Sudan Archive

Open the original scan

PYRAMIDS OF MERGE I On the north side of Pyramid No. 14, on the sixth layer of stone from the ground, is cut the name H. E. Price, R,E., i88g, but the cutter of the name made a mistake in his date, which was probably intended to be 1898, for there was no British soldier of any kind on the Island of Meroe in 1889. There is no record that Sir Samuel Baker ever did any work at these pyramids, and it is very unlikely that he ever had any time to devote to practical investigations of the ancient history of the country by means of THE MOST NORTHERLY PYRAMIDS OK THE NORTHERN GROUP.

spade and pick, and so we are driven to the conclusion that whatever damage was done to the pyramids since Cailliaud's time, was effected between 1832 and 1884. Now the only Europeans who made excavations on this site between these years were Ferlini and Lepsius, and it seems to me that any damage which they did to the pyramids or to their chapels was a result which was bound to follow the work of any one who attempted to examine these buildings.! The slightest examination of the chapels will As the investigations made by these explorers were on a much larger scale than is usually supposed, they will be dealt with in a separate chapter.

275 I

Text produced by OCR — report an error