Discovery of the
Amarna Tablets
E.A. Wallis Budge
BEFORE I had been in Cairo
many hours I found that everybody was talking about the discoveries
which had been made in Upper Egypt, and the most extraordinary
stories were afloat.
Rumours of the "finds" had reached all the great cities
of Europe, and there were representatives of several Continental
Museums in Cairo, each doing his best, as was right, to secure
the lion's share. The British officials with whom I came in contact
thought, or said they thought, that whatever the objects might
be which had been discovered, they ought to go to the Bulak Museum,
and that any attempt made to obtain any part of them for the British
Museum must be promptly crushed. The Egyptian officials of the
Service of Antiquities behaved according to their well-known manner.
No official of the Bulak Museum knew where the "finds"
had been made, or what they consisted of, and M. Grebaut [Maspero's
successor as Director of the Service of Antiquities] and his assistants
went about the town with entreaties and threats to every native
who was supposed to possess any information about them.
Instead of recognizing the fact that, rightly or wrongly, the
finds" were at that moment in the hands of native dealers,
and trying to make arrangements to secure them by purchase, they
went about declaring that the Government intended to seize them
and to put in prison all those who were in any way mixed up in
the matter M. Grebaut was unwise enough to hint publicly that
the tortures which were sanctioned at Kana might be revived, but
the tortures and persecution of 1880 had taught the natives how
little Government officials were to be trusted, and one and all
refused to give him any information. Every move which he made
was met by a counter move by the natives, and they were always
successful.
Meanwhile very definite rumours about the "finds" in
Upper Egypt drifted down the river to Cairo, and some members
of the Government insisted that M. Grebaut should take active
steps to secure some of the treasures which had been found, and
they ordered him to make a journey to Upper Egypt, and find out
for himself what was taking place there. They placed one of Ismail
Pasha's old pleasure-steamers at his disposal, and ordered an
adequate force of police to accompany him. Before he left for
the South he called upon me at the Royal Hotel, and although he
threatened me with arrest and legal prosecution afterwards, if
I attempted to deal with the natives, I found him a very agreeable
and enlightened man, and we had a pleasant conversation. He told
me that his great ambition was to be regarded as a worthy successor
of Maspero, and that there was one mark of public recognition
which I could help him to obtain. The Trustees of the British
Museum, he reminded me, had presented a set of their magnificent
Egyptological publications to Maspero, which was a very distinguished
mark of honour, and a public acknowledgment of his scholarly eminence,
and he hoped that the Trustees would honour him in the same way.
I told him that I thought he might do a great deal towards getting
that honour by adopting a liberal policy in dealing with their
representative in Egypt, and that in any case I would duly report
the conversation to the Principal Librarian. That same evening
I learned that he had told off some of his police to watch the
hotel in which I was staying, and that he had ordered them, to
report to him my goings out and comings in, and the names of all
antiquity dealers who had speech with me.
I left Cairo that night for Asyut, and soon after leaving Bulak
ad-Dakrur station I was joined in the train by a Frenchman and
a Maltese, who told me that they were "interested" in
anticas, and that there were police in the train who had been
ordered to watch both them and me. At Der Mawas, the station for
Hajji Kandil, or Tall al-'Amarnah, the Frenchman left the train,
and set out to try to buy some of the tablets said to have been
found at Tall al-'Amarnah, and as he left the station some of
the police from the train followed him. At Asyut, the Maltese
and myself embarked on the steamer, and the remainder of the police
followed us. As the steamer tied up for the night at Akhmim and
Kana I had plenty of time at each place to examine the antiquities
which the dealers had in their houses, and to bargain for those
I wanted. At Akhmim I found a very fine collection in the hands
of a Frenchman who owned a flour-mill in Cairo, and he caused
the police to be entertained at supper whilst he and I conducted
our deal for Coptic manuscripts. He told me that it was he who
had sold to Maspero all the Coptic papyri and manuscripts which
the Louvre had acquired during the last few years, and then went
on to say that if he had known that Maspero intended to dispose
of these things he would not have let him have them at such a
low price. Thus I learned at first hand that the Director of the
Service of Antiquities had bought and disposed of anffquities,
and exported them, which the British authorities in Cairo declared
to be contrary to the law of the land.
As there was work for me to do in Aswan, I decided to make no
stay in Luxor on my way up the river, but during the few hours
which the steamer stopped there I learned from some of the dealers,
and from my friend, the Rev. Chauncey Murch of the American Mission,
some details of the "finds" which had been made. I took
the opportunity of sending a couple of natives across the river
to fetch me skulls for Professor Macalister, who wanted
more and more specimens. During one of the visits which I
made to Western Thebes the previous year I was taken into a huge
cave at the back of the second row of hills towards the desert,
which had been used by the ancient Egyptians as a cemetery. There
I saw literally thousands of poorly-made mummies and "dried
bodies," some leaning against the sloping sides of the cave,
and others piled up in heaps of different sizes. I had no means
of carrying away skulls when I first saw the cave, or I should
certainly have made a selection then.
There was little to be had at Armant, but I saw at Jabalen, which
marks the site of Crocodilopolis, a number of pots of unusual
shape and make, and many fiints. On arriving at Aswan I was met
by Captain W. H. Drage (now Colonel Drage Pasha) and Doone Bey,
who gave me much assistance in packing up the remainder of the
Kufi grave-stones, which I had been obliged to leave there earlier
in the year. My friend, the Ma'amur, produced a further supply
of skulls from the pit in the hill across the river, and I learned
incidentally that the natives had nick-named me "Abu ar-Ra'wus,"
or "father of skulls." The general condition of the
town had changed astonishingly, for the British soldiers had departed
to the north, their camps and barracks were deserted and as silent
as the grave, and Aswan was just a rather large sleepy Nile village.
And the change across the river was great. The paths which we
had made with such difficulty were blocked with sand, and the
great stone stairway and the ledge above it were filled with sand
and stones which had slid down from the top of the hill, and the
tombs were practically inaccessible.
Soon after my return to Luxor I set out with some natives one
evening for the place on the western bank where the "finds"
of papyri had been made. Here I found a rich store of fine and
rare objects, and among them the largest roll of papyrus I had
ever seen. The roll was tied round with a thick band of papyrus
cord, and was in a perfect state of preservation, and the clay
seal which kept together the ends of the cord was unbroken. The
roll lay in a rectangular niche in the north wall of the sarcophagus
chamber, among a few hard stone amulets. It seemed like sacrilege
to break the seal and untie the cord, but when I had copied the
name on the seal, I did so, for otherwise it would have been impossible
to find out the contents of the papyrus. We unrolled a few feet
of the papyrus an inch or so at a time, for it was very brittle,
and I was amazed at the beauty and freshness of the colours of
the human figures and animals, which, in the dim light of the
candles and the heated air of the tomb, seemed to be alive. A
glimpse of the Judgment Scene showed that the roll was a large
and complete Codex of the Per-em-hru, or "Book of the Dead,"
and scores of lines repeated the name of the man for whom this
magnificent roll had been written and painted, viz., "Ani,
the real [as opposed to honorary] royal scribe, the registrary
of the offerings of all the Gods, overseer of the granaries of
the Lords of Abydos, and scribe of the offerings of the Lords
of Thebes." When the papyrus was unrolled in London the inscribed
portion of it was found to be 78 feet long, and at each end was
a section of blank papyrus about 2 feet long. In another place,
also lying in a niche in the wall, was another papyrus Codex of
the Book of the Dead, which, though lacking the beautiful vignettes
of the Papyrus of Ani, was obviously much older, and presumably
of greater importance philologically. The name of the scribe for
whom it was written was Nu, and the names of his kinsfolk suggested
that he flourished under one of the early kings of the XVIIIth
dynasty. In other places we found other papyri, among them the
Papyrus of the priestess Anhai, in its original painted wooden
case, which was in the form of the triune god of the resurrection,
Ptah-Seker-isar, and a leather roll containing Chapters of the
Book of the Dead, with beautifully painted vignettes, and various
other objects of the highest interest and importance. I took possession
of all these papyri, etc., and we returned to Luxor at daybreak.
Having had some idea of the things which I was going to get, I
had taken care to set a tinsmith to work at making cylindrical
tin boxes, and when we returned from our all-night expedition
I found them ready waiting for me. We then rolled each papyrus
in layers of cotton, and placed it in its box, and tied the box
up in gumdsh, or coarse linen cloth, and when all the papyri and
other objects were packed up we deposited the boxes in a safe
place. This done we all adjourned a little after sunrise to a
house (since demolised) belonging to Muhammad Muhassib, which
stood on the river front, and went up on the roof to enjoy the
marvellous freshness of the early morning in Egypt, and to drink
coffee.
Whilst we were seated there discussing the events of the past
night, a little son of the house, called Mursi, came up on the
roof, and, going up to his father, told him that some soldiers
and police had come to the house, and were then below in the courtyard.
We looked over the low wall of the roof, and we saw several of
the police in the courtyard, and some soldiers posted outside
as sentries. We went downstairs, and the oflficer in charge of
the police told us that the Chief of the Police of Luxor had received
orders during the night from M. Grebaut, the Director of the Service
of Antiquities, to take possession of every house containing antiquities
in Luxor, and to arrest their owners and myself, if found holding
communication with them. I asked to see the warrants for the arrests,
and he told me that M. Grebaut would produce them later on in
the day. I asked him where M. Grebaut was, and he told me at Nakadah,
a village about twelve miles to the north of Luxor, and went on
to say that M. Grebaut had sent a runner from that place with
instructions to the Chief of the Police at Luxor to do what they
were then doing-that is, to take possession of the houses of all
dealers and to arrest us. He then told Muhammad and myself that
we were arrested. At this moment the runner who had been sent
by Grebaut joined our assembly in the casual way that Orientals
have, and asked for bakhshish, thinking that he had done
a meritorious thing in coming to Luxor so quickly. We gave him
good bakhshish, and then began to question him. We learned
that M. Grebaut had failed to reach Luxor the day before because
the ra'is, or captain of his steamer, had managed to run the steamer
on to a sandbank a little to the north of Nakadah, where it remained
for two days. It then came out that the captain had made all arrangements
to celebrate the marriage of his daughter, and had invited many
friends to witness the ceremony and assist at the subsequent feast,
which was to take place at Nakadah on the very day on which M.
Grebaut was timed to arrive at Luxor. As the captain felt obliged
to be present at his daughter's marriage, and the crew wanted
to take part in the wedding festivities, naturally none of the
attempts which they made to re-float the steamer were successful.
Our informant, who knew quite well that the dealers in Luxor were
not pining for a visit from M. Grebaut, further told us that he
thought the steamer could not arrive that day or the day after.
According to him, M. Grebaut determined to leave his steamer,
and to ride to Luxor, and his crew agreed that it was the best
thing to do under the circumstances. But when he sent for
a donkey it was found that there was not a donkey in the
whole village, and it transpired that as soon as the villagers
heard of his decision to ride to Luxor, they drove their donkeys
out into the fields and neighbouring villages, so that they might
not be hired for M. Grebaut's use.
The runner's information was of great use to us, for we saw that
we were not likely to be troubled by M. Grebaut that
day, and as we had much to do we wanted the whole day clear of
interruptions. Meanwhile, we all needed breakfast, and Muhammad
Muhassib had a very satisfying meal prepared, and invited the
police and the soldiers to share it with us. This they gladly
agreed to do, and as we ate we arranged with them that we were
to be free to go about our business all day, and as I had no reason
for going away from Luxor that day, I told the police officer
that I would not leave the town until the steamer arrived from
Aswan, when I should embark in her and proceed to Cairo. When
we had finished our meal the police officer took possession of
the house, and posted watchmen on the roof and a sentry at each
corner of the building. He then went to the houses of the other
dealers, and sealed them, and set guards over them.
In the course of the day a man arrived from Hajji Kandil, bringing
with him some half-dozen of the clay tablets which had been found
accidentally by a woman at Tall al-'Amarnah, and he asked me to
look at them, and to tell him if they were kadim, i.e., "old"
or jadid, i.e., "new"-that is to say, whether
they were genuine or forgeries. The woman who found them thought
they were bits of "old clay," and useless, and sold
the whole "find" of over 300 tablets to a neighbour
for 10 piastres ( 2s. )! The purchaser took them into the village
of Hajji Kandil, and they changed hands for £10. But those
who bought them knew nothing about what they were buying, and
when they had bought them they sent a man to Cairo with a few
of them to show the dealers, both native and European. Some of
the European dealers thought they were "old," and some
thought they were "new," and they agreed together to
declare the tablets forgeries so that they might buy them at their
own price as "specimens of modern imitations." The dealers
in Upper Egypt believed them to be genuine, and refused to sell,
and, having heard that I had some knowledge of cuneiform, they
sent to me the man mentioned above, and asked me to say whether
they were forgeries or not; and they offered to pay me for my
information. When I examined the tablets I found that the matter
was not as simple as it looked. In shape and form, and colour
and material, the tablets were unlike any I had ever seen in London
or Paris, and the writing on all of them was of a most unusual
character and puzzled me for hours. By degrees I came to the conclusion
that the tablets were certainly not forgeries, and that they were
neither royal annals nor historical inscriptions in the ordinary
sense of the word, nor business or commercial documents. Whilst
I was examining the half-dozen tablets brought to me, a second
man from Hajji Kandil arrived with seventy-six more of the tablets,
some of them quite large. On the largest and best written of the
second lot of tablets I was able to make out the words "A-na
Ni-ib-mu-a-ri-ya," i.e., "To Nibmuariya,"
and on another the words "[A]-na Ni-im-mu- ri-ya shar matu
Mi-is-ri," i.e., "to Nimmuriya, king of the land
of Egypt." These two tablets were certainly letters addressed
to a king of Egypt called "Nib-muariya," or "Nimmuriya."
On another tablet I made out clearly the opening words "A-na
Ni- ip-khu-ur-ri-ri-ya shar matu [Misri] )," i.e., "To
Nibkhurririya, king of the land of [Egypt,"] and there was
no doubt that this tablet was a letter addressed to another king
of Egypt. The opening words of nearly all the tablets proved them
to be letters or despatches, and I felt certain that the tablets
were both genuine and of very great historical importance.
Up to the moment when I arrived at that conclusion neither of
the men from Hajji Kandil had offered the tablets to me for purchase,
and I suspected that they were simply waiting for my decision
as to their genuineness to take them away and ask a very high
price for them, a price beyond anything I had the power to give.
Therefore, before telling the dealers my opinion about the tablets,
I arranged with them to make no charge for my examination of them,
and to be allowed to take possession of the eighty-two tablets
forthwith. They asked me to fix the price which I was prepared
to pay for the tablets, and I did so, and though they had to wait
a whole year for their money they made no attempt to demand more
than the sum which they agreed with me to accept.
I then tried to make arrangements with the men from Hajji Kandi1
to get the remainder of the tablets from Tall al- 'Amarnah into
my possession, but they told me that they belonged to dealers
who were in treaty with an agent of the Berlin Museum in Cairo.
Among the tablets was a very large one, about 2o inches long and
broad in proportion. We now know that it contained a list of the
dowry of a Mesopotamian princess who was going to marry a king
of Egypt. The man who was taking this to Cairo hid it between
his inner garments, and covered himself with his great cloak.
As he stepped up into the railway coach this tablet slipped from
his clothes and fell on the bed of the railway, and broke in pieces.
Many natives in the train and on the platform witnessed the accident
and talked freely about it, and thus the news of the discovery
of the tablets reached the ears of the Director of Antiquities.
He at once telegraphed to the Mudir of Asyut, and ordered him
to arrest and put in prison everyone who was found to be in possession
of tablets, and, as we have seen, he himself set out for Upper
Egypt to seize all the tablets he could find. Meanwhile, a gentleman
in Cairo who had obtained four of the smaller tablets and paid
£100 for them, showed them to an English professor, who
promptly wrote an article upon them, and published it in an English
newspaper. He postdated the tablets by nearly 900 years, and entirely
misunderstood the nature of their contents. The only effect of
his article was to increase the importance of the tablets in the
eyes of the dealers, and, in consquence, to raise their prices,
and to make the acquisition of the rest of the "find"
more difficult for everyone.
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From 'By Nile and Tigris'
(1920) by Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge
