This vast Necropolis extends from the Pyramids of Gizeh to the southern limit of SaccÀra, a distance of about fifteen miles. The tombs are cut in the solid rock, and frequently communicate with one another, forming a vast subterranean labyrinth. Memphis is well known to be one of the oldest, if not indeed the oldest of the Egyptian cities; and among the tombs now extant Professor Rosellini has found some which bear inscriptions of a date nearly 2300 years before Christ, at which period Memphis must have been a large and flourishing city. The simpler catacombs were probably constructed before the pyramids; for these last could only result from centuries of civilization, and next to the catacombs, are the oldest existing monuments of the human race.

A.—FROM THE PYRAMID OF FIVE STEPS.

In the month of August, 1839, Mr. J. S. Perring, the distinguished Engineer, discovered a fourth entrance to this pyramid, which was found to communicate with a recess at the south-western corner of a large apartment described in his narrative. This communication is a horizontal gallery one hundred and sixty-six feet long, and the recess is seventy feet above the floor. “The southern end of the gallery,” observes Colonel Vyse, “was stopped up with sand; but for the length of one hundred and sixty feet from the interior it was open, and did not seem to have been previously visited, as nearly thirty mummies were found in it apparently undisturbed. They had neither coffins nor sarcophagi, nor, with the exception of three or four, any painted decorations. They crumbled to pieces on being touched, and could not be removed. Mr. Perring, therefore, proceeded to examine them. He found them enclosed in wrappers, with pitch and bitumen; but he did not meet with any of the objects usually deposited with mummies, excepting some of the common stone idols upon the body of the female. He therefore concluded that they were the bodies of persons employed in the building.”^[2]

Fortunately for my inquiries, Mr. Gliddon was at hand when these relics were brought to light, and obtained them of Mr. Perring as a contribution to my researches. With the utmost care on Mr. Gliddon’s part, two of three reached me in safety, but the third was broken into numberless fragments. In fact, the consistence of these bones is but little firmer than unbaked clay, and the animal matter is nearly obliterated. If Mr. Perring’s opinion be correct, that the persons to whom these bodies belonged were coeval with the construction of the pyramid, we may with safety regard them as the most ancient human remains at present known to us. Whether, as that gentleman suggests, they pertained to workmen employed in building the pyramid, I will not pretend to decide; but although they present indifferent intellectual developments, their conformation is that of the Caucasian race.

Plate I., Fig. 1. (Cat. 838.) An oval head with a broad but rather low forehead, moderately elevated vertex, and full occiput. The superciliary ridges are prominent, the orbits oblong-oval, the nasal bones large, salient and aquiline, the teeth vertical and the whole facial structure delicate. The head of a woman of about forty years.^[3]—I. C. 90 cubic inches. F. A. 81°. Pelasgic form.

Plate I., Fig. 2. (Cat. 837.) A large and ponderous skull, with, a broad but low forehead, and very prominent superciliary ridges. The vertex is elevated, the occipital region remarkably full, and the parietal diameter large. The bones of the face are delicately formed, the nose long and aquiline, the orbits rounded, the teeth vertical.—I. C. 97 cubic inches. F. A. 83°. Pelasgic form.

This is the skull of a man who may have reached his fiftieth year. The teeth are much worn, and parts of the sutures nearly obsolete. This person, long antecedent to his death, had received a severe wound over the right orbit, beginning at the nasal bone and extending upwards and outwards nearly two inches, fracturing and depressing both tables of the skull. The consequent deformity is manifest, although the cicatrization is complete.

B.—FROM THE MEMPHITE NECROPOLIS.

Eleven skulls from various mummy pits in the great Necropolis of SaccÀra. In Mr. Gliddon’s memoranda he remarks that these heads were mostly taken from the mummies themselves, and from the best constructed pits; and that having been enclosed in coffins painted and otherwise ornamented with different degrees of care, they probably pertained to the higher class of Egyptians.

Plate II., Fig. 1. (Cat. 808.) A large elongate-oval head, with a broad, high forehead, low coronal region, and strongly aquiline nose. The orbits nearly round; teeth perfect and vertical.—I. C. 97 cubic inches. F. A. 77°. Pelasgic form.

Plate II., Fig. 2. (Cat. 815.) A beautifully formed head, with a forehead high, full, and nearly vertical, a good coronal region, and largely developed occiput. The nasal bones are long and straight, and the whole facial structure delicately proportioned. Age, between thirty and thirty-five years.—I. C. 88 cubic inches. F. A. 81°. Pelasgic form.

Plate II., Fig. 3. (Cat. 812.) Skull of a woman of twenty years? with a beautifully developed forehead, and remarkably thin and delicate structure throughout. The frontal suture remains.—I. C. 82 cubic inches. F. A. 80°. Pelasgic form.

Plate II., Fig. 4. (Cat. 806.) A thin cranium, of a short-oval form; the forehead is broad, the coronal region low, and the whole face prominent. Age, about thirty years. I. C. 83 cubic inches. F. A. 77°. Egyptian form.

Plate II., Fig. 5. (Cat. 814.) Cranium of a man of eighty or ninety years, with a full but rather receding forehead, and strongly developed cranial structure.—I. C. 97 cubic inches. Pelasgic form.

Plate II., Fig. 6. (Cat. 810.) An admirable conformation, as seen in the broad, high forehead, full occiput, and gently aquiline nose. Probably a female of twenty years.—I. C. 86 cubic inches. F. A. 78°. Egyptian form?

Plate II., Fig. 7. (Cat. 805.) A narrow, elongated head, with an indifferent frontal region. A man of fifty?—I. C. 79 cubic inches. F. A. 83°. Pelasgic form.

Plate II., Fig. 8. (Cat. 807.) A large, thin, oval cranium, with a broad, receding forehead, tumid occiput, a long and very aquiline nose, and remarkably prominent face. The frontal suture remains entire. Probably a man of thirty years.—I. C. 88 cubic inches. F. A. 74°. Semitic form.

Plate III., Fig. 2. (Cat. 809.) A female head, with a somewhat receding forehead and low coronal region.—I. C. 81 cubic inches. F. A. 78°. Egyptian form.

Plate III., Fig. 1. (Cat. 811.) A small head, with a narrow frontal region, receding forehead, and broad parietal diameter. A female? of about twenty-five years.—I. C. 73 cubic inches. F. A. 76°. Egyptian form.

(Cat. 813.) Skull of a child of eight years, with a finely developed forehead, tumid occiput and full facial angle. Pelasgic form.

C.—FROM THE FRONT OF THE NORTHERN BRICK PYRAMID OF DASHOUR.

Three skulls exhumed by Mr. Perring from the above mentioned locality in the Memphite Necropolis. They were discovered in the month of August, 1839, in the process of trenching to find an entrance to the pyramid. The following extract from Col. Vyse’s admirable work embraces all the information we possess in relation to these remains, merely premising that none of the mummied heads alluded to has come into my possession.

“At the depth of about four feet six inches, above fifty bodies were found, ten of which were mummies, embalmed and deposited in the usual manner. The others were much decayed, and had been buried in their clothes, and in some instances were bound round with common cord and laid in wooden coffins, or among a few branches of date trees. Some of the clothes were woollen, others coarse linen, with a fringed border of bright scarlet worsted. The heads were covered with bright red network. Mr. Perring imagined that these bodies had belonged to a pastoral people, probably to Bedouins, and that they had been interred, together with the mummies, at a very early period, before the introduction of Christianity.” Vyse, Pyramids, III., p. 60.

These crania, which are remarkably small, possess much of the Egyptian form, and are well represented in the following outlines.