The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-09-01
Egyptology at the Bar of Criti-
ciSm.


A new book entitled Geschichte
AgHptenS zen Psammetich / bis auf
Alexander den GroSsen,. by DR.. Alfred
Wiedemann, may be heartily recon-
mended to Egyptian and Biblical schol-
airs. In the second part of the work the
author endeavors to fix the chronology
and history of the period which extends
from the deliVerance of Egypt by Psam-
metichus from Assyria to the time of
Alexander. In the first part he does
what has never been done before-ap-
ply the modern critical method to the
monumental records of ancient Egyp-
tan history. Hitherto it has been the
fashion to accept the statements of the
inscriptions without further question
and the application of strict criticism
to them was, therefore, much needed.
DIR. Wiedemann shows that the prevail
ing vice of the ancient Egyptians was
love of repetition; consequently, not only
are the phrases in which older inscrip-
lions were composed repeated in later
ones, but the victories and events re-
corded in them are usurped without
scruple by later monarchs Thus the
victories of Thothmes III, recorded at
Karnak, are quietly appropriated first
by Seti l and then by Rameses III, who
did not take the trouble to draw up a
list of the towns and districts they them
selves had really overrun. Hence it is
that the kings of the nineteenth dynasty
appear in ordinary Egyptian history as
campaigning and conquering in distant
regions which had been trodden only by
the older kings of the eighteenth dynasty.
Then, again, the Egyptians were fond of
usurping the monuments of their prede-
cessors, by erasing the names of the latter
and substituting their own Thus Wiede-
mann has been able to restore A Is in
the Louvre, which was usurped by
Amenophis III, to its real author, the
the Hyksos king Apepi or Apophis.
His discovery is an important one, partly
because the statue thus gives us the
features of Hyksos prince, partly be-
cause the original inscription states that
Apepi conquered SO districts in Nubia,
which shows that the Hyksos domino
ton must once have extended over the
whole of Egypt-over Thebes as we'll as
the Delta. This practice of usurping
earlier monuments proves that we must
not infer from the erasure of a royal
name that the owner of it was considered
illegitimate or that the erasure was made
with any hostile purpose Another
source of error in the Egyptian monu-
ments is the custom of comparing the life
and deeds of an Egyptian sovereign
with those of one of the gods. Brugsch,
for instance, has inferred that Thothmes
I'll was banished to the marshes of Buto
by his sister, Hatasu when he was still
a boy; but Wiedemann points out that
all the evidence is against the suppose
tons, and that the statement of his ban
ishment arose merely from a comparison
of him with the god Horus. A further
cause of error is afforded by the histori-
cal romances, which have been taken to
be historical or, at all events, to rest on
a basis Of fact. But close examination
OF them proves that this is not the case
Consequently, the story of the capture
OF Joppa, narrated in the Harris papy-
rus; or daughter of the prince of
Bakhten; or of the overthrow of the
Hyksos; or of the heroic actions of
Rameses II, as told in the Epic of the
Pentaur, must all be relegated to the
domain of myth. Similarly, the Egyp-
tIans sought for precedent in all they
did, and, where one was not forthcom
ing, invented it. Hence such statements
as that the Temple of Hathor, at
Dendereh, was built by Thothmes III,
according to plans made by Kheops and
worked out by Pepr of the sixth dynasty /;
or that the "Papyrus Prisse," a man
uscript of the 18th dynasty, was written
under the sixth. No dependence can be
placed on genealogical lists, or the lists
OF kings found at Abydos and Sakkarah,
since in these lists certain names were
arbitrarily selected, the rest being omit
ted. without word of warning. 1t was
probably owing to one of these detective
liststhat Herodotus, and Diodorus after
HIM, were led to place Kheops and
Khephren, the builders of the two great
pyramids Of Gizeh, at SO absurdly0 late
an epoch. In fact, the ancient Eeyp-
tlans had none of what is called the his
torical sense, and a chronological register
OF kings, like that of the famous Turin
Papyrus, was compiled for the sake Of
the calendar DIR, Wiedemann has dis
covered an interesting evidence of Ne
buchadnezzar's campaign against Egypt.
Prophesied by jeremiah, but so long
doubted, in an inscription on the statue
NJ