Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/336

 ORIENTAL

3Q4

ORIENTAL

Gabriel Oussani in the "New York Review", "The Code of Haniinurabi", Aug.-Sept., 1905; "The Code of Hammurabi and the Mosaic Legishition", Doc, 1905-Jan., 1906.) In 18S4 the first Aniciicun exjiedi- tion was sent to liabylonia under the auspices of the Areha-ologieal Institute of America, and under the direction of W. H. Ward. In l.ss.s tlie liabylonian Exploration Fund, organized in riuladelphia, w!is sent out under the dire<-tion of Dr. John Peters in the interests of the Iniversity of Pennsylvania. The site ehosen was Xi]!pur, and the work of excavation was continued at intervals mainly on this site until 1900. These expeditions resulted in the recovery of more than 40,000 inscriptions, clay tablets, stone monu- ments etc. The vast amount of material brought to light by the excavations in Assyria and Babylonia powerfully stimulated the ardour of students of Assyriology both in Europe and America. The limits of the present article will allow but the mention of a few distinguished names.

In Germany. — Eberhard Scrader (1836) has been called the father of German Assyriology. Succes- sively professor at Zurich, Giessen, Jena, and Berlin (1875), he has WTitten many works on the subject, among which: "Die Assyrisch-Babylonisch Keilin- schriften" (1872, tr. "The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament", 1885-9); " Keilinschrif ten und Geschichtsforschung" (1878); "Zur Frage nach dem UrsprungderAltbabylonischerKultur" (1884). Other German scholars of note are Hugo Winckler (Alt- testamentliche Untersuchen, Leipzig, 1892, etc.); Friederich Delitsch (Grammar, Lexicon etc.), J. Jere- mias, B. G. Niebuhr, F. Hommel, F. Kaulen (Assy- rien und Babylonien nach dem neuesten Entdeckun- gen, PVeiburg, 1899, etc.), C. P. Tiele, Miirdter, Brunnow, Peiser etc. In France. — F. Lenormant (Etudes cuneiformes, 5 parts, Paris, 1878-80); J. Menant (Ninive et Babylon, Paris, 1887); Hal^vy (Documents religieux de I'Assyrie et de la Babv- lonie, Paris, 1882); V. Scheil, O. P. (Textes Elam- ites, 3 vols., Paris, 1901-04); Rev. F. Martin (Tex- tes religieux Assyriens et Babyloniens, Paris, 1900); F. Thureau-Dangin (Recherches sur I'Origine de I'ecri- ture cunciforme, Paris, 1893), oppcrt, Loisy, Fossey etc. In England. — Sir H. Rawlinson (Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, 5 vols., 1861-1SS4, etc.) ; A. H. Sayce (Higher Criticism and the Monuments, London, 1894, etc.); L.W.King (Letters and Inscrip- tions of Hammurabi . . . and other Kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, London, 1898-1900); C. W. Johns, T. G. Pinches, J. A. Craig etc. In America. — Besides the scholars already referred to may be mentioned R. W. Rogers (History of Babylonia and Assyria, I, New York, 1900); H. V. Hilprecht (Ex- plorations in Bible Lands during the Nineteenth Century, New York, 1903); Paul Haupt (numerous publications); R. F. Harper, M. Jastrow, C. Johnston, J. D. Lyon, J. D. Prince etc.

Egyptian, Research. — Modern Oriental research in the Valley of the Nile began in 1798 with the Egyp- tian campaign of Napoleon, who with characteristic foresight invited M. Gaspard Monge (1746-1818) with a corps of savants and artists to join the expedi- tion. The results of their observations were published at the expense of the French Government (1809-13) in .several folio volumes under the title: "Description de I'Egypte", but the numerous specimens collected by these scientists fell into the hands of the English after the naval battle of .Vboukir and formed later the nucleus of the Egyptian department of the British Museum. The mysterious hieroglyphic characters which they exhibited were soon inaxle the object of inten.se study both in England and France and the famous Rosetta Stone which bears a trilingual in- scription (in Greek, in the Egyptian demotic script, and in the hieroglj-phic writing) furni.shed a key to the meaning of the latter, which was discovered almost

simultaneously in France bv J. Fran5oi8 Champollion (1791-1832), and in England by Thomas Young (1773- 1<S27). Thus the Rosetta inscription (embodying a part of a decree of Ptolemy \' I^piphanes, 205-181 B. c.) stands in the same relation to the discoveries bearing on the literature and <'ivilization of ancient Egypt iis does the Heliistun in.-^cription with regard to the antique treasures discovered in A.s.syria ati(l Baby- lonia. ChampoUion's discovery aroused a great in- terest in Egyptian inscriptions and in 1.S2S tlie Frencii scholar was sent to Egypt together with l{oseilini at the head of a Franco-Italian expedition which proved most fruitful in scientific results. A German expedi- tion under the direction of Lepsius was sent out in 1840 to study Egyptian monuments in relation to Bible history, and in addition to explorations made in Egypt and Ethiopia a visit was made to the Sina- itic peninsula. In 1850 Auguste Mariette, a French savant, made the remarkable discovery of the tombs of the sacred Apis bulls at Memphis together with thousands of memorial inscriptions. In 1857 he was appointed director of the museum of antiquities newly establisheti in Cairo, and at the same time he received from the khedive the exclusive right of excavating in Egyptian territory for scientific purposes — a right which he exercised until his death in 1880. The results of his explorations were enormous and the science of Egyptology probably owes more to Mariette than to any other scholar. He was succeeded by another eminent French scholar, G. Maspero, and the explora- tions still remaining in the hands of the French were carried on systematically and with steady success; but under the new administration permission was given to representatives of other nations to conduct excava- tions and, with certain restrictions, to export the re- sults of their findings. The Egyptian Exploration fund was organized in England in 1883, and after e.\- cavations in the Delta on the site of the Biblical city of Pithom and of the Greek city of Naukratis, the work of the society was transferred in 1896 to Upper Egypt. At that time also the excavations were placed under the direction of W. Flinders Petrie who has achieved astonishing results, especially in recon- structing in accordance with the testimony of the monuments the account of ancient P>gyptian !ii.«tory, which he has carried back to a period antedating the reign of the formerly-supposed mythical king Menes, founder of the first Egyptian dynasty. Independent expeditions were also fitted out by Swiss, Germans, and Americans, and the Orient Gesellschaft organized in 1899 has conducted systematic explorations at various points in the Orient. Among the almost incredible number of objects brought to light by the Egyptian explorers, and which besides filling the new and enlarged museum of Cairo built in 19(52, go to make up numerous and important collections in Europe and America, may be mentioned the many papyrus documents (e. g. the Logia of Jesus, various apocal>'pses, heretical gospels, etc.), which throw light on early Christian history and on the period immedi- ately preceding it. The abundance and historic im- portance of the treasures found in the land of the Pharaohs caused a great number of European scholars to devote their attention to the study of Egyptology. In addition to the names already referred to the fol- lowing are taken at random from a list of scholars far too numerous to be even mentioned in the present ar- ticle. G. Perrot and C. Chippiez (History of Art in Ancient Egypt, 2 vols., London, 1883); P. Renouf (Translation of the Book of the Dead, parts i-iv, London, 1893-95, completed by E. Naville, 1907); E. A. W. Budge (The Mummy: Chapters on Egyptian Funeral Archeology. Cambridge, 1873; The Book of the Dead, 3 vols., London, 1898); W. Max Muller (Asien und Europa nach altiigyptischen Denkma- lem, Leipzig, 1S93); J. de Morgan (Recherches sur les origines de I'Egypte, Paris, 1895-96); J. M. Broderick