not appear to have been changed.
Rings came into fashion with Amen-hotep IIIrd and died out under
Rameses IInd, the last king whose name we find on a bezel. I do not
deny that relations existed from the most archaic periods between the
people of Mesopotamia and those of Egypt, the discoveries of the
magnificent sculpture in and beautifully incised writing on, green
diorite; one of the hardest, toughest, and heaviest, stones known;
found at Telloh by M. de Sarzec, which had to be brought in large
blocks from the quarries of Sinai; take us back to the most remote
period, in which we have any knowledge of the inhabitants of Lower
Mesopotamia. One of the most wonderful ancient statues in existence is
that of king Khaf-Ra of the IVth Dynasty, the Khephren of the Greek
writers, builder of the second Great Pyramid of Gizeh, (_circa_ 3666
B.C.,) now in the Museum of Gizeh, Egypt. This statue, a full sized
portrait-statue, is made of green diorite highly polished and is a
magnificent work of Egyptian art. Its base is inscribed: "Image of the
Golden Horus, Khephren, beautiful god, lord of diadems."[43] This
shows, that the Egyptians worked the quarries of diorite at Sinai and
sculptured in it, about 4000 B.C.[44] The figures found at Telloh are
in a seated position, are sculptured in archaic Egyptian style, and
are covered with beautifully incised writing.[45]
I also know from the cuneiform inscriptions, that relations existed
between the First Empire of Chaldea and the pharaohs of the Great
Pyramids of Gizeh, as early as the reign of the Chaldean king
Naram-Sin; (_circa_ 3755 B.C.) Subsequent to the periods cited, there
exist a number of historical facts showing the knowledge of each
other, possessed by the inhabitants of the valley of the Nile and the
people of Mesopotamia.[46]
The same specialist in Oriental glyptics, says: "The efforts of some
learned men to discover traces of a reciprocal influence have been
fruitless. The pyramids of Egypt have no affinity with those of
Chaldea, the sculpture of Egypt does not resemble in anything that of
Nineveh or Caleh; would the glyptic art have escaped that individual
development which characterizes the two peoples? I think not; at least
we have no proof of it."[47]
And a very erudite archaeologist of our day, Hodder M. Westropp, holds;
that the Assyrian cylinders came into that country from Egypt and did
not come from Assyria into Egypt.[48]
Scarabs went out of use under t
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