THE PRESIDENT announced that from information sent to him by a correspondent, he was able to make some remarks on one of the newly-discovered pyramids of Sakkara. The hieroglyphics are portions of religious inscriptions, perhaps, as has been suggested, portions of religious formulas older than the so-called Ritual or Book of the Dead. In this respect they have a certain resemblance with the formulas found on the early rectangular coffins of the VIth and subsequent dynasties, which have chapters of the Ritual intermingled with other prayers and adorations. The inscriptions of the Pyramid of Rameri, the Apappus or Phiôps of the Vth Dynasty, have this character, and are to a great extent difficult to translate. They have no historical value, though they are of great mythological importance, as in them constant allusion is made to the myth of Osiris, and the name of this deceased king, whenever mentioned, is preceded by the name of that god, the same as Menkara or Mycerinus of the IVth Dynasty had, although the adjunct of maxeru is not added to it, and does not appear. A considerable portion of the text refers to the goddess Nut or Nutpe, to whom the prayer on the sarcophagus of Menkara is addressed, and this legend of Nut is much enlarged in the present texts. But the inscriptions demand considerable study, which the President stated he proposed to give them. The power of the king is constantly alluded to, although not his actual conquests, for the mythological idea prevails throughout, and all the principal sepulchral deities, as Thoth, Horus, Set, Sothis, and the constellation Orion, with whom the deceased king is said to come forth and to set from the mouth of Ra or the Sun, and to be the fluid which proceeds from the mouth of Horus. Thoth gives him the eye of Horus; he is also the Sahu which proceeds from the mouth of the sun; Nut also takes care of his bowels, and places his heart in his bosom. A description of the Pyramid and the position of the inscriptions and sarcophagus, which had also been communicated to the President, was read by the Secretary, as follows: The pyramid at Sakkara, numbered xxxvi by Professor Lepsius, and 5 by Vyse, contains two chambers, one having been entered from the usual north passage, the other has been broken into through the roof, the upper part of the pyramid being destroyed. The passage chamber is now inaccessible, being blocked up like all the other pyramids lately opened by many tons of stone thrown down from the masonry over it. The other chamber has had about ten square feet of the roof broken out. Both chambers are built of fine Mohattam limestone, the ends to the east and west being large continuous walls, between which the sides and roofs of the chambers are placed without any connection or support from the ends. The roof is pointed like the Queen's chamber in the Great Pyramid, and consists of five blocks along each side about five feet wide each, somewhat deeper in section, and about eighteen feet long, and a second similar set of blocks above these like the stones over the entrance to the Great Pyramid. The chamber is 10 feet 3 inches wide, and 25 feet 8 inches in length. The roof-stones having rested for 10 feet 10 inches, or three-fifths of their length, on the side walls, thus not tending to tip inwards or to press against each other. The whole of this chamber appears to have been covered with inscriptions on the wall, but the entire side walls (which were intended to bear the weight of the roof stones) have, as far as can be seen-been smashed into chips by early enthusiastic destroyers: the chamber is full of fragments of the sides, with scraps of inscriptions on them; though a vast quantity has been lately taken out, and dozens of inscribed pieces may be seen lying all over the rubbish heap outside, still the chamber is nearly half-full, and all the east end is still invisible, excepting a scrap of the top corner. Not only have the inscribed sides been thus destroyed, but the roof has been broken up in situ and torn out for a considerable space; it is all decorated with incised stars, white on a black ground. The sarcophagus has fared even worse, having been lifted up on to stones, and had a fire lighted under it; lines of groove-shaped holes have been cut on it so as to break it up, and both ends, as well as one side, are smashed off, the remaining side having a line of grooves cut, and being already cracked through. The material is basalt, and the form the old box-shape with sliding lid, slightly modified to the outline of the body, being about two inches out of the straight line on the side. It is of an astonishing massiveness, the inner depth being 248 inches, and the bottom 200 thick, the XXXV.-4; XXXVII.-6; and XXXIX.-8. inner width 24'3, and the sides 12.2 inches thick; the outside length is 106.5 inches, the inside encumbered with stones. Fragments of the internal wooden coffin, and quantities of the wrappers, are lying about the chamber; and I am informed that the body was found and brought to Cairo. This seems very strange after the extraordinary zeal shown in destroying the sarcophagus; the perfect condition of the end wall also seems curious. Besides this, there is in the floor a monolith square box or well, 28 inches inside, and sides 6.2 thick, apparently with the top flush with the original level of the floor of the chamber; its depth is over two feet, and it is at present filled with stones up to that point. It has a lid also of granite,* without any grooves or pins or other attachment, simply a square slab, 41'2 inches wide, and 9'o thick. What other coffins or boxes may still be under the rubbish that fills half the chamber has yet to be ascertained. The only inscription that was seen on the sarcophagus was O on the side, of Rameri whose name does not occur again in the inside as far as is visible, but only on some inscriptions on the passage wall leading to the north chamber. The only name seen on the walls is that of Pepi The arrangement of the inscriptions on the wall is this :— About 70 or 80 vertical lines beginning at the roof. 6 horizontal lines, and one much larger below them. 57 vertical lines continuous down the south side, but separated on the north. The blank space has apparently had a species of side-board of masonry against it, on which to lay the sarcophagus lid before sliding it into its final resting place; the sarcophagus standing about four feet out from the west wall, exactly as in the two pyramids of Gizeh, except that here it stands on the floor, and has a support for the lid; there it is sunk up to the lid, level with the floor, and the lid was slid into its place from the floor. * This coffin is mentioned in the inscription of Una; see" Records of the Past," vol. ii, p. 7. The inscriptions are all cut sharply and finely, with internal details such as feathers and wings, and features of faces &c., all in low relief in the hollow, and the whole coloured a brilliant green. The inscription visible on the east wall is similar, but with larger figures. There has been a mistake in the inscriptions at the sides of the block of masonry, and the whole surface has been dressed down, re-polished, and re-engraved. Traces of the old inscriptions are visible, and are here copied, but they are apparently not identical with any part of the present inscriptions. The following communication was read: "The Date of Menes, and the date of Buddha.” By Ernest In mentioning the systematic alteration of Hebrew dates in the Septuagint, the author pointed out that the suggested explanation by a desire to harmonise Egyptian with Hebrew chronology was non-proven and too vague. The author was of opinion that the date B.C. 4620 was assigned in the Greek version to the creation of the first man, because the Seventy knew on the authority of their great contemporary, Manetho, that the first King of Egypt, Menes, ascended the throne at that date. Herodotus states that he was shown a manuscript from which were read to him by the priests the names of 330 monarchs who had, it was stated, succeeded Menes on the throne, the last of whom Herodotus calls Moeris. This cannot have been the king after whom Lake Moeris was called. Diodorus states that the Moeris or Morros of Herodotus was called Mendes. The author was of opinion that this may have been Smendes, the first Pharaoh of the XXIst Dynasty, whose accession took place according to the proposed scheme of comparative chronology in B.C. 1065. The reigns of the 330 successors of Menes seem to have filled up the Manethonian period of 3,555 years which commenced with Menes; if so, the accession of the first king in Egyptian history, followed by the 330 Pharaohs of Herodotus, was by Manetho believed to have taken place in 4620. Special reasons were given why the accession of Smendes was regarded as an epoch in Egyptian history, and it was therefore considered to be highly probable that the 330 Pharaohs from Menes to Moeris or Mendes, reached to Smendes; and this probability was taken to be increased by the fact that by reckoning backwards from the author's date of the accession of Smendes, B.C. 1065, the 3,555 years transmitted by Manetho, we arrive at the date 4620, which the Seventy, contemporaries of Manetho, have connected with the creation of the first man. The other difference in dates in the Septuagint were considered, and it was stated that all post-diluvian dates had been arrived at by starting from the year B.C. 473. It was contended, and arguments brought to prove, that although this date was an impossible one for the laying of the foundation of the Temple by Solomon, it was a possible one for the birth of Gautama-Buddha. The following communication was read by the Secretary :AN HISTORICAL MONUMENT. BY PROF. DR. A. EISENLOHR, Heidelberg. Notwithstanding the rich contributions given by modern excavations towards the history of Egypt, there still remain great gaps in our knowledge of the most remarkable periods of that history. Two epochs most particularly need to be cleared up, the predecessors of the XIIth dynasty, and the government of the Shepherd Kings. Of the latter M. Chabas has given a complete treatise in his pamphlet, "Les Pasteurs en Egypte :" Amsterdam, 1868; and of the time of the Antefs and Mentuhoteps, Dr. Birch gave an account in the fourth volume of these Transactions, on the occasion of his examination of the tablet of Antef-aa II of the Boulaq Museum. It is not my intention to arrange anew the list of these dynasties; but I wish only to give some interesting particulars with regard to these kings. In the first place, speaking of the Hykshos, the learned assistant of the Berlin Museum, Dr. Stern, informed me, through one of my scholars, that some time ago this museum acquired from the Fyoom, No. 7798, the fragment of a wooden tablet, written on both sides. The whole of the text transmitted to me is rather difficult to explain, but doubtless it is as follows: 111311!) "The King of upper and lower Egypt, Ra-aa-us, son of Ra, Apepa, giving life in eternity like Ra every day." The King Ra-aa-us, is the king in whose thirty-third year |