ITS T THEBES LONDON 1'KINTBD BY SPOTTISWOODB AND CO. NEW-STREET 8QUAKB o L3 " S J THEBES ITS TOMBS AND THEIR TENANTS ANCIENT AND PRESENT INCLUDING A RECORD OF EXCAVATIONS IN THE NECROPOLIS BY A. HENRY HHIND F.S.A. &t. LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBEET8 1862 The riaht of tranatalion if rctcrterl PREFACE. WHILE describing the results of certain excavations which I made at Thebes, I have endeavoured in this volume to offer, at the same time, a general view of Egyptian sepulchral facts, as represented in the Necropolis of that city. Some of those disclosed under my own eye I have thought it right to set down minutely, and in doing so, to note others, even although, individually, they may be of no great importance. For, in any field, and especially where the fruits of few explorations have been circumstantially recorded, such personally observed details are useful, by helping to furnish practical conceptions as to the sources of evidence in the given branch of investigation. In particular, I have desired to offer a precise account of the large family-tomb of an official personage which a long search brought to light in undisturbed condition, not only because its contents are of interest, but because it is in certain respects the only known instance of such a discovery. With regard to the other products of my excavations, A 4 2096825 VI PREFACE. the more definite have been selected and grouped so as to illustrate the different kinds of tombs, and the state in which they are now usually found. Indeed it has been part of the plan throughout, that the various details should exhibit some realisation at once of the conditions under which, and those by means of which, Egyptian relics have been procured. Thebes has therefore been treated of introductory as the ancient Capital, but chiefly as the central source which has been archreologically so productive. The first six chapters and the ninth have directly this scope. The seventh (on the Theories explanatory of Egyptian Sepulture), is, as it were, complementary to the preceding five, by reviewing the psychological and religious questions con- nected with the origin of the customs of which these c five chapters contain exemplifications. In dealing with this difficult subject I have had occasionally to dissent from the opinions of writers of distinguished merit in various w r alks ; but I have done so always with a sense of the consideration due to deductions that may appear to be the product of thought or learning, and some- times with diffidence as to the views which I may present. For, on such special points at least as relate to Egyptian metaphysical conceptions, I have a strong conviction that whatever can now be said is almost certain to be only provisional. And so far as I can judge (although I feel my imperfect warrant to do so), the materials as yet known are not likely to permit distinct definitions to be laid down with certainty, even PREFACE. vii when these materials have been rendered more fully available by inquirers who have made the ancient native literature a subject of technical study. But it is impossible to cease hoping that means may be found to obtain a clearer insight as to the exact nature of those religious and on- tological speculations that, dimly descried through a haze of mystical allusion, still indicate the existence of ideas to which many of the sympathies of succeeding ages respond ideas of whose history we should not willingly lose a trace. The eighth chapter is devoted to one of those special ethnographical topics which vestiges from the tombs illustrate the place occupied respectively by bronze and iron in the metallurgic economy of the ancient Egyptians. Certain remarkable relics discovered in the course of my excavations, required, and throw light on, the discussion of this subject, which has so many impor- tant points of contact with the early history of civilization. I have not considered it out of place to exhibit in the two last chapters the more salient features in the life of the present native villagers their social position, their habits, occupations, and relation to their rulers. As the re- versionary tenants of the tombs which they have converted into dwellings, as active purveyors of antiquities, and as constituting in their capacity of workmen the machinery of excavation, they and their proceedings form a kind of province on the outskirts of Egyptian archaeology. But whatever may be thought of this doubtful claim, it must be a very determined antiquarianism that, even on such a site as that of Thebes, can, under the cir- Vlll PREFACE. cumstances, look so exclusively to the past as to close its eyes to the living interests of the present or the prospects of the future. As the materials for that portion of the contents of this book derived from personal research amdng the tombs, were procured nearly five years ago, it may be necessary to explain why so long an interval has elapsed until the present publication. An early reason for postponement was that I contemplated being able to collect a farther series of sepulchral details in other parts of the country.* Subsequently, some retardation arose from its not having been desirable to remove . the relics which I brought from Egypt, out of their packing-cases until the galleries for the Museum, in which they have now their place, \vere fitted up, and which were then about being prepared for the transference of that National Collection.^ But the chief cause of the delay has been, that believing any work intended for publication to be entitled to at least such advantages as time and care may give, the demand for both in this case has been increased by the breaches in continuous progress involved in the circumstances of a length- ened annual absence abroad. Even now I have had to correct the proofs of two thirds of these sheets, about fifteen hundred miles from England. In the following pages I have frequently had the plea- sure, as occasion arose, to acknowledge obligations of various kinds interwoven with the preparation of this volume. * See p. 7o. t See foot-note, p. 90. PREFACE. IX Although there has not been a similar opportunity to specify them, I am not the less mindful of, and would here convey cordial thanks for, other good offices, such as critical sug- gestions or additional information received from some friends, and assistance connected with certain of the illustra- tions obtained from others. The especial benefit which I have derived from Mr. Birch's philological aid various passages will show. But I must here again express my warm sense of having always personally experienced, what so many testimonies in works on Egyptian and other an- tiquities prove, that his learning is equalled by the liberality with which he diffuses its fruits. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THEBES. Reasons for endeavouring to trace the condition of the City . 1 Difficulty of following the links which connect the Present with the Past 2 The Characteristics of ancient Cities likely to be among the best aids ........... ib. Their importance in historic Investigation generally ... 3 The details of few such Cities are known 5 Nature of the Data as to Thebes * 6 Present Aspect of its Site 7 The Eastern Plain 8 Temples of Luxor and Karnak prominent but solitary . . ib. This arising from the Disappearance of the more ordinary build- ings ........... 9 How to be accounted for . . _. . . . .10 Temples on the Western Bank similarly isolated . . .11 The original growth of the City unrecorded . . . .13 Its period of greatest prosperity ib. Its place in relation to ancient Records Mesopotamian, Phoe- nician, Hebrew ......... 14 Allusions to it in early Greek Literature 16 Herodotus silent on the subject ....... 17 Later Writers could only describe the City in its Decline . . 18 Xll CONTENTS. Page Early Greek Travellers did, however, see it ere its Fall . . 20 Their Works, especially those of Hecataeus of Miletus, may yet be recovered .......... 21 Accounts of the City may also be discovered in Native Papyri . ib. Instances which encourage this Hope ..... 22 Enlightenment also to be expected from Babylonian Sources . 23 Failing Narrative Description, the Nature of the Aid afforded by Egyptian Frescoes and Sculptures 24 Character of these . 25 Deficient in scenic Effect ........ 27 Pictures of Houses .28 But no Representation of the Arrangement of these into Streets, &c 29 The Size of the City .... .... 30 How the Area was occupied ib. Probable Plan of the Streets . . . . . . .31 Many Phases of Theban Life in the Frescoes .... 32 Conceptions of it as a whole are, however, indistinct ... 33 This from the want of a Native Social Literature . 34 CHAPTER II. THE NECROPOLIS. Is one of the most Remarkable in the World . 36 Its Extent, Nature, and Appearance . . .37 The Lake which Funeral Processions crossed . .39 The Hills of the Desert in which the Tombs begin to appear . 40 The Valley of Der-el-Medeeneh and the Tombs in it .41 The Hill of El Shekh Abd-el-Goorneh and the Tombs there . 42 Tombs in the Valley of El Assasseef . 43 Those around the Temple of Der-el-Bahree . 44 Those in and near the Hill of El Drah-aboo-Neggeh . . 45 The Tombs of the Kings . . ib. General Characteristics of the Necropolis . . 48 Periods to which the Tombs chiefly belong . .49 Tombs of Various Descriptions intermingled . .51 Including those of Animals ... 52 CONTENTS. Xlll Page The present deathlike Aspect of the Necropolis . . . .53 Its ancient Appearance ........ 54 Shape of the Interior of the Tombs ...... 55 The Scenes on the Walls . . . . . . .57 Tombs of Various Designs referred to 58 Nature of the Sepulchral Deposits ...... 59 CHAPTER III. ON THE RESULTS OF FORMER SEPULCHRAL RESEARCHES. Want of precise Data as to the Details of Egyptian Sepulture . 62 This chiefly owing to the Pillage of th6 Tombs from early Times 63 Instances of it under Native as well as Greek and Roman Rule . ib. The earlier Attempts by the Arabs (fellaheen) . . . .65 Explorations under European Auspices begin .... 66 Opportunities for accurate Observations neglected . . . . ib. The Excavations instituted by Salt and Drovetti ... 67 Those carried on by Dathanasi 69 His Procedure frustrated the recording of Sepulchral Details . 70 Researches by Passalacqua ....... ib. Excavations by Champollion, Rosellini, and Mariette . . 71 Various Points, Psychological and Ethnographical, which Sepul- chral Details might illustrate ...... 72 The Hope in which the Excavations, hereafter to be described, were undertaken ........ 75 Preliminary Summary of their Nature ..... 76 CHAPTER IV. THE UNRIFLED TOMB OF A THEBAN DIGNITARY AND ITS CONTENTS. Point at the Foot of El Shekh Abd-el-Goorneh selected for an Excavation 77 Arrangement of the Tombs in that Hill . . ... 78 O Its present Aspect . .79 XIV CONTENTS. Page Such as to offer doubtful Prospects of Success . . . . 80 The Excavation commenced .81 The Native Method of Work 82 Discovery of a Doorway sealed with the Cartouch of Amu- noph III 83 Description of the Tomb to which it led . . . . . ib. Among its Contents, Tablets with Names of Princesses of the Family of Thothmes III. 84 Probable Explanation of their Presence 86 The Excavation is continued along the same Scarp of Rock . 87 Disclosure of another Doorway ....... ib. The outer Chamber to which it gave Entrance, and the Objects in it 89 Passages diverging from the Chamber . . . . .91 Two of these found to be the Doorways of small Crypts their Contents 92 The third, closed by a Door, the Entrance of a Tunnel . . 94 Which terminated at the Edge of a Shaft ..... 95 Range of Vaults at the Bottom of the Shaft .... ib. Their Condition perfectly undisturbed ..... 96 Description of them and the various Mummies .... ib. Massive Granite Sarcophagus ....... 98 Mummies of Animals beside it . . . . . . .99 Their Signification . . . . . . . . .100 Further Contents of the Vaults ...... 101 Opening of the Sarcophagus ....... 103 Gilt Mask and Golden Chaplet on the Head of the Occupant . 104 Use of Chaplets in Egyptian Burial ...... 105 Other Decorations of the same Mummy . . . . .108 A Ritual Papyrus on the left Side . . . . . .109 The Accompaniments of the other Mummies . . . .110 Funeral Canopy from the upper Chamber . . . . .111 Probable History of this Tomb 112 Its earliest Occupants had been ejected . . . . .113 Considerations as to Changes in religious Ideas which such Acts suggest . . . 114 The Sepulchral Customs themselves were, however, singularly permanent . . . . . . . . . .116 Comparison of some of these at different Periods . . . ib. Elements for such Comparisons offered by this Tomb t . .118 CONTENTS. XV Page Its last Occupants their Rank and Date determined by the Papyri . . . . . . . . . .118 Details from the Papyrus of Sebau . . . . . . 1 19 Its philological Value as a bi-lingual Document .... 120 The Papyrus of Tabai, Wife of Sebau ib. The Connexion between all the Occupants of the Tomb not clear 122 The Vicissitudes in its Destiny ib. CHAPTER V. A BURIAL-PLACE OF THE POOR. Its Situation 124 Commencement of the Excavation . . . . . .125 Disclosure of Groups of Mummies ib. Character and Description of the Coffins ..... 126 The Objects which accompanied the Mummies .... 128 Frequent Presence of Shoes 129 Instances in which Scarabsei occurred 130 Presence of knotted Cords 131 Inequalities of Life stereotyped in Death by Egyptian Sepulture ib. The Occupants of the present Burial-Place evidently of the humbler Classes . . . . . . . .133 Its Position in the Court of an older Tomb . . . . . ib. Condition of that Tomb 1 34 Papyrus found near the Entrance 135 Frieze of Brick Cones above the Doorway . . . . 1 36 Probable History of the Interment ...... 138 CHAPTER VI. EXCAVATIONS AMONG TOMBS OF VAEIOUS GRADES. Tombs of the Kings 140 Ancient Statements as to their Number . . . . .141 Result of Trials at various Points in Bab-el- Molook . . .143 Disappointed of instituting Excavations in the Western Valley . 145 Usual State of Painted-Chambered Tombs .... ib. a XVI CONTENTS. Page Opening of one with Frescoes of a House and Grounds . . 1 46 Another showing the Wall Subjects in Process of being drawn . 147 Tombs consisting of horizontal Tunnels 149 Contents of one discovered near Der-el-Bahree . . . .150 Of another opened at the Foot of El Shekh Abd-el-Goorneh . ib. Pit Tombs / . . .152 Condition in which many of them were found .... 153 Relics from some behind the Memnonium ..... 154 Miniature Coffin from one at the Foot of El Shekh Abd-el-Goorneh 156 Contents of another near El Assasseef 158 Painted Amphora . . . . . . . . .160 Tablets and wooden Dolls 161 Bows, Arrows, Clubs . . . . . . . .163 Small Tombs in the Valley of Der-el-Medeeneh and their Contents 165 Account of a large Shaft Tomb opened at Geezeh . . .167 Excavations near the Sphinx 169 Description of two Tombs there met with 1 70 Their Contents unlike Egyptian Deposits . . . t .172 Skull recovered from one of them its Fate . .174 CHAPTEE VII. OX THE TIIEOEIES EXPLANATOEY OF EGYPTIAN SEPULTURE. Egyptian Burial Customs psychologically a Subject of Interest . 175 The possible Sources of Enlightenment as to their Development ib. How far we may be guided by Inductions from the Relics . . 177 Nature of the Connexion between Customs and Motives . .178 Its Intricacy from the Relations of Man to the Physical World . 179 General Bearings of the Question in Systems of Human Progres- sion 180 Inquiry as to Laws applicable to Man's Procedure . . . 181 Erroneous Results of Deductions merely from broad Proposi- tions 183 Effects of Individuality and of Race must be also considered . 185 This general Discussion illustrative of the special Subjects of this Chapter 186 Lepsius' Hypothesis with Regard to the Size of the Pyramids . 187 Evidence of its Unsouudness . 188 CONTENTS. XV11 A Connexion between Egyptian Burial Rites and Religious Con- ceptions, certain . . . . . . . .189 Its precise Nature as entertained by the Egyptians themselves, not handed down ........ ib. Their Views as to the Relations of Body and Soul not clear . 191 Difficulties in Hieroglyphic References to such a Subject . .192 These specially applicable to the Ritual of the Dead, its Nature ib. Diversity in its Allusions to the Results of Death . . .194 Doctrine of the Metempsychosis inharmonious with other Tenets . 1 95 How such seeming Incongruities may be accounted for . . 196 Because the Religion of the Egyptians was developmental . .197 Also because the existing Evidence as to their Ideas is hete- rogeneous 198 Their Conceptions as to Transmigration of the Soul . . . 199 This stated to be connected with the Preservation of the Body . 201 Arguments against certain Views as to the Nature of this Con- nexion ........... 202 Objections to Modes of attributing Embalmment to a Belief in Resurrection . . . . . . . . 205 Egyptian Speculations too little known to warrant such specific Inferences .......... 207 The local physical Conditions favourable to the Origin of Mummi- fication 208 The Moral Causes which led to it gradual in Growth, and involved 209 Hasty Inductions on such Subjects to be guarded against . .211 Causes of the Deposit of Objects in the Tombs also obscure . 212 Various Motives might be alternatively assigned . . .213 Want of guidance from Facts duly classified as to Locality, Date, &c 214 Chronological Adjustment, however, could only be relative . ib. Provisional Character of Results in Egyptian Studies generally . 215 CHAPTER VIII. THE SEPULCHRAL EVIDENCE ON EAELY METALLURGIC PRACTICE. Absence of Iron objects among Egyptian Relics attributed to de- composition . .217 Facts against this Explanation ib. A 2 XVI 11 CONTENTS. The Question opened as to the Position of Iron -working in Ancient Egypt 218 Evidence from the Frescoes significance of Colours . . 219 Representations of Armour 221 What the Paintings may be said to prove 222 Discussion of the Hieroglyphic interpreted to meai/Iron . . 223 Statements in Texts where it occurs ...... 224 Allusions to Iron in the Pentateuch 225 Mines of Iron Ore in Africa ib. The question, not Whether the Egyptians knew Iron, but How far they used it in more Ancient Times .... 226 Nature of the few Iron Relics hitherto found in Egypt . . 227 Uncertainty as to their Date 229 Evidence from the great Variety of the objects of Bronze found in the Tombs 230 Bronze, the Staple in early Egyptian Metallurgy . . . 232 This fact of Importance in connexion with Ethnography generally 233 Inquiry as to When Iron assumed prominence in Egypt . . 234 Prevalent in the Time of Herodotus ...... 235 Reasons for considering that it was Diffused by Phoenician Trade 236 Position of Iron and Bronze in the Ancient World . . . 238 Their Relative Antiquity not to be determined . . . 339 CHAPTER IX. HOW THE DEMAND FOR EGYPTIAN RELICS HAS BEEN SUPPLIED, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE CONDITION OF THE MONU- MENTS. The Earlier Draughts on Egyptian Relics by Rome, &c. . . 242 Labours of the First French Commission 243 Collections made by Salt and Drovetti 244 Also by Champollion, Rosellini, Mariette ..... 245 Private Collections by Passalacqua, Cavigia, Cailliaud, Abbott, &c. 246 Native Traffic in Antiques ....... ib, Fellah Dealers in Relics 249 Secrecy and cunning of the Finders 250 Concoction of Spurious Antiques 251 CONTENTS. XIX Page Forgery of Bronze Relics, and of Scarabaei at Thebes . . 253 Transference of Statues, Tablets, &c. to European Collections . 256 Condition of the Temples 257 State of the Tombs 258 Destructive treatment of the Sculptures by Visitors . . . 259 Mutilations by Fellaheen 260 Proceedings of the Prussian Commission 261 Bad Effects of authoritative Destruction of Monuments . . 263 Archaeological Operations liable to Abuse .... 265 Recent Procedure at Carthage 266 Principles on which Excavations under Government auspices should be conducted ........ 267 Mutilation of Edifices in general to be avoided .... 269 Grounds for Decision as to Removal of Relics . . . .271 Egyptian Monuments have suffered much from Neglect . . 272 Supervision of them recently undertaken by the Native Govern- ment 273 CHAPTEE X. THE PRESENT TENANTS OF THE TOMBS. Disposition and Capacity of the Fellaheen . . . . 275 Demoralizing Influences around those of Thebes . . . 277 Deterioration of their Character 278 Their Inattention to Religious Formalities ..... 279 A Muslim Festival the Moolid en Nebbee . . . . 280 A Derwish Zikr 281 Ceremony of the Doseh, or Treading ...... 284 The Coptic Christians at Goorneh . . . . . .286 Degradation of the Copts, generally, and of their Clergy . . 288 Dwellings and Dress of the Fellaheen ..... 290 Ornaments of the Women . . . . . . .291 Household Occupations and Dietary ...... 295 Children and Family Relations 296 Social Severance between the Sexes ...... 297 Evening Conclaves 298 The Nile an Engrossing Subject on those occasions . . . 299 The River always Venerated by Egyptians ib. Legend as to its Source 302 XX CONTENTS. CHAPTER XL THE PRESENT TENANTS OF THE TOMBS AND THEIR RULERS. Page Effect of lengthened Serfdom on the Fellaheen . x . . . 305 Their Consciousness of their Wrongs 305 An Apologue on the subject current at Goorneh .... 306 Nature of Local Administration ....... 307 Prevalence of corrupt Venality ....... 309 Unsettled state of Upper Egypt fifty years ago .... ib. Outline of the ordinary tenor of life there now .... 310 The Conscription, a prominent episode . . . . .311 Condition of the Egyptian Soldier 312 Mode of Collecting the Recruits . . . . . . .313 Resistance to the Conscription at Goorneh . . . . .315 The Kasheff ensures Obedience ....... 317 Result of the Turbulent Proceedings . . . . .319 Position of the Government with regard to the internal Polity of the Country 320 The Present degraded Condition of the Fellaheen . . .321 The Character of Turkish Rule 322 Its Prospects in Turkey and in Egypt 323 Evils of "Enforced Labour" in connexion with the Suez Canal Scheme 325 What ought to be the first consideration of any Egyptian Govern- ment ........... The Future of Egypt LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Funeral Canopy Frontispiece Map of Thebes To face page 7 View of El Shekh Abd-el-Goorneh . . . . Porch of a Tomb, from a Fresco In page 54 Usual Plan of Chambered Tombs . . . . 56 Section showing the Tomb of Sebau as discovered To face page 89 Statuette from the Upper Chamber . . . . 90 Plan of the Lower Vaults of the same Tomb . . 96 Golden Chaplet 104 Decorated Mummy . . . . . . . 110 Shoe of Reed and Straw-plait ..... In page 129 Stamped Brick Cone . . . . . . . 137 Miniature Coffin ....... 157 Large painted Amphora 160 Wooden Doll '... 162 Section of Tombs opened at Geezeh . . . . 172 Modern Egyptian Silver Bracelet , 293 THEBES: ITS TOMBS AND THEIR TENANTS. CHAPTER I. THEBES. As the tombs of the Thebans are chiefly the subject of the present volume, and as the various accompaniments with which that people surrounded themselves in death were interwoven so remarkably with the details of their life, it would seem a desirable preliminary to indicate what degree of knowledge we possess regarding their ancient city. The main outlines, therefore, I shall endeavour to trace, pointing out how far actual materials come before us for survey, where they at present fail, and whence it is possible they may yet be supplemented. In course of such a review, it will unfortunately appear that a great deal is wanting for clearness of result ; and as very many features remain obscure, cause for regret will frequently arise. Nor will this be only from a feeling of disappointment, that a picture so interest- 2 THEBES. ing in itself must stand incomplete, but also on the higher grounds which in archaeological inquiries, as constituting their real value, should he always more or less proximately kept in view, that the importance of the relics, and especially of such relics, of the Old World, is not in relation to the merely technical or isolated facts which they individually exhibit, but to the conditions of life and human development which they with others unfold. The links which connect us with the past are as manifold as the springs of our inner life, and the ex- ternal conditions which surround us. But by their continuity and fine gradation, they become attenuated so nearly to an impalpable essence, that a reconstruction, showing the chain in its completeness, while it might hardly be necessary to assure us of the reality of the intertwining strands, would, nevertheless, task or tran- scend the utmost powers of human perception to follow them. If one long gleam of light were to be thus thrown back athwart the ages, the most self-confident gazer would anxiously hope that it might hover lumi- nously over the great cities, believing probably that from them he would derive the best aid to carry him on from point to point, by finding there contemporary cha- racteristics as in a concentrated focus. Eor, although ' O the seats in which men have gregariously assembled cannot in all respects, or at least in all cases, be re- garded as a full embodiment of their condition, or a precise criterion of their peculiar civilization, they are, upon the whole, the most trustworthy and intelligible HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF CITIES. 3 indices of both. Being, as it were, the adaptable matrix developed, often produced, by the requirements, tastes, habits of their occupants, or by the necessities and circumstances under which they lived, towns might naturally be supposed to bear the direct impress of co- existing public, private, and social life. Moreover, if they possessed a metropolitan character, they might also be expected to exhibit some evidence of the relative standard of skill and capacity, as well as of the general resources, of a country, no less than of the manner in which, as regards domestic affairs, these were directed either by the genius of the people, or by the exigencies of the rule under which they lived. And since it is from facts like these that can best, or indeed, alone be traced the relationship of epoch to epoch, of country to country, of the present with all the past, they may justly be regarded as among the most valuable constituents for historic investigation. The area of History has been greatly widening since Thucydides, in his preface, proposed to himself to record past facts as a basis of rational provision in regard to the future. And if a corresponding ancient maxim is to retain any force, that the essential principle of the science is the practical benefit of "teaching by ex- ample," it can only be by an extended application. We may, indeed, vainly look for lessons deduced from consideration of political detail or individual career in the past, which would be directly applicable to the changed and changeful conditions that have succeeded. Any such hope should recall all that is included in the truth thus B 2 4> THEBES. condensed by De Tocqueville : " II faut une science poli- tique nouvelle a un monde tout nouveau." But as even in this view we cannot afford to lose the advantage of gaining some experience of what has been the sequence of events, and to abide in the inexperienced boyhood, which the ancient orator not inaptly attri- buted to those who were ignorant of precedent occur- rences, it must be recognised that any really practical teaching can only proceed from the very same compre- hensive plan of treatment as systematic ethnography also requires. There is but one pathway to substantial results, and that lies through not solely or chiefly the annals of government, but through the analytical process which would exhibit the various developments of nations and races, the circumstances of their growth, their efforts in the scheme of human action and pro- gress, as shown by the actual products, material and moral, of their existence. And what should be sought as the true studies for such pictures are photographs, so to say, of public and social life, not compositions sketched according to assumed laws of reaction and causation, tilled in with realities, it may be, but so grouped and interpreted as merely to reflect the mind of the artist instead of the spirit of the past.* The value of broad * " Was ihr den Geisfc der Zeiten heisst, Das ist im Grund der Herreii eigner Geist, In dem die Zeiten sich bespiegeln." Gothe, Faust. Or, as Sir Thomas Browne expresses it : " And truly since I have under- stood the occurrences of the world, and know in what counterfeiting DETAILS OF FEW ANCIENT CITIES KNOWN. 5 conceptions, if well balanced, is at once to be admitted ; but all the more requisite is the corrective and vitalising influence of such series of facts, as might help to show the life of a people or period, not merely from one or two external points of view, but in its actuality and, as nearly as possible, in its aggregate. Prom the degree, therefore, in which cities receive the stamp of contemporary thought, manners, and general development, they ought to be, in connection with relative chronological aid, one of the sources richest in illustration : and the ruins of those which have sunk are the depositories of more than curious architectural fragments. But, unfortunately, although very naturally, when their period of active existence lies far back into the past, the great majority have left in written records as little memory of the life once enclosed within their walls as the changeful course of events and the laws of resolution into crude matter have spared of their actual vestiges. Yet such recorded pictures, and such tangible remains, are each the necessary complement of the other. For, as we have not succeeded to the inheritance of the eastern prince, no wizard has for us combined both by freezing up actual examples of town life into petrifactive unity, if Vesuvius has partially embalmed for us two inferior specimens. Indeed, of many even of the great cities whose names are synonymous with central points in shapes and deceitful vizards times present represent on the stage things past, I do believe them little more than things to come." Religio Medici, xxix. B 3 G THEBES. the history of the world, we have so few authentic details, or so few remaining relics, that it is impossible clearly to reduce, into definite shapes, the mere hazy phantoms of their ancient renown hovering over more or less doubtful sites. Of not more' than one or two, namely Athens and Rome, whose prosperity lies beyond a period so comparatively near to us as the Revival of learning, is it practicable, from a sufficient body of evidence, to form a reasonably full conception as to their structure, civic arrangements, and daily routine; and it is remarkable how very few are so happily circumstanced from the kindly dealing of time with their own vestiges or with coetaneous documents which more or less directly portray their characteristics, that they are capable of yielding even such modified result as the partial gratification of that instinctive desire which seeks to recall in something like their reality, the dwellings, haunts, and surroundings of the men of the past, and so to impart to history that body and consistency which scenery gives to the drama. In the case of one of the most celebrated of all the cities of antiquity, Egyptian Thebes, the data bearing upon what its condition had been, are in certain respects unusually expressive, and in others anomalously silent. The site is certain. The remark- able preservation of individual ruins of singular extent and magnificence, show the peculiar development of native art as conjoined with architectural design, the direction of its bent, and a capacity for vast under- PRESENT ASPECT OF ITS SITE. 7 takings. Recovered relics and pictorial details from various sepulchral sources offer a key to a large number of the incidents of life which had concurrently per- formed their part. But of the actual structure of the city, of its general outline, much more of internal details, it is possible, from the very limited amount of attainable guidance, to speak only inferentially and in the highest degree vaguely. In the first place, the present aspect of the plain on which it stood is such as to offer almost no assistance on the subject. Not merely does it fail to present a sufficient body of vestiges for a reconstruction satisfactory to technical rules, but in itself it might equally defy the efforts of any beholder scanning the scene untrammelled by rigid procedure, and striving only to shadow forth to his own mind something like a resuscitation to satisfy the natural impulse which endeavours to conjure up dead cities when gazing on their graves. Whence this arises will be more readily understood if, aided here by the map*, Plate I., we glance for a moment at the principal features of the wide prospect across and along the valley of the Thebais, commanded from a lofty peak of the mountain range of the Western Desert, immediately overhanging the Necropolis. A rich plain of intensest green lies stretched out with unnatural minuteness under that cloudless sky. It is * In this map prominence is given to the chief points, and the obscurity of overcrowding is as far as possible avoided. In the relation of the outlines I have with his friendly approval always had reference to Sir Gr. "Wilkinson's excellent large Survey published in 1830. B 4 THEBES. cut into two very unequal divisions by the sweeping curves of the broad and gently flowing stream of the Nile, which glides in where a bend in the hilly out- line of the desert bounds the horizon to the south, and similarly is lost towards the north. First, as being immediately in front, although three miles distant on the eastern bank of the river, and almost casting its shadow upon the water, the eye rests on the great Temple of Luxor, with its obelisk, its low heavy towers, and its sturdy columns struggling in noble contrast with the mud or crude brick hovels of the modern village, which crowd around and even on them. A mile farther and to the north, the massive portal towers of Karnak overtop a grove of palms which partially hide the forest of clustering pillars, the avenues of sphinxes and bulls, the obelisks, the statues, the endless sculptured halls, and cells, and colonnades, covering an area full half a mile in diameter, amid acres of mounds Avhich bury other buildings within the precincts of this sacred range, where age after age had lavished its efforts of religious zeal, grafting temple upon temple.* Between these two grand groups of * It is scarcely necessary to say that it is no part of my plan to enter into minute descriptions of the various Theban temples, repeating details already elaborately set forth in the well-known repositories of Egyptian research, and which those who prize them in their complete- ness will prefer to seek there, e.g. in Wilkinson's earlier work, Thebes and View of Egypt } or in its subsequent editions under different titles, the last being the Handbook, 1858 ; in his Architecture of Ancient Egypt ; in Champollion's Lettres ecrites d'Egypte et de Nubie, and his Mo- numents de VEyypte; Eosellini's Monumenti deW Egitto ; Lepsius' THE RUINS ON THE EASTERN PLAIN. Luxor and Karnak, on either side of them, and beyond to a distance of perhaps twelve miles, where the hills of the Eastern Desert spring up in waving lines, the dead level of the green and fertile tract is unbroken, save by an occasional tiny village, clumps of palm trees, the rough embankment of a modern road raised above the reach of the annual inundation, vestiges of two small Ptolemaic temples in the far distance, and here and there white low- domed tombs of Muslim saints. Yet there stood the principal portion of ancient Thebes : and although the ruins of the two masses of " High built temples fit to be the homes Of mighty gods," are noble relics of its greatness, the want of other traces, gives them only the significance of mere indi- vidual structures. Nor is it to be wondered at if even a bold imagination should there at least refuse the at- tempt to re-embody the vanished city; for the eye roves hopelessly over the plain seeking in vain for any adequate groundwork for the reasonable exercise of constructive ingenuity. This thorough disappearance of the more ordinary portions of the old metropolis, is partly accounted for by the probable fact, that the material most commonly Letters, and the plans and sections in his magnificent Denkmdler, in which, at length, after fifteen years of labour, he has the satisfaction, denied under similar circumstances to Champollion and Rosellini, to see completed, at least pictorially, the results of the three years' sojourn in Egypt of the Prussian Commission, of which he was the head. 10 THEBES. used for dwelling-houses was sun-dried brick, which under circumstances of decay would readily become disintegrated. But considering the prevalence of luxu- rious taste, opulence, and structural ability, it is not to be doubted that other buildings besides the temples, whose vestiges have come down to us, were of hewn stone. Still, whatever might have been the propor- tions in which the work of the mason and the bricklayer had been employed, it is not difficult to see why the labours of both, except in the case of the most massive edifices, should, as they are now, be equally destroyed. In England even we have a humble parallel in R/ornan towns and villas which have become as though they never were, the disclosure of their substructures alone evincing their former existence.* And Thebes had even less chance of exemption from the common fate. Not merely the subject of ordinary decadence, wiien it ceased to be the seat of a native government, but also a victim to the fierce violence of eastern war, its powers of resistance against the local oblit- erating influences which are peculiarly active, have been crushed out for some two thousand years. The sedimentary ' alluvium constantly brought down by the Nile has continued its unresisted deposition, until at length the soil has accumulated in this part of * The tendency of the soil to accumulate into so thick and im- penetrable a shroud is remarkably manifested in the case of what was Roman London, whose vestiges are found about fifteen feet beneath the level of the present streets. Boach Smith's Illustrations of Roman London, p. 18. VESTIGES OF THE LIBYAN SUBURB. 11 the valley, to a height of seven or eight feet above the level which the basements of certain monuments show to have prevailed when the great city was in full prosperity; and rich harvests now wave over its buried wreck. Nor is the portion which covered the western bank more prominently marked. Surveying its site from the same elevated position in the mountain, there is nothing but one or two villages, sheltered by solitary palms, to break the green plain stretching towards the spectator from the margin of the river. "Where it is bounded by the edge of the desert, almost at his feet, there are indeed splendid vestiges of this, which, in Ptolemaic times, was called the Libyan suburb, studded at irregular intervals along the sweep- ing curve of more than three miles in length, hemmed in by the circling hills. But here again their isola- tion tends only to individualise them, and we more readily associate them with the Necropolis which in palpable impressiveness lies immediately behind, rather than with the idea of a reconstructed city rising up in front. Of these surviving fabrics, all of which are religious in character, the farthest to the north, as may be seen by a glance at the map, is a small and not very or- namental temple and palace, encroached upon by ruins of ancient brick-houses, at Old Goorneh, nearly oppo- site the gateways of Karnak, which spring up a mile beyond the bank of the main channel, on the other side of the river. Next, at the distance of nearly 12 THEBES. two miles along the curve of the cultivated land, comes the Memnonium or Rameseseum, as from the actual name of its builder it is more properly called, reduced now, as seen from a distance, to its crumbling towers and a graceful cluster of columns. Another segment of half a mile is marked by the protruding basement of the temple whose dromos or avenue was guarded by the two colossal statues of its founder Amunoph III., one of which was the celebrated vocal Memnon of antiquity, for whose low tones, as they greeted, or were called forth by, the rising sun, early Greek and Roman travellers declare themselves an- xiously to have listened.* "With the soil of the valley stretching flat and unbroken around them, and the harvest ripening at their feet, they now sit solitary sentinels surviving their ancient trust. The large, well preserved and richly sculptured temple and temple-palace of Medinet Haboo, embedded in the brick ruins of an early Christian town, are, with the interval of nearly another half mile, next in order towards the south; and the view in this direction is closed by high mounds to which we shall revert when describing the Necro- polis, as they define a wide rectangular area, reason- ably surmised to have been an artificial lake whose banks and surface were traversed by processions pre- liminary to entombment of the dead. But besides there being thus no actual skeleton, so * " Claudius Emilius has heard Memnon," is a short record inscribed on the statue itself by a Roman governor of the Thebais. Letronne, Recherches pour servir a VHist. de VEgypte, p. 274. GROWTH OP THE CITY UNRECORDED. 13 to say, of ancient Thebes, which might be dealt with by inductive treatment, there is a hardly less com- plete want as yet of the other supplemental sort of evidence, which descriptive allusions in contemporary narrative could supply. The position which the city occupied in the past, when compared with what we are in the habit of terming ancient literature, will show how little of this kind of aid might be ex- pected from external sources; and the internal have hitherto failed to make good the deficiency. Not only does this refer to the early and literally un- known growth of what was to be the future capital, when the already mature Egyptian civilization had its principal seat lower down the Nile, at Memphis, but the same remark equally applies to the time when Thebes had become the heart of the country, and was the representative, as vouched for by monu- mental remains, of all that was most developed in native art and power. This period of greatest glory may be said to have been spread between 1500 years and 1100 years before the Christian era. There are, indeed, imbedded in the mass of temples at Kar- nak, a few pillars of the time of Osirtasen I. whose date goes back to 2000 years B.C.; and half- buried fragments have been observed by Sir G. Wil- kinson at El Assasseef, near the Memnonium, with the name of a preceding king, giving tangible evi- dence of full vitality, under the earlier of the Theban dynasties, whose memory the historic lists and gene- alogies have preserved. But it was during the reigns 14 THEBES. of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth of those Dynasties, that the city, and indeed Egypt, attained their zenith. Then it was that all those temples were reared, whose existence the foregoing hasty glance at their sites will recall, and although they were in some cases the subject of repairs and additions in subsequent years, their early splendour was barely maintained, rather than surpassed. It was then also that Egyptian influence was more dominant than ever before or afterwards, within the range of our knowledge, and really filled a cycle in the history of those eastern regions. Conquests to the north and south, distant expeditions by land, and even par- tially by sea *, tribute or plunder of all that was richest and best on every side, great internal pros- perity, if great luxury be evidence these were the characteristics that marked this epoch. And of all this energy Thebes was the centre, and must have been the reflex. But where shall we look for descriptions of its then condition ? The thirty years' study of Egyptian writings which has followed the discovery of the key to them, has yielded almost no results in this direction, chiefly from the merely technical religious character of the great pro- portion of the documents hitherto brought to light. The Mesopotamian nations were in full activity, were in more or less constant communication with the Nile * See on this more peculiar and disputed point, curious evidence in Birch's Memoire sur line Pater e Egyptienne, pp. 31, seq. ; ext. vol. xxiv. Mein. de la Soc. des Antiquaires de France. ITS PLACE IN RELATION TO ANCIENT RECORDS. 15 valley, and were leaving records which, marvellous ingenuity has only just begun to decipher. But although facts illustrative of the history of Egypt are being recovered from them, it was hardly likely, although it is not impossible, that many details bearing upon the capital of that country should be found in muniments of the public character, which distinguishes the cuneiform imprintings on cylinders or incisings on slabs. Phoenicia, again, was in active intercourse with her neighbours in those o distant ages, and also possessed the perpetuating power of the pen ; but a few lithic inscriptions of slight importance, and fragments of a mystical theogony at second hand, are nearly all the remnants of her litera- ture which have weathered oblivion. If we turn to the Hebrew Biblical writings, which have preserved for us the earliest continuous narratives of ancient events, we find them so exclusively occupied with the national life and action of their race, that con- temporary accessories meet with no more than rare incidental allusion. It is only in the later books, the Prophecies, that we hear of Thebes in the vaguest terms, and then of its passing glory, as the popu- lous or prosperous " No Amon that was situate among the rivers" - " Egypt and Ethiopia were her strength, and it was infinite." * From Greece, too, comes only a similarly inarticulate echo of the * Nahum, iii. 8, 9. The last clause is rendered by Baron Bunsen : " Ethiopia was her strength, and Egypt without end." Egypt's Place, vol. iv. p. 610. 16 THEBES. traditional fame of the city. Indeed, during the period of Thebes' greatest vigour, the home of the Hellenic people, if not itself absolutely unlettered, left no heritage of writing. ^ And when somewhat later the poems of Homer appear, as the first instalment of Greek literature, we have, indeed, presented to us a dim vision of the power and splendour of Thebes, by a twice-repeated * reference to its wealth. But there is only one actually pictorial allusion, the use of the well-known distinction " hundred-gated ; " and that, as suggesting the idea of a fortified wall, of which, at all events on a great scale, there was probably none, is so far inaccurate or misleading, that a subsequent writer, Diodorusf, offers as a com- mentary, whether the word may not be a mere ge- neral reference to the stately porticoes of the numerous temples. As the Greek States and their literary development advanced, some of their inquiring travellers are known, from the remarks of later authors, to have been at- tracted to Egypt even at a very early stage of their national progress. But to what extent, if any, they preserved records of their personal topographical in- vestigations can only be surmised, as their works, in which such passages might have been sought, live in many cases not even by name. One, although not one of the earliest of their number, however, Herodotus, whose literary labours have enjoyed a * Iliad, ix. 381, and Od. iv. 126. f Lib. i. c. 4. HERODOTUS SILENT ON THE SUBJECT. 17 happier fate, strangely omitted to embellish his pages with some definite narration of the glories of Thebes. It is true that even he, far back into the past (160 B.C.) as his narrative would bring us, could only have depicted a languishing magnificence, for that city had ceased to be the royal residence and the centre of government more than 500 years before his day. Internal dynastic changes, and new channels of commercial activity, had turned the main but di- minishing stream of national vigour, back towards its old course in Lower Egypt. Moreover, the decrepitude which must thus have been gradually overtaking Thebes was not likely to be retarded by the Persian subju- gation of the country under Cambyses, when an un- believing conqueror thought it no sacrilege to despoil the temples of the ancient capital. And this had occurred about sixty years before the visit of He- rodotus. Whilst any description which he could have given, must, therefore, if accurate, have contained as an element the evidences of decline, it might yet have been sufficient to explain details of plan, struc- ture, aspect, and civic arrangement. He has, however, handed down nothing of the kind, and, in conse- quence, has been rather daringly accused * by some of never having journeyed so high up the Nile, not- * The risks of this rough and ready style of criticism are well marked off in a sentence of Niebuhr's, which insists on the fallacy of the inference, in discussing ancient literature, " that a man is ignorant of a thing because he does not mention it." Lectures on Ethnography, vol. i. p. 14. C 18 THEBES. withstanding his express statement to the contrary, reiterated in at least two, and I think in three, dif- ferent passages of his work. But whatever may have been the cause of this omission on the part of him who, to us, in this matter, stands, for the present at any rate, practically as well as titularly, the Father of History, his silence might be said to frustrate the best, if not the last, hope of a foreign contemporary account of Thebes in anything like the reality of its early con- dition. Eor, gradually advancing ruin had all but overwhelmed it, before the main body of what, look- ing to Classical sources, we are accustomed to term ancient literature, had fairly begun to nourish. Other Greek chroniclers did indeed continue to pass over the scene, and particularly after Egypt was more fully opened up to intercourse with their country- men by the Macedonian conquest in 323 B.C., and by the subsequent government under the Ptolemies. That some such visitors wrote accounts of what they saw, while this great dynastic change was yet recent, we know by a general reference to their statements made two hundred and fifty years thereafter by a later tra- veller, Diodorus Siculus, in confirmation of his own. But except the citations thus embalmed, they too have written in vain for late posterity ; and the first de- scriptive notices of Thebes which we possess are those, sufficiently meagre, drawn up from various sources by Diodorus himself, who speaks in a manner not easily distinguishable of what the Egyptian priests declared to have existed, quite as much as of what DECAY OF THE CITY. 19 his countrymen had stated themselves actually to have seen. He himself had been in the country, al- though not, it would appear, in the Thebais, about eighty years before the Christian era. But nearly the last episode in the downfall of the old metropolis had just been accomplished. Dynastic intrigues and intestine struggles in the reigning family of the Greek Ptolemies, accompanied by civil commotions, led to a rebellion on the part of the Thebans, with freedom from foreign rule most probably as its aim. For three years they were able to defy the armies of Ptolemy Lathyrus; and the stubbornness of their re- sistance exasperated their conqueror to a sterner re- venge when his triumph came. Such fines were levied upon them, says Pausanias*, that no vestige of their former prosperity was left; and after this infliction, added to massacre, sack, and pillage, the city rapidly hastened to decay. A century later it is mentioned by Tacitus f only as magnificent in its ruins. And visitors of that period, such as Strabo and Juvenal, while recording like the former the wide expanse covered by vestiges J, or appealing like the latter to the wail of the colossal Memnon , could but speak of a majesty entirely of the past, and furnish another evidence for the philosopher, another simile for the poet, of the transitory character of worldly glory. Thus it is that we do not now possess one single * Lib. i. c. 9. t Annal ii. 60. J Lib. xxii. p. 561, ed. Casaubon, 1587. " Magicse resonant ubi Memnone chordae." Juvenal, xv. 5. c 2 20 THEBES. available contemporary description portraying, we need not say details, but even a general outline of the internal structural arrangement of Thebes. Diodorus, indeed, while handing down the repute which in former ages it had held as the stateliest city of the earth*, adorned, as he adds, with great edifices and magnificent temples, and enriched with vast revenues, concludes by stating that the founder had built the houses of private persons, some of four and some of five storeys in height. Even this glimpse, however, comes to us at second hand, is offered by the writer only on the vague authority " they (namely, his pre- decessors) say ; " and in assigning such dimensions to all private residences, the account probably, as we shall subsequently see, embodies an exaggeration. But it . is not altogether forbidden to hope that something distinct and definite may yet be known of ancient Thebes, as it was seen by the eyes of dwellers in its streets, and it may be, described by their hands. Time entombs the past in oblivion and marches on ; but he does not always so thoroughly efface his foot- steps that fortune, or the energy of advancing intel- lectual ingenuity, may not, after the lapse of ages, find the clue to retrace them, and re-embody the spirit of the buried ages. The works of some of the earlier Greek travellers may yet be discovered mouldering in a for- gotten crypt, or covered by later writing in some unsuspected palimpsest. The narrative of Hecata3us * Lib. i. c. 4. ACCOUNTS BY EARLY GREEK TRAVELLERS. 21 of Miletus, a guest of the Theban priests *, about the time of the Persian conquest f, may one day be re- stored to the world; for, as late as the fifth century of our era, it was probably in existence, having then been largely quoted by Stephen of Byzantium; and there is every reason to believe that it contained much curious and graphic information. The notes of another Hecatseus, distinguished by the name of his birth- place, Abdera, may also come to light, as Diodorus SiculusJ refers to them familiarly for particulars respecting Thebes, which had been visited by this Heca- tseus some two hundred years after his namesake, but still an equally long period before the retribution of Lathyrus had dealt the last great destructive blow. Nor need we, moreover, entirely despair of some happy circumstance bringing to light a still more pre- cise account of many characteristics of Thebes, the legacy of some native scribe committed to writing when the Greeks were illiterate freebooters, and the capital of Upper Egypt in the full blaze of its pro- sperity. Mr. Harris of Alexandria is the fortunate * Herod, lib. ii. c. 143. f Mr. Sharpe (History of Egypt, vol. i. p. 110, pass.) places the visit of Hecatseus some years before that event, in which case he would have seen the city as it stood, unscathed by its first foreign conquerors. But a consideration of the facts in the life of this traveller would seem to show that he had not been in Egypt until ten or twelve years after Cambyses subdued that country. Vide Hecateei Milesii Fragmenta, ed. Klausen, p. 9. Mr. Birch dates this visit in 521 B.C., or not more than about two years after the Persian conquest. Egyptian Hieroglyphs, p. 180. % Lib. i. c. 4. c 3 22 THEBES. possessor of a splendid roll of Papyrus, procured, I believe, at Thebes, and dated in the reign of Ba- rneses III., about 1200 years B.C., which, so far as it has been unwound, as yet but a little way, de- scribes with a minuteness hardly less elaborate than the terms of an architect's specification, an exten- sive building, which the owner of the manuscript, after laborious comparison, was inclined to regard as one of the temple-palaces of Medinet Haboo.* That other scrolls of more special interest than those which accompanied the dead as ritualistic formulae, may yet give similar evidence respecting other more secular structures or portions of Thebes, and generally of its urban characteristics, is not beyond the range of hope. But besides the possibility of such descrip- tions coming to us in a manner so precise and formal f, they may be found imbedded incidentally in some such carefully- drawn deeds and conveyances of pro- perty as are known to have been used, from speci- mens, almost barren, however, in this respect, collected by Dr. Young J ; or they might be allusively inter- woven in fictitious narratives , whose creation might * I have since heard that this extraordinary papyrus has just been entirely unrolled, measures 150 feet in length, and is supposed to con- tain a kind of rent-roll of Eaineses III. f Clement of Alexandria, in the second century A.D., mentions the existence of a work, among many others in the native language, on the Chorography of Egypt, &c. Stromat. vi. 4, p. 633, ap. Birch, Hiero- glyphs, p. 185. J Discoveries in Hierog. Literature, Remie Arch