Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/474 (page 14)
    style of ornament is always that prevalent in the general buildings of the period. It was during the Middle Empire, from the twelfth to the eighteenth dynasty, that a great change occurred. These huta, or tombstones, were wooden during the twenty-second dynasty, surmounted by a hawk as an emblem of the rising soul. It is strange to see on the most ancient steles such proofs of high civilization. As one remarks of a picture : “ The person is represented as given up to pleasure and wealth. He hunts, he fishes in the marshes, he joins in mock-fights upon the river, the women of the harem sing and dance before him, and musicians play upon their instruments.” Tombs were often built by a person for future use, and the stele was previously prepared for his satisfaction, with the statement of his will and pleasure. We are constantly being informed by a tablet that the tomb is the “ eternal home.” The deceased is said to be going to the Amenti (Hades) “the old, the good, the great.” The hieroglyphics in which some of the oldest information is given are often very rude, disorderly, with unkno«wn and unused forms. They are repeatedly awkwardly placed. There is less use of the phonetic, and many words are quite untranslatable. Inscriptions are not to be found in all tombs. Those known to belong to the three first dynasties having inscrip- tions are but four in number, while those of the fourth dynasty are forty-three, and of the fifth, sixty-one. Of the sixth dynasty, only twenty-five were recognised five years ago. The orientation of the tomb was perfect in the fourth dynasty, when the Great Pyramid was reared. The formulas were then established, and statues of the deceased were very common. Under the fifth dynasty, though wealth and luxury were more apparent, the statues were of inferior sculpture, but the hieroglyphics were plainer and of greater