The following have been purchased by the Council for the Library of the Society: Assyrian Dictionary, intended to further the Study of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia. By Edwin Norris, Hon. Ph.D., Bonn. 3 Parts, 1868, 1870, 1872. 4to. London. Congrès Provincial des Orientalistes Français; Égyptologie. ¡er Bulletin, 2me Volume. 8vo. Paris, &c., 1880. The Egyptian papers read at the Congress held in 1875, at Saint Étienne. Détermination géométrique des Mesures de Capacité dont les Anciens se sont servis en Egypte, précédée d'explications relative aux mesures de capacité Grecques et Romaines. Par M. Auguste Aurès. 8vo. Nimes, 1880. 1er Fascicule. Assyrische Syllabar für den gebrauch in seinen Vorlesungen, zusammengestellt von Prof. Dr. Eb. Schrader. 4to. Berlin, 1880. Die inschriften Tiglath-pileser's I in transskribiertern, Assyrischen grundtext, mit übersetzung und kommentar von Dr. Wilhelm Lotz. 8vo. Leipzig, 1880. The True Story of the Exodus of Israel, together with a brief view of Monumental Egypt, compiled from the work of Dr. Henry Brugsch-Bey, edited, with an introduction and notes, by Francis H. Underwood. 8vo. Boston, 1880. The following Candidate was nominated for election at the next meeting, March 1st: Rev. W. Craufurd Bromehead, M.A., Kensington Palace, W. The following were duly elected Members of the Society, having been nominated on January 11th E. Bouverie Pusey, Pusey House, Cambridge. Samuel Kinns, Ph.D., The College, Highbury New Park, N. Alexander Bennett McGrigor, LL.D., 19, Woodville Terrace, Glasgow. Rev. Edward Hayes Plumptre, D.D., Bickley Vicarage, Kent. Rev. Herbert Wilson, M.A., Hurst Lodge, Horsham, Sussex. The following communication was read by the Author :- The tablet which was the subject of the paper, is in the usual shape of a propylon, or pylon, with the cornice of palm leaves, and with the usual moulding at the sides. It is of dark grey granite. Tablets of this material and shape are unusual; these sepulchral monuments being for the most part rounded at the top; rectangular ones ornamented with a cornice are exceptional. It is of the period of Amenophis III of the XVIIIth dynasty, the persons for whom it was constructed, having worked at the temple of Amen for that monarch, and had probably died in his reign, or that of his successor. The tablet was obtained for the British Museum, from the collection of M. Anastasy at Paris, in the year 1857, and was Lot Number 62, of the sale catalogue. Sepulchral tablets, or tombstones, were used at all periods by the ancient Egyptians; they were deposited often inside the sepulchres, but are represented on certain papyri as being placed outside the doors of the tombs, and often accompanied by the small obelisks which adorned the sepulchres. Their object was to record a certain prayer or formula for the dead, which their inscriptions occasionally invite the passer-by to recite to certain deities, generally the sepulchral gods. These inscriptions also occasionally recite the virtues and labours of the deceased. It is this part of the tablets which invests them with a certain interest, as although they are by no means biographies, they often give a slight sketch of the official posts successively held by the deceased, and other points of historical or political interest. They have indeed many other points of interest, and vary according to the period at which they were made. At the earliest age, they are almost entirely covered with inscriptions, and the figures introduced upon them are the deceased alone, or the deceased together with members receiving adorations, libations, and prayers, from other members of his family. At the time of the XIth and XIIth dynasties, the stele or tablets are not only covered with inscriptions, but the figures of the deceased introduced as pictures or ornaments increase in number, and the texts become more copious in their religious formulæ, while the texts often contain information as to the occupation, merits, and duties of the deceased, especially if an officer of the court. The language varies also according to the period, that at the first age being remarkably concise, resembling the formula of the tombs in the absence of certain parts of the formula, especially of the suppression relative to giving by the deities, which always occurs at the later period, and is constant. The tablets of the XVIIIth dynasty represent the deceased in adoration of sepulchral deities, although ancestral worship is represented amongst them, and this introduction of the religious element separates all the tablets of this and the subsequent dynasties from those of the preceding period. Of course, the tablets of the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth dynasties are distinguished by great differences in art; but the same general principles remain the same throughout all three. Although the use of tablets continued under the XXIst and following dynasties, till the Roman period, sepulchral stelæ are much rarer after the XXth. During the Ptolemaic period, tablets abound in personal details, the time occupied in embalming, till under the Romans, in addition to bas-reliefs, imitating Greek art, and the substitution of demotic for the hieroglyphic characters; under the Ptolemies the Greek language ultimately replaced the Egyptian. The present tablet is for two architects, or, as they are called in the inscription, "Superintendents of Works," an office held frequently by persons of high rank in the hierarchy. They were twin brothers born on the same day, and were attached to the construction of the shrine and temple of Amen, of that part of Thebes called Southern Ap, supposed to be Karnak; one had the charge of the western, or left hand of the temple, the other of the eastern, or right hand of the same edifice. Both are represented on the tablet, and one of them, Har, who seems to have survived his brother, after living to an old age, to have been buried at Gournah.1 Many names of architects of the earlier dynasties have been preserved, and nine have been given by Brugsch, in his History, as anterior to the XIIth dynasty, under whom several other mer kat, or architects have been published, their genealogies having been supposed to throw much light upon Egyptian chronology. Other persons, not called mer kat, also appear to have exercised architectural functions, and Teta, under the IVth dynasty, appears on his 1 66 Egypt under the Pharaohs," 2nd Ed., 1881. Vol. I, p. 60. tomb at the age of Khafra, with a level or compasses in his hand. It is however difficult to trace the whole history of Egyptian architects from the monuments, as many gaps occur in the line of succession. The tablet now under notice is a contribution to the history of the XVIIIth dynasty, as the two architects worked for Amenophis III, and evidently during the middle of his reign; and it is remarkable to find the Queen Nefert-ari, better known under the name of Aames-Nefert-ari, the wife of Amasis I, and mother of Amenophis I, elevated to the rank of the gods, and able to confer the delicious breath of the north wind, with water and wine, to the deceased. It is remarkable that the parentage of the twin brothers is not mentioned on the tablet, as some ambiguity might arise as to Suti and Har being two personages; but this is dissipated by the expression in the nineteenth line, where the expression of " we were over the construction of the memorial monuments of Thebes," implying that the two had been jointly occupied in the work. The dedications are to the usual sepulchral deities, and are accompanied by a long and rather obscure address to the god Amen -in many portions difficult to understand, but showing that the monument was set up before the rise of the disk heresy at Thebes, or the close of the reign of Amenophis III; at all events during the period that the elevation to Amen-Ra engaged official favour at the Egyptian court. Dr. Birch gave a translation and explanation of the inscriptions and figures carved upon the tablet, which will be printed in full in the "Transactions," with a plate of the tablet. Remarks were added by Revs. C. J. Ball, A. Löwy, T. Murray Gorman; Colonel Ibbitson, G. Bertin, Wyatt Papworth, William Rowbottom, and the President. The following communication has been received from Professor W. Wright : MY DEAR SIR, ST. ANDREW'S, STATION ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, 11th January, 1881. As for Jirbas, Jerabees, and Jerablus, one needs only to read, Hoffmann, “Auszüge aus syrischen Akten persischer Märtyrer" (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes herausgegeben von der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, VII Band, No. 3). There, at p. 161, you will find a special article on Eurōpos) Qenneshrin and Düra on the Euphrates. Ευρωπός (also Ωρωπός, and ܐܓܪܝܦܘܣ ,ܐܓܪܘܦܘܣ but also ,ܐܘܪܘܦܘܣ is written in Syriac The first accurately represents the Greek, whether Örōpós or Evropós; the other three represent that change of v into g or ,for peos اغری بوز or اگر بوز gh, which we also find in the Turkish js Évripos. To this Syriac Aghrōpōs corresponds the Arabic Jirbâs جرباس , of which the regular plural (now apparently alone in use) is Jarābis, which Pocock writes Jerabees. As for Jerablus, Hoffmann shows, I think, that no such name ever existed on the spot. It appears to have arisen with Maundrell, who wrongly identified the place with Hierapolis, and therefore called it Jerabolus. Pocock (who heard no other name but Jerabees from the people) still clung to Jerabolus as representing the worship of the god yam (or rather). Buckingham, who was at Bir in 1827, says (as quoted by Hoffmann): "I made many inquiries here after the ruins of Hierapolis, now called Yerabolus, but no one knew of such a place, although it is certainly less than a short day's journey from this town." One of the latest visitors to the spot, Professor Sachau of Berlin, confirms this statement; see the Athenæum for 1880, p. 22. rather) The conclusion of the whole matter is this. The name Jerablus is an invention of European travellers. The more modern Arabic name is Jerābis, the more ancient Jirbās. These represent the Syriac Aghripōs or Aghrōpōs, itself a corruption of the Greek Evropós, Εὐρωπός. I am therefore somewhat surprised at being told that the name of the city in its ancient inscriptions is found to be irbz or Jerebis, and should like to see this reading more firmly established. I will only remark in addition that I am also surprised at Mr. Heath's comparing the "curved character "with "the Hebrew letter r." Surely no one could expect to find in these very ancient inscriptions "the letter " in its most modern form, the Hebrew ; at least we should look for it in vain in the Moabite inscription of Mesha or the tablet of Marseilles. W. H. RYLANDS, Esq. Yours very truly, WM. WRIGHT. |