The Times/1922/The Egyptian Treasure

by E. A. Wallis Budge

(By Sir Ernest Wallis Budge, Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum.)

The news of the very important Egyptian discovery which has been made by Lord Carnarvon and his trusty helper, Mr. Howard Carter, is one which will send a thrill of pleasure throughout the whole of the archaeological world.

For many years past the expert Egyptologist and traveller in Egypt who has taken time to consider the history of the country has felt that there must be a very considerable body of evidence lying buried in the famous Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. The ancient explorers - Wilkinson, Salt, Belzoni, and many others - have contributed, each in his generation, to unearth the splendid tombs in this Valley; and when Maspero, Grebaut, and the other officials of the Service of Antiquities of Egypt, opened the tombs of Amenhetep II. and Thotmes III., it was felt that the Valley had been fimally excavated. This, however, was not the case, for Mr. Theodore Davis and his assistants succeeded in discovering several other Royal tombs, among them being that of Iuaa and Tuaa, the mother and father of one of the favourite wives of Amenhetep III. When Mr. Davis, who, according to his work on the tombs of Heremheb and Tutankhamen, thought he had discovered the tomb of the latter, had finished with the Valley, even experts thought that the Valley had yielded up all its secrets; but, as we see from the dispatch in The Times of yesterday, this was not so.

Mr. Howard Carter has for many years had suspicions - in fact, more than suspicions - that other Royal tombs remained unopened in the Valley, and this opinion was shared by aged natives on the west bank of the Nile, who had very good reasons for holding it.

It is now many years since Lord Carnarvon began to devote his time, attention, and a considerable sum of money annually to the excavation of ancient sites in Egypt. For several years past he has dug in the North, the West, and the South of Egypt with varying success. He has succeeded in clearing up a very considerable number of smaller points in the history of funerary archaeology under the Middle Empire, and the antiquities which he has brought to light have increased our knowledge of Egyptian decorative art and literature. In connexion with these we need only mention two limestone slabs containing an account of the little-know King Kames, and a number of lines of a version of the precepts of Ptahhetep, a famous writer who flourished under the early Empire. Among his many discoveries may be mentioned an unfinished temple of Hatshepsut, two ruined temples of Ramses IV., a twelfth dynasty cemetery, and tombs of the period between the twelfth and eighteenth dynasties; and he cleared out the tomb of Amenhetep I. For years past he has been steadily digging out the ancient portions of the Theban necropolis, where the Queens and Princes and Princesses of the second Theban Empire were buried. He has also discovered the tomb which had been prepared for Queen Hatshepsut, with its marvellous sarcophagus of yellow crystalline limestone.

CROWNING DISCOVERY.

On the top of all these successes now comes the perhaps crowning discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen and the masses of funerary furniture which it contains. Our knowledge of the life and deeds of this king is small. His reign cannot have lasted much more than six years; but he is extremely important as showing that during his reign the famous heresy of the disc worshippers came to an end. He married a daughter of Amenhetep IV., now better known perhaps as Aakhenaten. This king made himself notorious for reviving the very old cult of the disc of the sun. This cult conflicted very strongly with that of Amen-Ra, King of the gods at Thebes, and the opposition to this heresy was so great that the king found himself obliged to retire to a site to the north of Assiut, which is now commonly known as Tall-al-Amarnah. Here he played the high priest of Aten, or the disc, and offered up bloodless sacrifices and burnt incense and promulgated views about the existence of Aten, which are practically monotheistic. The dogma of his individuality, which has been promulgated with much diligence in England in recent years, is more imaginary than real.

The whole of the priesthood of Amen-Ra were his foes, and as he was shut off from the practical government of the country in his isolated city the foreign possessions of Egypt in Syria and elsewehere were lost. There is scarcely a more pathetic picture in history than that of the officers and Governors of Egyptian possessions in Syria and Palestine appealing for help to this religious fanatic who, through his unpractical ideas of government, lost his throne, but amused himself by burning incense and singing hymns to a god which the rest of the country refused to worship, and with the care of his large family of daughters. Tutankhamen succeeded to the throne of Egypt through his marriage with the daughter of Amenhetep IV., but very soon after he began to reign he saw that the cult of Aten was doomed and he promptly eliminated the name of Aten from his own name and that of his wife, and moved his capital from Tall-al-Amarnah back to Thebes. Here he at once proceeded to undo the evil which his father-in-law had perpeetrated in the city. In a very short time the city at Aakhuenaten (Tall-al-Amarnah) was deserted by the inhabitants, and fell into ruin, and the old cult of Amen was set upon a firmer basis in Egypt than before, if possible, by Tutankhamen.

A HUMAN TOUCH.

Lord Carnarvon's discoveries will no doubt throw a great light upon the reign of Tutankhamon and on the continuation of the artistic development which began about this period. It is clear from the large amount of funerary furniture which he has found that the old cult was observed in great detail; but there are many objects mentioned in the account of the discovery about which we await fuller information. The two bituminous figures are undoubtedly figures made for the Ka, or double, and these after examination should yield much information. A curiously human touch occurs in connexion with the tomb - namely, the preparation of birds and other dainties for the deceased king's frefreshment on his road to the underworld. He was not alone in this matter, for the British Museum is fortunate enough to possess the black wooden box containing the mummified pigeons and other birds, &c., which were provided for the lunc of Thothmes III. in the tomb.

It is, of course, disappointing that the thieves in ancient days succeeded in carrying off all the jewelry which was undoubtedly buried with the king; but, after all, there is a great deal of jewely in the Cairo Museum, and many students will rejoice more in the discovery of these funerary appliances than they would do over ornaments of gold and recious stone. Our curiosity is whetted by the mention of the box containing rolls of papyri mentioned in the dispatch in The Times; and we hope that Lord Carnarvon will at once take steps to have them unrolled and examined. Is it too much to hope that his lordship will see this way to issue a volume on his great discovery in which we shall have authentic pictures and careful descriptions of the objects that have been found? Such a book, carefully planned and written by Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter, would crown a very fine archaeological triumph and earn the gratitude of Egyptologists, archaeologists, artits, and other throughout the world.

One other point needs mention. The laws which governed excavations made by foreigners in Egypt used to allot to the excavator one-half of the "find." Under Maspero these laws were interpreted generously, and all must hope that such will be the case in respect of the present discovery. Very valuable gifts were made to Mr. T. Davis in return for the toil and money which he spent in excavating Royal tombs, and we hope that M. Lacau, the Director of the Cairo Museum, will follow the example of Maspero in his dealing with Lord Carnarvon. After all, the labourer is worthy of his hire, but Lord Carnarvon has worked for sixteen years for nothing and spent money besides. England may congratulate herself that even in these days of the "Axe" men can be found willing and magnanimous enough to spend treasure merely with the idea of increasing the sum of human knowledge.