Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Language, History, and Antiquarian Studies
Egyptian language, hieroglyphic symbolism, historical discovery, monuments, royal history, and early Egyptological studies.
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Texts
An Account of Some Recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature, and Egyptian Antiquities — Thomas YoungThomas Young’s 1823 account of his work on the Rosetta inscription and Egyptian writing, with Champollion’s extended alphabet, Young’s English translations of Greek and enchorial (demotic) deeds of sale from Ptolemaic Thebes and their Greek texts, extracts on mummies from Diodorus and Herodotus, and a chronology of the Ptolemies.Richard Lepsius, a Biography — Georg EbersGeorg Ebers’s biography of his teacher Richard Lepsius, the German Egyptologist, in Zoe Dana Underhill’s 1887 translation from the German: his schooling, his studies at Leipsic, Göttingen and Berlin, his Egyptological work in Paris and Italy, the Prussian expedition to Egypt under his direction, his later scholarship and his home life, with three appendices and an index of his writings.The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo — Alexander Turner CoryA translation of the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo Nilous, a late antique treatise purporting to explain the symbolic meanings of Egyptian hieroglyphic signs. Though partly fanciful, it preserves genuine knowledge of hieroglyphic symbolism and profoundly influenced Renaissance art and thought.The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians — E. A. Wallis BudgeE. A. Wallis Budge’s 1914 introduction to ancient Egyptian literature, with his own translations and summaries of specimen texts: the Pyramid Texts, the Westcar magician stories, the Book of the Dead, legends of the gods, royal annals and autobiographies, Sanehat, the Educated Peasant, Unu-Amen, the Two Brothers, the Shipwrecked Traveller, hymns, precepts, the Song of the Harper and notices of other works.The Rosetta Stone — E. A. Wallis BudgeA comprehensive study of the Rosetta Stone, including its history, discovery, and the story of its decipherment, along with the full text of the trilingual decree in English translation. Budge traces the intellectual race between Young and Champollion to unlock the hieroglyphic script.The Wisdom of the Egyptians — Brian BrownA survey of ancient Egyptian wisdom literature, religion, and culture, covering the story of Egypt, the Book of the Dead, Egyptian magic, the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian art, music, and the profound influence of Egyptian thought on the religions and philosophies of the ancient world.Tutankhamen — E. A. Wallis BudgeA study of the life, death, and tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamen, written in the immediate aftermath of Howard Carter's sensational 1922 discovery, placing the boy-king in his historical and religious context within the Eighteenth Dynasty and the aftermath of Akhenaten's monotheistic revolution.