Egypt Exploration Society
Bibliography of 1912-13: Hellenistic Egypt Author(s): F. Ll. Griffith Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Apr., 1914), pp. 124-128 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3853521 Accessed: 19/09/2008 20:03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ees. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
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124
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF 1912-13:
BY F. LL. GRIFFITH,
HELLENISTIC
EGYPT
M.A., F.S.A.
To supplement the reports on papyrology and epigraphy which are supplied to the Journal by the leading authorities on these subjects, it is necessary only to draw attention to the work which has been done for Graeco-Roman Egypt from the Egyptological side and at the same time to point out certain discoveries and investigations in Hellenistic art and archaeology which have been made since the last Archaeological Report was prepared. To the archaeologist in search for material remains Alexandria, the greatest metropolis of the Hellenistic world, has yielded little indeed in comparison with its ancient renown. Since the glorious architectural achievements of the first two Ptolemies fire and sword have ravaged it, city has risen on city, each successive reconstruction inferior to the preceding and using up its materials, until at the beginning of the last century Iskenderia contained hardly a single notable building. The splendid "Pompey's pillar" and the two obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles remained of the ancient adornments of the place, and the foundations of the Pharos (according to Dr BUTLER and TIERSCH the model of the Egyptian minaret) have since been recognised.
The
excavations
of SCHLIEMANN, HOGARTH and the
SIEGLIN expedition
yielded few results, but the enthusiasm of BOTTI led in 1892 to the foundation of a museum for the reception not only of the antiquities that from time to time were revealed in excavations in the town or its neighbourhood, but also of a large part of the collection of Graeco-Roman antiquities gathered by the Service des Antiquites from Egypt generally. Gradually there has been accumulated in the Museum a very valuable series of antiquities of all kinds, including a magnificent Christian capital worthy to have adorned (as it probably did) the patriarchal church of St Mark. The municipality of Alexandria is justly proud of the Museum and takes a genuine interest in its welfare. Dr BRECCIA,the new director, is not satisfied to accumulate treasures, but also publishes in a systematic manner. The first that appeared of the museum catalogues was that of the Greek inscriptions from Alexandria and other localities, and this has been rapidly succeeded by two volumes which show that (as is often the case where the temples and palaces and other monumnentsof a great city have disappeared) a harvest of sinall finds remains in the cemetery. The burial urns and fiatgurinesof Alexandria are archaeologically of high importance, as representing local fabrics which would be likely to exercise no small influence by way of trade and imnitation throughout the Nile Valley and on the coasts of the Mediterranean.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF 1912-13:
HELLENISTIC
EGYPT
125
The two volumes referred to are the Catalogue of the finds from the necropolis of Shatbi (La necropoli di Sciatbi, published by the Service des Antiquit6s). The interments at Shatbi, which lies on the east side of Alexandria, are all of Ptolemaic age; they are purely Greek in character, in cinerary urns beneath stone monuments and stelae, and no traces of mummification were found in the excavations carried on from 1904 to 1910. Dr BRECCIA considers that the native burial ground was always on the western side of the city, which later became the necropolis quarter par excellence. In his charming manual of Egyptian art, Ars una Species mille--gypte, Sir GASTON MASPEROdevotes a long chapter and an abundance of illustrations mainly to the works of the Hellenistic age, developing out of the Saite style and in the end crudely mingling elements of western art or even entirely forsaking the Egyptian tradition. A series of 24 coloured photographic plates of the choicest portraits from Prof. PETRIE'S discoveries of 1888 and 1911 has been issued by the discoverer in The Hawara Portfolio to complete the publications begun in Roman Portraits and Memphis IV. In Ridgeway Studies, p. 192, Prof. PETRIE publishes a large finger-ring of bronze gilt engraved with a portrait head in Greek style attributed to Ptolemy IV. EDGAR publishes a limestone statue of a Ptolemy in Greek style found at Atfih, and suggests that it may represent Philadelphus. J.H.S. xxxIII. 50. DARESSY, Rec. de Trav. xxxv. 46, publishes a remarkable slab sculptured in Hellenistic style with a scene of offering to Isis beneath a portico, which was found built into a mosque in Cairo. CL1DAT has found a temple of Zeus Casios at Pelusium, Annales du Service, xiII. 79, and at Qar Gheit, a few miles south-east of Qatya beyond the Suez Canal, a Nabataean temple and various Hellenistic objects, ib. xii. 145. KAUFFMANN publishes a large series of Hellenistic terracottas, collected by him chiefly from the Faytim, representations of deities, sacred animals, votive figures, etc., with an essay on the technique (Aegyptische Terracotten der Griechisch-Romischen und Koptischen Epoche). A paper by ROCHAS written for La Nature in 1882 is reprinted in Annales du Service des Antiqaites, xi. 95, showing two devices recorded by Heron of Alexandria (end of second century A.D.) for doling out holy or ablution water. One was a pennyin-the-slot worked by 5-drachma pieces, the other (which he expressly says was to be seen in Egyptian temples near the portico) an ingenious swivel tap. BISSINGhas printed a lecture on the share of Egyptian art in the artistic life of the world, Der Anteil der aegyptischen Kunst am Kunstleben der Volker, with a long appendix of references and discussion of the phenomena in individual countries down to the present day. writes a very interesting article on the appearance of subjects derived WIEDEMANN from Egyptian historical tales, etc., in ancient Greece and Rome and in Early Christian pictures. Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. xxxiv. 298. SPIEGELBERG publishes a demotic inscription on a limestone statue of Egyptian workmanship in the Louvre, found in Rhodes, according to which it was dedicated to Serapis and Isis by a certain Dionysus of Iasos, Zeits. f. aegypt. Sprache, L. 24. The
F. LL. GRIFFITH
126
same volumnecontains mnanycontributions by the Strassburg professor which would be of interest to papyrologists. TURAIEFFpublishes a terracotta lamp with a group of Bes and a female counterpart, believed to have been found at Olbia. Publications of the Archaeological Commission (in Russian), XLV. M. GUIMET,Rev. Arch. xx. 197, publishes some curious-looking terracotta figurines of Osiris moulded from Egyptian bronzes, a ushabti and some Romano-Egyptian figurines, all from Southern France. MARESTAING in Les Ecritures egyptiennes de l'antiquite classique quotes and illustrates passages referring to Egyptian writing from Greek and Latin non-Christian authors, excluding Horapollo. The late Professor REVILLOUT (who died in February 1913) printed an article on the library of the Serapeum in Revte Egyptologique, xiv. 101, in which he quotes an unpublished memoir by Pere CHAUTARD denying that Orosius imnputedthe destruction of that library to the Christians when they burnt the Serapeum. MITTEIS and WILCKEN'S GrundzUge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde form a mine of material and suggestion for the Egyptologist and particularly for the student of demotic. The former author as a jurist makes use of several translations of demotic legal documents of the Ptolemaic age. Professor WILCKENon the other hand, in his "historical section," makes little direct reference to the evidence of demotic, but his profound knowledge and lively interest in every aspect of the Graeco-Egyptian documents gives his work a special value to us. The
works
of
MITTEIS,
MILNE, PARTSCH, PLAUMANN and
PREISIGKE show
a
growing confidence on the part of papyrologists in the readings of demotic. The same may be said of CASTELLI'Sdiscussion of 7rapcaepva. The small group of demnotists has itself been greatly strengthened by the accession of Professor SETHE and Dr MOLLER, and the cooperation of the two branches of research has not failed to produce excellent results. Professor SPIEGELBERG in editing the Hauswaldt demotic papyri from Edfu acknowledges
the help of the Greek papyrologists
SCHUBART, PLAUMANNand PREISIGKE,
while Dr PARTSCH,as a jurist, has contributed to the edition a considerable essay on the legal aspect of the papyri: these are chiefly sales of land with a few marriage contracts, a loan, a mortgage, etc. Mr MILNE, in publishing Greek ostraca from Dendera, makes full use of the evidence of very large numbers of demotic examples of the first century A.D. in the samne collection, which Sir H. Thompson had deciphered but for the most part not published. They refer to the Poll, Bath, Dyke and Dromos taxes; a tax of "the twentieth part," perhaps the Greek E?yKtvXtov, the Wreath, Weaving, Ferry and Transport (?) taxes (Arch. f. Papyrusforschung, vi. 125). Sir H. THOMPSON, publishing two demotic ostraca containing data for casting horoscopes, points outt the correspondence of the "heavenly houses" in various demotic papyri and ostraca with those collected from Greek and Latin writers by BOUCHE-LECLERCQ, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. XXXIV. 227. (For other publications by THOMPSON see the review of Theban Ostraca below, p. 153.) In his Tierkult der Alten Aegypter (in the popular series das Alte Orient) WIEDEMANN, dealing with the history of animal-worship in Egypt, shows how the classical authors misjudged its origin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF 1912-13:
HELLENISTIC
EGY PT
127
JUNKERstudying the inscriptions of Philae has found materials for a full commentary on the passages in various Greek and Roman authors-Strabo, Diodorus, describe the aSfara of Philae and Memphis, Plutarch, Seneca and Servius-which the sacred burial places of Osiris, and on Strabo's account of the sacred falcon worshipped at Philae, Das Gdtterdekretilber das Abaton (Denkschr., Vienna Academy 1913), and der Bericht Strabo's ueber den heiligen Falken von Philae (Vienna Oriental Journal, 1912). The late P. D. SCOTT-MONCRIEFF in his Paganism and Christianity in Egypt (see the review in this Journal, I. 75) has gathered evidence as to the religious ideas of Egypt in its latest pagan phases from the end of the Ptoleinaic period onwards, with the various foreign influences which affected them. In the Encyclopaedia of Religionmand Ethics, vol VI., we may note Mr MILNE'S valuable collection of material from Greek documents in his article on GraecoEgyptian religion, E. F. SCOTTon Gnosticism, K. SETHE on Heroes and Hero-gods (elaborate and important from the Egyptological stand-point), St G. STOCKon Hermes Trismegistus (from the Greek side only). ROEDER'Selaborate articles in Roscher's Lexikon der Gr. u. Rom. Mythologie, Lief. 65-67, on Sobk, Sothis, Sphinx, Sonne und Sonnengott, Sokar, contain many remarks that may interest papyrologists; the same writer has a long article on Horus in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclop. vol. VIII. In the former work HOFER deals briefly with Snephorses, varieties of Sobk such as Socnopaios (also treated by ROEDERand ZUCKERin ROEDER'Sarticle), Sononaes, Sorapis and Sos. These valuable articles unfortunately take no notice of evidence from demotic. Sarapis und die sogenannten icdToXrodes Sarapis (Gottingen Abhandlungen, vol. xiv. no. 5) is an elaborately argued work regarding these much debated questions written by Prof. SETHE with his usual command of sources. Serapis was the Egyptian Osiris-Apis, long an object of worship and made the god of the realm by Ptolemy Soter at least as early as 308 B.C. The reference to this cult in Babylon in the time of Alexander cannot be authentic. The legend of the bringing of the figure of the god from Sinope is to be strictly interpreted as the procuring of the work of Bryaxis as a cult-image for the great temple in Alexandria, and this took place apparently later, at some date from 286 to 278 B.C. The Kadroxot of the Serapeum appear in a great find of papyri made about 1820 and scattered through the European museums, dating from 169 to 152 B.C. in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor. It has been supposed that they were a kind of recluses, in fact pagan forerunners of the Christian ascetics and monks, and the question has been hotly discussed. SETHEbrings forward evidence from the published Greek. papyri and from demotic to prove that the Kca'root were "shut up" on account of debt or crime: WILCKEN, however, drawing from his store of corrected readings of the Greek, while acknowledging the instructiveness and high value of SETHE'Swork, shows that a distinction must be drawn between the ev aicroXy ltvat of the people in question and the temporary imprisonment for debt which some of them suffered. The KairoXot in fact seem to have formed a special class in the service of the Serapeum, but it remains for the future to define its nature mnoreclosely (Archiv :f. Papyrusforschung, VI. 184). PLAUMANNin numerous articles on the eponymous priesthood of Alexander, at Alexandria itself and at Ptolemais in Upper Egypt, makes full use of demotic
128
F.
LL. GRIFFITH
material. In Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopaedie, viii. s.v. Hiereis V, he gives a full list of the priests of Alexander and the Ptolemaic kings and queens; in the Zeitschrift f. aegypt. Spr. L. 19 he shows that the dating by eponlyms is essentially Greek and that the demotic protocols of this kind are translated, sometimes inot very successfully, from Greek original forms. In Klio XIIi. 133 he searches for distinctively Macedonian names, and ib. 308 notes dating by the priests of Ptolemtais independently of Alexandria; cf. ib. 485. of bilingual stelae in hieroglyphics and Greek from Coptos in Annales du Service, xII. 1, and to MOLLER'S official publication of demotic and Greek mummy-labels in the Berlin Attention
may be drawn to J. REINACH and WEILL'S publication
Museum (Demotische Texte I, Mumienschilder).
