Crania Aegyptiaca, or, Observations on Egyptian ethnography derived from anatomy, history and the monuments / by Samuel George Morton.

  • Morton Samuel George, 1799-1851.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Crania Aegyptiaca, or, Observations on Egyptian ethnography derived from anatomy, history and the monuments / by Samuel George Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    FIRST SERIES. TWENTY-SIX SKULLS FROM THE NECROPOLIS OF MEMPHIS. This vast Necropolis extends from the Pyramids of Gizeh to the southern limit of Saccara, a distance of about fifteen miles. The tombs are cut in the solid rock, and frequently communicate with one another, forming a vast subterranean labyrinth. Mem- phis is well known to be one of the oldest, if not indeed the oldest of the Egyptian cities; and among the tombs now extant Professor Rosellini has found some which bear inscrip- tions of a date nearly 2300 years before Christ, at which period Memphis must have been a large and flourishing city. The simpler catacombs were probably constructed before the pyramids; for these last could only result from centuries of civilization, and next to the catacombs, are the oldest existing monuments of the human race. A.—FROM THE PYRAMID OF FIVE STEPS. In the month of August, 1839, Mr. J. S. Perring, the distinguished Engineer, discovered a fourth entrance to this pyramid, which was found to communicate with a recess at the south-western corner of a large apartment described in his narrative. This communica- tion is a horizontal gallery one hundred and sixty-six feet long, and the recess is seventy feet above the floor. The southern end of the gallery, observes Colonel Vyse, was stopped up with sand; but for the length of one hundred and sixty feet from the interior it was open, and did not seem to have been previously visited, as nearly thirty mummies were found in it apparently undisturbed. They had neither coffins nor sarcophagi, nor, with the exception of three or four, any painted decorations. They crumbled to pieces on being touched, and could not be removed. Mr. Perring, therefore, proceeded to exa- mine them. He found them enclosed in wrappers, with pitch and. bitumen; but he did not meet with any of the objects usually deposited with mummies, excepting some of the common stone idols upon the body of the female. He therefore concluded that they were the bodies of persons employed in the building.* Fortunately for my inquiries, Mr. Gliddon was at hand when these relics were brought to light, and obtained them of Mr. Perring as a contribution to my researches. With the utmost care on Mr. Gliddon's part, two of three reached me in safety, but the third was broken into numberless fragments. In fact, the consistence of these bones is but little firmer than unbaked clay, and the animal matter is nearly obliterated. If Mr. Perring's opinion be correct, that the persons to whom these bodies belonged were coeval with the construction of the pyramid, we may with safety regard them as the most ancient human remains at present known to us. Whether, as that gentleman suggests, they pertained to workmen employed in building the pyramid, I will not pre- tend to decide; but although they present indifferent intellectual developments, their conformation is that of the Caucasian race. Plate I., Fig. 1. (Cat. 838.) An oval head with a broad but rather low forehead, moderately elevated vertex, and full occiput. The superciliary ridges are prominent, the orbits oblong-oval, the nasal bones large, salient and aqiiiline, the teeth vertical * Explorations at the Pyramids, Vol. III., p. 44. 2 , ■