Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

359

THE EOYAL MUMMIES OF DEIK-EL-BAHABI.

[The year 1881 was signalised by one of the most
remarkable ' finds' ever recorded in the annals of
-Egyptology, and which, judged from an historical
standpoint, is invaluable. It brought to light nothing
less than the bodies of many of the great Pharaohs and
other royal personages, together with their coffins and
funerary furniture. The history of it may be briefly
related thus :—

Ever since 1876 M. Maspero—then the director-
general of the Bulaq Museum in Cairo—had strong
suspicions that the Theban Arabs had come upon some
royal tombs, which they were gradually despoiling, and
the contents of which they were dispersing and selling
m different parts of the country. Early in that year
General Campbell, an English officer, bought a hieratic
papyrus at Thebes, for which he paid 4:001. On being un-
rolled and examined it proved to be that of Painet'em II.,
°ue of the priestly usurpers of the Twenty-first Dynasty.
In 1877 M. de Saulcy sent to M. Maspero photographs
°t a papyrus which had belonged to Queen Net'emet,
the mother of Her-Hor, who was the founder of the line
°t priest-kings. This papyrus is torn in two, part of it
being in the British Museum, the rest in the Louvre,
^■t the same time there constantly appeared in the
Market at Cairo ushabtiu figures of Painet'em, some
being fine and well made, while others were very coarse.
■"* 1879 Eogers Bey showed to M. Maspero a tablet