3513660147

SOMETH1NG WHICH HERODOTUS MAY HAVE SEEN

[PLANCHE 9]

BY l.E.S. EDWARDS

The limestone błock illustrated on Platę 9 measures 82.5 x 32cms. Its provenancc is gencrally given as Abydos, but this ascription will be questioned in the course of the present article. It has a slightly sunken border at the top and sides, but not at the basc, which is rough, thus suggesting that it was a bottom błock in a dccoratcd wali. Carvcd on the raised surface in reliefów creux is part of a funeral procession consisting of four men accompanied by a boy, the men carrying a chest on their shoulders, a group of małe mourners and a group of female mourners. It was bought by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1837 at Sotheby’s auction of the antiquities collected by Giovanni d’Athanasi¹. According to a statement in the cataloguc of an cxhibition of Athanasfs collection held in London some time before the auction², Roscllini had seen the piece in Romę and had expressed the opinion that it showed «a Jewish funeral procession». The writer of the catalogue adds that this opinion is supported by «thc total dissimilarity of the figures here represented tothosefound in thesepulchral tablets of the Egyptians; and also from the peculiar costume in which they are habited». Although Rosellini's guess w^fas manifestly very wide of the mark, the comment by the writer of the catalogue is still fairly true at the present day : no very elose parallel has yet comc to light.

A hundred years after the exhibition the interest of the piece was briefly noted by Marcelle Werbrouck, who wrote : «Ce fragment n’est pas banał du tout. S’il provient reellement d’une paroi de tombe et de la necropolc d'Abydos, il est absolument uniquc de cette especc. Nous scrons prudents quant a la provenance, mais nous louerons sans rescrve cette frise donnant, dans le calcaire, un sous-relief dans le style elegant de rćpoque qui rappclle singulićrcment d’ailleurs la periode post-amarnienne. Un groupe de femmes, d'hommcs et d'enfants suivent un naos ferme porte sur les epaules de quatre pretres. Les pleureuses ont des atlitudes conventionnelles: mains aux tempes ou sur la tete, bras en avant, buste ploye pour ramasser la poussiere. Trois des hommes et, ce qui est rarc, les deux garęonnets, font un geste identiquc de lamentations»³.

1

   Lol 134. Scc Budgc, British Museum. A Guide to the Egyptian Galleries (Sculpturej, 1909. p. 237 (N° 326); Monlcl, Lives of the Pharoohs, p. 258-9; Marcelle Werbrouck. Les Pleureuses dans PŚgypte ancienne. p. 90 and pl. 47.

2

   Exhibition Catalogue of Giovanni dAthanasis Collection of Egyptian Antiquities. p. 39 (No. 598). This cxhibition was arranged by Lcigh Sothcby and held in ihc L^:.xcter Hall. Slrand. No datę is menlioned on the litle-pagc of the catalogue. but the British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books gives 1836 (?).

3

   See n. I.