This ostrakon is unfortunately only partly legible, owing to an incrustation of silicate with which many of the characters are covered. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of my transcription throughout. The third line reads: "I Petênsên write the necessary accounts" (endeia; the final 8 shows that the word is not ététela). The date is the "19th year of Aurelius Antoninus and Commodus, Cæsars and lords." This was the last year of Marcus Aurelius, who reigned 19 years 10 days, dying on the 17th of March, A.D. 180 The abbreviations a for aλλo and adλ for ådeλpós are new; a" seems to be âua. The mutilated state of the text, however, makes me decline to attempt a translation of it.

M. Revillout has asked whether I can give details as to the locality at or near Erment from which the ostraka I have translated in my former Paper are said to have come. I regret that I cannot do so. The dealers in whose hands they were stated that they were found "at Erment." This, however, does not even make it certain that they were derived from the old mounds of Hermonthis; my experience of such statements leads me to believe that they were not, but rather from some unknown point between Erment and Medînet Abû.

A dealer in antiquities at Ekhmîm informed me that inscribed shukkaf or potsherds, similar to the Karnak ones, were discovered from time to time in the mounds of Menshîyeh. As the mounds are full of objects of the Græco-Roman period, the statement is very credible, though when I was at Menshîyeh no ostraka were offered to me for sale, nor in fact anything of value. But this was before I had received the information, and it never occurred to me when at Menshiyeh to ask about "shukkaf.”

A. H. SAYCE.

The following Communication has been received from Dr. A. Wiedemann :

ON A MONUMENT OF THE TIME OF KING CHU-EN-ITEN.

During the last few years the reign and religious opinions of Chu-en-åten have been treated several times, especially since the discovery of the tomb of Rames at Thebes by Mr. H. Villiers Stuart in 1879, from which very valuable material was obtained for the beginning of this period of the religious history of Egypt. Also in other parts of Egypt new monuments have been found, so that we

now possess a far larger series of notes than Lepsius had when he wrote his first classical essay on this king. The newly found inscriptions show, as I have already pointed out ("Handbuch der aeg. Geschichte," p. 44 sqq., 396 sqq. The same opinion has been developed since by Bouriant, "Rec. de trav. rel." e.c. VI, p. 52, sqq.), that the town from which the religion of Åten took its origin was Heliopolis; and that this religion was not at all a newly introduced one, but Chu-en-åten tried to force upon all Egypt a local form of the sun-god Ra at the expense of the other gods, whose names and even monuments at some places he destroyed. This special form of Ra is the only Egyptian divinity which has a clearly expressed henotheistic character, and so it will be very interesting to find out its deeper meaning, the forms of its cult, the different amulets having relation to it, e.c., questions the solution of which is rendered even now difficult by the small number of existing monuments.

As it appears, later generations tried to destroy all the inscriptions relating to Åten throughout Egypt, excepting only the monuments at the mother-town of the cult, Heliopolis. But also there we find very few remains of that period, as in general only little is left of the sacred town of Ra, and, worse for us, the necropolis of this city, which must have contained a large number of rich tombs, has not yet been found. It is probable that the tombs were situated not far from the actually existing ruins of the temples, perhaps a little to the south-east of Matarîye; but all the country is now covered by the sands of the Arabic desert. Near Matarîye, where a few years before an establishment for the breeding of ostriches was built, fragments with the names of Chu-en-åten, Ramses II and Seti II have been found (cf. Maspero, "Aeg. Zeitschr.," 1881, p. 116) deep under the sand, indicating the place where the temple of Aten was erected; further excavations on this site would certainly produce valuable texts.

Until richer material is found either here or elsewhere in Egypt, we are forced to take our information about Aten from the few monuments preserved in the country itself, especially at Tel-elAmarna, or dispersed in the different collections of Europe. To one of these texts, unknown till now, I wish to call attention.

The text covers an Uschebti-statuette of brown-burned clay now preserved in the Museum of Zürich; it has probably been overlooked up to the present time, because this collection, celebrated as one of the best for the knowledge of lacustrine dwellings, con

tains only very few monuments of other kinds. The statuette is of the ordinary shape; the head is covered by a large wing and the two hands lying on the breast hold the plough Below we

see engraved, and this is very curious, a horizontal stick lying, on the two sides of which hangs a basket. Underneath this picture the seven-lined inscription, running from right to left

(1) Royal offering to the living Åten, who illuminates (2) each country with his beauties; he gives the sweet breath (3) of northwind, (4) libations, wine (5) milk, the gifts of all young (6) flowers, to the person of (7) his sister, the lady of the house Ketet."

This formula is quite unusual on monuments of the kind. Loret has shown ("Rec. de trav. rel.," e.c. IV, p. 93) that the 20 occurs on some Uschebtis of the 13th dynasty, but then in an abbreviated form, and not in full as is here the case. Further, the denomination of Kețet as the sister of Åten is very curious, and throws a new and peculiar light on the comprehension of this Egyptian divinity. Lastly there has never been found an Uschebti dedicated to Åten.* On account of these peculiarities this Uschebti becomes therefore one of the most valuable documents in existence for the knowledge and explanation of the cult of Åten.

The other Egyptian monuments in the Museum at Zürich are less important. There are several Uschebtis. One of them is beautifully worked in black wood; its inscription contains the ordinary Uschebti-formula, and shows that the monument belonged to the

Another small monument of the same time is to be seen in the Salle civile at the Louvre. It is a piece of wood showing the inscription enclosed in an oval ring. (Cf. Lepsius, "Königsbuch,"

No. 770.)

www
O

of the formula covering this Uschebti of Amen-em-heb* is peculiar.

"I do it; I am here calling thee there; thou come !"-A second

Uschebti covered with the ordinary formula belonged to the

口

14

It is beautifully cut in brown wood, and was given to the Museum by Mr. A. Escher von der Linth.-Other monuments of the same kind are without inscriptions, or so broken that they are without value. This is the case with a very injured scarabus originally covered with the Chapter of the Heart; only very few fragments of the text are now left, so that it is even impossible to make out the name of the owner of the scarab. Among the few scarabs there is one with the cartouche of

,which is twice repeated on the stone; another with the name of King Taharka of the 25th dynasty; a third with the inscription. The other exemplars have as little interest as a longer series of figures of small gods, sacred animals, amulets, and so on, of which some even are false. Only one stone is worth notice; it shows a king in adoration, with the inscription

Finally the Museum possesses a writer's tablet in wood of the ordinary rectangular shape. At the top are two cavities of the form destined for the black and the red ink-colour. Underneath there is the hollow for the pencil, and right and left the inscription

44 giving us the name of the owner, scribe of

who appears on a stela at Bulaq (quoted by Lieblein, “ Diction

naire des noms," Nr. 750).

The following communication has been received from Dr. Birch.

ROMAN PAPYRI.

At the time of the Roman dominion in Egypt the older ritual had completely disappeared, and was replaced by the Shai en-sensin, the book of the sighs or lamentations of Isis (Brugsch, "Sai en sen sin": 4to. Berlin, 1851), or else by short papyri or extracts of the ritual, consisting of ideas or paragraphs taken from the ritual. These short papyri deposited with the mummies are about the first century, A.D., and the hieratic texts in which they are written differs almost entirely from that used in the Saïte versions of B.C. 600, and the XXXth Dynasty, B.C. 348. A good example of the handwriting of the Ptolemaic period will be seen in the Rhind Papyrus which I published, which consists of a ritual in the later hieratic and in demotic writing. The collection of these later rituals in the British Museum illustrates still further the degradation of the hieratic script up to the first century of the Christian era.

10108.

Hieratic Papyrus of the Roman Period; the writing
neat and distinct.

1. Hathor Tenttemi justified, born of Tamesko justified, the soul lives in the heaven at the Sun.

2. . . . Osiris lord of the spirits and mummies as lord as chief of the illuminated ..... established on earth to Seb.

3.

... (Kar)neter (Hades) detained under the principal male children howling in . . . . . her . . . . her afen.

4. . . . . in power of there they made for me a good funeral, preparing it in their rest ordered in the west of Thebes in the rays of those born.

5. .... given by the good West are her hands to receive me stand the mummies, stopping me Anubis receives me at the Hall of the

6. (two Truths) placed among as one very select those following Socharis the chief of the Bull of the West my soul proceeds to heaven