Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon.

  • Josiah C. Nott
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    213/796 (page 173)
    Asiatic, from Beni-Hassan. 108, whose hair is black. VVe refer to 1 11,1 the Denkmdler199 for their colored por- traits, adding Lepsius's comments below. The head (Fig. 108)200 on the preced- ing page, from the celebrated tombs of Beni-Hassan, so often alluded to by Egyptologists, represents one of a group of personages, generally known as the thirty-seven prisoners of Beni-Hassan. The scene has been repeatedly and va- riously explained, by Champollion, Ro- sellini, Wilkinson, Champollion-Figeac, Birch, and Osburn—leaving aside the trashy speculations of mere tourists; for, as usual, there have been printed many extravagant theories as to the country and condition of these thirty-seven prisoners. They were, indeed, sup- posed, by orthodox credulity, to represent the visit of Abraham to Egypt, or else the arrival of Jacob and his family. More critical authori- ties have beheld in them Israelitish wanderers, Ionian Greeks, Hyksos, and what not. But, alas! all Jewish partialities received a death- blow when it was proved, through the discovery of the Xllth dynasty, that this tableau had been painted at Beni-Hassan several generations before Abraham's birth! The first rational account, in English, of this scene was put forth by Mr. Birch, in 1847. He says: — • An officer of Usr-t-sen I., as recorded in his tomb at Benihassan, received in the sixth regnal year of that monarch, by royal command, a convoy of thirty-nine (37) Mes-segem, foreigners, headed by their hyk, or leader, Ab-sha. These were of the great Semitic family, called, by the Egyptians, Aamu.™ This lection he confirms in 1852 — The Mes-stem foreigners, who approach the nomarch Neferhetp, come through the Ara- bian Desert on asses. 202 Lepsius had described the impressions made upon him, at first sight of this unique series: — In these remarks, I am thinking especially of that very remarkable scene, on the grave of jVeAfra-se-NcMHETEr, which brings before our eyes, in such lively colors, the entrance of Jacob with his family, and would tempt us to identify it with that event, if chronology would allow us, (for Jacob came under the Hyksos [i. e., centuries later]), and if we were not compelled to believe that such family immigrations were by no means of rare occur- rence. These were, however, the forerunners of the Hyksos [and of the Israelites], and doubtless, in many ways, paved the way for them.203 From the excellent translation of Lepsius's Briefe by Mr. Kenneth B. H. Mackensie,204 we extract the following particulars, referring at the same time to the Prussian Benkmaler205 for exquisite plates of these splendid sepulchres: —