FIRST FLOOR.
From the north Egyptian Vestibule we now ascend the North-West Staircase (noticing the Roman mosaic pavements on the walls) to the Egyptian Rooms, in the FIRST NORTHERN GALLERY, on the first floor. These contain the large collection of mummies and other objects found in tombs, from which our knowledge of the life and ideas of the ancient Egyptians is mainly derived.
The LANDING is at present occupied by cases containing sculptures and undeciphered inscriptions from the partly excavated site of Hierapolis, the supposed Carchemish, the capital of the nation of the Khita or Hittites, which lay near the Euphrates on the chief road between Assyria and Egypt.
We turn to the left. FIRST EGYPTIAN ROOM. The collection begins with a series of mummies and mummy-cases of the earlier periods. By the mummification of the dead, as by the construction of great monuments, the ancient Egyptians endeavoured to secure entrance into the material after-life, for which the survival of the body was necessary; those who could not afford the full treatment steeped their dead in some cheap preparation of bitumen. The mummies of kings and nobles were deposited, in their mummy-cases, in massive stone coffins or sarcophagi, and these again in pyramids or cavetombs. The Wall Cases contain mummy-cases and lids, elaborately decorated with mythological texts. No. 22,542 (Case 15) is a Lady of the College of Amen-Ra, the so-called 'Unlucky Mummy' about which various absurd tales have been circulated. Floor Cases. A. Mummy of a man of the prehistoric period (circa 7000 B.C.); neolithic hint implements were found with the body, which is doubled up and not swathed. B. Fragments of the wooden inner coffin of Men-Kau-Ra (3633 B.C.), the 'good King Mycerinus' of Matthew Arnold's poem. I, J. Fine painted coffins. On the walls are paintings, enlarged from a papyrus of the Book of the Dead, showing the Weighing of the Soul of the Dead, etc. In the SECOND EGYPTIAN ROOM are later mummies (800 B.C.-100 A.D.) and cases and other objects found with them. In the Wall Cases are mummy cases and lids. In the first Floor Cases are elaborately painted coffins of the Middle Empire, including the fine gilt coffin of Hent-Mehit (1050 B.C.; No. 48,000, in 4th case on the left). Cases U, V, and X contain mummies of priestesses and scribes (circa 700-100 B.C.). On the Screens are photographs of unrolled mummies. On the walls are paintings from the Book of the Dead; note especially the scenes with the soul visiting the body and with the fields of the blessed. The THIRD EGYPTIAN ROOM is devoted to remains from the 26th Dynasty to the Roman period. In the Wall Cases are lids and cartonnages. In Wall Case 99 is a handsome coffin from the Oasis of Khargah, in the Western Desert (No. 52,949; probably unique in Europe). In 103 and 106 are mummies of children and embroidered bier-cloths. Some of the cartonnages have portraits painted on wooden panels (107, 110). In Wall Cases 111-113 are portrait-heads moulded in plaster. In 112 and 113 is the unrolled mummy of Ankh-Pa-Khart (circa 600 B.C.); in 115-121 are painted wooden chests for canopic jars. On the walls are casts of painted reliefs from a temple in Nubia, built by Rameses II. to commemorate his conquest (circa 1330 B.C.).
