The Ptolemaic
and
Roman
Periods
(from 331
b.c. onwards).
been submitted to mummification, a rite which was much rarer on the whole than the
ordinary reader is accustomed to suppose. The mummification was rough and coarse,
and none of the individuals can have been of high rank or considerable wealth; one is
described in his epitaph as a ‘ goldworker,’ another as a ‘ hunter, and others again as
‘ stewards’ or sons of stewards. No doubt they occupied very much the same social
position as the people who were buried at Denderah in the old days of the Sixth to
Twelfth Dynasties. The tombs were chambers some five or six feet below the ground,
which were entered by a small stairway. Rows of mummies were stacked inside, often as
many as a dozen and sometimes more. There was very little tomb-furniture, and the
only personal ornaments were amulets of blue glazed pottery and beads of the same
material. Slabs of sandstone bearing inscriptions and roughly sculptured with offerings
were often placed in the tomb; and stone or wooden labels were sometimes attached to
the neck of the mummy. The inscriptions were almost all in Demotic, which shows that
though their blood may have been mixed the native element predominated in the ordinary
life of the Tentyrites; and the names, so far as they have been preserved, are with one or
two exceptions quite Egyptian in form.
From the same site there were obtained numerous specimens of the Roman period.
The discoveries of various antiquities and of three hoards of coins show that Roman
influence continued at Tentyra down to at least the reign of Valentinian III (455 a .d .).
It was a garrison town, as is shown by a record of the year 302 a .d ., and must always have
been a place of some importance. The figures of Roman Emperors, Caligula, Nero, and
Trajan, are sculptured on the walls of the temple, accompanied by all the attributes and
titles of Egyptian kings. For the archaeologist, however, the history of Egypt ends with
the Ptolemies. The graves of the Roman time at Denderah contained no tomb-furniture,
and other sites have yielded few objects of artistic value \ Standards of taste sunk lower
and lower until at last the moribund art of ancient Egypt expired as Coptic barbarism.
For the historian there is a new interest in tracing the fate of the Roman province
and in studying the details of a government which has left indelible marks on the
organization of the country. Such subjects, however, belong properly to other branches of
knowledge than those with which this volume is concerned. On its absorption into the
Roman Empire Egypt loses its unique interest at the same time as its independence;
and the transference of allegiance from Rome to Byzantium (364 a.d.) precedes by less
than three centuries the Arab conquest and the beginnings of mediaeval history.
1 T h e encaustic mummy-portraits o f Hawara, and the finely-modelled stucco head from Hou, are quite
exceptional.
The Ptolemaic
and
Roman
Periods
(from 331
B.c. onwards).