Frenchman Champollion

Frenchman Champollion, a little later, with the result that the firm foundations of the modern science

of Egyptology were laid. Subsequently such students as Rosellini the Italian, Lepsius the German, and

Wilkinson the Englishman, entered the field, which in due course was cultivated by De Rouge in

France and Birch in England, and by such distinguished latter-day workers as Chabas, Mariette,

Maspero, Amelineau, and De Morgan among the Frenchmen; Professor Petrie and Dr. Budge in

England; and Brugsch Pasha and Professor Erman in Germany, not to mention a large coterie of

somewhat less familiar names. These men working, some of them in the field of practical exploration,

some as students of the Egyptian language and writing, have restored to us a tolerably precise

knowledge of the history of Egypt from the time of the first historical king, Mena, whose date is placed

at about the middle of the fifth century B.C. We know not merely the names of most of the subsequent

rulers, but some thing of the deeds of many of them; and, what is vastly more important, we know,

thanks to the modern interpretation of the old literature, many things concerning the life of the people,

and in particular concerning their highest culture, their methods of thought, and their scientific

attainments, which might well have been supposed to be past finding out. Nor has modern investigation

halted with the time of the first kings; the recent explorations of such archaeologists as Amelineau, De

Morgan, and Petrie have brought to light numerous remains of what is now spoken of as the predynastic

period—a period when the inhabitants of the Nile Valley used implements of chipped stone, when their

pottery was made without the use of the potter's wheel, and when they buried their dead in curiously

cramped attitudes without attempt at mummification. These aboriginal inhabitants of Egypt cannot

perhaps with strict propriety be spoken of as living within the historical period, since we cannot date

their relics with any accuracy. But they give us glimpses of the early stages of civilization upon which the Egyptians of the dynastic period were to advance.