Author Description

Excerpt from Egyptological Researches: Results of a Journey in 1904 The material for the present publication was collected in Egypt during the summer and fall of 1904, summer being especially favorable for working in such places, which, durin g the traveling season, are crowded with tourists and their native followers. I remained at the Museum of Cairo for some time, to study the treasures which had either been found during recent years or which had been packed away for the great moving from Gizeh to Cairo, when I visited the museum in 1901, or which had been less favorably exhibited in the old building at Gizeh. My work in the upper country was confined almost exclusively to ancient Thebes and surroundings. Ill health prevented the carrying out of my plans relating to various other ruins, but I succeeded in gathering considerable material in the vast ruins of the No - Amon of the Hebrews. The hours of busy solitude, especially among the gigantic walls and columns of Karnak, will always remain a blessed remembrance to me. The main object of my studies were the monuments recording the relations of ancient Egypt to foreign countries, especially to Asia and Europe - - monuments which are mostly direct contributions to Biblical studies and in many ways elucidate the history of the whole world. Hence my anxiety to collect every small fragment of the geographical lists by which the Pharaohs wished to commemorate their Syrian victories or their diplomatic connections. I therefore thought it also my duty rather to secure final, or at least better, copies of the most important known texts belonging to that category than to search for some new hieroglyphic grafito, such as may easily be found by the patient hunter. Such hunting has its charms and often brings a certain reputation among the unlearned, but we owe to the prevalence of this sport the fact that so many known monuments have disappeared forever, before they could be better recorded for science. To many it may