Granite monolithic shrine dedicated to the goddess Isis of Philae by Ptolemy IX (?), Euergetes II, B.C. 147-117.

[Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 30, No. 962.]

Frenchman Champollion read the name Cleopatra, and formulated a correct system of Egyptian decipherment. (For details see page 41 ff.) During the reign of Ptolemy V, the Egyptians invoked the protection of Rome.

Ptolemy VI, Eupator, died the year he became king. During the reign of Ptolemy VII, Philometor (B.C. 173), the Jews were permitted to build a temple at Onion, Onias being high-priest. (For a stele on which are sculptured figures

Head of a statue of one of the Ptolemies, about B.C. 300. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 27, No. 947.]

of Ptolemy VII and the two Queens Cleopatra, see Bay 27, No. 961.) Ptolemy VIII was murdered. Ptolemy IX, Euergetes II, B.C. 147-117, finished the temple of Edfû, and repaired many temples both in Egypt and Nubia. From one of these came the fine monolithic granite shrine (see Plate L) in which a sacred bird or animal was kept (Bay 30,

No. 962). It was found lying on its side among the ruins of a Coptic church on the Island of Philae; it had been utilized by the builders of the church as the base of a Christian altar. Ptolemy X, B.C. 117, conferred great benefits on the temples of the First Cataract (see Bay 29, No. 963); Ptolemy XI and Ptolemy XII were killed in B.C. 87 and 81 respectively; Ptolemy XIII, B.C. 80-51, began to build the temples of Denderah and Esna; Ptolemy XIV, B.C. 51, and his sister Cleopatra were left by their father, Ptolemy XIII, under the guardianship of the Roman Senate, and Pompey was made their guardian. After the battle of Pharsalia, Pompey fled to Egypt, and was murdered at the instance of Ptolemy XIV, who had banished his wife Cleopatra. In B.C. 48, Julius Caesar landed in Egypt, defeated Ptolemy, who was drowned, and reinstated Cleopatra. Ptolemy XV was appointed co-regent; but he was murdered by Cleopatra's orders in B.C. 45, and Ptolemy XVI, Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, was named co-regent in his stead. After the defeat of Antony by Octavianus and the death of Antony and Cleopatra, Egypt became a Roman Province, B.C. 30.

The Egyptian antiquities of the Ptolemaic Period in the British Museum consist chiefly of Stelae inscribed with funerary texts; they are comparatively small in size, and are painted in bright colours. The reliefs, in which the figures of the gods are represented, are delicately cut,and the hieroglyphics have the slender form which is one of the chief characteristics of the inscriptions of the period. The texts often contain the ages of the deceased persons, and details concerning the length of time occupied in the process of mummification, which are wholly wanting in the funerary monuments of an earlier period. Among the gods mentioned on the stelae is Serapis, who represents a fusion of the old Egyptian gods, Osiris and Apis. (For figures of this god in terra-cotta see Table-case M in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) The stone coffins of the period are in the form of a mummy, and are usually carefully cut and finished. We have already seen that two important edicts of the priests of Memphis and Canopus were cut on stelae in two forms of Egyptian writing, viz., hieroglyphic and demotic, and in Greek; there are also several examples of funerary monuments in the British Museum in which the hieroglyphic text is followed by a rendering in demotic and Greek. In the case of small objects, e.g., mummy labels, the inscriptions are in demotic and Greek only.

Among the noteworthy monuments of this period are: A statue of the goddess Isis, holding before her a figure of Osiris,

whom she protects with her wings, dedicated to the goddess by one Shashanq (Bay 28, No. 964); massive green granite beetle, symbol of Kheperȧ, the self-produced god, the creator of the universe, and the type of resurrection (Central Saloon, No. 965); stone serpent, with the bust of a woman (Bay 32, No. 966); green basalt coffin of the lady Ankhet (Bay 29, No. 967) and the limestone coffin of Hes-Peṭān-Ast (Bay 26, No. 968); limestone window from the clerestory of the temple of

Limestone window with mullions in the form of pillars with Hathor-headed capitals. From the temple at Denderah.

[Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 25, No. 972.]

Ptolemaic Period.

Denderah (Bay 25, No. 972); and a marble sun-dial from Alexandria (Bay 29, No. 976). An interesting group of stelae, with demotic inscriptions, is exhibited in Bay 27 (Nos. 983-990); and in Bay 29 (No. 994) is the stele of Euonymos, with an inscription in Greek and demotic. Among the stelae which give the ages of deceased persons may be noted those of Her-abu, a priest of king Sahu-Ra (?), who lived fifty years, seven months, and five days (Bay 30, No. 995); Tashermut,

N