limited to a possible raising
of the water-level by 1^ metres, and it was ascertained that this threatens
the land only as far south as Dakka, a distance of 80 miles. To begin
with, between the Dam and the end of the island of El Hessa, in a length of
only two miles, no less than eleven cemeteries were found, the examination
of which occupied more than two months. The antiquities discovered, as
was anticipated, were of no great value : but the evidence obtained by the
careful records of Dr. Beisneu, and from the observations of Dr. Elliot
Smith and Mr. Wood Jones on the mummies and skeletons, are of first-
rate importance. The ages of the burials could be distinguished by
analogies from Egyptian soil. The earliest group precisely resembles the
prehistoric Egyptians both in skeletons and antiquities : the next,
belonging to the age of the Old Kingdom, shows "a strong negro (or
Nubian ?) mixture," and the periods of the Middle Kingdom and the
Empire are similarly represented. There are cemeteries of slaves, of
criminals put to death by hanging, etc., and of foreign Christian monks.
Among the last occurs the only recorded instance of gout on a body
from Egypt, and another late cemetery furnished an example of
appendicitis.
The second Bulletin brings the record down to the end of the season
(March 31). Beyond the neighbourhood of Philae progress was naturally
more rapid, although several important sites were investigated. In all
about 25 miles have now been searched on both banks. An additional
assistant was appointed to aid in collecting and examining the vast
numbers of bodies and skeletons discovered: to deal with the archaeo-
logical material was comparatively easy for the practised hand of Dr.
Eeisner and his excellently trained men. Of inscriptions none were
found beyond some Greek stelae in a Christian cemetery at Ginari near
Kardassy. Altogether, however, the results are most important and
interesting. By the deposits of alluvium it is found that the Nile level
had sunk before the earliest prehistoric graves were made, and that