[Footnote 158: [Plut.] Vit. 10 Or.: LYCURG. Orat. VII. 1. 10 p. 841. 1549: Ptoclus to Hesiod, Op. 504.]

[Footnote 160: HESYCHIUS, [Greek: Lenain men].]

[Footnote 161: PROCLUS, To Hesiod Op. 504.]

[Footnote 162: MOSCHPUL., [Greek: kata ton mena ton Lenaina].]

[Footnote 163: TZETZES, [Greek: mena de Lenain].]

[Footnote 164: Et. Mag., [Greek: Lenaina].]

[Footnote 165: C.I.G., I. 523. [Greek: I'amelinos kittseis Dionyson thi].]

Thucydides tells us[166] that the Ionian Athenians carried the festival Anthesteria with them from Athens, and that they continued until his day to celebrate it. The Anthesteria are thus older than the Ionic migration, which took place under the sons of Codrus.[167] The story of Pandion and Orestes from Apollodorus places the establishment of the Choes in the time of this mythical Athenian king. The first and third months of the Ionic year[168] are the same as those of the Attic. There can hardly be a doubt, then, that their second month, Lenaeo, was also carried with the emigrants from the parent city, where at that time it obtained.

[Footnote 166: II. 15.]

[Footnote 167: BOECKII Vom Unterschied der Lena., Anthest. und Dion. s. 52.]

[Footnote 168: The entire argument on the question of the month is open to the objection that too much weight is given to such men as Tzetzes and all the tribe of minor scholiasts, whose opportunities for accurate knowledge were, in many respects, vastly inferior to those of scholars of our own day. It is easy indeed to say that their testimony is worth nothing. But where shall we stop? It is urged that the connection of the Lenaea with an Attic month Lenaeo arose from an attempt on the part of the commentators to explain names as they found them. It is said that this conflict of the authorities proves that there never was an Attic Lenaeo. This may be true; and the man who will prove it to be so, and furthermore will give us the accurate history of the Attic and the Ionic calendars, will do a great service to Greek scholarship. But he must have at hand better sources than we possess to-day. Though the later Greek commentators on the classics have made many amusing and stupid blunders, though we need not hesitate to disregard their teaching when it comes into conflict with better authority, or with plain reason, still they have told us that which is true. They often furnish us with all that we know of older and better authors, whose works were their authority. Therefore, unless I have found testimony against them, I have followed their teaching. Both here and elsewhere I give their words for what they are worth; not that I rank Proclus with Thucydides, or the Et. Mag. with Aristophanes,—but from the conviction that so remarkable a concurrence of testimony in so many different writers has not yet been successfully explained away, and could not indeed exist unless their testimony were founded on a basis of fact.]

This gives a time, however remote it may be, when the Athenians still had the month Lenaeo, yet we hear of no festival Lenaea among the Ionian cities. It would thus seem that this had lost its force as an independent festival before the migration.

Gamelio is said to have received its name from the Gamelia, the festival of Zeus and Hera. It is hard to believe that while the Page 70 much more brilliant Lenaea remained in the month, the name should have passed to the always somewhat unimportant Gamelia. What reason could be found for this naming, unless that the Lenaea had first been transferred to the Anthesteria, as all the testimony tends to prove? This supposition gives an easy explanation of the repeated reference to Lenaeo as an Attic month, of the change of the name to Gamelio, and even Tzetzes' association of the Pithoigia with the Lenaea,—an association which arises necessarily, if the Lenaea once formed part of the Anthesteria. The impossibility of transferring in its entirety a festival which has become rooted in the customs of a people, is also seen. That remnant of the Lenaea in Lenaeo, the Ambrosia, survived till quite late in Attic history. It is not difficult, then, to understand why the other references to the Lenaea as a separate festival do not agree as to the month.

A triad of contests is given by Demosthenes[169] where he quotes the law of Evegoras with reference to the Dionysiac festivals: the one in Pirus with its comedies and tragedies, [Greek: e epi Lenai] with its tragedies and comedies, and the City Dionysia with the chorus of boys, procession, comedies and tragedies. Here are three different contests in three different places; and the Anthesteria and Lenaea are included under [Greek: e epi Lenai pompe]. The purpose of the law was to preserve absolute security and freedom to both person and property on the days of the festivals named. Not even an overdue debt could be collected. In so sweeping a law the Anthesteria could hardly fail to be included; for at no Attic festival was there more absolute liberty and equality. In Suidas[170] we learn that the revellers at the Chytri, going about on carts, jested and made sport of the passers by, and that later they did the same at the Lenaea. Thus he gives another proof of the connection between the two festivals, and shows that [Greek: o epi Lenai agn] became a part of the older Anthesteria after the invention of comedy, and that even then the old custom was kept up. In Athenus we find[17l] the Page 71 Samian Lynceus sojourning in Athens and commiserated as passing his time listening to the lectures of Theophrastus and seeing the Lenaea and Chytri, in contrast to the lavish Macedonian feasts of his correspondent. The latter in the same connection says[172] that certain men, probably players, who had filled a part in Athens at the Chytri, came in to amuse the guests. The marriage which he is attending then took place after the Chytri. It is not likely, therefore, that in "the Lenaea and Chytri" he is referring to two festivals separated by a month of time. He speaks, rather, of two acts of the same celebration.

[Footnote 169: Mid. 10.]

[Footnote 170: SUIDAS, [Greek: ek tn amaxn smmata].]

[Footnote 171: ATHENUS, IV. p. 130.]

[Footnote 172: Ibid. III. 129.]

The frogs in Aristophanes claim the temenus [Greek: Limnais] and speak of their song at the Chytri. The scholiast cites[173] Philochorus, saying that the contests referred to were the [Greek: chutrinoi].

A suspected passage in Diogenes Laertius declares (III 56) that it was the custom to contend with tetralogies at four festivals, the Dionysia, Lenaea, Panathenaea, and Chytri. If the passage is worth anything, it adds new testimony that there were dramatic representations at the Anthesteria. The Menander of Alciphron, also, would hardly exclaim[174] over [Greek: poious chutrous], unless the contest were one in which he, as dramatist, could have a part.

No other of the extant dramas has been so much discussed in connection with the question as the Acharnians. Those who hold that the Lenaea and Anthesteria were entirely separate, have affirmed that the play opens on the Pnyx in Athens, that the scene changes to the country-house of Dicaeopolis in Cholleidae, at the season of the country Dionysia in the month Posideo. Later the time of the Lenaea in the month Gamelio is represented. Finally the locality is again Athens at the Anthesteria in Anthesterio. In fact, we are told, the poet has, in the Acharnians, shown his true greatness by overleaping all restraints of time and place and giving his fancy free rein. But this is making the Acharnians an isolated example among the Greek plays which have come down to us. Changes of scene are foreign to the nature of the Greek drama, as is acknowledged by A. Miller.[175]

[Footnote 173: Schol. ARIST. Frogs. 218.]

[Footnote 174: Alciphron Ep. II. 3. 11.]

[Footnote 175: Bhnenalt., 161.]

That the beginning of the play is on the Pnyx, there is no question. In v. 202, Dicaeopolis declares: "I will go in and Page 72 celebrate the Country Dionysia." This is held to be a statement of the actual time of year represented in this portion of the play, and also to indicate the change of place from Athens to the country. That the country festivals to the wine-god in the different demes were held on different dates, we learn from the fact that companies of actors went out from Athens to make the tour of these provincial festivals.[176] We know, too, that these rural celebrations were under charge of the demarchs.[177] In the passage from the Acharnians just cited, there is no statement that this is the season when the demes were accustomed to hold their annual Bacchic celebrations. Rather, in his joy in his newly concluded peace, the hero declares that he will now hold this festival in honor of the god of the vine. No surprise is felt at this exceptional date, particularly as, by his statement below,[178] he has been prevented for six years from holding the festival at its proper season. This last passage, however, is the strongest authority for a change of place in the action. Certainly, if the reading is correct, in the light of all the remainder of the comedy we should naturally translate: "in the sixth year, having come into my deme, I salute you gladly." But we do no violence to the construction if we say that [Greek: elth es ton demon] means "going (forth) to my deme." Unquestionably up to the end of the first choral ode at v. 236, the action has gone on in Athens. But here, we are told, comes the change of place. In v. 202 Dicaeopolis has declared that he is "going in." What does he enter but his house in the city? At v. 236 the chorus also is in Athens. In v. 237, the voice of Dicaeopolis is heard from within—his country house, it is said; and in v. 238 the chorus is as suddenly before this same house! Such rapid changes might easily take place on a modern stage, but are of a character to excite remark in an ancient theatre. If there was a change here, the second scene must have represented Cholleidae with the three houses of Dicaeopolis, Lamachus, and Euripides; and the three must be in the same deme; for the Bacchic procession of Dicaeopolis appears at v. 241, and is broken up by the chorus at v. 280. As soon as Dicaeopolis, by Page 73 his by-play, has obtained permission to plead his cause, he turns (v. 394) to the house of Euripides to borrow the wardrobe of one of the tragic heroes. Then, when his defense has divided the chorus, the first half call upon the gorgon-helmeted Lamachus (v. 566) to bear them aid, and that warrior appears from his house.

[Footnote 176: HAIGH, Attic Theatre, p. 47.]

[Footnote 177: EHMICHEN, Bhnenwesen, s. 195.]

[Footnote 178: Achar., 266 f.]

Now the common enemy has prevented the celebration of the Country Dionysia for six years. How is it possible, under such circumstances, to conceive of Euripides as composing tragedies in the country? How could the general Lamachus be living out of the city in such a time of danger? Certainly the play itself gives us authority that this scene also is in Athens. At v. 241 Dicaeopolis would go forth with his procession to hold the rural Dionysia in his deme. Prevented from doing so, he is from this on busy with the duties and pleasures of the Choes. His altercation with the chorus and with Lamachus ended, he (v. 623 f.) announces that he will open a market for all Boeotians, Megarians, and Peloponnesians. He sets up (v. 719) the bounds of his markets, and appoints three "himantes" as agoranomi. These officials are suggestive of those busy at the Anthesteria.[179] The first customer, from Megara comes in with: "Hail, agora in Athens" (v. 729), and brings for sale pigs suitable for sacrifice at the Mysteries (v. 747 and 764). The Lesser Mysteries came in Anthesterio first after the Anthesteria.

[Footnote 179: MOMMSEN, Heortologie v. Anthesteria.]

There is no change of place in the course of the action. The scene, the Pnyx with the houses of Dicaeopolis, Lamachus, and Euripides near by, remains the same. There is no indication of a jump in time from Posideo to Gamelio, and again from Gamelio to Anthesterio.

Amid all the preparations for the Anthesteria made in the play, two statements cannot fail to attract attention. In v. 504 f. the poet informs us that this is not the Greater Dionysia, when strangers, tribute-bearers, and allies were present. It is the contest at the Lenaeum. In v. 1150 f. the chorus frees its mind concerning the miserly fashion in which Antimachus treated them at a previous celebration of the Lenaea. Shall we say that the poet, in order to speak of things present before the eyes of Page 74 the Athenians, steps, in these two passages, entirely outside the action of the play? By no means. The poet is dealing with a vital issue. He is fighting against the ruinous war. The power of his genius is shown by the masterly manner in which he uses the moment which was present to his hearers. The victor at the Choes sat among the spectators; the very walls of the theatre had hardly ceased to resound with the din of the carousers. Here, or elsewhere, there is mention of but one [Greek: epi Lenai agn], that is the Lenaea, or the dramatic contest at the Anthesteria.

In fixing the date of the "Dionysia at the Lenaeum," we have the authority of some interesting inscriptions which have been collected in Dittenberger S.I.G. II. 374. They are the record of moneys obtained from the sale of the hides of the victims sacrificed at various festivals of the Attic year. A portion of each of four separate lists has been preserved. In the first and fourth of these, as they stand in Dittenberger, three Dionysiac festivals are mentioned: that at Piraeus, the Dionysia e? aste?, and the Dionysia [Greek: en astei]. The third list ends with the Dionysia in Pirus. The remaining incription mentions two Dionysiac festivals, the one at the Lenaeum, and that e? aste?. The part of the record which should cover the Dionysia at Pirus is wanting. The calendar order of all the festivals mentioned is strictly followed.

Khler in C.I.A., led by the other inscriptions found with these four, says that the lists do not contain mention of all the festivals at which public sacrifices of cattle were made in that portion of the year covered by the inscriptions, but that these are to be considered only as records of the hide-money which was to be devoted to particular uses. As a matter of fact, however, nearly all the public festivals of importance, as well as some of less note, are included in these lists; and it would be difficult to demonstrate that they do not contain a complete record of the public hide-money for the portion of the year in which these festivals fall.

In these inscriptions the peculiarity with reference to the Dionysia is the same which we find in all other accounts which seem to give a complete record of these festivals. Only three are mentioned as held under public authority. Did the omission Page 75 of the Lenaea and Anthesteria occur only in this case, we might, following Khler, admit that the hide-money from this particular festival was not devoted to this special purpose, and that for this reason the name did not appear in these records. But since in no case are there more than three mentioned; and since the third name is one which covers all celebrations in honor of Dionysus at the Lenaeum, this assumption cannot be granted. The important point, and one that cannot be too strongly emphasized, is that neither in these nor in any other inscription or official record is there any mention of the Lenaea or Anthesteria as such. The official language appears always to have been, as here: [Greek: Dionysia epi Lenai] or: [Greek: e epi Lenai pompe], or, where the dramatic contest alone was intended: [Greek: o epi Lenai agn]. Once only in the 5th century[180] do we find [Greek: Lenaia] used; and here it is synonymous with [Greek: o epi Lenai agn]. Wilamowitz has well said that [Greek: lenaia] as a name of a separate festival is an invention of the grammarians. Aristophanes, in the passage from the Acharnians, shows that this name may have been used commonly for the dramatic contest at the Lenaeum, and we know from Thucydides that Anthesteria was also used of the entire festival. It is impossible that in a record like the hide-money inscriptions, the official title [Greek: Dionysia epi Lenai] should be employed to cover two festivals separated by an interval of a month.

[Footnote 180: Acharnians, 1155.]

But was the Anthesteria a state festival, at which public sacrifices of cattle were made? The story of its institution by Pandion shows that it was public from the beginning. Aristophanes informs us[181] that it maintained this character; for the Basileus awarded the prize at the Choes. The question of sacrifice requires fuller treatment.

Suidas[182] and a scholiast[183] to Aristophanes quote from Theopompus the story of the establishment of the Chytri. On the very day on which they were saved, the survivors of the flood introduced the celebration of this day of the Anthesteria by cooking a potful of all sorts of vegetables, and sacrificing it Page 76 to the Chthonian Hermes and those who had perished in the waters. The scholiast adds that sacrifice was offered to no one of the Olympian gods on this day.

[Footnote 181: Acharnians, 1225.]

[Footnote 182: SUIDAS, [Greek: chutroi].]

[Footnote 183: Schol. ARISTOPH., Frogs. 218.]

In Suidas we find a hint of the other ceremonies on the Chytri. According to him, there were sacrifices to Dionysus as well as to Hermes. This suggests that the Chytri was but one day of the Anthesteria, and, though the worship of the departed may have been the older portion of the celebration, it was later overshadowed by the festivities in honor of the wine-god. As the text of his argument in his oration against Midias, Demosthenes cites four oracular utterances, two from Dodona, the others probably from Delphi. In the first the god calls upon the children of Erechtheus, as many as inhabit the city of Pandion, to be mindful of Bacchus, all together throughout the wide streets to return fit thanks to the Bromian, and crowned with wreaths, to cause the odor of sacrifice to rise from the altars. In this oracle, Athens is the city of Pandion, because it was reported that under his rule the worship of Dionysus was introduced into the city. This and the other commands from Dodona and Delphi concerning Dionysus refer to the introduction of the worship of the god; for in every one the statement is absolute; there is no reference to a previous worship and a backsliding on the part of the people, [Greek: knisan bmoise] of the first oracle can refer only to a sacrifice of animals. Stronger still is the statement in the fourth oracle (from Dodona) where the command is given to fulfil sacred rites ([Greek: iere telein]) to Dionysus, and to sacrifice to Apollo and to Zeus. ([Greek: Apollni Apotropai Boun thusai ... Du Ktesi boun leucon].) The command "to mix bowls of wine and to establish choral dances," in the second and fourth oracles, serves as an explanatory comment on "return fit thanks to the Bromian" in the first. "Let free men and slaves wear wreaths and enjoy leisure for one day," must refer to the Pithoigia. In this feast the slaves had a part, and enjoyed a holiday. Hence the saying[184] "Forth, slaves, it is no longer the Anthesteria." In obedience to the oracles then, public sacrifices could not have been lacking at the Anthesteria. Therefore, this festival must have been officially known as the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenai].

[Footnote 184: [Greek: Thuraxe Kares ouket Anthesteria].]

Page 77 The dramatic contests at the Lenaeum, like those at the Greater Dionysia, were undoubtedly preceded by sacrifices. The [Greek: agn epi Lenai] could hardly be separated from the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenai]. Therefore the hide-money inscriptions are also authority that Lenaea and Anthesteria are but two references to the same festival.

Thucydides, as we have seen,[185] knew of but two Dionysia in Athens itself; those [Greek: en astei] and the Anthesteria. Of these, using the comparative degree, he states that the latter were the [Greek: archaiotera]. In his time the dramatic contests [Greek: en Limnais] were in their glory, yet he mentions but one celebration in this locality. So here also we must conclude that Anthesteria was the name of the whole festival which Harpocration tells us was called [Greek: pithoigia, choes] and [Greek: chutroi]; that there was, in the flourishing period of the drama, no separate festival Lenaea, but that the [Greek: agn] at the Chytri came to be so called to distinguish it from that at the City Dionysia.

[Footnote 185: II. 15.]

It is interesting in connection with Thucydides' statement that the Ionian Athenians in his day still held the Anthesteria, to examine the record of this festival in the Ionic cities of Asia Minor. To be sure we have very little information concerning the details of this celebration among them; but we do find two statements of importance. C.I.G. 3655 mentions certain honors proclaimed at the Anthesteria in the theatre in Cyzicus. Comparison with similar observances at Athens indicates that theatrical representations were to follow. C.I.G. 3044, [Greek: tgnos Anthesterioisin], refers to Teos. From the constant use of [Greek: agn] referring to theatrical performances in connection with the festivals of Dionysus the word can hardly mean anything else here. So these two inscriptions, referring to two colonies, add their testimony that dramas were presented also at the Anthesteria in Athens.

Finally, Aristotle's Politeia falls into line with the hide-money records. In 56, the statement is made that the Archon Eponymos had the Megala Dionysia in charge. In the following section, the Archon Basileus is said to have control, not of the Lemaea or of the Anthesteria—for neither is mentioned by name,—but of the Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenai]. The Basileus and the Epimeletae together directed the procession; Page 78 but the basileus alone controlled the [dramatic] contest. Here again, it is inconceivable that either Anthesteria or Lenaea should be omitted; so both must be included under Dionysia [Greek: epi Lenai].

We thus find our position supported by inscriptions of undoubted authority, and by a list of names ranging in time from before Aristophanes to the 9th century A.D., and in weight from Thucydides and Aristotle to the Scholiasts.

If the Limnae were not by the existing theatre of Dionysus, where were they? Not on the south side of the Acropolis, as a careful examination of the ground proves. In our study of the theatre-precinct, we found that the earth here in antiquity was at a much higher level than at present, while immediately outside the wall of this precinct to the south, the ground was considerably lower than it is now. The present height of the theatre-precinct is 91.4 m. above the sea level; of the Odeum, 97.7 metres; of the Olympieum, 80.8 m.; of the ground within the enclosure of the Military Hospital due south from the theatre, 75 m.; of Callirrhoe in the Ilissus opposite the Olympieum, 59 m.; of the Ilissus bed opposite the theatre, 50 m. From the present level of the theatre to the bed of the stream there is a fall of more than 41 m.; the fall is about equally rapid along the entire extent of the slope to the south of the Acropolis, while the soil is full of small stones. Surely, it would take more than the oft-cited handful of rushes to establish a swamp on such a hillside. We have, however, excellent geological authority that from the lay of the land and the nature of the soil, there never could have been a swamp there. The Neleum inscription[186] can be held to prove nothing further than that, as Mr. Wheeler suggests, the drain from the existing theatre ran through this precinct. We must therefore seek the Limnae elsewhere.

[Footnote 186: Am. Journal of Archology, III. 38-48.]

We know that from time immemorial the potters plied their trade in the Ceramicus, because here they found the clay suitable for their use. The so-called Theseum is 68.6 m. above the sea-level; the present level at the Pirus railroad station, 54.9 m.; at the Dipylum (and here we are on the ancient level), only 47.9 m. Out beyond the gate comes a long slope, extending Page 79 till the Cephissus is reached, at an elevation of 21 m. So the Dipylum is over 43 m. below the present level of the theatre-precinct; and it is the lowest portion of the ancient city. Here, therefore, in the northwest part of the city, is where we should expect from the lay of the land and the nature of the soil to find the marshes. Out in the open plain beyond this quarter of the city to-day, after every heavy rain, the water collects and renders the ground swampy. With the Dipylum as a starting-point, there is no difficulty in supposing that, in very ancient times, the Limnae extended to Colonus Agoraeus, to the east into the hollow which became a portion of the agora in the Ceramicus, and to the west into the depression between Colonus Agoraeus and the Hill of the Nymphs. The exact extent and character of the low ground in these two directions can only be determined by excavating the ancient level, which, as it appears to me, has not been reached by the deep new railroad cutting running across this section north of the so-called Theseum.

The excavations of Dr. Drpfeld between Colonus Agoraeus and the Areopagus, have shown that the ruins and the ancient street at this point have been buried to a great depth by the dbris washed down from the Pnyx. Unfortunately, these diggings have not been extensive enough to restore the topography of the west and southwest slopes of Colonus Agoraeus.

We have abundant notices, besides those already given, of a precinct or precincts of Dionysus in this section. Hesychius speaks[187] of a house in Melite where the tragic actors rehearsed. Photius repeats[188] the statement almost word for word. Philostratus mentions[189] a council-house of the artists near the gate of the Ceramicus. Pausanias (I. 2. 5), just after entering the city, sees within one of the stoas the house of Poulytion which was dedicated to Dionysus Melpomenus. He speaks next of a precinct with various [Greek: agalmata], and among them the face of the demon of unmixed wine, Cratus. Beyond this precinct was a building with images of clay, representing, among Page 80 other scenes, Pegasus, who brought the worship of Dionysus to Athens. This building also was plainly devoted to the cult of the wine-god. In fact, the most venerable traditions in Athens, with reference to Dionysus, centre here. All the various representations here are connected with the oldest legends. Pausanias (I. 3. 1.) says that the Ceramicus had its very name from Ceramus, a son of Dionysus and Ariadne.

[Footnote 187: HESYCH. [Greek: Meliten oikos].]

[Footnote 188: PHOTIUS. [Greek: Meliten oikos].]

[Footnote 189: PHILOST. Vit. Soph. p. 251.]

We have already seen that an orchestra was first established in the agora. Timus adds[190] that this was a conspicuous place where were the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, which we know to have stood in the agora.

The scholiast to the De Corona of Demosthenes[191] says that the "hieron" of Calamites, an eponymous hero, was close to the Lenaeum. Hesychius words this statement differently, saying that [the statue of] the hero himself was near the Lenaeum. We know that the statues of eponymous heroes were set up in the agora. Here again the new Aristotle manuscript comes to our support, telling us (Pol. c. 3) that the nine archons did not occupy the same building, but that the Basileus had the Bucoleum, near the Prytaneum, and that the meeting and marriage of the Basileus' wife with Dionysus still took place there in his time. That the Bucoleum must be on the agora, and that the marriage took place in Limnaean-Lenaean territory, have long been accepted. The location of the Limnae to the northwest at the Acropolis must thus be considered as settled.

Dr. Drpfeld maintains that the ancient orchestra and the later Agrippeum theatre near by, mentioned by Philostratus,[192] lay in the depression between the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs, but considerably above the foot of the declivity.

[Footnote 190: TIM. Lex. Plat.]

[Footnote 191: DEMOS, de Corona, 129, scholium.]

[Footnote 192: PHILOSTRATUS, Vit. Soph., p. 247.]

From the passage of the Neaera quoted above we know that the old orchestra could not have been in the sacred precinct of Dionysus Limnaeus, for this was opened but once in every year, on the 12th of Anthesterio,[193] while the Chytri and therefore [Greek: o epi Lenai] were held on the following day. This involves too that the Pithoigia as well as the "contests at the Page 81 Lenaeum" could not have been celebrated in the sanctuary [Greek: en Limnais], though portions of each of these divisions of the Anthesteria were held in the Lenaeum, which contained the Limnaea hieron.

[Footnote 193: See also THUCYDIDES above.]

The Lenaeum must lie [Greek: en Limnais], and therefore on the low ground. A passage in Isus (8. 35) is authority that the sanctuary of Dionysus [Greek: en Limnais] was [Greek: en astei]; i.e., within the Themistoclean walls. So we have it located within narrow limits, somewhere in the space bounded on the east by the eastern limit of the agora in Ceramicus, south by the Areopagus, west by the Pnyx and the Hill of the Nymphs, and north by the Dipylum.

From the neighborhood of the Dionysiac foundations and allusions mentioned by Pausanias immediately upon entering the city, we may be justified in locating this ancient cult of Dionysus [Greek: en Limnais] still more exactly, and placing it somewhere on or at the foot of the southwestern slope of Colonus Agoraeus. More precise evidence of its site we may obtain from future excavation: though as this region lay outside the Byzantine city-walls, the ruins may have been more or less completely swept away.

In view of its position outside of the gate of the ancient Pelasgic city, by the wine-press, we understand why the contest in the Lenaeum was called a contest [Greek: kat agrous]. Because enclosed later within the walls of Themistocles, the Limnae were also referred to as [Greek: en astei]. Situated as they were in the territory of the agora, we see why, although the Archon Eponymus directed the City Dionysia, the Archon Basileus presided[194] over the Anthesteria, and therefore over "the contest at the Lenaeum"; and the agoranomi, the superintendents of the market-place, whose duties were confined to the agora, [Greek: epetelesan tous chutrous].[195]

[Footnote 194: POLLUX VIII. 89, 90. (ARISTOT. [Greek: Athes Politeia].)]

[Footnote 195: MOMMSEN, Heortologie, p. 352 note.]

In closing, it may not be without interest to review the picture presented of the most ancient Athens. Behind the nine-gated Pelasgic fortifications lay the city, with its temples, its palace, "the goodly house of Erechtheus," and its dwellings for the people, remains of which can even now be seen within the Pelasgicum. Immediately without the gate stood the Pythium, the Olympieum, the temple of Ge Kourotrophos, and Page 82 other foundations. Directly before the entrance, some two hundred paces from the city-walls, was the spring Enneacrounus, whose water was most esteemed by the citizens. Not far from this was the wine-press. Here the people built the first altar, the first temple, the first orchestra, and instituted the first festival in honor of the wine-god, long before the new Dionysian cult was brought in from Eleutherae; and here for centuries were raised every year about the orchestra tiers of wooden seats in preparation for the annual dramatic contests.

JOHN PICKARD, American School of Classical Studies, Athens, 1891.

Page 83

CORRESPONDENCE.

HUNTING DELLA ROBBIA MONUMENTS IN ITALY.

To the Managing Editor of the American Journal of Archology:

Dear Sir: Having made a special study of the altarpiece by Andrea Delia Robbia in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, my desire was aroused to examine all the glazed terracotta sculptures of the Delia Robbia school, which form such an important part of Italian Renaissance sculpture. So I sailed for Italy on the 6th of last May, taking with me a good camera and a sufficient number of celluloid films, knowing beforehand that there were many of these monuments which had never been photographed and were consequently imperfectly known. An investigation of this character, which takes one over the mountains and into the valleys, from one end of Italy to the other, may well be described as a hunting expedition; and, though requiring severe labor and constant sacrifices, has in it a considerable element of sport. Although Dr. Bode, of Berlin in various writings has shown a more discriminating knowledge of this subject than other writers, nevertheless the work of Cavallucci and Molinier, Les Della Robbia, was more useful to me as a guide and starter. They had catalogued as many as 350 of these monuments in Italy, and briefly described them. But their attributions were uncertain. Prof. Cavallucci told me in Florence that unless he had a document in hand indicating the authorship of a monument he felt great hesitation in making attributions. And I could see, the more I studied his work, that he considered it more important to discover documents than to observe monuments. Here then was a great opportunity to see a large series of monuments, to compare them and allow them to tell their own story in regard to their origin. Having with the aid of geographical dictionaries and government maps located these 350 monuments, I made up my mind to see as many of them as possible. This was no easy task, as they were widely distributed and, as I progressed, the number of uncatalogued monuments constantly increased. I can give here but a bare outline of my trip. Starting at Genoa, I went to Massa and Pisa and Lucca; from Lucca following the valley of the Serchio as far north as Page 84 Castelnuovo. Here I found a fine series of unphotographed monuments, and began to learn that works of the same author and period are very likely to be found in neighboring towns, especially when lying along a valley. Similarly, starting from Pracchia above Pistoia I studied another series of unphotographed monuments at Gavinana, Lizano and Cutigliano. These monuments may prove to be of importance in solving the problem of the authorship of the celebrated Pistoian frieze.

At Prato the monuments of this class have been photographed, and are well known. Florence and its immediate surroundings contain the most important works of Luca and of Giovanni Delia Robbia, but is very poor in examples of Andrea Delia Robbia. Hence the Florentines have a very inadequate notion of Andrea's work, which must be studied at Arezzo, La Verna, Prato, Siena and Viterbo. At Florence I was fortunate enough to find an unpublished document ascribing one of the medallions at Or San Michele to Luca Delia Robbia. Two of these medallions by the elder Luca had never been photographed before, but have now been taken by Alinari. So far as I know, the monuments at Impruneta, ten miles from Florence, are unknown to students of this subject. Three of them have been photographed by Brogi, who gives no attributions. They are not mentioned by Cavallucci nor by Dr. Bode; yet they are amongst the very finest works by Luca Delia Robbia. In the private collection of the Marquis Frescobaldi I recognized a fine Luca Delia Robbia, and in that of the Marquis Antinori an excellent example of Giovanni's work. Less important discoveries made in this region are too numerous to mention. At Empoli, not many miles from Florence, are several uncatalogued monuments and a fine example of a tile pavement, which I identified as Delia Robbia work. I then visited Poggibonsi and Volterra and Siena, and satisfied myself that the beautiful coronation of the Virgin at the Osservanza outside Siena is a chef-d'oeuvre of Andrea Delia Robbia. From Asciano I visited Monte San Savino, Lucignano and Foiano and took photographs of some fine, unrecognized works of Andrea Delia Robbia. Another starting point was Montepulciano for a long drive to Radicofani, a weird Etruscan site, whose churches contained half a dozen unphotographed Delia Robbias, then to S. Fiora, whose monuments have a greater reputation than they deserve, to S. Antimo, a fine Cistercian ruin, and Montalcino. At Perugia I photographed the monuments of Benedetto Buglione, thus laying the basis for a study of his works, a number of which may now be identified. In the case of his pupil, Santi Buglione, I was less successful, as the chapel at Croce dell'Alpe, which contained two authenticated altarpieces of his Page 85 seems to have disappeared, not only from sight, but from the memory of the inhabitants of the neighborhood. So the reconstruction of his style involves a wider stretch of the scientific imagination. At Acquapendente I found a unique glazed terracotta altar signed by Jacopo Benevento, at Bolsena took the first photograph of several monuments, and at Viterbo had photographs made of the important lunettes by Andrea Delia Robbia. At Rome I penetrated the mysteries of the Vatican and discovered there a signed monument by Fra Lucas, son of Andrea Delia Robbia, and found in the Industrial Museum several monuments, which I identified as by the same author. Hitherto Fra Lucas has been known only as the maker of tile pavements. At Montecassiano there is a large monument concerning which a document has been published in many Italian journals, ascribing the authorship to Fra Mattia Delia Robbia. This has been published from a drawing, and my photograph is the first taken from the original monument. On the basis of a very imperfect acquaintance with his style, other monuments are being freely attributed to Fra Mattia. In the Marche there is a series of terracotta altarpieces attributed to Pietro Paolo Agabiti, a local painter of the XVI century. These attributions are purely hypothetical, and the hypothesis that Fra Mattia might have been their author is now being tested by local archaeologists. I travelled over a large portion of this province, seeing some important monuments, but without making discoveries of importance. Umbria in general proved even less fruitful, the terracotta monuments being of poor quality and showing little or no Delia Robbia influence.

A very interesting region comprises Citt di Castello, Borgo San Sepolcro, Arezzo and the Casentino. Here Andrea Delia Robbia left his impress strongly marked, especially in the very beautiful altarpieces at La Verna. As we approach Florence we find more by Giovanni and his school, especially noteworthy being the monuments at Galatrona and San Giovanni.

When obliged to return home there remained very few known Delia Robbia monuments in Italy which I had not visited; almost everywhere I found more than had been already catalogued, and my collection of photographs of these monuments is undoubtedly the most complete in existence. Already considerable knowledge has been gained of the differences of style, which characterized the various members of the school, as I hope to show in a series of articles for the American Journal of Archology. In order to complete this work I shall still have to hunt further in the museums and private collections of Spain, Portugal, France, England, Germany and Austria. There are a few Delia Robbia monuments in this country, of which one Page 86 is in Princeton, one in New York, one in Newport, R.I., and several in Boston.

Beside the direct pleasures of the chase and the bagging of game, there are many incidental pleasures in such a hunting expedition.

One learns of the whereabouts of other monuments, acquires a knowledge of the country, of the language, of the people and of all the local surroundings that help explain to us the significance of the past.

Yours sincerely,

ALLAN MARQUAND. Guernsey Hall, Princeton, N.J., Dec, 27, 1892.

Page 87

REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS.

MAXIME COLLIGNON. Histoire de la Sculpture Grecque. Tome I. Firmin-Didot et Cie. Paris, 1892.

This is the first volume of what is likely to prove for some time to come the best general history of Greek sculpture. The personal inspection of monuments made during his connection with the French school at Athens, and his training as a lecturer at the Facult des Lettres at Paris, have given M. Collignon an admirable training for the production of this book. We see in it also a hearty appreciation of more specialized work. This is essentially a history from the archaeological standpoint, the monuments of Greek sculpture, rather than written documents, being assumed as fundamental material. In this respect he represents a more advanced stage of archological science than Overbeck. Again we feel in reading the volume the constant assumption that the history of Greek sculpture is a continuous evolution. Even when the development is checked, as by the Dorian invasion, the element of continuity is emphasized. The Dorians construct new forms out of the elements which they find already established in Greece. Thus the connecting links evincing the continuous flow, are not lost sight of when he comes to treat of the different schools. This regard for the general conditions of development tempers his judgment and prevents him from formulating or approving of irrelevant and improbable hypotheses. This is an admirable temper for one who writes a general history. We do not find here remote analogies and startling theories. There is an even flow to the narrative which indicates to us that the knowledge of Greek sculpture is now more connected, and that many gaps have been filled in the list during a few years. Yet M. Collignon is not a literary trimmer, steering a middle course between opposing theories. He merely seeks for near and probable causes, and is not carried away by resemblances which have little historical value. His method is fundamentally the historical method, the four books which compose the first volume treating of the Primitive Periods, Early Archaic, and Advanced Archaic Periods, and The Great Masters of the V century. It is unnecessary to give here the general analysis of the book, as it does not differ essentially from other similar Page 88 histories, but we may notice the systematic method with which he treats his material. At the opening of each new period he briefly notes the general historical conditions, then having classed the monuments by schools he considers the characteristics of a few representative examples, and finally endeavors to summarize the style of the school or period. In doing this he is handling considerable new material which has not yet found its way into general histories. Even to specialists, this general treatment of a subject with which they may be familiar in detail, is valuable. The book is a summary and index to a large number of monographs scattered in French, German, Greek and English periodicals, and we find it much more convenient to have these references at the foot of each page rather than gathered together at the end of the volume as in Mrs. Mitchell's excellent history. Of course it is no easy matter to distinguish sharply the characteristics of different schools in a country as small as Greece, where there was so much interaction, and the formulas, which are laid down now, may require correction in a few years. Still the attempt is well made, and is helpful in consolidating our knowledge.

In a work of whose method we cordially approve, the defects, if there be any, are likely to be in the way of omission of material or under-valuation of that which is taken into consideration. In the direction of omission we find that practically no use whatever has been made of Cyprus as a school of archaic Greek art, yet there is considerable material for this in European museums as well as in the Metropolitan museum in New York. In unduly estimating the value of the material in hand, we find here and there more influence attributed to the Phoenicians, than we should be inclined to allow. For example (p. 43,) the ceiling at Orchomenos, is explained as Phoenician because of the rosettes, and the same design upon Egyptian ceilings at Thebes is explained as Phoenician also. Evidently M. Collignon has not yet learned the grammar of the Egyptian lotus. We commend him to Prof. Goodyear. He is also in error in ascribing the first use of the term "lax-archaic" to Brunn's article in the Muth. Ath. vii. p. 117, for it held an important place in Semper's classification of Doric monuments made three years earlier. But these are minor matters. The book is abundantly illustrated, having twelve excellent plates in lithograph and photogravure, and two hundred and seventy-eight in the tone process and photoengraving. We regret that the tone process had not been more extensively used, as the drawings do not and cannot give a sufficiently full impression of the objects. However, is it quite proper that the maker of a tone process plate should sign it as is done here Petit sculpsit?

A.M. Page 89

HEINRICH-BRUNN. Griechische Gtterideale in ihren Formen erlutert. 8vo. pp. VIII, 110. Mnchen, Verlagsanstalt fr Kunst und Wissenschaft. 1892.

This is not a systematic treatise, but a series of nine papers, all of which, except the last, have been already published. But we are grateful to Dr. Brunn and to his publishers for having collected these articles, which were scattered in various periodicals and written at wide intervals of time. In their present form they are instructive as revealing to us Dr. Brunn's general habits of mind in approaching his subject, as well as more useful and better adapted to a wide circle of readers. The first of these articles on the Farnese Hera appeared in the Bullettino dell' Instituto, in 1846, and is described as the "first attempt at the analytical consideration of the ideal of a Greek God," while the entire series may be taken as evidence that "the intellectual understanding of ideal artistic productions can be reached only on the basis of a thorough analysis of form." For his analysis of sculptural form, and his keen intuitions, Dr. Brunn has long been held in high esteem, and it is interesting to learn what we can of his methods. In considering the Hera head he first examined the original, afterwards a cast of it for many hours, then compared these impressions with observations made upon a human scull. In doing this he brings the work of art to nature, so as to substantiate or correct his impressions. We see him following the same method in the articles upon the Medusa and upon Asklepios. But this reference to nature is for the most part casual and incidental. It is not to nature but to literature that he resorts for help. He is not content to trust himself entirely to the method enunciated in the preface. He does not rest satisfied with the ideals as he reads them in the sculptured faces. He rather assumes that these ideals were fixed before they were expressed in marble. He looks at the heads of Hera and Zeus through "ox-eyed" and "dark-browed" glasses. He accepts the Divine ideal from the pages of Homer, rather than from the marble form, whenever it is possible. His mind is still imbued with doctrines concerning the "eternity of ideas" and "inward necessity," which he must have reached in some other way than by the analysis of external forms.

But while we may regard the method as not consistently applied, we have no fault to find with the method and no sentiment but that of admiration for the fine powers of observation displayed in these articles. There seems to be nothing in the form of the eye that escapes his attention. The slightest variations in the form of the lids, in the positions of the eyeball, he notices Page 90 and assumes that they were made the vehicles of expression. Similarly the forehead, the mouth, the chin, the hair are most attentively studied as vehicles of expression. Surely few, even trained archologists, can read these pages without having their powers of observation quickened. By far the greater portion of workers in the field of Greek sculpture are concerned at the present time with the morphology of art for the sake of its history. The analysis of forms is utilized to ascertain an historical series, to discover schools, to establish dates. Here we find scarcely a mention of schools or artists, no reference to history and not a date. The analysis of form leads to the interpretation of monuments and the establishment of ideals. It is the physiology, not the history of art. The publishers, who are gaining a world-wide reputation for their photo process reproductions, have added to this book a series of fine phototype plates.

A.M.

Page 91

ARCHOLOGICAL NEWS.

SUMMARY OF RECENT DISCOVERIES AND INVESTIGATIONS.

PAGE PAGE PAGE ALGERIA, 113 BABYLONIA, 131 PERSIA, 134 ARABIA, 131 CAUCASUS, 146 SYRIA, 140 ARMENIA, 146 CHINA, 127 THIBET, 127 ASIA (CENTRAL), 128 ETHIOPIA, 111 TUNISIA, 114 ASIA MINOR, 147 HINDUSTAN, 118



AFRICA.

EGYPT.

TEXTS OF THE PYRAMIDS.—Biblia for November, 1892, contains an article by Dr. Brugsch on "The Texts of the Pyramids." It mentions the opening of one of the smaller pyramids of the Sakkarah group in 1880 by Mariette Pasha and the discovery of a number of hieroglyphic inscriptions beautifully chiseled into the walls of the inner aisles and chamber, which gave the name of the maker of the pyramid as Pepi, and fixed its date at the VI Dynasty or about 3,000 B.C. Prof. Brugsch then gives an account of his own work at the request of Mariette upon a second pyramid opened by Mariette's men at Sakkarah, where the walls of the chamber were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions. A granite coffin, also, was found adorned with hieroglyphics repeating in different places the name of the King. The inscriptions on the walls had been destroyed in a number of places by treasure hunters.

Maspero, Mariette's successor, opened a number of pyramids of the same group and found a great quantity of inscriptions. As a result, new texts were discovered in a number of pyramids of which three belonged to the royal houses of the V and VI Dynasties. Maspero then published a copy of all these inscriptions together with their translation as far as this was possible.

These discoveries establish the important point in the study of the language, that its "iconographic phrase" dates from the most ancient times and goes back even to Menes the first king. The grammar, vocabulary and the construction of words and sentences betray the awkward stiffness of a language in its first literary beginnings, but it is shown in all its youthful strength and pregnance.

A reciprocal comparison of all the texts found establishes the fact that they belong to a collection of texts known as "the Book." This "book" contained all the formulas and conjurations Page 92 used after death, is a guide for the deceased in the unknown future, and a book of charms, in which guise the Egyptian faith made its appearance in the most ancient period of culture, although containing nothing of the philosophy or history of the ancient Egyptians, it gives us much interesting information relating to mythology, geography, astronomy, botany and zoology.

For the ancient Egyptians believed that their earthly districts, cities and temples had heavenly counterparts of the same name; in fact, the whole geography of this world was duplicated in the world to come. The celestial inhabitants consist of the immortal company of the "shining" with the solar god at their head. Each constellation is designated as the abode of the soul of one god benificent or maleficent. In his wanderings the soul of man came in contact with these abodes of the evil gods and the book which covered the walls of his mortuary chamber provided charms which made him proof against harm.

The texts of the pyramids promise to the departed the enjoyment of a new life which he continues to live in the earth, in the body, in heaven, in the spirit. The soul had power to reunite itself to the body at will. We find in the texts mention of Egyptian political institutions at the remotest period, the existence of a high type of civilization. Agriculture was highly developed. All the domestic animals, with the exception of the horse and camel, are introduced, the arts of cooking, of dressing and of personal adornment, all find mention.

The texts of the pyramids then, though they fail to give us any information with regard to the life or history of the kings whose chambers they adorned have still much significance for the universal history of civilization.

THE MARRIAGE OF AMENOPHIS IV.—The Amarna tablets show that Amenophis married other Babylonian princesses besides Thi his first wife who bore the title of "Royal mother, Royal wife, and Queen of Egypt." A large tablet on exhibition at the British Museum with two others in the museum at Berlin and one at Gizeh gives a very entertaining correspondence between Amenophis and Kallima-Sin, king of Chaldea and brother of one of Amenophis' wives and father of two others. The tablet in the British Museum is relative to the alliance with Lukhaite the youngest daughter of the Chaldean king.

Kallima-Sin is reluctant to give his daughter to the Pharaoh and advances various reasons for his indisposition while Amenophis smoothly explains away the various impediments.

Matters take a new turn in the Berlin letter where we find the Babylonian requesting a wife of the Egyptian monarch, the request is curtly refused, whereupon Kallima-Sin replies, Page 93 "Inasmuch as thou hast not sent me a wife, I will do in like manner unto thee and hinder any lady from going from Babylon to Egypt." Another letter however shows that Kallima-Sin finally consented on condition of large emolument to send Lukhaite to Egypt, and this very mercenary and diplomatic alliance was finally made.—Biblia, V, pp. 108, 109.

THE DATE OF THE FOURTH EGYPTIAN DYNASTY.—Mr. Petrie's statement in Medum as to the passage-angle of Senefru's pyramid completes a chain of astronomical evidence proving the commencement of the IV Dynasty to have been very approximately 3700 B.C.

The entrance passage of the Medum pyramid has a polar distance (allowing for the azimuth error of the passage) of about 45, and, if intended for observation of a circumpolar star, fixes the date of the structure within not very wide limits. Between 4900 and 2900 B.C. no naked eye star was within this distance of the pole, except the sixth magnitude star 126 Piazzi (XIII) which was so situate about 3820 to 3620 B.C., its minimum distance being about 36'. Allowing an uncertainty of a few minutes of arc, a date fifty years on either side of these extremes would satisfy the requirements of the case.

The passage-angle of the Great Pyramid is 3 30' below the pole (3 34' in the built portion, the latest). The Second Pyramid passage has also an angle of about 3 31' polar distance (Smyth's measures—Perring and Vyse, whose angle measures are not accurate, give 4 5'). Finally the northern "trial-passage" east of the Great Pyramid has the polar distance 3 22' + or - 8'. Now at the date 3650 B.C. the star 217 Piazzi (somewhat brighter than that last named) was at a distance of 3 29' from the pole, increasing to 3 34' by 3630 B.C.

East of the Great Pyramid there are certain straight trenches (one at the N.E. corner) running respectively 13 6', 24 22', and 75 58' east of North and west of South. At about the date named these trenches pointed very nearly to Canopus at setting and to Arcturus and Altair at rising, the average error of azimuth being less than a degree.

But even these differences of half a degree or so are accounted for. Refraction at the horizon amounts to about 35' of arc; if we assume that the Egyptian (?) astronomers took it roundly at 30', and that they intended to observe the stars on the true and not the apparent horizon, we find the azimuths would have been (3645 B.C.):—

Canopus 13 3' (W. of S.), Trench 13 6' Arcturus 24 23' (E. of N.), " 24 22' Altair 76 0' ( " ), " 75 58'

These figures speak for themselves. The dates 3645 B.C. for the trenches and external works, and 3630 B.C. for the completion Page 94 of the entrance passage, with an interval of fifteen years, accord with the probabilities of the case. It should be remembered that they are deduced quite independently.

The net result is that the three reigns of Senefru, Khuffu, and Kaffra may be definitely assigned to the century 3700-3600 B.C.—G.F. HARDY, in Academy, Oct. 29.

THE PETRIE PAPYRI.—A paper was read by Prof. Mahaffy at the Oriental Congress upon "The Gain to Egyptology from the Petrie Papyri."—The first part of the papyri placed in his hands by Mr. Flinders Petrie consisted of classical documents which had already been printed by the Royal Irish Academy in the Cunningham Memoirs. Of these a large volume had appeared, which was exciting vehement controversy in Germany. But in addition to these there was a great mass of private papers which had not yet been printed, but which had been deciphered partly by Prof. Sayce and partly by himself. These papers were in two languages-Greek and demotic, or the popular language of the Egyptians. These were in part hieroglyphs done into cursive. Of these demotic fragments a large quantity had been sent to the British Museum. The Greek papyri still remain in his own hands. Strange to say, only one of these texts is bilingual. These interesting documents might be divided into—(1) legal agreements, of which some were contracts, others receipts, others again taxing agreements; (2) correspondence, partly of a public and partly of a private character. In the former were official reports, petitions, complaints. The private correspondence was especially interesting in showing the condition of society at that date. A large number of Macedonians and Greeks were settled in the Fayum under the second Ptolemy, about 270 B.C. In addition there was a large number of prisoners from Asia, who must have been brought into Egypt after the great campaign of the third Ptolemy, about 246 B.C. This mixed body were the recipients of large grants of land in the Fayum. It was interesting to find that many of these grants were as large as 100 acres, and the occupiers are thus called [Greek: ecatontaronroi]. The farms were divided into three classes of land. First, there was what was called the Royal land, probably fruitful land was meant; the second class was called [Greek: abrochos], or land still in need of irrigation; and the third [Greek: aphoros], or land which would bear nothing. This latter was also called [Greek: almuris], or the salt marsh, which was still common in Egypt. These recipients or allottees of land were called by a name familiar to all readers of Greek history—[Greek clerouchoi]. Prof. Mahaffy had found no native landowner mentioned in the papyri. Page 95 But in many cases the natives had an interest in the crops on something like a metayer system. Among the crops grown were the vine, olives, wheat, barley, rye. There was evidence in the legal papers that alienation of these farms was not allowed. Among the contracts are many between Greeks and natives. The principal officers of the Nome were the Strategos, the Oeconomos, and the [Greek: epimeletes], or overseer. The commissioner of works had charge of drainage and irrigation works. It was amusing to find that two currencies were prevalent at that period, silver and copper. This discovery disposed of the current theory that the copper currency only came in under the late Ptolemies. The phrases for the rate of exchange had long been known—[Greek: chalcos ou allage], but he had now got hold of a later term, [Greek: isonomos] which might be translated 'at par.' These documents were also valuable, as being transcriptions from Egyptian into Greek, with respect to our knowledge of the Egyptian language. As the Egyptians did not write down their vowels, the vocalisation of the language was hardly yet known. But results of much importance were gained—first, of a palaeographical, and, secondly, of a linguistic character. We now know exactly how they wrote in the third century B.C., and we have also learnt what was the Greek used by the respectable classes of that epoch. The Greek was far purer and better than that of the Septuagint would lead us to expect. There was still a large number of papers to be deciphered, and a large addition to our knowledge might be expected.—Academy, Sept. 24.

A GREEK PAPYRUS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.—At the Orientalist Congress in London a most interesting document was submitted by the Rev. Professor Hechler. It is a papyrus manuscript discovered a few months ago in Egypt, and is supposed by some authorities to be the oldest copy extant of portions of the Old Testament books of Zachariah and Malachi. These pages of papyrus when intact were about ten inches high and seven inches wide, each containing 28 lines of writing, both sides of the sheet being used. The complete line contains from fourteen to seventeen letters. The sheets are bound together in the form of a book in a primitive though careful manner with a cord and strips of old parchment. The Greek is written without intervals between the words. The papyrus is in fair preservation, and is believed to date from the third or fourth century. It thus ranks in age with the oldest Greek manuscripts of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament in London, Rome and St. Petersburg. The differences in this papyrus tend to the conclusion that it was copied from some excellent original of the Septuagint, which was first translated about the year 280 B.C. The first summary examination has shown that it has several new readings which surpass some of the other Septuagint Page 96 texts in clearness of expression and simplicity of grammar. It would also appear that it was copied from another Septuagint Bible and was not written, as was frequently the case, from dictation. A second scribe has occasionally corrected some mistakes of orthography made by the original copyist. These are still to be distinguished by the different color of the ink.

Professor Hechler said it was sincerely to be hoped that this papyrus of the Bible, probably the oldest now known to exist, would soon be published in fac-simile.

THE DATE OF THE AEGEAN POTTERY.—Quite a discussion has been carried on between Mr. Flinders Petrie and Mr. Cecil Torr on the subject of the period of the Aegean pottery in Egypt which Mr. Torr regards as having been assigned to too early a date by Mr. Petrie. The recent discovery of such fragments in the ruins of the palace of Khuenaten at Tell-el-Amarna, which existed for little over half a century in the xiv century B.C., would appear to prove beyond doubt the correctness of Mr. Petrie's position.—See Classical Review for March; Academy, May 14 and 21, etc.

A PROFESSORSHIP OF EGYPTOLOGY.—Miss A.B. Edwards has left almost the whole of her property to found a professorship of Egyptology, under certain conditions, at University College, London, The value of the chair will amount to about $2,000 a year. Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie has been appointed to this chair, and no better selection could have been made.

EXCAVATIONS BY DR. BRUGSCH, COUNT D'HULST AND M. NAVILLE.—Dr. H. Brugsch has been excavating during the past spring in the Fayoum. At Hawara he has discovered a considerable number of painted portraits. At Illahun he opened a tomb of the eleventh dynasty, which had not been entered since the mummy was originally deposited in it. Unfortunately the roof fell in before it could be properly cleared out. At Shenhour he came across the remains of a small temple. Since leaving the Fayoum he has been working on the site of Sais.

Count d'Hulst has been excavating at Behbet, near Mansourah, on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund. The ruined temple there is Ptolemaic, but the cartouche of Ramses II has been found in the course of the excavations.

Mr. Naville has returned to Europe. His excavations at Jmei el-Amdd, the supposed site of Mendes, have been unfruitful, and he has fared no better at Tel el-Baghliyeh.—Athenaeum May 16.

Page 97 EXCAVATIONS BY LIEUT. LYONS AT WADY HALFAH, ABUSIR, MATUGAH.—Lieut. H.G. Lyons has been continuing exploration at Wady Halfah. He has cleared out the sand from one of the temples, and found there eleven slabs with figures of a king making offerings to the god Horus of Behen or Wady Halfah in a chamber in front of the Hall of Columns. The names in the cartouches have been erased, and it is, therefore, impossible to identify the king. A second temple, with sandstone pillars and mud brick walls, is inscribed in many places with the name of Thothmes IV. This building had been flooded and filled to a depth of 2 ft. with fine sand. The third temple of Wady Halfah was completely surrounded by a line of fortifications, the flanks of which rest on the river, but of these works only the foundation remains. The discovery of them is, however, decidedly important, for in them we must see beyond doubt the great frontier fortress which marked the limit of the rule of Egypt on the south.

About five miles beyond the rock of Abusir, Lieut. Lyons has excavated the large space, about two hundred yards square, which is mentioned in Burckhard's 'Travels in Nubia,' and upon which stand the ruined walls of what has been variously described as a Roman fort or a monastery. He has come to the conclusion that the building is undoubtedly Egyptian, and has traced the site of the ancient stone temple inside it.

He reports that he has discovered old Egyptian fortresses at Halfa and at Matuga, twelve miles south, the latter containing a cartouche of Usertesen III: and has opened three rocktombs at Halfa.—Academy, July 16 and Aug. 6.

NOTES BY PROF. SAYCE.—Besides Tel el-Amarna, I have visited El-Hibeh and the little temple of Shishak, which was uncovered there last year. It is, unfortunately, in a most ruinous condition. One of the natives took me to a recently-found necropolis at a place under the cliffs called Ed-Dibn, some two miles distant, which is plainly of the Roman age, and its occupants belonged to the poorer classes.

In the White Monastery near Sohg, I found a stone with the cartouche of Darius, which had formed part of the ancient temple of Crocodilopolis.

I picked up some fine flint spear-heads near the line of Roman forts on the north side of the Gebel Sheikh Embrak, where I discovered an enormous manufactory of flint weapons and tools three years ago.

Lastly, I may add that at the back of the Monastery of Mari Girgis, about three miles south of Ekhmim, I found that another cemetery of the early Coptic period has been discovered, and Page 98 that it is providing the dealers with fresh supplies of ancient embroideries.—A.H. SAYCE, in Academy, Feb. 27.

PRESERVATION OF MOHAMMEDAN MONUMENTS.—The Soc. for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has protested, through Sir Evelyn Baring, against the so-called restoration of the mosque El-Mouyayyed and the mosque of Barkouk. It is proposed to rebuild the domed minaret of Barkouk's mosque and the suppressed bell-tower of the Sultan's mosque, which is to be replaced by a bulbous roof.—Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 31.

ABU-SIMBEL.—The Council of Ministers has granted 1,000 for the preservation of Abu-Simbel, which is in danger of partial destruction. The rock above the four colossi on the faade, which is of sandstone with layers of clay, had become fissured, threatening an immediate fall. A party of sappers from the army of occupation have been sent to the temple, who, after binding with chains the falling rock, will break it up. Further examination will be made to ascertain whether additional work is required for the protection of this temple.—Academy, March 5.

ASSOUAN.—DAM.—A huge dam is to be thrown across the Nile at Assouan: its height will raise the water to the level of the floors of the ruins at Philae, enhancing rather than detracting from their picturesque grandeur. It is said that the structure of the dam will harmonize with the ancient architecture of Philae. The material already cut and lying in the quarries of Assouan will be almost sufficient to complete the dam.—Biblia, V. p. 109.

TOMBS.—Some new tombs have been opened, one by the Crown Princess of Sweden and Norway, the other by Mr. James. One of them belonged to the reign of Nofer-Ka-Ra; and, in an inscription found in it, Prof. Schiaparelli has read the name of the land of Pun, which accordingly, was already known to the Egyptians in the age of the dynasty.—PROF. SAYCE in Academy.

CAIRO (NEAR). DESTRUCTION OF AN ANCIENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH.—Rev. Greville J. Chester writes (Acad. March 19). Permit me to draw public attention to an almost incredible act of vandalism which was perpetrated during the last year in Egypt, close to the capital. The finest Roman ruin in Egypt was the fortress of Babylon, south of Cairo, known also as Mus'r el Ateekeh and Dayr esh Shemma. One of the most interesting sights in that Dayr was the Jewish synagogue, anciently the Christian Church of St. Michael, but desecrated by being handed over in the Page 99 middle ages by an Arab Sultan to the Jews, and thenceforward to the present time used by them as a place of worship. The building was of much architectural interest. The old Christian nave and aisles were preserved intact; but the Jews had destroyed the apse which must have existed, and had replaced it by a square Eastern sanctuary, and over the niche, within which were preserved the Holy Books of the Law, had adorned the wall with numerous Hebrew texts executed in gesso, forming an interesting example of Jewish taste and work in the middle ages. Some of the ancient Christian screenwork of wood was preserved, but was turned upside down, probably because gazelles and other animals formed part of the design. Behind this building, in a sort of court, the very finest portion of the original wall of the Roman fortress was visible, and, what is more important, the inner and most perfect circuit of one of the Roman bastion-towers, which outside looked out on the desert.

All this is now a thing of the past. The Jews have razed the ancient church and synagogue to the ground, and in its place have erected a hideous square abomination, supported internally on iron pillars. Of the fine Roman wall which bounded the property, and with it the bastion-tower, with its courses of brick at regular intervals, and its deeply-splayed windows, not a vestige now remains.

CAIRO.—GIZEH MUSEUM.—M. de Morgan has been appointed director of the Museum in place of M. Grbaut. This will meet with general approval. He is young and energetic, and the work he has done in the Caucasus and in Persia has placed him in the front rank of archaeologists and explorers. Moreover, he is an engineer, and therefore possesses a practical knowledge which, in view of the conservation of the ancient monuments of Egypt, is a matter of prime importance. He has asked the Board of Public Works for 50,000 in order to secure the building against fire; it is built of very inflammable material. During the past summer the museum has been entirely rearranged by him. Of the rooms in the palace, only some thirty-eight contained antiquities last winter; now, however, about eighty-five are used as exhibition rooms, and, for the first time, it is possible to see of what the Egyptian collection really consists. On the ground floor the positions of several of the large monuments have been changed, and the chronological arrangement is better than it was before. In one large room are exhibited for the first time eleven fine mastaba stel of the Ancient Empire, (VI. Dyn.) which were brought from Sakkarah during the past summer; they are remarkable for the brightness of the colours, the vigour of the figures, and the beauty of the hieroglyphics. On the same floor are two splendid colossal statues of the god Ptah which have been excavated at Memphis the hieroglyphics. On the same floor are two splendid colossal statues of the god Ptah which have been excavated at Memphis Page 100 during last summer, and many other large objects from the same site. In a series of rooms, approached from the room in which the Dr el-Bahari mummies are exhibited, are arranged the coffins and mummies of the priests of Amen which were brought down from Thebes two years ago. The coffins are of great interest, for they are ornamented with mythological scenes and figures of gods which seem to be peculiar to the period immediately following the rule of the priest-kings at Thebes, i.e., from about B.C. 1000 to 800.

A new and important feature in the arrangement of the rooms on the upper floor is the section devoted to the exhibition of papyri. Here in flat glazed cases are shown at full length fine copies of the 'Book of the Dead,' hieratic papyri, including the unique copy of the 'Maxims of Ani.' and many other papyri which have been hitherto inaccessible to the ordinary visitor. To certain classes of objects, such as scarabs, blue glazed faence, linen sheets, mummy bandages and garments, terracotta vases and vessels, alabaster jars, &c., special rooms are devoted. The antiquities which, although found in Egypt, are certainly not of Egyptian manufacture, e.g., Greek and Phornician glass, Greek statues, tablets inscribed in cuneiform from Tel el-Amarna, &c., are arranged in groups in rooms set apart for them; and the monuments of the Egyptian Christians or Copts are also classified and arranged in a separate room.—Athenum, May 14 and Nov. 19.

THE FRENCH SCHOOL AT CAIRO.—M. Maspero analyzed before the Acad. des Inscr. (Oct. 28), the recent work and immediate prospects of the French School at Cairo. The Memoirs recently issued show the field that it covers at present. First comes a fascicule of Greek texts, the mathematical papyrus of Akmim, explained and commented by M. Baillet; a long fragment of the Greek text of the Book of Enoch, remains of the apocryphal Gospel and Apocalypse of St. Peter, reproduced by M. Bouriant. All these works are of extreme importance for primitive church history. Arab archology is represented by memoirs of M. Casonova on an Arab globe, on sixteen Arab steles, and especially by M. Burgoin's great work on Arab art in Egypt. Father Scheil makes an incursion into Assyriology by his publication of some of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, and in this connection M. Maspero states that the intention of the school is to extend their researches to Syria and Mesopotamia and to include the entire East both ancient and modern. In the Egyptian domain, besides the Theban fragments of the Old Testament and the remains of the Acts of the Council of Ephesos, the notable event is the appearance of the first fasciculus of the work on Edfu by M. de Rochemonteix. In it a Page 101 complete temple will be placed before students. The entire Egyptian religion will be illustrated, in all its rituals,—ritual of foundation, of sacrifice, of the feast of Osiris. M. Benedite has commenced in the same way the publication of the Temples of Philae.—Revue Critique, 1892, No. 45.

The investigations enumerated above are far from being all. They represent merely the official governmental side of the work. The learned societies have done a great deal; such as the Ecole des lettres of Algiers, the management of historical monuments (Tebessa), and the French School of Rome.

EL-KARGEH.—PLASTER BUSTS.—At a meeting of the Acadmie des Inscriptions, M. Hron de Villefosse exhibited four painted plaster busts from El-Kargeh, in the Great Oasis, which have recently been sent to the Louvre by M. Bouriant, director of the French School at Cairo. They have been taken from the lids of sarcophagi; but the peculiarity about them is that the heads were not in the same plane with the body, but as it were erect. The features have been modelled with extraordinary verisimilitude; the eyes are of some glassy material, in black and white; the hair was modelled independently, and afterwards fitted to the plaster head; the painting is in simple colours—various shades of red for the skin, and black or brown for the hair. M. Hron de Villefosse maintained that they were certainly portraits. The physiognomy of one is Jewish; another recalls a bronze head from Cyrene in the British Museum, which Fr. Lenormant considered to be of Berber type; the third might be Syrian, and the fourth Roman. The date is probably about the time of Septimius Severus. M. Maspero declared that he had never seen anything of the kind in any museum.—Academy, July 9.

These busts have been placed on exhibition at the Louvre, in the Salle des fresques.—Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 28.

According to a writer in the Temps, two are Greeks, one Syrian and one a Jew. The Greeks are blond with straight hair; the others have dark brown curly hair. All are bearded. The drapery is white.—Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 30.

The department of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Louvre has also received from M. Bouriant two funerary inscriptions found in the necropolis dating from the second century A.D. One is Latin, tha other Greek.—Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 32.

CHATBI (NEAR).—NECROPOLIS.—M. Botti has discovered between Chatbi and Ibrahimieh a Roman necropolis of the first or second century A.D.. at a depth of fourteen metres. It is excavated in soft calcareous stone and its chambers and corridors are Page 102 reached by a rock-cut staircase.

The bodies are both laid on the floor and placed in jars. They were intact.—Chron. des Arts, 1892, No. 30.

EL-QAB.—Mr. Taylor has been excavating here for the Egypt exploration fund, in continuation of the previous year's work. Prof. Sayce reports, after Mr. Taylor's departure (Acad., March 12), that more of the foundations of the old temple which stood within the temple were then visible than the preceding year. The fragmentary remains show that among its builders were Usertesen (xii dyn.), Sebekhotep II (xiii dyn.), Amenophis I and Thothmes III (xviii dyn.) and Nektanebo I (xxx dyn.) In one of the tombs Nofer-Ka-Ra is alluded to as (apparently) the original founder of the sanctuary.

GEBELEN.—TEMPLE OF HOR-M-HIB.—Prof. Sayce writes. "On the voyage from Luxor to Assuan I stopped at Gebelon, and found that the Bedouin squatters there had unearthed some fragments of sculptured and inscribed stones on the summit of the fortress built by the priest-king Ra-men-kheper and queen Isis-m-kheb to defend this portion of the Nile. On examination they turned out to belong to a small temple which must once have stood on the spot. The original temple, I found, had been constructed of limestone by Hor-m-hib, the last king of the xviii dynasty, and brilliantly ornamented with sculpture and painting. Additions had been made to the temple, apparently by Seti I.; since besides the stones belonging to Hor-m-hib, there were other fragments of the same limestone as that of which the temple of Seti at Abydos is built, and covered with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphs in precisely the same delicate style of art. Eventually a building of sandstone had been added to the original temple on the west side by Ptolemy VII Philometor. It may be noted that Ra-men-kheper used bricks burnt in the kiln as well as sun-dried bricks in the construction of the fortress, as he also did in the construction of the fortress at El-Hibeh.—Academy, March 12."

HAT-NUB.-THE EARLY QUARRY.-This interesting quarry has been recently discovered by Mr. Griffith. Mr. Petrie writes: Allow me to note that in this quarry, described by Mr. Griffith (Academy, Jan. 23), and situated ten miles southeast of El Tell in this plain, the main quarry does not contain any name later than the vi Dynasty. The tablet in the thirtieth year being of Pepi II (Nefer-ka-ra), and mentioning the sed festival in that year, this might refer to the Sothiac festival of 120 years falling in that year, and so be important as a datum. There are seven painted inscriptions of Pepi II, containing about fifty lines in all. There are also a great number of incised graffiti.—Academy, Feb. 20. Page 103

HAWARA.—MUMMY PORTRAITS.—Among the most important discoveries of the year is that by Dr. Brugsch, of three mummy portraits in the desert of Hawara. These were found, uncoffined, and buried at a very slight depth below the surface.

The first is that of a woman: the portrait is brilliantly executed in tempera, on canvas, and is the most ancient of paintings on canvas known, for its date cannot be fixed later than the first century B.C.

The next portrait was on the mummy of a man but instead of a painting on canvas is a relief in stucco, gilded. The features are carefully reproduced, as are the beard and whiskers.

The third mummy was provided with a beautifully executed portrait on wood which is one of the best examples of ancient painting, though not so rare as the other, for ancient portraits painted on wood have long been known.—Biblia, V.P.

HELIOPOLIS.—M. Philippe, the Cairo dealer in antiquities, is, with permission from the Gizeh Museum, carrying on excavations at Heliopolis, which have brought to light some tombs of the Satic period.—Academy, Nov. 12.

KOM-EL-AHMAR.—"At Kom el-Ahmar, opposite El-Qab, I visited two recently-discovered tombs, which contain the cartouches of Pepi, and are in a fairly perfect condition. The walls are covered with delicate paintings in the style of those of Beni-Hassan, and explanatory inscriptions are attached to them. The early date of the paintings and inscriptions makes them particularly interesting. The tombs are still half buried in the sand, and only the upper part of the internal decoration is visible."—PROF. SAYCE, in Academy, April 2.

MEIR.—The authorities of the Gizeh Museum have, on the suggestion of Johnson Pasha, caused excavations to be made at Mer, near Deirut, in Upper Egypt, which have already resulted in the discovery of some tombs of the XI dynasty. It is intended to continue these excavations.—Academy, Nov. 12.

MEMPHIS.—DISCOVERIES BY M. DE MORGAN.—At a meeting of the Acad. des Inscr. Prof. Maspero communicated the result of the excavations on the site of Memphis by M. de Morgan. He has discovered among the ruins of the temple of Ptah a number of monuments of importance. First, a large boat of granite, similar to that in the museum at Turin, on which the figures are destroyed; next, several fragmentary colossi of Rameses II, and in particular two gigantic upright figures, dedicated by this king, of Ptah, the god of Memphis, enshrouded in mummy-wrappings and holding a sceptre in both hands; lastly, some isolated figures, arranged in a court or a chamber. The Page 104 importance of this discovery, said Prof. Maspero, will be realised when we bear in mind that we possess no divine image of large size, and that the very existence of statues of gods in Egyptian temples has sometimes been denied.—Academy, Sept. 17.

SEHEL.—THE TENTH DYNASTY.—Prof. Sayce reports that he has been finding evidences of the little-known X dynasty in the immediate neighborhood of the First Cataract. "Mr. Griffith and Prof. Maspero have shown that certain of the tombs at Sit belonged to the period when this dynasty ruled in Egypt. I have now discovered inscriptions which show that its rule was recognized on the frontiers of Nubia.

"An examination of the position occupied by the numerous inscriptions on the granite rocks of the island of Sehl have made it clear to me that we must recognize two periods in the history of the sanctuary for which the island was famous. During the second period the temple stood on the eastern slope of an eminence where I found remains of it two years ago. As I also found fragments of it bearing the name of Thothmes III on the one hand, and of Ptolemy Philopator on the other, it must have existed from the age of the XVII dynasty down to Ptolemaic times. Throughout this period the inscriptions left by pious pilgrims to the shrine all face the site of the temple. So also do a certain number of inscriptions which belong to the age of the XII and XIII dynasties. But the majority of the inscriptions which belong to the latter age, like the inscriptions which are proved by the occurrence of the names of Antef and Mentuhotep to be of the time of the xi dynasty, face a different way. They look southward.

"This winter I have come across a large number of inscriptions on the mainland side of the channel which look northward, that is, towards the island. A few of these inscriptions are of the time of the XII dynasty, but the greater number belong to the XI dynasty, and one is dated in the forty-first year of Ra-neb-kher. It would seem, therefore, that at the epoch when they were inscribed on the rocks the sanctuary of Sehl stood either in the middle of the southern channel of the river or upon its edge.

"On the island side of the channel there are a good many inscriptions which are shown by the weathering of the hieroglyphs to be older than the age of the XI dynasty. Indeed, the inscription of an Antef is cut over one of them. They all present the same curious forms of hieroglyphic characters, and contain for the most part titles and formul not met with in the later texts. Moreover, they are not dedicated like the Page 105 later texts to the divine trinity of the Cataract, Khnum, Anuke, and Sati, but to a deity whose name is expressed by a character resembling an Akhem seated on a basket. Mr. Wilbour and I first noticed it last year.

"One of the early inscriptions contains a cartouche which reads Ra-nefer-hepu, the last element being represented by the picture of a rudder. Now Mr. Newberry and his companions at Beni-Hassan have discovered that one of the groups of tombs which exist there is of older date than the time of the XII dynasty. In this group of tombs occurs the name of a lady who was called Nefer-hepu. She must have been born in the reign of Ra-nefer-hepu, and will consequently belong, not to the age of the XI dynasty, but to that of one of the dynasties which preceded it.

"That this dynasty was the X is made pretty clear by the inscriptions on the mainland side of the channel I have described. Here I have found inscriptions of the early sort mingled with those of the XI dynasty in such a way as to show that they cannot have been widely separated in age. Moreover, in one of them, the name of Khat is associated with that of Ra-mer-ab; and Khat is not only a name which characterises the XI dynasty, but it was also the name of the owner of one of the tombs at Sit, which Mr. Griffith has proved to belong to the time of the X dynasty. We were already acquainted with the name of Ra-mer-ab from a scarab; and two years ago Mr. Bouriant obtained a bronze vase which gave the double name of Ra-mer-ab Kherti. Kherti is a king of the X dynasty. By the side of the inscription which contains the name of Ra-mer-ab, I found others with the names of Ra-mer-ankh and Ameni. That Ameni was a king of the X dynasty has already been suspected.

"The inscriptions I have copied this winter, therefore, have not only given us the names of some kings of the X dynasty, one of them previously unknown; they have also shown that the power of the dynasty was acknowledged as far south as the Cataract. Moreover, they indicate that the government must have passed from the X to the XI dynasty in a peaceful and regular manner."

SHAT-ER-RIGALEH.—Prof. Sayce writes: I have visited the famous "Shat er-Rigleh," the valley a little north of Silsilis and the village of El-Hammni, in which so many monuments of the XI dynasty have been discovered by Messrs. Harris, Eisenlohr, and Flinders Petrie. To these I have been able to add another cartouche, that of Ra-nofer-neb, a king who is supposed to belong to the XIV dynasty. His name and titles have been carved on the rock at the northern corner of the entrance into the valley by a certain Ama, a memorial of whom was found by Mr. Petrie in the Wadi itself (A Season in Egypt, pl. XV. No. 438). Mr. Spicer, whose dahabiyeh accompanied mine, Page 106 photographed the inscriptions in which Mentuhotep-Ra-neb-kher of the XI dynasty is mentioned, as well as the one which enumerates the names of three kings of the XVIII dynasty, Amenophis I, Thothmes I, and Thothmes II. One of the inscriptions of Mentuhotep is dated in the thirty-ninth year of the king's reign. The epithet m-kheru "deceased" is attached only to the cartouche of Amenophis I, not to those of the other two kings, proving that they reigned contemporaneously.—Academy, March 12.

TEL EL-AMARNA.—EXCAVATIONS BY MR. PETRIE.—Mr. Petrie communicates the following report to the Academy: "During the last four months I have been excavating at this place, the capital of Khuenaten. Past times have done their best to leave nothing for the present—not even a record. The Egyptians carried away the buildings in whole blocks down to the lowest foundations, completely smashed the sculptures, and left nothing in the houses; and the Museum authorities, and a notorious Arab dealer, have cleared away without any record what had escaped the other plunderers of this century. I have now endeavoured to recover what little remained of the art and history of this peculiar site, by careful searching in the town. From the tombs I am debarred, although the authorities are doing nothing whatever there themselves, and the tomb of Khuenaten remains uncleared, with pieces of the sarcophagus and vessels thrown indiscriminately in the rubbish outside."

The region of main interest is the palace; and the only way to recover the plan was by baring the ground, and tracing the bedding of the stones which are gone. For this I have cleared all the site of the buildings, and in course of the work several rooms with portions of painted fresco pavements have been found. One room which was nearly entire, about 51 by 16 feet, and two others more injured, have now been entirely exposed to view, and protected by a substantial house, well lighted, and accessible to visitors, erected by the Public Works Department. With the exception of a pavement reported to exist at Thebes, these are the only examples of a branch of art which must have been familiar in the palaces of Egypt. The subjects of these floors are tanks with fish, birds, and lotus; groups of calves, plants, birds, and insects; and a border of bouquets and dishes. But the main value of these lies in the new style of art displayed; the action of the animals, and the naturalistic grace of the plants, are unlike any other Egyptian work, and are unparalleled even in classical frescoes. Not until modern times can such studies from nature be found. Yet this was done by Egyptian artists; for where the lotus occurs, Page 107 the old conventional grouping has constrained the design, and the painter could not overstep his education, though handling all the other plants with perfect individuality. That Babylonian influence was not active, is seen by the utter absence of any geometrical ornament; neither rosettes or stars, frets or circles, nor any other such elements are seen, and perhaps no such large piece of work exists so clear of all but natural forms. Some small fragments of sculptured columns show that this flowing naturalism was as freely carried out in relief as in colour.

Of the architecture there remain only small pieces flaked off the columns. By comparing these the style can be entirely recovered; and we see that both the small columns in the palace, and those five feet thick in the river frontage, were in imitation of bundles of reeds, bound with inscribed bands, with leafage on base and on capital, and groups of ducks hung up around the neck. A roof over a well in the palace was supported by columns of a highly geometrical pattern, with spirals and chevrons. In the palace front were also severer columns inscribed with scenes, and with capitals imitating gigantic jewellery. The surface was encrusted with brilliant glazes, and the ridges of stone between the pieces were gilt, so that it resembled jewels set in gold. An easy imitation of this was by painting the hollows and ridges, and the crossing lines of the setting soon look like a net over the capital. We are at once reminded of the "net work" on the capitals of Solomon, and see in these columns their prototype.

This taste for inlaying was carried to great lengths on the flat walls. The patterns were incrusted with coloured glazes, and birds and fishes were painted on whole pieces and let into the blocks; hieroglyphs were elaborately carved in hard stones and fixed in the hollowed forms, black granite, obsidian, and quartzite in white limestone, and alabaster in red granite. The many fragments of steles which have come from here already, and which I have found, appear to show a custom of placing one stele—with the usual adoration of the sun by the king and queen—in each of the great halls of the palace and temple. These steles are in hard limestone, alabaster, red granite, and black granite. I have found more steles on the rocks on both sides of the Nile, and have seen in all eight on the eastern and three on the western cliffs.

The history of this site, and of the religious revolutions, is somewhat clearer than before. Khuenaten came to the throne as a minor; for in his sixth year he had only one child, and in his eighth year only two, as we learn from the steles, suggesting that he was not married till his fifth year apparently. On his marriage he changed his name from Amenhotep IV (which occurs on Page 108 a papyrus from Gurob in his fifth) to Khuenaten (which we find here in the sixth). A scarab which I got last year in Cairo shows Amenhotep (with Amen erased subsequently) adoring the cartouches of the Aten, settling his identity with Khuenaten. In a quarry here is the name of his mother, Queen Thii, without any king; so she was probably regent during his minority, and started this capital here herself.

The character of the man, and the real objects of his revolution in religion and art, are greatly cleared by our now being able to see him as in the flesh. By an inexplicable chance, there was lying on the ground, among some stones, a plaster cast taken from his face immediately after his death for the use of the sculptors of his funeral furniture; with it were the spoilt rough blocks of granite ushabtis for his tomb. The cast is in almost perfect condition, and we can now really study his face, which is full of character. There is no trace of passion in it, but a philosophical calm with great obstinacy and impracticability. He was no vigorous fanatic, but rather a high bred theorist and reformer: not a Cromwell but a Mill. An interesting historical study awaits us here from his physiognomy and his reforms. No such cast remains of any other personage in ancient history.

According to one view, he was followed successively by four kings, Ra saa ka khepru, Tut ankhamen, Ai, and Horemheb, in peaceable succession. But of late it has been thought that the last three were rival kings at Thebes; and that they upheld Amen in rivalry to Khuenaten and his successor, who were cut very short in their reigns. Nothing here supports the latter view. A great number of moulds for making pottery rings are found here in factories; and those of Tut ankhamen are as common and as varied as of Khuenaten, showing that he was an important ruler here for a considerable time. Of Ai rings are occasionally found here, as also of Horemheb, who has left a block of sculpture with his cartouche in the temple of Aten. So it is certain that he actually upheld the worship of Aten early in his reign, and added to the buildings here, far from being a destructive rival overthrowing this place from Thebes. Afterwards he re-established Amen (as I got a scarab of his in Cairo, "establishing the temple of Amen"), and he removed the blocks of stone wholesale from here to build with at Thebes. Later than Horemheb there is not a trace here; Seti and Ramessu are absolutely unknown in this site, showing that it was stripped of stone and deserted before the XIX dynasty. Hence, about two generations, from 1400 to 1340 B.C., are the extreme limits of date for everything found here. The masonry was re-used at Thebes, Memphis, and other places where the name of Khuenaten has been found. Page 109 The manufactures of this place were not extensive—glass and glazes were the main industries; and the objects so common at Gurob (metal tools, spindles, thread, weights, and marks on the pottery) are all rare here. The furnace and the details of making the coloured blue and green frits, have been found. Pottery moulds for making the pendants of fruits, leaves, animals, &c., are abundant in the factories; and a great variety of patterned "Phoenician" glass vases are found, but only in fragments.

The cuneiform tablets discovered here were all in store rooms outside the palace; they were placed by the house of the Babylonian scribe, which was localised by our finding the waste pieces of his spoilt tablets in rubbish holes. A large quantity of fragments are found of the Aegean pottery, like that of the early period at Mykenae and Ialysos. This is completely in accord with what I found at Gurob, but with more variety in form. The Phoenician pottery which I found at Lachish is also found here, so we now have a firm dating for all these styles. The connexion between the naturalistic work of these frescoes and the fresco of Tiryns and the gold cups of Vaphio is obvious; and it seems possible that Greece may have started Khuenaten in his new views of style, which he carried out so fully by his native artists. The similarity of the geometrical pattern columns to the sculptures of the Mykenae period is striking; hitherto such Egyptian decoration was only known in colour, and not in relief. We have yet a great deal to learn as to the influences between Greece and Egypt, but this place has helped to open our eyes.—W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE in Academy, April 9.