Since it was Egypt very probably that gave to culture the conception of immortality, there seems to be peculiar poetic justice in the fact of her having immortalized herself as no other early civilization. The cult of the dead, her most dominant and persistent concern, made the tomb the depositing center of her civilization, and except for this fact probably nothing would have remained to solve in any concrete way the historical problem of Egyptian life and culture.
From Napata, in the extreme south, to Gizeh, near Cairo, a distance of eleven hundred miles, scattered at intervals that are closing up with each new discovery are the graveyards of the dynasties of this characteristically death-worshipping civilization. Elsewhere, for the most part, the tomb merely preserves relics of ancient civilization, but here in Egypt it expresses as well the gist of the culture. It is the mind and spirit of Egyptian culture that are quite as definitely recorded there as are the more material elements of the civilization. And for this reason, I fancy, it will not so much longer be regarded an unwarranted intrusion in Egypt for the philosopher to flock with the archeologist. Indeed the problems of Egyptian archeology are now not so much those of discovery as those of interpretation; and from having been for so long a question of the search for evidence, the burden of scholarship is on the verge of turning to those interpretive problems which are in the fields of comparative art, comparative religion and comparative sociology. So with this not only is the general interest in the study of Egyptian civilization widening, but its scientific import and cultural significance are proportionately deepening. Every one senses the approach of a new phase, perhaps a new era in the development of the sciences of man, and no one will risk under-rating the importance of Egyptian sources and evidence.
Fortunately for my comprehension of the wonders of Luxor, the greatest necropolis of ancient Egypt, I had by rather unusual itinerary seen most of the other tomb-sites of the Nile Valley. The impressive message of Thebes was therefore but a climactic expression of what had been seen at Napata, Meroe, Abu-Simmel, Assouan, Beni-Hassan, Gow-el-Kebir, Tel-el-Amarna Sakkara, and Gizeh. It is essentially the same story from the crude predynastic grave-mound to the colossal towering pyramids, from the hasty cave dug-out to the elaborate rock-cut tomb-chambers that pattern an underground temple of death,—the desperately painstaking search after a naively pictured immortality, and the effort to pay to the dead an enduring homage which would ensure it. It is at Luxor that this cult reaches its climax. For several dynasties, from the eighteenth to the twentieth, Thebes was the burial ground of the great Pharaohs. Safely removed from the flooding of the river bed, tucked into the saddle-back sides of the most conspicuous range of cliffs in that section, we have here a place that for over five hundred years was the scene of the almost constant tomb-building labor of the Egyptian royal works. It is a veritable Gibraltar of the dead, with its two valleys honeycombed with royal tombs, and the saddle-back between them tunneled like an ant-hill with the innumerable graves of the princely families that were permitted such honorable burials. From the plain of Thebes, the open tombs on the hillside give the appearance of some deserted monastic colony, with tier after tier of anchorite cells, their open doorways sharply etched against the glittering sandy brown of the hillside. From a distance this ensemble is more impressive than any of the single tombs, for one then gets the full impression of all and reverence with which this colony of the dead has been permanently invested by those for whom this was both the resting place of monarchs and of gods. Modern sophistication breaks down between intervals of disillusionment,—one moment it is a sultry rubbish heap, the next an awesome and almost uncanny precinct,—but to the sensitive, suggestible mind, the atmosphere is at times almost overpowering so vitally has awe and respect and wonder lingered from the faith of those to whom it was incontestably vital and real.
Here within close range of one another, and bringing the quite incongruous atmosphere of the mining camp are the various concessions of the leading archeological organizations of the world, among them the Carnarvon concession that, with the phenomenal luck of the newcomer, has had the good fortune of making the richest single find. For years Thebes has been yielding up its secrets before the painstaking arduous workings of many great expeditions; tomb after tomb and several temple-sites have been thoroughly excavated. Possibly through haste, possibly through secretive shrewdness, there had been dug for the young monarch Tut-ankh-amen a tomb out of alignment with the imposing rock-cut structures in the flanks of the hillsides in the Valley of the Kings. By this lucky chance there has been left his tomb as the only unplundered Egyptian royal sepulchre ever to be discovered. Enviable publicity has come to the Carnarvon expedition thereby, and very much older and even more important scientific work as from the public point of view shone in its reflected glory. Except that they all will profit eventually from the very special interest and impetus that the discovery has given to archeological investigation, this is essentially unfair. But back of the intense rivalry is the common scientific interest, and in addition a spirit of good sportsmanship that is remarkable, especially when we realize that the magnitude of the find so taxed the slender resources and equipment of the Carnarvon expedition that but for the cooperation of other experts and specialists the work could not have been successfully handled.
The tombs of the immediate vicinity, excavated in the series of years since work began under Mariette in 1860, are open freely to public inspection under the official Department of Antiquities, under whom is now also placed since the trouble between the government and the management of the Carnarvon expedition, the tomb of Tut-ankh-amen. Their inspection forms a fitting and necessary background for the precious and hasty glimpse which is all that circumstances permit of the still uncleared anti-chamber and partly bared shrine chamber of Tut-ankh-amen’s tomb. There were genuine scientific reasons for the rigid control and general exclusion of visitors, in that in the narrow confines of the passage-ways any visitors meant an interruption of work which is at best carried out under the most adverse conditions of temperature, light, and elbow-room. How the original workmen of the tomb and shrine construction worked under such circumstances is an amazing mystery, for the cleverest modern ingenuity and appliances were necessary for the removal of what must have been equally, if not more difficult to assemble. Incidentally, rather more than incidentally, perhaps, this ancient mystery has become complicated by a most modern problem,—for it was not the scientific reasonableness of Mr. Carter’s restrictions that led to the controversy and breach with the Egyptian government. Instead it was the question of Egyptian national pride, newly asserting itself after the victory of the nationalist party, galled by the preferential treatment of the English press and of foreign visitors, and chronically piqued by the assertion of authority which until recently had had to be tolerated. Only a diplomat and someone possessed of tactful sympathy and almost oriental courtesy could hope to be successful in such a situation with the present state of political and national feeling in Egypt, and Mr. Carter’s best friends cannot claim diplomacy, tact, sympathy or even courtesy as among his outstanding qualities. The breach was inevitable,—it was but a matter of accident that it should have happened at a time when excitement was at its height and nerves at greatest tension over the opening of the granite sarcophagus itself. Strangely enough, this now famous incident brought into temporary and perhaps permanent control the French officials of the Department of Antiquities,—Mon. Pierre Lacau and Professor Georges Foucart, the latter of whom is a most sympathetic advocate of the study of African origins by native students, and who has made to Howard University through the French Institute of Oriental Archeology, of which he is Director, the generous offer of supervising a program of comparative studies in African archeology, and of accepting, when organized, a Howard University Mission to further this project. There is really the disposition on the part of Egyptians at present to do their own research, and if foreign guidance must be accepted, it is the more humane and considerate Frenchman to whom they naturally turn. Though it is not yet legally decided, either under the auspices of the official department or those of a chastened and more officially controlled Mr. Carter, the further excavation of the tomb will be carried out.
Tut-ankh-amen’s tomb may yet contain many more secrets than it has already revealed—but two of peculiar significance are already assured,—one is the evidence of an extraordinary and apparent sudden flowering in the artistry of this period as gauged by comparison with the craftsmanship of the tombs of the immediate predecessors, and the other is evidence of the complete assemblage for the first time in an intact condition of the ancient royal cult of the dead. Which of the two will be of greater importance cannot yet be clearly determined. However, it is safe to assume from the character of the art-objects discovered that another great classical period of human art has been revealed. These objects already displayed in part at the Cairo Museum are not merely fine in one aspect of art, they are indeed the most richly composite art in the world, and only a certain wizardry of craftsmanship keeps them from being in bad taste as too ornate, elaborate and mixed. For they combine the arts of the jeweler, carver, lacquer and inlay work, embossing, engraving, and sculpture. It seems the most marvelously composite art in existence, but it is art nevertheless, of a fine, almost classical expression because of the balance of its various elements and its technical perfection.
The great problem will be to account for this strange outflowering, this first great cultural renaissance. What social conditions, what cultural influences produced it? Already the conjectures of the archeologists are turning toward various known sources for clues. But wherever the impetus came from, it was, we must remember, focalized here in an African setting and in a polyglot civilization that must have included more African, and possibly even Negro components than will ordinarily be admitted, so wide-spread is the impression that nothing profoundly cultural can come out of Africa even though it may be found in Africa. Already the hypothesis of Syrian influence is gaining considerable ground as the responsible art influence, but it is interesting to note even from Mr. Carter the assertion that the impetus may have come from the east by way of the south. What seems to me most likely as an outcome after all the hypotheses have had their chance will be a confirmation of the broadest and most natural of all hypotheses,—namely, that great cultures are the result invariably of the fusion of several cultures, the impetus given to one culture by contact with others,—the fermenting of one civilization by another. Once we recognize this principle of the cross-fertilization of cultures, we shall be over our greatest difficulty in the broad comparative study of civilization, and our science of man will have been clarified of its greatest pollution, ethnic bias in terms of cultural prejudice. Even from cursory inspection this art would seem to be highly composite, both culturally and artistically; it may be a turning point in art theory as well as the unexpected filling-in of another great art period in the chronicle of human culture.
Almost without exception, the equipment of this tomb consists of museum pieces, which are far better removed and placed in surroundings more in keeping with their intrinsic values. According to Mr. Carter, who with Lord Carnarvon was the first to see it, the treasure-chamber off the shrine-chamber shows rare artistic arrangement,—but the shrine chamber itself was disproportionately filled to within a foot or so of its roof and sides by the bulky outer shrine whose magnificence was ineffective in that setting. As to the outer chamber even discounting the necessary litter of expedition equipment could have hardly been much more in total effect than a glorified junk pile in spite of the priceless intrinsic value of its content. Indeed the proportions of the tomb-chambers and their mural decorations do not seem by any means to equal those of the Ramases III or Seti I, which may be due to haste of construction rather than to faulty architectural sense or decorative feeling. There is just the possibility that in compensation the details of the funerary, equipment were accentuated lavishly for this reason. But certainly the effect in museum setting will be better than the effect in situ, so that both those who rave ecstatically, those who minimize critically are correct from their several points of view, as a treasure trove the tomb is of incalculable worth and beauty, as a total effect, it is somewhat disappointing. When stripped down to the granite sarcophagus, as it now is, it must be in much better proportion, and have gained in impressiveness from the greater simplicity of effect.
One thing seems quite additionally unusual in connection with the Tut-ankh-amen tomb. It has aroused an historical sentiment, an ethnic pride in the Egyptians. It may become in a way a symbol of the regeneration of national spirit. Nothing is perhaps more depressing than the apathy of the average native toward the remains of the ancient civilization. Except for traffiking in the tourist market, there seems to be in the mind of the average man little sentimental value to anything historically noteworthy outside the Mohammedan tradition. Here for the first time as far as the masses go has been generated a sense of kinship with a remote past. It is this that like a sudden unexpected cloud upon a clear horizon has startled the lordly foreign archeologists, whose domain, it must be remembered has in many instances had as much of the political prerogative and tone as of the scientific. This means perhaps an unfortunate crisis at the most interesting juncture of modern research in the land. Native archeologists of training are scarce, although there have been a few very notable experts. There is in process of training a fair number of junior men, but the field is much larger than the prospective supply. It is going to be interesting to watch these developments. Our own racial cultural problems and points of view have too many analogies, not to say points of contact, and possible connection for us not to be additionally concerned and interested in this aspect of the matter. From the point of view of general culture we should have our share with the rest of the scientific world in what is fundamentally a cosmopolitan undertaking, but also there is in addition a special interest, a peculiar sympathy under closer cultural kinship which should specially draw us with greater than average interest and appeal to things Egyptian, both ancient and modern.