The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1883-08-18
EGYPTIAN Discoveries IN ROME

is"o@io Is snort, mar
row iane' which leads from the Collegio
Romano to the tribune of S. Maria sopra
Minerva, crossing portion of the ground
formerly occupied by the "Iseum eft
Serapeum " of the ninth region. Every
time excavations have been made on
either side OF the lane, to build or restore
the houses which line it, some beautiful
Specimens OF Egyptian workmanship have
been brought to light.
Considering that no excavations had
ever been made underneath the npbl;c
ground, and considering there was no
reason wfHy, in the very center of such
promising land, other relics of the lannon's
sanctuary should not exist, l asked the
Archie illogical Municipal Commission to
try the experiment, and my proposal
was accepted at once The works began
on Monday, the llth-hard and difficult
works, because we had to dig to depth
OF twenty feet between houses of a very
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 chef d'euvre of
the Saitic period, brought to perfection
in the smallest details, and still more in.
teresting for its historical connection with
the conquest OF Egypt by Cambyses.
The cartouches bearing the Kings name
appear 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 in
jured at the same time. The explanation
OF such circumstances is given by Hero
dotus. When Cambyses occupied Sais,
Amasis had just been burned. The con.
querer caused the body to be removed
from the tomb, to be fogged and other
wise 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, natural consequence of the 'smem.
oria damnatio." This sphinx is the sur
viving testimonial of that eventful catas-
trophe. When, six or seven centuries
later, Roman Governor of Egypt, or
Roman merchant from the same province,
singled out this work Of art to be shipped
over to Rome as votive offer to the
Iseum Campense, ignorant of the histor-
ical value of its mutilations, he had the
nose and 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 is the name of Hophries, his predeces-
sor, is erased from the obelisk Of Minerva
found in the same Iseum. In these two
monuments we possess a synopsis of
Egyptian history between 595 and 526
B. c.
The second work, discovered on June
18th, is an obelisk of red granite, in.
scribed with hieroglyphics. The lower
portions only appear on the side of the
trench, and we are still anxious to ascer-
tain whether it is broken or not. If the
monolith is entire, it will be of the same
size az the one in the Piazza della R,-
fonda. The cartouches show the names
OF Ramses II, the Sesostris of the Greeks.
We thought at first that the obelisk, like
that of the Pantheon, was Roman i'm.
itation, 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 belong
accordingly, to the fourteenth century
before the Christian era, Rodolpho
Lanciani, in the Atheneum, June 30th.