Art from the Egyptian Tomb

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 16, 26 April 1923, Page 9

Art from the Egyptian Tomb

The King lias been reached. Sleeping in the midst of unimagined splendors which no eyes have looked on for thousands of years his seclusion has been rudely disturbed, and carious crowds that have required police control have tried to push into this holy of holies (says the Literal!/ Digest for March 10). There lies Tut-ankh-Amen under a canopy of gold that shows two challenging eyes which, to some extent at least, abash the prying inquirer. Slowly gathered up arc the heaped contents of the \ two antechambers, implements placed there to serve the needs of their master when his spirit should rise and clothe : itself in flesh again. No figures can estimate the splendors of the inner tomb, say the latest dispatches. “The gem-studded cavern of Ali Baba seems to have been a trinket shop in comparison, and Aladdin’s lamp never revealed such treasures as the flashlights from the torches illumined to the lucky few who entered the mortuary chamber.” The entrance was accomplished at midday, when the fierce heat of a desert sun acted as a protection for the Pharaoh against some of the prying eyes of tourists and those unwarranted by law to have the first look. The New York Times dispatch dwells on each lingering moment while Mr. Carter, the original discoverer of the tomb, hewed away the concrete of the sealed door and the privileged participants stood by with aching enthusiasm. When the barring door has yielded, Mr. Carter inserts a torch, and steps back, exclaiming after a prolonged look, “Ah! It tells the whole story The whole story is less than was limped for. History in written records is not increased', but art gains immeasurably. In the unscientific but enthusiastic expression of the newspaper-writer the picture is set forth : “Imagine a huge box with a curved top, a box four yards high and four yards wide and five and a half yards long, all covered with beaten gold studded with several fortunes’ worth of the most precious stones of Tut-ankh-Amen’s period, embossed with figures designed to appease the wrath ol Tut-ankh-Amen’s gods, ornamented at one end with exquisite figures of Nephthys and Isis; imagine inside this priceless canopy another of the next size, all aglow with gleaming gold as bright as a new ten-dollar piece ; imagine that golden gleam iridescent, not only with gems studded in it, but between it and the outer canopy ; picture a heap of jewels worth a kingly ransom; imagine a heap of exquisite scarabs, red, blue, —nothing like them has ever been found before and probably will never be found again— and if after this one has the capacity, picture an absolutely priceless alabaster vase shaped like a chalice and the sides translucent with an interplay of alabaster fretwork on top, on which dainty cups are supported, and in the cups superb figures of Nephthys and Isis. But the imagination has not clone its work yet, not by half; apart, a vase is heaped with amulets which money could not buy to-day, and over all these things and over the top of the second canpoy is a black veil closely studded with golden crescents. “Then if one has any mental alertness left to picture deep down in this gold-covered vault an exquisitely decorated coffin and inside the coffin the embalmed remains of Tut-ankh-Amen himself. “It is a sobering thought, it is pathetic to think that the man who once ruled this region, at whose bidding thousands of weapons leaped free, is to-day but a mummy, a centre of acute interest, whether the interest be scientific morbid or ephemeral; in a phrase, a ‘new stunt.’ There is more than enough in this tomb to stir tire emotions. It is sublime in its grandeur, appealing in its dumbness, exquisite in its art, rich in its magnificence, for the tale has not been told yet.” The interest aroused by this great discovery at Luxor has been as keen almost, to the man-in-the-street as to the student and archeologist. The new discovery appeals “as an esthetic revelation of dazzling brilliance rather than an addition to our knowledge,” says Prof. G. Elliott Smith, author of the official catalogue of “Royal Egyptian Mummies,” in the London Telegraph. He continues : “So far its effect has been to force the. scholar and the man-in-the-street to take an interest in the civilisation that was capable of producing such perfect works of art, and to ask themselves whether this-precocious -culture was

really so exotic as it is commonly supposed to be, or whether, on the contrary, such achievements on the very threshold of a yet unenlightened Europe did not exert a far greater influence than it is usual to accord them. “But at present we are concerned simply in considering "hat is the significance of the discoveries so far made; the furniture, which has never been surpassed in the perfection of its workmanship and exquisite decoration linen of a fineness and a beauty of texture that have never been excelled; carved alabaster vases such as the world has never seen before ; and statues that afford some justification for the ancient belief that they were, in truth, ‘living images.’ What is the meaning of all this lavish display of skill and beauty? Why was so much wealth poured into the hidden recesses of this desolate ravine, and the most exquisite products of the world’s achievement in the arts and crafts buried out of sight in this strange necropolis? The true answers to these questions reveal the motive force that brought about the development of civilisation and made Egypt the pioneer in its creation. All these elaborate preparations, the laborious and costly process of hewing the tomb out of the solid rock and furnishing it with such magnificence, were made because the ancient Egyptians believed that the King’s body to be housed in it had been made imperishable. It was because they imagined when the body was embalmed the continuation of the King’s existence had been assured that they provided him with food and raiment, the furniture and amulets, the jewels and the unguents, and other luxuries which he had been accustomed to enjoy, before he was taken to his ‘eternal house ’ in the desolate valley of the tombs. There can be no doubt that in the early days of Egyptian history this native belief was regarded in all seriousness as the simple truth. In fact, the thoroughness with which at first the Egyptions gave concrete expression to their faith in making material provision for every want that the deceased might experience could only have been inspired by the confidence that all these preparations were indeed effective. This conviction was deeply rooted in the practice of mummifying the dead, preserving the body so that it should become incorruptible and everlasting; and this was supposed also to involve the feasibility of the prolongation of the dead manhs existence. “The hope of survival was thus based upon the efficacy of the embalmer’s art; and the extraordinary constancy with which for more than thirty centuries—-for a. span of years four times the length of time that separates us from the arrival of William the Conqueror in Britain—they persisted in their efforts to improve their methods and render more perfect this gruesome practice is a striking tribute to the fundamental importance of mummification to the Egyptians. The craft of the carpenter was first invented for the manufacture of coffins to protect the corpse ; the stonemason’s first experiments had for their aim the preparation of rock-cut chambers still further to ensure its safety; the first buildings worthy of being called architecture were intended to promote the welfare of the dead, to provide places to which relatives could bring food necessary for the dead man’s sustenance, and a room to house bis portrait statue another art that was the outcome of the practice of mummification — which took his place at the temple of offerings and preserved his likeness for all time. “These elements of civilisation, the arts of architecture and sculpture, and the crafts of the carpenter and the stonemason, were thus direct results of the custom of embalming. But its influence in moulding ritual and belief was no less profound and far-reaching.” At last, says the American Egyptologist, Prof. James H. Breasted, in the London Daily News, “the great civilisation in a land which was the earliest home of this most refined culture ever brought forth by man is adequately revealed to us in works of supreme beauty and power. They form the greatest revelation of this kind ever recorded in the entire history of archeological discovery in any land.” But the interest aroused has become an embarrassment. It is contemplated, to avoid the annoyance caused by the incoming tourists, to close the whole tomb until autumn. One of the most recent dispatches in the New. York Times reads: ' ' - v ' “Nothing has been definitely decided, but it is quite

on the cards that in a fortnight from now every entrance will finally bo sealed till next autumn, and that the whole tomb will be buried deep under a few hundred tons of .stones in order to keep it safe through the summer. “As for the inner chamber, I told you yesterday of the dangers and apprehensions of allowing more visitors to go in. As a matter of fact, an examination discloses that some damage has already been done. In places the gilding of the Avail of the tabernacle has been abrased and bits of the beautiful blue faience inlaying have been dislodged. It is nothing serious or irreparable, but it shows that while Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Carter are anxious to show every consideration both to government officials and to the general public, they have already strained courtesy to utmost limits of prudence. “For the rest a brief survey of the situation will ' make things clear. You know how tremendous was the treasure disclosed on the first discovery last year, and you have read daily accounts of the wonderful articles as they were brought out of the tomb, and have seen photographs of many of them. It is now estimated that all that represents perhaps about one-fourth of what is now in sight. When I say in sight, it must be remembered that there are successive tabernacles yet to be ripened, and, while all is conjectural, there is reasonable hope that they will contain the most precious, though not largest, things of all. “Moreover, Providence only knows what yet lies unsuspected in the two treasure chambers now opened, namely —the annex to the outer chamber and the room opening off the apartment containing the tabernacles which have not been explored. The wealth of the whole discovery is almost unrealisable.” Doubting Egyptologists. Scholars as well as “low-brows” are not averse from taking the joys out of life. Hardly have our first thrills over the discovery of the Tut-ankh-Amen tomb subsided than at least three Egyptologists express “lack of confidence in the importance of the discoveries made at Luxor.” Two of them, says the New York Herald , doubt that Tut-ankh-Amen was buried there. Here we go: “Professor Thomas Eric Poet, of the University of Liverpool, is one of those who think the excavations have not revealed the royal tomb. Georges Rene, French Egyptologist, believes that the real tomb was discovered in 1912 by Theodore M. Davis, an American. M. Rene considers the tomb at Luxor not a tomb at all but merely a hiding place. “The third authority, Professor Schiapparelli, director of the Egyptian museum at Turin, says that not one of the objects unearthed at Luxor is either 1 particularly beautiful or new.’ His idea of the tomb is that it is a kind of deposit box where some king who cam© after Tut-ankh-Amen gathered together objects from old tombs with the purpose of concealing them from robber bands, “Although these opinions must lie discounted to some extent because they do not come from the scene of operaions in the Valley of Kings they nevertheless constitute rather a heavy attack on the supposed splendor of the Luxor discoveries. “Whether or not this Pharaoh was buried at Luxor, the discoveries have been successful at least in breathing life into his name. His chances of being remembered are just as good to-day as they would be if his mummy were to look serenely into the fact of a motion picture camera to-morrow. Come what may, Tut-ankh-Amen now has a foothold on history that can not easily be dislodged.” The Catholic Church is for all times and all peoples—it is for the whole world. Therefore, it is bound to no race, , to no country, to no form of government, to no dynasty, so as to be identified with them. It is for all mankind.