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Excavations at Tell Basta, the ancient Bubastis. A little to the south of Zagazig, Mr Naville and Mr Griffith have made important discoveries. Bubastis was the seat of the worship of Bast or Pasht, the cat-headed goddess, whose temple is described by Herodotus as the most beautiful in Egypt. It was surrounded, he tells us, by a low wall, having figures engraved upon it. Here, accordingly, in April 1887, our explorers began their work, in the rectangular depression surrounded on all sides by the mounds of houses, which must have been higher than the temple. In a short time they disclosed the site of a grand hypostyle hall, strewn with fallen monolithic columns of twelfth dynasty workmanship, and a hall without columns, but lined, as it should seem, with elaborate bas-relief sculptures representing a great religious ceremony, and containing tens of thousands of minutely-executed hieroglyphic inscriptions. The columns and the architraves of the hypostyle hall, though of an earlier period, are emblazoned with the ovals of Rameses II. (nineteenth dynasty). The inscriptions of the festival hall commemorate Osorkon II., of the twenty-second dynasty, and his Queen Karoama. Besides the two historical landmarks thus determined, various blocks bearing the names of Usertesen III. and Pepi Merira testified to the existence of the edifice not only in the days of the first great Theban Empire, but in the very remote age of the Pyramid kings of the sixth dynasty. At the same time a small tentative excavation at the western extremity of the site yielded the name and titles of Nectanebo I., of the thirtieth and last native dynasty. Such being the outcome of but four weeks’ labour at the close of the season, it seemed reasonable to hope for important results when the excavations should be resumed. This hope was more than fulfilled in 1888. As the work in this instance was not carried on in the desert, but quite near to a busy railway station, many travellers visited the place. The scene was curiously picturesque. “Here, grouped together on the verge of the great cemetery of Sacred Cats, are the tents of the officers of the Fund; yonder, swarming like bees at the bottom of the huge crater-like depression which marks the area of the temple, are seen some three to four hundred labourers—diggers in the trenches and pits, basket-carriers clearing away the soil as it is thrown out, overseers to keep the diggers at work, ‘pathway-men’ to keep the paths open and the carriers moving, gangs of brawny ‘Shayalîn,’ or native porters, harnessed together by stout ropes, and hauling or turning sculptured blocks which have not seen the light for many centuries; girls with bowls of water and sponges, to wash down the carved surfaces preparatory to the process of taking paper ‘squeezes;’ and small boys to run errands, help with the measuring tapes, and keep guard over the tents and baggage. With so many hands at work and so many overseers to keep them going, it is not wonderful that the excavations make rapid progress. The two large pits which were opened last season are now thrown into one, and are being enlarged from east to west, following the axis of the structure. The sides are also being cleared, and before another month shall have expired the whole temple—of which, apparently, not one stone remains upon another—will be visible from end to end. Its entire length is probably about 700 or 800 feet; but measurements, of course, are as yet purely conjectural.”