DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6442#0010
INTRODUCTION.
The treasures of Egyptian Art and I
Literature gathered together by Lord and
Lady Amherst of Hackney, and preserved |
at Didlington Hall, Norfolk, form, if not !
the most extensive, one of the most impor-
tant, private collections of the kind in this
country. Many of the objects are of
unique interest. The series of mummy
cases, the bronzes, the amulets and ushabti I
figures are particularly noteworthy, and the
collection of monuments from the historic
site of Tell el Amarna is of unsurpassed
interest. But there is another class of
antiquities at Didlington Hall which is
perhaps the most important of the whole
collection : it is the series of Egyptian j
papyri dating from the Middle Kingdom I
period of Egyptian history (circa 2500 b.c.)
and extending down to Arab times.
The nucleus of this valuable collection
of papyri was the small series, numbering
some five documents, formed by the late
Dr. Lee and purchased by Lord Amherst
of Hackney, with the entire collection of
that learned Doctor, about the year 1868.
From that date till the present time it has
been gradually added to, and now there
are some two hundred different papyri
in the Didlington Hall museum. The
collection includes not merely the religious
documents which are so common in mu-
seums, but literary, legal and other papyri.
It comprises specimens of Hieroglyphic,
Hieratic and Demotic writing, as well as
of Greek, Coptic and Arabic. Of these,
twenty Demotic and Greek papyri of the
second century b.c. were found together
in an earthernware jar near Thebes; three
of the Demotic documents contain dockets
written in Greek, and these may be ex-
The treasures of Egyptian Art and I
Literature gathered together by Lord and
Lady Amherst of Hackney, and preserved |
at Didlington Hall, Norfolk, form, if not !
the most extensive, one of the most impor-
tant, private collections of the kind in this
country. Many of the objects are of
unique interest. The series of mummy
cases, the bronzes, the amulets and ushabti I
figures are particularly noteworthy, and the
collection of monuments from the historic
site of Tell el Amarna is of unsurpassed
interest. But there is another class of
antiquities at Didlington Hall which is
perhaps the most important of the whole
collection : it is the series of Egyptian j
papyri dating from the Middle Kingdom I
period of Egyptian history (circa 2500 b.c.)
and extending down to Arab times.
The nucleus of this valuable collection
of papyri was the small series, numbering
some five documents, formed by the late
Dr. Lee and purchased by Lord Amherst
of Hackney, with the entire collection of
that learned Doctor, about the year 1868.
From that date till the present time it has
been gradually added to, and now there
are some two hundred different papyri
in the Didlington Hall museum. The
collection includes not merely the religious
documents which are so common in mu-
seums, but literary, legal and other papyri.
It comprises specimens of Hieroglyphic,
Hieratic and Demotic writing, as well as
of Greek, Coptic and Arabic. Of these,
twenty Demotic and Greek papyri of the
second century b.c. were found together
in an earthernware jar near Thebes; three
of the Demotic documents contain dockets
written in Greek, and these may be ex-