Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455: Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852Various
History
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455: Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852
Various
Periodicals
While the tombs of Egypt have furnished these monuments, Karnac is
represented by a portion of its great obelisk, and Rome has supplied a
cinerary urn with cremated bones, several sepulchral tablets, and an
altar.
In another room on the same floor, we find an extensive collection of
pottery from the tombs of ancient Etruria, and other parts of Italy;
Roman pottery found in Britain; Samian ware, and articles of that
kind, from Pompeii, Carthage, and South America. The central case is
overflowing with riches, containing as it does nearly six hundred
Etruscan vases in terra cotta. It is a subject of doubt among the
learned, whether these painted vessels, so called, are not in reality
Grecian. Bossi, in his great work on Italy, claims the first
manufacture for the Tuscans; but there is a strong argument in favour
of their Grecian origin in the negative evidence obtained from Roman
Italy, where they are not found, and the positive evidence from the
Grecian subjects depicted on the pottery; besides which, the tombs of
the Greek islands of the Archipelago contain them. Their not being met
with in the Asiatic colonies of the Greeks may go merely to shew, that
although the objects might be Grecian, the trade was Etruscan. It is
well known, too, that at Athens the art of making pottery had arrived
at great perfection. That the Tuscans used these as funereal vessels
at a remote period, is fully established; but the custom of depositing
them in sepulchres is not supposed to have originated with that
people, but to have been brought by colonists from Greece Proper.
In this apartment, there are sepulchral lamps in the same material as
the Etruscan vases, and idols not a few. Besides these, there are
numerous Roman fibulae (a sort of brooch) and bracelets, found at
Treves, and others dug up in England. There are likewise many Roman
antiquities, which have been recently met with at Hoy Lake, near
Liverpool. But we must not attempt to enter into details; let us mount
to the floor above, and notice the contents of the apartments there.
The first room on the second storey is the Mummy Room; and there rest,
side by side, royal personages and humble individuals, male and
female, who, about four thousand years ago, breathed the air of Egypt.
Except by their cerements, and the inscriptions on the cases, who
could tell which had been the greater?
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