| OCR Text |
Show GENERAL REMARKS 0 N I 0 0 N 0 G RAP ll Y. 1 Ql) Particulars concerning tho ®rivalled and still-inoditod discoveries, during the years 1851-54 at Memphis, of M. AuGUS1'E MARIETTE, now one of tho Oonservateurs of the Louvre Museum, are suppli d by our collaborator Mr. Gliddon [Chapter V. infra]. With that frank liberality which is so honorable to scientific men, MM. DE lloua1ii, MARIET'.rE, and D.JWERIA, not merely permitted Mrs. Gliddon to copy whatever, in that gorgeous Museum, might become available to tho present work; but tho last-named Egyr tologi.st kindly presented bor husband with the pltotograpltic originals (takou by M. D v6ria hi.ms If from these scarcely-unpacked statucs,-May, 1 55,) fr m which our copi s have boon transferred directly to tho stone, without alteration in any perceptible respect. In these complaisant fa ·ilitics, the very distinguished photographer of J rusalom, M. AuG. SAI"ZMANN, also volunteered his slcilful aid; and we reproduce [soc Pl. IT.] tho fac-simile profile of tho "Scribe," duo to his accurate instrument. Not to be outdone in generosity towards their transatlantic coll ague, Crmv. LEPsrus, who had just boon surveying these "nouvcaut6s arcb6ologiqu s" at tho Louvre, subs quontly forwarded from B rlin, to Mr. (Hiddon in London, a complete series of archaic Egyptian portraits, drawn on stone also from photographs, which included likewise copies of those already obtained from M. Mariette's Memphite collection. Such arc some of those irroquitablo favors through which we are enabled to be the first in laying documents so procious before follow-students of ethnology. Their powerful bearing upon tho question of permanence of type in Egypt during 5000 yoars,-upon that of tho effects of amalgamation among distinct types, in elucidation of the physiological law that the autochtlwnous majority invat·iably, in time, absorbs and effaces tl!e foreign minority; and as supplying long-deficient criteria whereby to analyze and compare the ethnic clements of less historical nations than the Egyptians,- these interesting points fall especially within tho province of Dr. N ott; and he has discussed them in his P1·efato1·y Rernarlcs to this volume. With these brief indications, we proceed to test our theory of tho principles that characterize tho Art of different nationalities; calling to mind, with regard to these most antique specimens of all statuary, that, until their arrival at raris in the autumn of 1854, it had scarcely been suspected that the primordial Egyptians attained the art of making statues "ronde-boRse" much before the XIIth dynasty [about 2200 B. c.]. The authors of "Types of Mankind," in their wicle invostiO'ation of iconographic data, were unable to produce any Nilotic sculpture more ancient than bas-reliefs.68 Exceptional doubts, 68 Op. cit., pp. 241-3, Pl. I.-IV. |
