Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-08-01
Egyptian Discoveries in Rome.

The Via di 5. IgnaZio is short, mar
row lane, which leads from the Collegio
Romano to the tribune of ). Maria So
pra Minerva, crossing portion of the
ground formerly occupied by the is
cum ct Serapeum" of the ninth region.
Every time excavations have been made
on either side of the lane, to build or TO
restore the houses which line it, some
beautiful specimens of Egyptian work
manShip have been brought to light.
Considering that no excavations have
ever been made underneath the public
ground, and considering there was no
reason why, i'll the very centre of such
promising land, other relics of the ia
nous sanctuary should not exist, |
asked the Archaeological Municipal
Commission to try the experiment, and
my proposal was accepted at once. The
works began on Monday, the 1lth of
July-hard and difficult works, because
we had to dig to a depth of twenty feet
between houses of doubtful solidity,
'propping everything on every side
First to appear, at the end of the third
day, was magnificent sphinx, in black
basalt, the portrait of King AmaSis. 1t
is Il chef d'9uvre of the Saltic period,
brought to perfection III the smallest
details, and still more interesting for
its historical connection with the con-
quest of Egypt by Cambyses. The car
touches bearing the Kings name ap-
pear to have been hammered, although
not SO completely as to render it unin-
telligible. The nose, likewise, and the
ureus, the symbol of royalty, were i'll
jured at the same time. The explana-
tion of such circumstances is given by
IIerodotus. When Cambyses occupied
Sais, Amasis had just been buried.
The conqueror caused the body 10 be
removed from the tomb, to be flogged
and otherwise insulted, and finally to
be burned, the maximum of PROCLAMATION
from an Egyptian point of view. His
name was erased from the monuments
which bore it, a natural consequence
of the ''memOri;e damnatio." This
sphinx is the surviving testimonial of
that eventful catastrophe. When, six
or seven centuries later. a Roman Gov
ernor of Egypt, or u Roman merchant
from the same Province, singled out
this work OF art to be shipped over to
Rome as votiye Offering To the ISeum
Campense, ignorant of the historic
value of its mutiiations, he had the
nose aid the ureus carefully restored.
Now both are gone again; there is no
danger of second restoration, L may
remark, as a curious coincidence, that,
as the name of Amasis is erased from
the sphinx, SO the name of Hophries,
his predecessor, is erased from the obe-
llsk of Minerva, found in the same
Iseum. In these two monuments we
possess synopsis of Egyptian history
between 595 and 526 B. e..
The second work, discovered on June
IL, is an obelisk of red granite, in
scribed with hieroghyphics. The lower
portion only appears on the side of the
trench, and we are still anxious to
ascertain whether it is broken or not
If the mOnOlith is entire it will be of
the same size as the one in the Piazza
della RotondO. The cartouches show
the name of Ramses III, the Sesostris
| of the Greeks. We thought at first
that the obelisk, like that of the Pan
theon, was a Roman imitation; but
Professor Schiaparelli, the eminent
Egyptologist, who came over from
Florence at the first notice of these
extraordinary findings, considers it TO
be an original work, which would be-
long accordingly to the fourteenth
century before the Christian era.