Part 13

But M. Alexandre's crowning discovery--a discovery which is one of the most important made in Egypt in recent years--did not take place until December 30. It was nothing less than the discovery of the tomb of Khuenaten himself. The tomb is well concealed, and is at a great distance from the river and the ruins of the old city. Midway between the northern and the southern tombs of Tel el-Amarna, in the amphitheatre of cliffs to the east of the ancient town, are two ravines, more than three miles from the mouth of one of them, towards the head of a small valley is the tomb. It resembles the famous "Tombs of the Kings" at Thebes, being in the form of a subterranean passage cut in the rock, and sloping downwards at an acute angle to a distance of more than 100 metres. In front of the entrance is a double flight to steps also cut out of the rock, with a slide for the mummy between them. After entering the passage of the tomb, which is broad and lofty, we pass on the right another long passage, probably intended for the queen, but never finished. Soon afterwards we come to a chamber, also on the right, which serves as an antechamber to another within. The walls of both chambers have been covered with stucco, and embellished with hieroglyphs and sculptures. Among the latter are figures of prisoners from Ethiopia and Syria, of the solar disk, and of female mourners who weep and throw dust on their heads. From the inscriptions we learn that the two chambers were the burial-place of Khuenaten's daughter Aten-mert, who must consequently have died before him. It further follows that Ra-si-aa-ka, Aten-mert's husband, who received the titles of royalty in consequence of his marriage, must have been coregent with Khuenaten. Page 111 Khuenaten himself was buried in a large square-columned hall at the extreme end of the tomb. Fragments of his granite sarcophagus have been found there by M. Alexandre, as well as pieces of the exquisitely fine mummy cloth in which his body was wrapped. At the entrance to the tomb M. Alexandre also picked up broken _ushebtis_, upon which the cartouches of Khuenaten are inscribed. Before the Pharaoh had been properly entombed it would seem that his enemies broke into his last resting-place, destroyed his sarcophagus, tore the wrappings of his mummy to shreds, and effaced the name and image of his god wherever it was engraved upon the wall. The only finished portions of the tomb are the chambers in which his daughter was buried. Elsewhere the tomb is in the same condition as the majority of the tombs of his adherents. The walls have never been covered with stucco, much less painted or sculptured, and even the columns of the magnificent hall in which his sarcophagus was placed remains rough-hewn. It is clear that the king died suddenly, and that he was buried in haste on the morning of a revolution. His followers may have made a stand against their enemies for a few months, but it is difficult to believe from the state in which the tomb has been found that they can have done so for a longer time. Very shortly after Khuen-Aten's death his city must have been destoyed, never to be inhabited again.

Mr. Petrie in a letter to the _Academy_ says: "It has long been known that the Arabs had obtained access to the tomb of the remarkable founder of Tel el-Amarna; the heart scarab of Khuenaten was sold two or three years ago at Luxor, and the jewellery of Neferti-iti, his queen, a year or two before that."

The entrance is like that of the tomb of Seti I at Thebes; but the sloping passage is about half the length of that.--_Academy_, Feb. 6.

COLLECTION IN LONDON.--The collections of sculpture, painting, faience, &c., which Mr. Flinders Petrie brought back from his excavations last winter at Tel el-Amarna have been placed on view at 4 Oxford-mansion, Oxford-circus, W. Their special interest is that they reveal an hitherto unknown form of art, remarkable both for its originality and for its spirited rendering of natural objects. The resemblance to some of the finest objects of Mycenaean work is very striking. The exhibition remained open until October 15.--_Academy_, Sept. 24.

ETHIOPIA.

NORTHERN ETBAI.--EXPEDITION TO THE NORTHERN ETBAI.--A recent scientific expedition to northern Etbai or northern Aethiopia, Page 112 by the order of the Khedive, is the subject of a very interesting paper by Ernest A. Floyer, in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ for October.

The chief investigation of the expedition was devoted to the remains of certain large mining stations which proved to be doubly interesting, as giving evidence of two distinct periods of the mining industry.

Mines have been opened over almost the entire surface, and the remains of numerous towns mark the dwelling places of the miners.

Not only in the mines is found evidence of two methods, one very ancient and another less ancient; but in the settlements above were discovered remains of Ptolemaic construction, together with the stone huts of a race probably aboriginal, and preceding or contemporaneous with but not unknown to the ancient Egyptians.

The Ptolemaic miner seem to have employed the ancient methods to a great extent, so that it would seem that there could never have been any complete cessation of mining for a very long period.

The miners of Rameses' time, too, used methods of great antiquity. In the Wadi Abba stands a rock temple with hieroglyphic inscriptions stating that Sethos, father of Rameses the Great, had discovered gold mines in this region. Golenischeff believes this temple to have been erected by the Ptolemies. At the mines of Sighait is an hieroglyphic inscription recording the visit of a royal scribe and a mine inspector. This is faintly inscribed on the face of a steep rock. At the emerald mines of Sikait may be seen a number of Greek dedications over rock-cut temples. Near the Wadi Khashat, where topazes are found, there stands a square enclosure, the platform of a temple, and numerous ruined structures of apparent Greek origin. It would appear from these remains that the Ptolemies examined all of the ancient mines and reopened a certain number--here they erected their temples, houses and barracks for slaves, here they constructed high roads for their carts and oxen, with caravan service, and post houses built at intervals.

Beside these Ptolemaic ruins are found some traces of the prehistoric miners, and in a few cases as at the mines of the Um Roos these exist alone. The most important traces are the stone huts built of large stones in two lines, and of uniform irregularity. In connection with these huts there is not a single mark or inscription of any kind which might lead to a solution of the problem with regard to their origin.

Their implements, quantities of which are found at Um Roos were as crude as their abodes, in fact the use of some of them cannot be determined. The mines, though extensive, are little more than burrows, and in a few cases it is not known for what Page 113 mineral they were excavated. The writer, after dismissing the Æthiopians, the Kushites and the ancient Egyptians, as the probable pre-Ptolemaic miners, suggests that the Etbai was peopled by a negroid tribe of natural miners, the possible ancestors of the copper miners in the mountains north of Kordofan.

Near the Wadi Sikait, not far from the temples with Greek inscriptions already referred to, is a fine building of apparently later date, and supposed by the writer to have been a church from its construction, for the mines were worked steadily during the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era. The structure has no roof over the main portion, but what was apparently an apse still retains its roof of long slabs of schist. The body is filled with fallen slabs. The walls show a side window and several niches, which features suggested a Christian church.

ALGERIA AND TUNISIA.

M. René de la Blanchère in making, to the _Acad. des Inscriptions_, his report on the excavations and discoveries in Tunisia and Algeria during 1891, calls attention to the new organization of the archæological administration of this region. Up to the present time Tunisia and Algeria had separate organizations, but the following arrangement has now gone into effect: M. de la Blanchère is delegate of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, in Algeria and Tunisia, and the mission under him is at present composed of M. M. Doublet, inspector of antiquities in the Regency; Pradère, conservator of the Museum of Bardo; Wood, attaché at the same museum; Gauckler, historical student, and Marye: it is quite distinct from the local administrations. Although it supplies the greater number of the agents of the Bey's service of antiquities, which it created, it has no connection with its administration any more than with that of similar organizations in Algeria, such as that of historical monuments. Its object is: (1) to keep the Committee of Historic works (of Algeria and Tunisia) informed of all that happens in Africa in the domain of archæology, to transmit to it any documents and to make researches regarding necessary work; (2) to carry on three important publications, two of which have already been partly published; the _Collections du Musée Alaoui, the Musées et collections archéologiques de l'Algérie_, and the _Catalogue général des musées de l'Afrique française_; (3) to hold itself at the disposal of the French ministry and the local authorities for any work deemed necessary, excavations, organization of museums, enterprises of learned societies, explorations, etc. The head of the mission, being a delegate of the ministry, has Page 114 the right to oversee the Tunisian service of antiquities, and has also for both Algeria and Tunisia the permanent inspection of libraries and museums.

By means of this central organization, all the desiderata for African archæology are obtained, and the best methods are put in practice for excavations, the organization of museums, and the publication of antiquities.

TUNISIA.

M. de la Blanchère reports that in 1891 the most urgent need in Tunisia was the classification of monuments that should be preserved. The operation is being carried on under the direction of M. Doublet; enquiry was opened in regard to about 150 monuments, nearly all of great importance, of which 27 are already classified. No excavations were undertaken by the service of antiquities, its funds being all employed on finishing the Bardo museum. It has, however, overseen or authorized the following enterprises, the most important of which will be found described in their alphabetical order: Sfaks; Sousse; Henchir Maatria; Dougga; Teboursouk; Henchir Tinah; Maktar.

CARTHAGE.--M. do Vogüé has communicated to the _Acad. des Ins._ (March 18) a report on the continuation of Father Delattre's excavations at Carthage, which go on giving interesting results which will be fully described in a publication by the explorer himself. At another point a funerary inscription was found of an iron caster. This is the first time the profession is mentioned in Carthaginian texts, which had hitherto mentioned only gold and bronze casters. Of course there was no casting of iron at that time, but only working of the metal.--_Revue arch._ 1892, II, p. 254.

TERRACOTTA MOULDS.--M. Héron de Villefosse communicated to the _Acad. des Inscr._ (Nov. 11,) the photographs of seventy-two moulds for intaglios, in terracotta, selected from a collection of over three hundred which were found in the lower part of Carthage, between the hill of St. Louis and the sea. They were all executed in antiquity. There are coin, types, a head of Herakles, similar to that of some silver coins attributed to Jugurtha, the fronting head of Silenus of the coins of Kyzikos, the galley of the coins of Sidon, etc., all of the purest Greek style. There are also some female heads, recalling Greek Sicilian coins; standing figures; an Athena, a Pan, a Hermes fastening his heel-pieces, a Marsyas, an amazon, a nude woman fastening her sandal, recalling coins of Larissa in Thessaly; some of groups, a man overthrown by a lion, a lion devouring a horse, a man standing and killing a kneeling woman, an episode Page 115 of the contest of Achilles and Penthesilea; finally some purely Egyptian types, such as scarabs with royal cartouches. This collection of moulds was probably made by a manufacturer with the purpose of reproducing them.--_Rev. Critique_, 1892, No. 47.

CHEMTOU-SIMITHU.--Excavations have been carried on at this site by M. Toutain: they were continued, thanks to a subvention from the _Acad. des Inscriptions_. In a letter to the Academy dated June 16, M. Geffroy gives an account of what had been discovered up to date. Nearly the whole of the ancient theatre was discovered in a few weeks. In the space occupied by the orchestra was a mosaic, with all the shades of Numidian marble, nine metres in diameter. These are interesting peculiarities in the construction and arrangement of the theatre. It is neither adossed to a hill nor completely isolated: the lower part of the hemicycle of steps which was completely buried, is well preserved. M. Toutain had commenced researches in two necropoli of the city hoping to find tombs and epitaphs of the freedmen and slaves employed in the neighbouring quarries. He had begun the excavation of a large building, perhaps a basilica or a curia, which appears to be about 40 metres long.

In a letter to the _Académie_, dated October 16, M. Toutain gives information of further discoveries, principally in the theatre and forum. A square was discovered 20 met. wide by 25 met. long, paved with large slabs of granite of greenish blue schist. It is situated in the midst of the ruins of several important monuments, notably a temple and a basilica, and is certainly the forum of Simithu. It is bounded on the south by a monumental exædra whose substructions of cut stone are still in place, and whose architectural decoration can be reconstructed by means of the bases, fragments, columns, capitals, and pieces of cornice which have come to light. Toward the north the forum is bounded by two structures separated by a narrow paved street.

A mile-stone found is important, as containing the name of Emperor Galerius, and dating from the short period when, after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximianus, Hercules, Constantius Chlorus, and Galerius were Augusti (May 1, 305, to July 25, 306). It has also a topographic interest as belonging to the cross-road from _Thuburbo majus_ to Tunis or Carthage, passing by Onellana and Uthina. M. Toutain has traced a system of bars, basins and cisterns, to supply with rain water a small Roman city, whose ruins are now called Bab-Khaled. It would appear as if the public buildings of the city were inhabited and made over at the Byzantine period.--_Revue critique_ 1892, No. 44; _Revue arch._, 1892, II, pp. 260, 266-7; _Chron. des arts_ 1892, No. 34. Page 116

CHERCHELL.--M. Victor Waille has communicated to the _Acad. des Insc._ the first results of excavations on the field of manoruvres at Cherchell. Captain Hétet and lieutenant Perrin conducted them. Three mosaic pavements were copied: there was found a dedicatory inscription to the governor C. Octavius Pudens Cæsius Honoratus, and some bronzes, among which were the base of a candelabrum and the handle of a chiseled vase, decorated with a helmeted bust of Roma, of the Byzantine period. The excavations are especially fruitful in small objects, pottery, bronzes, coins, etc.--_Chron. des arts_, 1892, No. 31; _Ami des mon._ 1892, p. 250.

DOUGGA.--The excavations carried on by MM. Denis and Carton, resulted in the clearing of the temple of Saturn; the discovery of the dedicatory inscription showing it to have been erected for the safety of Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus; the finding of a large number of native steles; and the clearing of the theatre.

HADRUMETUM.--A small lead tablet covered on both sides with inscriptions, has been found in the Roman necropolis. It is a _tabella devotionis_, to be compared with others found at Hadrumetum, at Carthage and in Gaul. On one side is a series of magic names, accompanied by the figure of a genius with a rooster's head, standing in a boat and holding a torch, on the other side is an adjuration addressed to a certain _deus pelagicus ærius_: infernal maledictions are called down on the horses and drivers of the green and white factions of the circus. There was a god or genius named Taraxippos, "the scarer of horses," as M. Heuzey remarks.--_Rev. arch._ 1892, II, p. 267.

MAKTAR.--M. Border exhumed from the mines of the basilica, next to the amphitheatre, four fragments of an imperial dedicatory inscription, and a most interesting altar bearing a dedication in eighteen lines on the occasion of the sacrifice of a bull and a ram for the safety of an Emperor, whose name is hammered out; M. Doublet conjectures him to have been Elagabalus.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109.

SOUSSE.-In the neo-punic necropolis, on which the camp is situated, two entire vases and 28 fragments of vases were found, decorated with painted inscriptions. In the Roman necropolis, along the Kairwan road, several interesting discoveries were made, among them a hypogeum containing several frescoes in fair preservation, containing curious figures and inscriptions, and also some inscriptions on marble or stucco.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109.

TEBOURSOUK.--MM. Denis and Carton have excavated the megalithic necropolis of Teboursouk, whose tombs are stone circles, with one or more small dolmens in the centre.--_A.d.M._ 1892, p. 109. Page 117

TUNIS.--Hans von Behrs has contributed to the _Vossische Zeitung_ a report on the museum of the Bardo near Tunis. A summary of it is given in the _Berlin Philologische Wochenschrift_, November 19.

ALGERIA.

M. de la Blanchère reports that in Algeria M. Gauckler investigated in 1891 the provinces of Algiers and Constantine, and spent some time at Cherchell whose antiquities he studied and partly published alone or in collaboration with M. de Waille. He planned at the same time an excavation. M. Marye was charged with the plan for organizing, for the first time, a collection of mussulman art, of native industrial art, and of Turkish and Arabic monuments.

The work regarded as most pressing by M. de la Blanchère in 1891 was the publication of African museums. The first series of the _collections du musée Alaoui_ was almost completed: the _musées d'Oran_ and _de Constantine_ were in the press, following the _musée d'Alger_ published in the preceding year. The general catalogue will be drawn up as each establishment is definitively organized. The first place belongs to the Bardo museum whose catalogue had already been partly compiled by M. de la Blanchère. The museum of Oran, under its conservator, Demaeght, has been finally organized, and occupies a fine building given by the city. It has been enriched by several additions, notably the famous inscription of king Masuna. The museum of Constantine has received among other things, the results of an interesting excavation made at Collo, especially some curious vases with female silhouettes. The museum of the Bardo can, however, never be rivalled by any of the museums of Algeria. The immense palace is already nearly full, although the museum in 1891 was but four years old. The large hall is full, with its nine large cases; there are about 500 square metres of mosaics, 50 statues of large fragments, about 1200 inscriptions, and a multitude of small objects.

TIPASA.--The local curate, M. l'Abbé Saint-Gérand, has made some important excavations in an early Christian church. He found that the altar was placed at the end opposite the apse on a kind of platform or _béma_ attached to the wall. Several inscriptions were found set into the mosaic pavement. One is the epitaph of Alexander, a bishop of Tipasa, another the dedication of the construction by him. To this bishop is attributed the merit of grouping about the altar the tombs of certain "righteous ancients," _justi priores_, by whom are undoubtedly meant his predecessors in the Episcopacy.--_Chron. des arts_, 1892, No. 14. Page 118 Professor Gsell assisted in the excavations above described and further details in a communication to the _Académie des Inscriptions_. The building mentioned was a funerary chapel built to the east of Tipasa by Bishop Alexander to contain the tombs of his predecessors. Near by a Christian sarcophagus was found with reliefs of Christ giving the law, Moses striking the rock and other subjects.

In the same locality is the basilica of Saint Salsa erected over her tomb. Built in the fourth century, it was decorated in the middle of the fifth by Potentius, probably a bishop; and enlarged in the second half of the sixth. It was still an object of veneration in the seventh century.--_Chron. des arts_, 1892, No. 28.

ASIA.

HINDUSTAN.

MUHAMMADAN COINS.--Mr. S. Lane-Poole has completed his "Catalogue of the Coins of the Mogul Emperors of Hindustan in the British Museum," dating from 1525, the invasion of Buber, to the establishment of British currency in 1835.

It describes over 1400 coins, chiefly gold and silver, of this splendid coinage. "In his introduction Mr. Lane-Poole deals with various historical, geographical, and other problems suggested by the coinage, and with difficulties of classification presented by the early imitative issues of the East India company and the French compagnie des Indes." This volume, the fourteenth, completes the cataloguing of all the Muhammadan coins in the museum.--_Journal Royal Asiatic Society_ 1892, p. 425.

INDIAN NUMISMATICS.--Mr. Rodgers, Honorary Numismatist to the government of India, has finished his "Catalogue of the Coins with Persian or Arabic inscriptions in the Lahore museum," and practically finished his "Catalogue of the Coins in the Calcutta museum." His own immense collection has now been purchased by the Punjãb government, and he has nearly completed his catalogue of that.

These catalogues will be of very great importance alike for the numismatic and for the modern history of India.--_Journ. Royal Asiatic Society_, 1892, p. 425.

NEW VARIETY OF MAURYA INSCRIPTIONS.--Prof. Buhler has made a very careful study of impressions of nine votive inscriptions from the relic-caskets discovered by Mr. Rea in the ruined stupa of Bhattiprolu in the Kistna District (Madras). He has made out their contents, and has arrived at the conclusion that they are written in a new variety of the Southern Maurya or Làt Page 119 alphabet. Twenty-three letters of these inscriptions agree exactly with those ordinarily used in the edicts of Asoka which have long been held to belong to the first attempts of the Hindus in the art of writing. Four letters are entirely unusual, while the lingual l is introduced, which does not occur in Asoka's inscriptions. Further peculiarities are presented in the notation of the medial and final vowels. The appearance of the letters would indicate that the Bhattiprolu inscriptions probably belong to a period only a few decades later than that of Asoka's edicts. By a comparison of these incriptions with Asoka's edicts, and with the inscriptions of Nâuâgleât, Hathegumplia, Bharhut and Triana, it becomes evident that they hold an intermediate position between the two sets, but are much more nearly related to those of the third century B.C. than those of the second. If this be true, the date of the Bhattiprolu inscription cannot be placed later than 200 B.C., and the inscriptions themselves prove that several distinct varieties of the Southern Maurya alphabet existed during the third century, B.C.

This fact would remove one of the strongest arguments in favor of the theory that writing was introduced into India during the rule of the Maurya dynasty--_i.e._, the absence of local sorts of letters in which the edicts of Asoka were written in places widely separated, for this may be explained by a desire to imitate as closely as possible the character of the original edict.