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.

  • Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.
Date:
1860
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.

    734/800 (page 678)
    human chronology ourselves, it is imperative upon us to carry the outworks of truly- erudite sliort-chronologists before storming their last English citadel: a facile exploit now to be performed. “ The thistle that was in Lebanon Sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon Saying, ‘Give thy daughter to my son to wife ’: And there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, And trode down the thistle.” (2 Kings xiv. 9.) On the part of one of the authors of “Types of Mankind,” old Nilotic associations—on that of the other, convictions of the scientific worthlessness of IIouiE A2gyptiacj5,(427) have, for two years, restrained both of them from printed notice of this production: and, if now they conjoin to ojiant its requiem, the necessity is superinduced, on one hand, by a desire to vindicate Egyptology; on another, the deed has been fastened upon the writer individually by the incessant officiousness of theologers in the United States, in local obtru- sions uncalled-for, and in appeals continual to the illusory authority of an adolescent scholar. It has been already shown [supra,670] how Mr. Wilkinson, in 1885, had obliterated, with a dash of his pen, all the “unplaced kings” he had previously published; (428) and had cut down the era of Menes to the year n. c. 2201, “ for fear of interfering with the deluge.” During twelve years, Sir Gardner Wilkinson compassionately refrained from diluvial inter- ference ; but, from 1837 (429) to 1847, (430) he made a retrocession of Menes, on a sliding scale, to the year b. c. 2320; thereby placing this unfortunate king amid the paludic mias- mata (he was killed by a hippopotamus) consequent upon that grand catastrophe — only twenty-eight years after Archbishop Usher’s cataclysm, with which the gallant Knight scrupled to interfere. The consequence was, that, for twelve years, no hierologist thought it incumbent upon him to quote Wilkinson in matters of chronology; even if scientific justice toward the latter’s innumerable Egyptian discoveries occasionally induced Egyptologists to cite a most erudite author notoriously chary of mentioning the labors of continental contempora- ries. (431) Solitude, however, in time becomes tiresome even to an anchorite. Between the years 1835 and 1847, the bound made by Egyptian studies was enormous. Lepsius, followed by the whole school of Champollionists, had discovered the Xllth dynasty of Manetho; (432) and the XVI—XVIIth dynastic arrangement of Rosellini, abandoned by every other scholar, survived, in 1847, through Wilkinson’s Iland-book alone. It became desirable, therefore, to “ wear ship” in the smoke of Cairo, and to reappear to windward on the other tack; just as if the gallant Knight had been sailing in line with Manetho's Xllth dynasty all the time ! A “ cat’s paw ” of breeze, nevertheless, was requisite for these nautical evolutions, and Horae JEgyptiaccc kindly wafted it over seas to the London “ Literary Gazette.” “And I think this conjecture,” wrote the author of Horae, (433) “strengthened by the fact, that Sir G. Wilkinson has found with the name of Phiops (Pepi) a king’s name, which I believe he agrees with me in considering as that of Othoes, the first king of the Vlth dynasty.”—“ And this explanation is most strikingly confirmed by a fact [known 14 years previously (434) to every reader of Rosellini!], of which some very remarkable instances are found in some of the unpublished papers of Sir Gardner Wilkinson, which he has kindly shown me, as well as in some of his published works; that in numerous sculptures (427) Horce xEgyptiaece— “or the Chronology of Ancient Egypt discovered from Astronomical and Iliero- glyphical records upon its Monuments; including many dates found in coeval inscriptions from the period of the building of the Great Pyramid to the times of the Persians: and Illustrations of the History of the first nineteen Dynasties, showing the order of their succession, from the Monuments. * London, Murray, bvo, 1S51. 74281 Materia Hieroghjphica; Cairo, 1827-’32; Supplement, and Text, Malta. (429) Manners and Customs; 1837; i. p. 41. (430) Hand-book for Travellers in Egypt; 1847; p. 17. (431) Guddon: Chapters; p. 11, a. (432) Bunsen:JEgyptensSteHc; 1845; 1., Torrede, pp. 13, 19; ii. pp. 271-362; iii. pi. 3. (433) Literary Gazette; 1849; p. 486; “Cairo, May, 1849.” (434) Compare also Lepsius—“Culte fr6quent en Nubie de Sesertuscn III.” Lettre, 20 Juin, 1843; in Rev. ArchCol., June, 1844, p. 208.