SCENES OF OLD EGYPTIAN LIFE AND HISTORY BY E. BERKLEY AUTHOR OF ‘A HISTORY OF ROME,’ ETC. ETC. With Numerous Illustrations SEELEY, JACKSON & HALLIDAY, FLEET STREET LONDON, MDCCCLXXXIV...

The growing interest that is felt in all that concerns Egypt and its past has led me to hope that there may be many who will be glad of a book containing, in a concise and easily accessible form, the chief results of modern research and discovery in the valley of the Nile. The Manuscript of this work was submitted to Dr. Lushington, formerly Professor of Greek at Glasgow University, and he has very kindly permitted the publication of the following opinion:— ‘It appears to me very carefully and a

Reign of the gods—Osiris, Isis, and Horus Myth—Ancient cities and early kings. The first royal name that meets us on the monuments of Egypt, which was inscribed there during the lifetime of the king who bore it, is that of Senefru (predecessor of Khufu who built the Great Pyramid), and belongs to a remote antiquity. [1] And yet we must look back through the dimness of many more centuries still before we come to the name of Mena, first King of Egypt—a name that seems to twinkle faintly from beyon

The Pyramid Builders. There is no longer any need to trust to the scanty notices of these early times that occur in writings of later date. Egyptian inscriptions now tell their own story; the monuments begin to speak. In the valley of Wady Maghara, in the peninsula of Sinai, carved upon the rocky precipice, is to be seen King Senefru himself, in the act of striking down an enemy; the accompanying inscription gives the name and titles of the sovereign, and designates him the conqueror of the Ment

The Pyramid Builders— Continued . The warlike expeditions described by Una, the Governor of the South, form the exception rather than the rule in this early history. Fearing no rivals at home, and almost entirely free from enemies abroad, these powerful monarchs devoted their thoughts and care to the building of temples and of those gigantic funeral piles that have immortalised their names. It is certain that the pyramids could not have been erected without a very considerable amount of scientif

Civil War and Break-up of the Kingdom—Reunion and Recovery. The last sovereign of the sixth dynasty was a queen named Nitocris. After her death occurs a perfect blank in Egyptian history. Not a line of hieroglyphic writing, not a fragment of a ruin has survived from this period of darkness and silence. Of the seventh dynasty the very names are lost; of the eighth, nothing but the names has been preserved. The names, however, are so similar to those of the sixth dynasty, that we may conclude that

Twelfth Dynasty—‘Instructions’ of Amenemhat I.—Story of Saneha. There was a certain unity in Egyptian worships, but in various localities the chief deities bore different names, and were regarded under varying aspects. The worship of some of these chief deities, however, became general, if not universal, at a very early period; e.g. that of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, the triad of Abydos; that of Ra and Turn, [17] chief gods of On, and that of Ptah, the centre of which was Memphis. The Thebaid— i.e

Successors of Amenemhat I.—Two Provinces added to Egypt. The stone for the sarcophagus of King Amenemhat i. was hewn in the valley of Hammamat, and he was laid to rest in his pyramid called Kha-nefer , the ‘Beautiful Rising,’ leaving behind him an honoured name and an inheritance of peaceful days. Usertesen i. , his son and successor, reigned in profound tranquillity, and turned his attention to the temples of the gods, which were neglected and falling into decay. They were, he said, the only mo

Invasion and Rule of the Hyksos—War of Liberation. ( Circa 2100-1600 b.c. ) The close of the twelfth dynasty was followed at no distant date by confusion and disaster. It appears, indeed, that the succeeding dynasty held for a time, at least nominally, the supremacy of Egypt; but sooner or later we find there was a rival dynasty (the fourteenth) ruling at Xois, in the Delta. To the kings composing it is assigned an average length of reign of little over two years, and this has led some to suppos

The Eighteenth Dynasty—Queen Hatasu and Thothmes iii. ( Circa 1600-1400 b.c. ) On the east bank of the river, about 50 miles from Thebes, there stood in ancient times a strong fortified city, surrounded by massive walls of such thickness, that chariots might have been driven abreast upon them. Of the city itself nothing survives save ruins; but in the valley that lies eastward, behind the hills, are still to be seen long rows of tombs and memorial sanctuaries, where were laid to rest the heroes

The Eighteenth Dynasty— continued . ( Circa 1600-1400 b.c. ) Of the reign of Thothmes iv. there is very little record left excepting the curious story of his own youth, which was written on a tablet suspended by his order upon the breast of the Sphinx at Ghizeh—to the following effect:—‘Thothmes had been practising spear-throwing in the neighbourhood of Memphis, where he also slung brazen bolts at a target and hunted lions in the “valley of the gazelles.” [40] The prince rode in his two-horsed c

The Nineteenth Dynasty ( circa 1400-1200 b.c. ) Rameses the Great. The peace of Egypt was not disturbed, although the direct succession again failed at the death of Horus. It is more than doubtful whether the soldier Rameses who now came to the front was of the royal line at all. He married his son Seti to a princess of the house of Pharaoh, and associated him with himself in the government. After a brief reign, of which next to nothing is recorded, he died, and left the crown to Seti. The wife

Thebes; its People, Temples, and Tombs—Close of the Nineteenth Dynasty. In an inscription on the walls of the rock-temple at Abu-simbel, Rameses is represented as saying to the god Ptah, ‘I have cared for the land to create for thee a new Egypt, such as it existed in the olden times,’ and he specially mentions the splendid sanctuary he had built for that deity in Memphis. And not at Memphis alone, but everywhere throughout the land, from the city of Rameses in the north to the wonderful rock-tem

Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties—The Ramessidæ and the Priest-Kings. ( Circa 1200-970 b.c. ) It may be doubtful whether Rameses iii. , son of the Setnekht who pacified Egypt and restored order, was connected by blood with the preceding dynasties. He bore the name of an illustrious predecessor, however, and throughout his reign he appears to have made it his aim to emulate the great Rameses. His first task was to reorganise the public service, which had fallen into great disorder; to appoint

Shishak i. and the Twenty-second (Bubastite) Dynasty—The Ethiopian Kings—The Assyrians in Egypt—Sack of Thebes. ( Circa 970-666 b.c. ) It might seem as though the name of Rameses had power sufficient to hold together the fabric of the state so long as the twentieth dynasty was on the throne. With the dethronement and exile of the Ramessid kings, all unity was at an end. Her-hor had claimed the sovereignty of all Egypt, but his successors ruled over a diminishing territory, and the dominion of th

Psammetichus and the Saite Dynasty—The Persian Conquest—Last Independent Dynasties. (666-340 b.c. ) After the capture and sack of Thebes, the successors of Tirhakah made no further attempts to recover their lost dominion. The princes who ruled in the north, more or less as the vassals of Assyria, were often engaged in mutual strife, and the twenty satrapies established there by Esar-haddon had dwindled down to twelve—the ‘Dodecarchy,’ of Greek writers. Bravest and most conspicuous amongst the tw

TABLE OF DYNASTIES. This list, with some slight variations, follows that given by Sir Erasmus Wilson as an appendix to ‘ Egypt of the Past .’...

DECIPHERMENT OF THE HIEROGLYPHS. The idea long prevailed that the hieroglyphic characters were ideographic— i.e. that they represented ideas, not sounds; and any attempt at decipherment was hopeless. Before the end of last century, however, a hint had been thrown out that the characters might prove to be phonetic— i.e. representing sounds like the letters of our ordinary alphabets. And a further suggestion had been offered that the words enclosed within ovals might be the names of royal personag