A Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum (Classic Reprint)

INTRODUCTION to the EGYPTIAN COLLECTIONS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. CHAPTER I. The Country of Egypt and its Limits. The Delta. Oases. Lakes. The Nile. Inundation. Nile Festivals. Famines. Ancient and Modern Eivisions of Egypt and the Sudan. The Land of Egypt is situated in the north-east shoulder of the continent of Africa, and in the earliest times it consisted of that portion of the Nile Valley which lay between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern end of the First Cararact; the Island of Abu, or Elephantine, and the town of Sunnu, or Sunt, the Syene of classical writers and the Seweneh of the Bible (Ezekiel xxix, 10), forming the southern boundary of the country. The northern limit of Egypt has, in historic times, always been the Mediterranean Sea, but .rts southern limit varied considerably at different periods. Under the Vth dynasty, about b.c. 3600, it was marked by Elephantine and Syene. Under the Xllth dynasty, about b.c. 2500, it was extended to Semnah and Kummah, about 25

Table of Contents

CONTENTS; page; preface v; list of plates ix; list of illustrations in the text xi; chapter i-the country of egypt 1; ,, ii-ethnography language forms of; writing decipherment of egyptian hieroglyphics, alphabet, and writing national character 20 ,, iii-egyptian literature, sacred and profane 58; ,, iv-manners and customs marriage; education dress food amusements cattle breeding trade; handicrafts 76; ? v--architecture painting sculpture IO3; ,, vi-the king and his subjects military; service Il6; ? vii-egyptian religion 122; ,, viii-embalming the egyptian tomb 158; ? ix-numbers divisions of time chronology 180; ? x-history of egypt ancient empire 188; ,, xi-history of egypt middle empire 213; ,, xii-history of egypt new empire 228; ,, xiii-history of egypt ptolemaic period 268; history of egypt roman period 275; histo