DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0030
10 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS.
Such are the constituent parts of my typical mound; and
all the mounds of Egypt are but variations upon this one
original theme.
A mound is a concrete piece of history; and, given the
date of its first and last chapters, nothing is easier than to
predict what may be found in it. Let us now excavate this
typical mound, which began with prehistoric Egypt, and
ended, probably, about Anno Domini 600. The explorer who
should sink a vertical shaft through the heart of the mass
would cut through the relics of one hundred and sixt}r-eight
generations of men. It would not be one town which he
would lay open; it would be an immense succession of towns,
stratum above stratum, with a semi-barbarian settlement at
the bottom and a Christian town at the top. Amid the
caked dust and rubbish of that Christian town he would find
little terra-cotta lamps of the old classical shape, stamped
with the palm or cross. And he would find Roman coins,
Gnostic gems, and potsherds scribbled over with Coptic,
Greek, and demotic memoranda. Here, too—hidden away,
perhaps, in an earthen jar, in the evil days of religious per-
secution— he might hope to find a copy of the earliest
Coptic translation of the Scriptures, or a priceless second
century codex of the New Testament.
Next below this, in strata of the Greek period, he would
find coins of the Ptolemies, Greek and Egyptian inscriptions,
Greek and Egyptian papyri, images of Greek and Egyptian
gods, and works of art in the Grasco - Egyptian and pure
Greek styles. Among other possible treasures might be dis-
covered a copy of Manetho's History of Eg\Tpt, or some of the
lost masterpieces of the Greek poets. Still working down-
ward, he would come upon evidences of various periods of
foreign conquest, in the form of Persian and Assyrian tab- .
lets; and below these, in strata of the Sai'te time, would be
found exquisite works of art in bronze, sculpture, and per-
sonal ornaments. Even when so low down as the Nineteenth
Dynasty—the grand epoch of Eameses the Great—we are
not yet half through our mound. Under the debris of that
Such are the constituent parts of my typical mound; and
all the mounds of Egypt are but variations upon this one
original theme.
A mound is a concrete piece of history; and, given the
date of its first and last chapters, nothing is easier than to
predict what may be found in it. Let us now excavate this
typical mound, which began with prehistoric Egypt, and
ended, probably, about Anno Domini 600. The explorer who
should sink a vertical shaft through the heart of the mass
would cut through the relics of one hundred and sixt}r-eight
generations of men. It would not be one town which he
would lay open; it would be an immense succession of towns,
stratum above stratum, with a semi-barbarian settlement at
the bottom and a Christian town at the top. Amid the
caked dust and rubbish of that Christian town he would find
little terra-cotta lamps of the old classical shape, stamped
with the palm or cross. And he would find Roman coins,
Gnostic gems, and potsherds scribbled over with Coptic,
Greek, and demotic memoranda. Here, too—hidden away,
perhaps, in an earthen jar, in the evil days of religious per-
secution— he might hope to find a copy of the earliest
Coptic translation of the Scriptures, or a priceless second
century codex of the New Testament.
Next below this, in strata of the Greek period, he would
find coins of the Ptolemies, Greek and Egyptian inscriptions,
Greek and Egyptian papyri, images of Greek and Egyptian
gods, and works of art in the Grasco - Egyptian and pure
Greek styles. Among other possible treasures might be dis-
covered a copy of Manetho's History of Eg\Tpt, or some of the
lost masterpieces of the Greek poets. Still working down-
ward, he would come upon evidences of various periods of
foreign conquest, in the form of Persian and Assyrian tab- .
lets; and below these, in strata of the Sai'te time, would be
found exquisite works of art in bronze, sculpture, and per-
sonal ornaments. Even when so low down as the Nineteenth
Dynasty—the grand epoch of Eameses the Great—we are
not yet half through our mound. Under the debris of that