Crania AEgyptiaca / Or, Observations on Egyptian Ethnography Derived from Anatomy, History and the Monuments

2. THE PELASGIC RACE. [63]

The proofs that people of the Pelasgic stock were in early times the rulers of Egypt is attested by history and the monuments. Manetho states that the XVI. dynasty was composed “Of thirty-two Hellenic shepherd kings, ([Greek: poimenes EllÊnes basileis],^[64]) who reigned five hundred and eighteen years.” It is not to be supposed that the number of either kings or years is accurately given: all that is necessary to our purpose is the main fact of Hellenic dominion in Egypt, which is moreover sustained by monumental evidence; for happily the tombs and temples preserve the portraits of the Nilotic sovereigns, executed with so much individuality of feature and expression, as to leave little doubt of the general fidelity of the likenesses. These effigies, which are now indelibly preserved in the great works of Champollion and Rosellini, present the following interesting results.^[65]

The oldest identified human effigy now extant is that on the Tablet of Wady Halfa, preserved in the gallery of Florence.^[66] This venerable relic, which has been satisfactorily proved to date more than two thousand two hundred years before the Christian era,^[67] represents Osortasen the First in the form of Ammon, and receiving from the god Monthou (Mars) the people of Lybia bound with cords as captive nations.

The features of the king are strictly Pelasgic; and the facial angle, (allowing for the unnatural elevation of the ear,) measures upwards of eighty degrees. It is also remarkable that this head is strikingly like those of the Ptolemaic sovereigns of Egypt, and especially corresponds in every feature with the portrait of Ptolemy Euergetes II., although eighteen centuries elapsed between their respective reigns. We therefore recur to our proposition, that whether this effigy be a portrait or not, it at least proves that the artists of those primeval times derived their ideas of the human countenance from Caucasian models.

The next of these heads which can be identified with its epoch, is that of Amunoph I. This again presents a fine cast of European features; such, in fact, as would embellish a Grecian statue; and yet this monarch reigned in the valley of the Nile, and held his court in Memphis more than eighteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. (Plate XIV., Fig. 1.) And if from this remote period we trace the physiognomy of the kings and queens of the subsequent reigns, we perceive among them many equally beautiful models, some of which are not inferior to the beau ideal of classic art. Take, for example, the heads of Menepthah and Rameses III., in the character of priest,—Rameses X., Rameses XI., and Amenmeses,—the queens Nofre-Ari, and Nitocris, and the daughter of Phisham (or PihmÉ,) the regent priest, and let me ask among what people we shall find more graceful facial lines, or more varied intellectual expression? (Plate XIV.)

It may be suggested that in some of these heads the Pelasgic character is not wholly unmixed, and especially in reference to Amunoph the First. In this instance there is something of the Egyptian, or, as Professor Blumenbach would express it, the Hindoo physiognomy. I wish it to be understood, however, that I do not assert all these sovereigns to have been of the Pelasgic or Japetic stock; for some of them, as Rameses the Third, and Menepthah the First, are on other occasions represented with decidedly Egyptian features. These mixed and varied Caucasian lineaments may perhaps have been derived from the antecedent Hellenic kings, who in giving place again to the native Egyptians, must doubtless have left their national characteristics more or less blended with those of the indigenous families.

The following heads, which are all of strictly Caucasian proportions, are fac simile copies from Rosellini. They are derived from groups of figures engaged in various mechanical and other operations, as represented in the tombs and temples of Thebes, and various other parts of Egypt.

The annexed head, (1) that of a reaper, is one of a great number executed in bas-relief in the celebrated tombs of Eilethyas, which possess a greater interest and value in ethnography on account of their venerable antiquity; for they date with and before the eighteenth dynasty, and consequently are at least three thousand six hundred years old.^[68] The great French work, (DÉscription de l’Egypte,) contains an extended series of illustrations from the same remarkable tombs in which a similar cast of features is almost every where apparent.^[69]

The same style of face is not less decidedly expressed in another head (2) from Rosellini,^[70] of which the original painting is preserved in the Royal Gallery at Florence. It represents an artisan. How admirably do the features conform to the Grecian type!

I repeat the remark, and yet more emphatically, in reference to the admirable battle scene at Abousimbel, of the age of Rameses the Third, wherein eighty soldiers are depicted in a single group, each one bearing a shield and spear.^[71] Are they mercenaries from one of the Hellenic tribes? I select the two subjoined examples; (3) for a close resemblance pervades them all. Here again every line is Grecian; and yet when these paintings were executed, the wandering Pelasgi had hardly begun to associate themselves in civilized communities, and the arts of Greece were unknown.

Paintings of a similar ethnographic character are seen in profusion at Beni-Hassan, whence is derived the annexed outline, representing one of the leather-dressers of that group. The straight line for the nose and forehead is strictly Pelasgic, and conforms in most respects to the other facial traits. (4)

The same general physiognomy is often much more rudely expressed, as in the tomb of Imai, at Gizeh, which is of the age of Shufo, of the fourth dynasty, and consequently the period of disputed chronology. Rude as these figures are, and identified with an humble sphere of life, they have the Caucasian form, and partake of the same ethnographic lineaments with the more elaborately finished

outlines delineated above. It may be observed, with respect to Egyptian art, that while the bas-reliefs are for the most part executed with remarkable beauty and precision, the paintings, owing to the use of a single colour, and the absence of perspective or shading, are often coarse and defective; and the two annexed drawings will serve to illustrate this negligent style of art.

It is thus that we trace the Pelasgic type of feature and expression through all the various castes of the Egyptian population, beginning with kings and ending with peasants and plebeians. The illustrations have been purposely selected from those remote times wherein chronology becomes confusion, down to the later periods of recorded history,—a vast period of thirteen centuries, of which the latest date looks back nine hundred years before the birth of Christ!

People of Pelasgic features and complexion are often seen on the monuments as prisoners taken in war. One of these is copied, Plate XIV., Fig. 23. It is from Abousimbel, and dates with Rameses III. The very fair skin, regular features and black hair seem to point to a nation of southern Europe. The nose is nearly straight, and on the same line with the forehead, although the latter recedes more than is consistent with our ideas of the Grecian profile.^[72]

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