The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen

Abstract

THE startling discoveries of the royal mummies in the pit of the Deir-el-Bahari has already been the subject of great interest, and cast an unexpected light on the history of embalming and the vicissitudes of the dead as well as the living, revealing the unexpected transport of the monarchs from their costly chambers and sarcophagi of the Biban-el-Molouk to the Deir-el-Bahari in the fifth year of a monarch named Herhor, of the 21st dynasty, one of that line of ambitious pontiffs who, at a time of national decay, mounted the Egyptian throne. That the tomb of the Deir-el-Bahari was the resting-place of Herhor himself and his family appears from the discovery of their mummies at the same site along with 6000 sepulchral objects, some of which are already filtering to Europe, and others discovered at least ten years ago, already enrich the collections of the Louvre. The numerous duplicates of the smaller and portable objects can neither be all retained in the country, nor is it desirable they should be in the interests of science, for the interest would be languid which allowed them all to remain on the banks of the Nile. The reason why these arehæological treasures were deposited in the Deir-el-Bahari is quite uncertain, and as the hieratic inscriptions on the shrouds only speak of their removal and condition, the cause is likely for the present to remain undiscovered. The Deir-el-Bahari was built by Thothmes I., II., Hatasu, the ambitious queen, and her warlike brother Thothmes III., as it was a spot especially favoured by the 18th dynasty. Probably the 21st dynasty was descended by the female line from the 18th, for families do not readily become extinct in that direction, and there are living descendants of the Plantagenets at the present day. The resumption of the titular names of the 18th dynasty by the 21st also points to a connection between the two families, although it is difficult to conceive the precise point from which it started. As however the first monarch of the 21st had been a prince of Kush or Æthiopia, and these princes or viceroys were continued in a lineal descent during the 18th and 19th dynasties, it may perhaps be the case that Pinotem I. and II. were descended by that family from the monarchs of the 18th dynasty.