The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12), by G. MasperoThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.orgTitle: History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)Author: G. MasperoEditor: A.H. SayceTranslator: M.L. McClureRelease Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19400]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***Produced by David Widger[Illustration: Spines][Illustration: Cover]HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIABy G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen'sCollege, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College ofFranceEdited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, OxfordTranslated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the EgyptExploration FundCONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONSVolume I., Part A.LONDONTHE GROLIER SOCIETYPUBLISHERS[Illustration: Frontispiece][Illustration: Titlepage]EDITOR'S PREFACEProfessor Maspero does not need to be introduced to us. His name iswell known in England and America as that of one of the chief masters ofEgyptian science as well as of ancient Oriental history and ...
The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,
Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12), by G. Maspero
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of
12)
Author: G. Maspero
Editor: A.H. Sayce
Translator: M.L. McClure
Release Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19400]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
Produced by David Widger
[Illustration: Spines]
[Illustration: Cover]
HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen's
College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of
France
Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt
Exploration Fund
CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Volume I., Part A.
LONDON
THE GROLIER SOCIETY
PUBLISHERS[Illustration: Frontispiece]
[Illustration: Titlepage]
EDITOR'S PREFACE
Professor Maspero does not need to be introduced to us. His name is
well known in England and America as that of one of the chief masters of
Egyptian science as well as of ancient Oriental history and archaeology.
Alike as a philologist, a historian, and an archaeologist, he occupies
a foremost place in the annals of modern knowledge and research. He
possesses that quick apprehension and fertility of resource without
which the decipherment of ancient texts is impossible, and he also
possesses a sympathy with the past and a power of realizing it which are
indispensable if we would picture it aright. His intimate acquaintance
with Egypt and its literature, and the opportunities of discovery
afforded him by his position for several years as director of the Bulaq
Museum, give him an unique claim to speak with authority on the history
of the valley of the Nile. In the present work he has been prodigal of
his abundant stores of learning and knowledge, and it may therefore be
regarded as the most complete account of ancient Egypt that has ever yet
been published.
In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, it is true, speaks
at first hand. But he has thoroughly studied the latest and best
authorities on the subject, and has weighed their statements with the
judgment which comes from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar
department of knowledge.
Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology and
Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions must be tentative and
provisional only. Discovery crowds so quickly on discovery, that the
truth of to-day is often apt to be modified or amplified by the truth
of to-morrow. A single fresh fact may throw a wholly new and unexpected
light upon the results we have already gained, and cause them to assume
a somewhat changed aspect. But this is what must happen in all sciences
in which there is a healthy growth, and archaeological science is no
exception to the rule.
The spelling of ancient Egyptian proper names adopted by Professor
Maspero will perhaps seem strange to many. But it must be remembered
that all our attempts to represent the pronunciation of ancient Egyptian
words can be approximate only; we can never ascertain with certainty how
they were actually sounded. All that can be done is to determine what
pronunciation was assigned to them in the Greek period, and to work
backwards from this, so far as it is possible, to more remote ages.
This is what Professor Maspero has done, and it must be no slight
satisfaction to him to find that on the whole his system of
transliteration is confirmed by the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna.
The difficulties attaching to the spelling of Assyrian names are
different from those which beset our attempts to reproduce, even
approximately, the names of ancient Egypt. The cuneiform system of
writing was syllabic, each character denoting a syllable, so that we
know what were the vowels in a proper name as well as the consonants.
Moreover, the pronunciation of the consonants resembled that of the
Hebrew consonants, the transliteration of which has long since become
conventional. When, therefore, an Assyrian or Babylonian name is written
phonetically, its correct transliteration is not often a matter
of question. But, unfortunately, the names are not always written
phonetically. The cuneiform script was an inheritance from the
non-Semitic predecessors of the Semites in Babylonia, and in this scriptthe characters represented words as well as sounds. Not unfrequently
the Semitic Assyrians continued to write a name in the old Sumerian way
instead of spelling it phonetically, the result being that we do not
know how it was pronounced in their own language. The name of the
Chaldæan Noab, for instance, is written with two characters which
ideographically signify "the sun" or "day of life," and of the first of
which the Sumerian values were _ut, babar, khis, tarn,_ and _par_,
while the second had the value of _zi_. Were it not that the Chaldæan
historian Bêrôssos writes the name Xisuthros, we should have no clue to
its Semitic pronunciation.
Professor Maspero's learning and indefatigable industry are well known
to me, but I confess I was not prepared for the exhaustive acquaintance
he shows with Assyriological literature. Nothing seems to have escaped
his notice. Papers and books just published, and half forgotten articles
in obscure periodicals which appeared years ago, have all alike been
used and quoted by him. Naturally, however, there are some points on
which I should be inclined to differ from the conclusions he draws,
or to which he has been led by other Assyriologists. Without being an
Assyriologist himself, it was impossible for him to be acquainted with
that portion of the evidence on certain disputed questions which is only
to be found in still unpublished or untranslated inscriptions.
There are two points which seem to me of sufficient importance
to justify my expression of dissent from his views. These are the
geographical situation of the land of Magan, and the historical
character of the annals of Sargon of Accad. The evidence about Magan is
very clear. Magan is usually associated with the country of Melukhkha,
"the salt" desert, and in _every_ text in which its geographical
position is indicated it is placed in the immediate vicinity of Egypt.
Thus Assur-bani-pal, after stating that he had "gone to the lands of
Magan and Melukhkha," goes on to say that he "directed his road to
Egypt and Kush," and then describes the first of his Egyptian campaigns.
Similar testimony is borne by Esar-haddon. The latter king tells us that
after quitting Egypt he directed his road to the land of Melukhkha, a
desert region in which there were no rivers, and which extended "to the
city of Rapikh" (the modern Raphia) "at the edge of the wadi of Egypt"
(the present Wadi El-Arîsh). After this he received camels from the king
of the Arabs, and made his way to the land and city of Magan. The Tel
el-Amarna tablets enable us to carry the record back to the fifteenth
century b.c. In certain of the tablets