Otia Aegyptiaca. Discourses on Egyptian archaeology and hiroglyphical discoveries / By George R. Gliddon.

  • Gliddon, George R. (George Robins), 1809-1857.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Otia Aegyptiaca. Discourses on Egyptian archaeology and hiroglyphical discoveries / By George R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    alienum puto. But not only,” continued the lecturer, “ do the scenes sculptured or painted on the temples or in the sepulchres furnish every detail concern- ing the Egyptians ; they give us the portraits, history, geographical names, and characteristics of an infinitude of Asiatic and African nations existing in days long anterior to the Exode—many of whom have left no other record of their presence on earth, and others again whose names are preserved in the Hebrew scriptures.” We were most struck by the number and variety of the African races, (distinct from the Egyptian children of Ham, who were white men,) exhi- bited in these illustrations; Negroes, ever captives and slaves, Berbers, Abyssinians, Nubians, and all the mulatto grades, living in the same lati- tudes, called by the same names; in short, in every respect, the same anciently as at this day, were pointed out to the audience. Turning to the Asiatic Continent, Mr. Gliddon indicated on his splendid tab- leaux, Canaanites, who “ were in the land” in Abraham’s days ; together with theportraits of ancient Tyrians, Ammonites, Philistines, Assyrians, Scythians, and Indogermanic families of 3500 years ago—and told us that hieroglyphical geography furnished the names of those primeval cities, Nineveh, Babel, Shinar, and the more recent appellations of inhabitants of Chaldea, Ionia, Arabia, Samaria, Persia, Thrace, etc., etc. All these Asiatic nations, and a hundred more, are recognized among the conquests or foreign politics of the Pharaohs. The lecturer remarked that he should return frequently to the subject of Eth- nography, and sustain the diversity of the human race with hieroglyph ical docu- ments reaching as far back as 2000 n.c., and with plates, skulls, and other data gathered from the researches of his friend and colleague, Dr. S. G. Morton, of Philadelphia. Mr. Gliddon then spoke of the monumental inscriptions of the Egyptians, and after eulogizing the founders of that science to which he had devoted himself, he read the following extract from an essay of the eloquent Ampere :—* “It is not only the hieroglyphics of Egypt. This country offers subjects of conversation and meditation which no traveller can entirely neglect, whoever he may be, if he have eyes to see, a memory to remember, and a sprinkling of imagination wherewith to dream. Who can be indifferent to the tableaux of unaccountable Nature on the banks of the Nile ? At the spectacle of this river-land, that no other land resembles ? Who will not be moved in the presence of this people, which of old accomplished such mighty deeds, and now are reduced to misery so extreme? Who can visit Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyramids, Heliopolis, Thebes, without being moved * I*cannot sufficiently express how much I am indebted to the brilliant articles of this accomplished Scholar in the Revue des deux Mondes. In elegance of diction, accuracy of description, and thorough acquaintance with Egypt, pharaonic, classical, or modern, they far surpass anything of the kind hitherto published, and attract my warmest sympathies. This tribute of respect from a much older Egyptian, if a younger Egyptologist, (to the Author personally unknown,) who with Mr. A. C. Harris has wandered, in other days, over the same ground, will assure M. Ampere that in the United States, at least, the merits of his compositions are thoroughly appreciated. London, October 1848.—G. R. G.