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Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was Keeper of the British Museum’s department of oriental antiquities from 1894 until his retirement in 1924. Carrying out many missions to Egypt in search of ancient objects, Budge was hugely successful in collecting papyri, statues and other artefacts for the trustees of the British Museum: numbering into the thousands and of great cultural and historical significance. Budge published well over 100 monographs, which shaped the development of future scholarship and are still of great academic value today, dealing with subjects such as Egyptian religion, history and literature. The ancient Egyptians expressed their ideas in writing by means of hieroglyphics, which they used uninterruptedly until the end of the rule of the Ptolemies. Evidence indicates that the hieroglyphic system of writing was brought to Egypt by invaders from north-east or central Asia; they settled somewhere between Memphis on the north and Thebes on the south, and gradually established their civilization, religion and methods of communication. First published in 1910, Egyptian Language provides a simple introduction to the study of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions. Including an account of the decipherment of the hieroglyphic system and the general principles which underlie it, as well as the main facts of ancient Egyptian grammar and illustrative extracts, the book will be of value to students and academics of ancient Egyptian language and culture.

Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was Keeper of the British Museum’s department of oriental antiquities from 1894 until his retirement in 1924. Carrying out many missions to Egypt in search of ancient objects, Budge was hugely successful in collecting papyri, statues and other artefacts for the trustees of the British Museum: numbering into the thousands and of great cultural and historical significance. Budge published well over 100 monographs, which shaped the development of future scholarship and are still of great academic value today, dealing with subjects such as Egyptian religion, history and literature. First published in 1899 as part of the Egypt and Chaldaea series, Egyptian Religion explores the principal ideas and beliefs held by the ancient Egyptians with regard to the doctrine of the resurrection and the future life. Although no systematic account dealing solely with this doctrine has been discovered, the Book of the Dead and various other religious texts from which this work is derived reflect ancient Egyptian beliefs, ideals and superstitions. Wallis Budge explores the Gods of the Egyptians and the themes of resurrection and immorality in a classic work, of great significance to students and scholars with an interest in ancient Egyptian and Middle Eastern history and religion.

Through the activity and skill of native and European excavators in Egypt during the last few years, our knowledge of Egyptian archaeology has been much increased; and nearly every collection of Egyptian antiquities in Europe has been substantially enlarged. Curiously enough, however, the contents of certain sections of these collections have remained without many additions; and among such sections must be placed the weapons of war of the ancient Egyptians, who lived before the eighteenth dynasty. There are in the various Egyptian collections a comparatively large number of bronze daggers and knives, and other weapons which are supposed to have been made during the rule of the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasty over Egypt; but, in many cases, the proofs that would make the belief a certainty are wanting. When, however, by means of inscriptions, or the knowledge of the circumstances which attended the discovery of certain bronzes, we can fix their date beyond all doubt, it is most important to put such facts on record. The object of the following notes is to describe some of the most interesting of Egyptian bronze weapons now known to us.

That the Egypt of the Pharaohs was famous from the earliest times for the manufacture of linen is evident not only from the splendid specimens of linen bandages and sheets in which mummies are wrapped, but also from the testimony of ancient writers. Egyptian linen was, for the most part, made of flax, and a good idea of what an important matter the success of the flax crop was in Egypt may be gathered from the fact that the smiting of the flax when in. bloom by the hail (mentioned in Exodus ix. 31), was considered to be as great a calamity as the smiting of the barley when in the ear. The finest and best linen was worn by the priests of Egypt in the form of shirts, the κιθῶνας λινέους of Herodotus, ii. 37, 81, a commoner and coarser sort was used for the final bandages and “sheet” of mummies, perhaps also for sleeping upon, compare the of Prov. vii. 16, and the coarsest sort of all for sails, awnings, etc. Nearly all the flax woven in Egypt was grown in the Delta, and the best quality appears to have come from Pelusium; according to Strabo, Panopolis was famous in olden times for the manufacture of linen, and working in stones, and it is easy to show that the art of weaving linen and of ornamenting garments with woven or worked designs did not pass away from that town until ten or eleven centuries after the birth of Christ.

The papyrus which is transcribed and translated in the following pages is preserved in the collection of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum, where it bears the number 10188. It was found at Thebes in the year 1860, and was purchased by the late Mr. A. H. Rhind; in 1865 it was sold to the trustees of the British Museum by Mr. David Bremner, together with a number of other papyri collected by Mr. Rhind. A few years later its existence was pointed out by Dr. Birch to Dr. Pleyte, who wrote a short article upon it, in which he gave a description of the chapters and translated some passages principally from the first work written on the papyrus. In November, 1886, a further account of it was given by me, together with hieroglyphic transcripts of some important passages in it.