Creation's dawn / by "Kish" ; with a preface by A. H. Sayce.

  • Kish, pseud.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Creation's dawn / by "Kish" ; with a preface by A. H. Sayce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    characterise all these works. That they are as old as the Hyksos cannot be doubted, as they bear Hyksos names cut upon them ; but lately it has been questioned whether they are not much older than these invaders. Though the Hyksos names are the oldest now legible on the figures, they are merely inscribed lightly on the right shoulder, like the name of Apepa on the right shoulder of Mer- meshau at Tanis ; and no Hyksos names occur on the breast or between the paws of the Sphinxes. Meyer has concluded that they belong to the invaders of the Eighth to the Tenth Dynasties ; and as now Khyan is probably fixed to that period, we know that fine work in black granite or syenite was being done then.” There is but one clue left to the origin of the Hyksos, in the names of their kings. Now, doubtless, as such a clue might be in one or two cases, yet when we find that the Greek forms would well represent such Semitic names as “ the ruler,” “ the governor,” “ the oppressor,” “ the firm,” and “ the destroyer,” it seems to give some weight to a Semitic Origin for the people. In reviewing what has been said with regard to the History of Egypt, we have before us the pri- mary fact that before Sety I. there was no record of the sequential Kings of Egypt, and in compiling that record Sety I. was the originator. That Sety I. must have possessed records is indubitable, otherwise Prof. Flinders Petrie’s re-