DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7382#0015
FOREWORD
Mr pendlebury's collection of all the known ancient Egyptian objects, dating
up till the end of the XXVIth Dynasty, from Greek archaeological sites, will
be most useful as a book of reference to all students of prehistoric and early
Greek archaeology. Its usefulness is enhanced by the careful dating of all the objects
described, a work which our knowledge of Egyptian archaeology enables us to do with
practical certainty, especially in the important matter of scarabs. In addition to this,
Mr Pendlebury's book is of considerable interest as showing us what sort of things
from Egypt were prized by the Greeks of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages, and the
kind of memento of the Land of the Nile which early Greek seafarers were in the habit
of bringing back with them, much as we bring back scarabs and ushabtis ourselves
nowadays. There is one difference, however, the ushabti (with a single doubtful excep-
tion) does not appear: it was a funerary object that belonged only to the dead in their
tombs at a time when Egyptian religion was a living thing, and it did not fall into the
hands of a casual tourist as it does now. Figures of gods were in a different category:
they could be bought as ordinary objects of worship, and naturally appear exported
to Greece. But the scarab, an adornment of the living as well as of the dead, was as
popular a memento of Egypt, from the earliest days of its existence at the end of the
Old Kingdom (c. 2500 b.c.), as it is now. The scarab and the vase of alabaster and
faience (more often the former as the more durable) were the common Egyptian things
most prized in Greece: the alabastron, no doubt, usually came containing Egyptian
unguents, as in return the Minoan "stirrup vase" was exported to Egypt from Greece
with olive-oil or some other Greek product in it.
Mr Pendlebury has given us just such a collection of " Aegyptiaca" in Greece as I
myself would have liked to compile years ago, but was dissuaded from doing so by
lack of time and opportunity to search through the local museums of Greece for material.
This Mr Pendlebury has done, with the result that he has provided us with a very
complete and acceptable conspectus of the evidence existing up to date. We may hope
that he will next give us a similar collection of the "Minoica" and "Mycenaica"
in Egypt.
I have read his descriptions of scarabs very carefully, and have made occasional
suggestions with regard to the readings of their legends, etc., but I can only con-
gratulate him on the very great knowledge of their styles and inscriptions that he shows,
as well as of other sides of Egyptian archaeology.
H. R. HALL
ix
Mr pendlebury's collection of all the known ancient Egyptian objects, dating
up till the end of the XXVIth Dynasty, from Greek archaeological sites, will
be most useful as a book of reference to all students of prehistoric and early
Greek archaeology. Its usefulness is enhanced by the careful dating of all the objects
described, a work which our knowledge of Egyptian archaeology enables us to do with
practical certainty, especially in the important matter of scarabs. In addition to this,
Mr Pendlebury's book is of considerable interest as showing us what sort of things
from Egypt were prized by the Greeks of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages, and the
kind of memento of the Land of the Nile which early Greek seafarers were in the habit
of bringing back with them, much as we bring back scarabs and ushabtis ourselves
nowadays. There is one difference, however, the ushabti (with a single doubtful excep-
tion) does not appear: it was a funerary object that belonged only to the dead in their
tombs at a time when Egyptian religion was a living thing, and it did not fall into the
hands of a casual tourist as it does now. Figures of gods were in a different category:
they could be bought as ordinary objects of worship, and naturally appear exported
to Greece. But the scarab, an adornment of the living as well as of the dead, was as
popular a memento of Egypt, from the earliest days of its existence at the end of the
Old Kingdom (c. 2500 b.c.), as it is now. The scarab and the vase of alabaster and
faience (more often the former as the more durable) were the common Egyptian things
most prized in Greece: the alabastron, no doubt, usually came containing Egyptian
unguents, as in return the Minoan "stirrup vase" was exported to Egypt from Greece
with olive-oil or some other Greek product in it.
Mr Pendlebury has given us just such a collection of " Aegyptiaca" in Greece as I
myself would have liked to compile years ago, but was dissuaded from doing so by
lack of time and opportunity to search through the local museums of Greece for material.
This Mr Pendlebury has done, with the result that he has provided us with a very
complete and acceptable conspectus of the evidence existing up to date. We may hope
that he will next give us a similar collection of the "Minoica" and "Mycenaica"
in Egypt.
I have read his descriptions of scarabs very carefully, and have made occasional
suggestions with regard to the readings of their legends, etc., but I can only con-
gratulate him on the very great knowledge of their styles and inscriptions that he shows,
as well as of other sides of Egyptian archaeology.
H. R. HALL
ix