The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-09-15
Thirty Royal Mummies.


lowing article ON the subject:
1t would not be easy to exaggerate the i'm
portance ofthe discovery ofthirty royal mum
mics in the Gate of the Kings" near Thebes
Some details have since been published in the
daily papers, and it is now possible to Judge
what revelations in Egyptian history are
about to be made. Rumors have been current
for some years as to the existence of vast
storehouse of antiquities amongst the rocks
and caves of the Theban mountains. Every
one who has assembled the Nile as far as Lux
or will remember the long narrow defile at
the end Of which the tombs of the kings are
situated. Most people who have threaded
the Bah ell Malook will remember how short
the distance seemed between its inermost re-
cess and the DER ell Bahari on the other side
of the mountain and facing towards the open
plain. We climb over the summit OF narrow
ridge, and have on our left the Valley OF the
Shadow of Death, with its yawning tombs and
on our right, almost under our feet, the rock
cut temple of Queen Hatasoo 1t has long
been suspected that within this ridge there
w. pffobably some great excavation-nay,
among the travellers tales of the last few
years were to be heard stories OF an untold
treasure which might be revealed to any one
who was armed first with frman permitting
him to search and with very heavy sum tor
bachsheesh in addition. 1t may be asked why,
if this cavern was known to exist, the natives
did not penetrate to it and bring forth some
thing more valuable than the few strings
of beads and such like objects, which have
been offered to travellers for sale; but it must
be remembered both that the Arab is extreme
w superstitious, and also that even if he dar-
ed to penetrate into cavern SO full OF afreets
as this must have been, his mechanical ap-
pliances for removing great weights from a
gallery 200 feet long, and secret passage
leading to a pit thirty-five feet deep, would be
utterly insufficient. Nevertheless, some one
The discovery was made too late tor much prof
it holder than the rest seems last June to have
made the venture. BY this time the hordes of
tourists had ceased to infcst the Nile Valley.
to be gotten out OF it and Daood Pasha, the
Governor of the district, had his attention
called to the abundance and cheapness of the
objects with which the antika market was
suddenly flooded On inquiry the pit was
pointed out to him; and with commendable
promptltude, he telegraphed for Heer Emil
Brugsch, the assistant curator OF the Boulak
Museum. Every Psychologist must envy
Her Brugsch for the good fortune which
awaited him when he arrived in the Babel
Malook. The thirty mummies which he found
were. as he could read at glance, although
he must have felt it difficult to believe his eyes
those of all the most illustrious monarchs of
the most glorious epoch of Egyptian history.
There lay side by side, Queen Hataso, King
Thothmes LII, and Kamcses II, the great Ses-
osiris himself Of kings of minor notes were
nearly all those Of the Eighteenth Dynasty,
together with the father and grandfather of
Rameses, and his daughter, whose name,
Mautneem, is new to us. But here the re-
ports may be in error, and the name be an un
usual form of Mautnotem, the grandmother Of
Pinotem The earliest mummy found is that
of Raskenen, king of that obscure dynasty
which preceded the Eighteenth, and which is
sometimes reckoned as the Thirteenth, and
sometimes as the seventeenth. The latest body
is that of Pinotem, the third king of the TWEEN
ty-first Dynasty who reigned as nearly as pos
sible millennium IA 1000 years) B. G.. In
addition to the royal mummies, a multitude of
objects bearing cartouches will throw great
light upon the succession OF these kings; and
tile tent of Pinotem, of leather, embroidered
and colored. and covered with hieroglyphics,
cannot fail to clear up some historical difficult
ties as to the priest-kings of Thebes. 1t has
been suggested that the mummy reported to
be that of Thothmes III is in reality that of
the son of Pinotem, whose name, Ramen
Keeper, is the throne name or title of the great
Dynasty monarch; but until all
inscriptions are read this must remain mat
ter of doubt.
The significance of this remarkable discove-
~ will be of double character. We shall
perhaps have our knowledge of a brilliant
period greatly increased by the direct evidence
of inscriptions and papyrus rolls. Moreover
there may be found some record of the circum
stances which led to the concealment in one
place of so many Of the illustrious dead whose
tombs had already been prepared for them in
fh1 No11n Of In Rinn NI,n nMffi for
ample, of King Seti is, as everybody knows,
in the Solane Museum, his tomb having been
opened and explored by Belzoni. But his
mummy is among those which Herr Brugsch
has taken to Boulak. Of nearly all the other
kings the sepulchres are also well known
How come they, then, to have been placed in
this cavern? 1t is evident that it must have
been soon after the close of the reign Of Pine
TEN, and 1t is more than probable that some
great and terrible disaster was impending
when the priests of each deceased king-for
every king was reckOned as a god-hurriedly
took the precious bodies from their graves
where they lay too much exposed, and placed
them in the secret cavern where they have
now been found. If we consult DR.. Brugsch
and Canon Rawlnson as to the history of the
time of Pinotem, we find serious discrepancy
between the two latest authorities. DR..
Brugsch's view seems to accord best with the
circumstances revealed by his brothers dis
covery. He describes a great Assyrian attack
upon Egypt which Canon Rawinson cannot
accept. Such an attack, coupled with the fact
that we find Pinotem's successor on the throne
soon after its supposed occurrence, might &C
count for the concealment of these, the most
precious of the royal remains OF Egypt. Re-
verting to the name of Raskenen, it cannot be
but that the discovery of his body will throw
1irht that ptarpCtiDtr hut
most obscure period when the petty kings Of
the South commenced their struggles with the
shepherd kings of the North, and when the
first of line of Pharoahs who knew not
Joseph arose to drive out the foreigners. Per-
haps we may even recover the full text of that
precious fragment OF papyrus which describes
the beginning of the war between Raskenen
of Thebes and Apophis, the Hyksos king. We
must not, however, be too sanguine as to the
contents OF the newly discovered rolls, as it is
probable that they are all funereal as no others
were ordinarily buried with mummies. Still,
storehouse which contained tent may well
have contained some portions of a library
apart from mere Books of the Dead" The
reign of Queen Hatasco will receive fresh at
tentlon, and the recovery Of her .body-if, in
deed it is her body, and not that of one of the
numerous princesses OF her line who bore the
same name-may enable us to form some con-
clusion as to the events which placed her
brother Thothmes III upon the throne. In
short, there is hardly any question respecting
the great middle period Of Egyptian history,
including the Captivity and the Exodus of the
Israelites, which may not receive its answer
through this amazing discovery. 1t is, indeed,
sad to think that we have in England no school
of young hieroglyphical students whom we
might send out to take part in the long and
anxious labors Of displacement. There is
much yet to be done in the translation and
publication of the earlier records. The num-
Der of words OF the pyramid period still re-
naming unread is very great, But every dis
covery like the present increases our vocabu-
larry; and though SO far, our adoption OF an
absurd system of transliteration, borrowed
from the French, stands in the way, we must
hope that before long English teachers may be
found who can train a complete class of stu
dents in what is the most fascinating Of all
Oriental language, and in some respects the
easiest.
A Silly Story Denied.
1t has been frequently stated that General
Grant, Mr.. Conkling, Gen. Logan, Don Came
ron, and other prominent Republicans known
koI l.,