Volume II Part 32 (2/2)

It h various hands on its way In later years the Phnicians brought it from Spain and the southern shores of Britain The h, and it was used in large quantities by the Egyptian founders

Thus when the pavement of the room in the north-western corner of the Temple of Rameses III at Medinet-Abou was raised, nearly a thousand bronze statues, all representing Osiris, were found The existence of this deposit bears witness to the Egyptian habit of sanctifying the site of a new tees[382]

[381] See BIRCH, notes to Wilkinson's _Manners and Customs_, vol ii p 232, edition of 1878

[382] MARIETTE, _Itineraire_, p 210

Bronze was eraceful308) is in the Boulak Museu 309) and the curiously designed dagger (Fig 310)

The analysis of various speciyptian bronze shows that the proportion of tin which it contained was not constant It varies from about five to fifteen per cent[383] Traces of iron are also found in it

[383] WILKINSON, _Manners and Customs_, etc vol ii pp 232 and 401

[Illustration: FIG 308--Mirror-handle]

[Illustration: FIG 309--Bronze hair-pin]

[Illustration: FIG 310--Bronze dagger]

The date at which this last named metal was introduced into the country is still ether by Dr Birch, lead us to think that the Egyptians were acquainted with iron at least as soon as the commencement of the Theban suprereater use of bronze

[384] _Ibid_ Vol II PP 250, 251

The word that signifies gold appears in the oldest inscriptions, and in the pictures at Beni-Hassan conteold ornayptian Pharaohs caused the veins of quartz in the mountains between the Nile and the Red Sea to be worked; they also obtained large supplies of the precious metal from Ethiopia Silver caold, at least during the last centuries of the old is lavished upon the mummies and upon all the sepulchral furniture about them silver is only met with in exceptional cases[386] In 1878, Mariette exhibited in Paris five massive patera-shaped silver vases, which, from the style of their ornaments, he attributed to the Saite epoch

[385] WILKINSON, _Manners and Customs_, vol ii pp 233-237

[386] BELZONI, _Narrative_, etc vol i p 277

The finest specireat Theban dynasties We ive as instances the jewels of Queen Aah-hotep, which are a the most precious treasures of the Boulak Museum,[387] and those found in the tomb of Kha-em-uas, son of Rameses II These are in the Louvre The splendid breast orna 311), is one of theold, and is thus described by M Pierret: ”Jewel in the form of a naos, in which a vulture and an uraeus are placed side by side; above thes; in his claws are seals, the emblems of eternity Under the frieze of the naos an oval with the prenomen of Rales of the frame”[388] These jeere funerary in character They consist of a little chapel in the middle of which there is usually a scarab--e the Goddesses Isis and Nephthys They are called _pectorals_ because they were placed upon the bosoms of the dead

Great numbers of them have been found in the tombs, in metal, in wood, and in earthenware; feever, are as rich as that of Kha-eolden fralass or with a piece of some _pietra dura_ with a rich hue of its own

[387] MARIETTE, _Notice du Musee de Boulak_, Nos 810-839

Coloured reproductions of them are published in M CeSAR DALY'S _Revue de l'Architecture_, a sequel to the _Histoire d'egypte d'apres les Monuments_ (published in 1860) of M ERNEST DESJARDINS

[388] PIERRET, _Catalogue de la Salle Historique_, Louvre, No

521 This jewel is reproduced, with many others from the same tomb, in two fine coloured plates in MARIETTE'S unfinished work, _Le Serapeum de Memphis_ Folio, 1857

[Illustration: FIG 311--Pectoral Actual size Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier]

In the saolden hawks incrusted in the saed to a si 312) has a ram's head[389] There is a necklace about its throat, and in its talons it grasps a pair of seals, the symbols of reproduction and eternity The sas forue de la Salle Historique_, Louvre, No

535

[390] _Ibid_ No 534