XVIII.

ON THE SO CALLED MONUMENT OF SESOSTRIS IN ASIA MINOR.

WHEN I wrote the notice of the discovery of the monument of Sesostris in Asia Minor, (Class. Mus. p. 82 foll.) I was led into one or two errors by the source from which I derived my information; and I have great pleasure in giving publicity to a letter addressed to the Editor of the Classical Museum by the Rev. Henry John Rose, in which these errors are corrected. The most important of them, of which however I was aware before receiving Mr. Rose's letter, who remarks upon it in a postscript, is, that the monument recently discovered is not the one on the road from Ephesus to Phocæa, which, as far as I am aware, no one has yet seen; but the one on the road from Smyrna to Sardis'. The other error respecting the priority of the discovery will be best explained by Mr. Rose's own letter, though I must state that the ground on which the discovery was attributed to Dr. von Eckenbrecher, was a mere report which Prof. Welcker heard at Smyrna, and in consequence of which he visited the place, conducted by a Turkish guide who assured him that he had already conducted several travellers to the spot.

Sir,

To the EDITOR of the CLASSICAL MUSEUM.

"I feel assured that you will have pleasure in communicating to the public the following circumstances relative to the recent discovery of the figures made by Sesostris in Asia Minor.

"You have attributed (p. 82 of No. 1) the discovery of one of these figures to Dr. von Eckenbrecher. I am prepared to show that it was discovered by a countryman of our own, above 25 years ago; and, I believe, that I can trace this new discovery of it to an indirect communication from this country.

Into this error I was led by the words of Professor Welcker, who says, "the monument of Sesostris on the road from Ephesus to Phocæa, which is mentioned by Herodotus, and which, as I was told at Smyrna, was first discovered by Dr. von Eckenbrecher," &c. How he could

make this mistake, is almost inconceivable, as he had been at Nymphi and seen the monument.

2 Dr. von Eckenbrecher himself has never published any thing upon this monument, so that I am unable to say what claims he makes to the discovery.

"The Rev. G. C. Renouard, who was for many years chaplain at Smyrna, and who is now the able secretary of the Geographical Society, before he left Smyrna had obtained a sight of this figure; and he did not, I believe, immediately attribute the figure to Sesostris; but afterwards, on looking at the passage of Herodotus which you have cited, made the application. Before he left Smyrna also, he had made known to several of his friends the discovery he had made, and among those friends was Mr. Burgon, who well remembers these circumstances. "I will now subjoin a copy of a MS. note, made by my late brother, the Rev. Hugh James Rose, immediately after a conversation with Mr. Renouard ::

"The Rev. G. C. Renouard, of Sidney [Coll. Cambridge], who was 'formerly Chaplain at Smyrna, told me to-day that he had heard of a "figure engraved on a rock near Nymphio, the ancient Nymphæum, and "after some difficulty, it was shewn him by the common people; it was at "the distance of fifteen feet from the ground, and was evidently of great "antiquity, being nearly effaced, so that the mere outline was visible. It was the figure of a man in a tiara.

"Mr. Renouard had ascertained that one of the great roads from Mysia "to Lydia went close to Nymphæum. It should be further observed, that "he did not go in search of this figure, from being aware of the fact stated "in Herodotus. This he did not know till some years afterwards, when "he was accidentally reading Herodotus."

"This extract from my own common-place book (into which I had copied my brother's statement), and that too a common-place book of early date, begun at school in 1814, is conclusive as to the priority of this discovery.

“I think I can now prove the fact of a communication of this discovery to scholars residing at Berlin some years ago. In 1839, Dr. Lepsius (now in Egypt, under the auspices of the Prussian government, whose liberal patronage of all scientific researches does them the highest credit,) was in England, and a frequent visitor at the house of Mr. Burgon, whose knowledge of Numismatics and of Greek Antiquities, as well as his rare and beautiful collection of Greek Coins, Terra Cottas, &c. (mentioned in Müller Archäologie der Kunst., p. 342, 2nd Edition,) attracted to his house most of the learned foreigners who visited England. The circumstance above related was mentioned by him to Dr. Lepsius, who immediately interested himself in the question, and either wrote to Berlin on the matter, or being there shortly afterwards, brought the subject under the notice of scholars there, and the consequence was, I believe partly by the instrumentality of government, that further researches were immediately made in Asia Minor, and the result has been the discovery mentioned in your first number as made by Dr. von Eckenbrecher.

"I have written this simple statement that the honour of this discovery may be given to those to whose sagacity it is justly due. Mr. Renouard's accurate knowledge of Ancient and Oriental Geography (accompanied as it is, by an unusually extended knowledge of every class of language, living or dead), is too well known to need my faint tribute of praise. It is only to be lamented, that one who has contributed so largely to the stores of knowledge in this country, should have made his contributions with so little regard to his own fame. He has been content to labour for the advancement of knowledge, without looking for the meed of human praise and reputation.

"In justice to him, knowing that his own modesty might prevent him from preferring his claim to this discovery, I have ventured (without apprising him of my intention) to offer you these few observations, of which you will make that use which you may deem most suitable to the purposes of your Museum, and to the advancement of truth. "I remain, Sir,

"Your obedient Servant,

"HENRY JOHN ROSE."

This letter can leave no doubt on the mind of any reader, that the honour of the discovery belongs to Mr. Renouard, and that it was through him that the attention of scholars and travellers was directed to this interesting monument. M. Kiepert3 in an article in Gerhard's Archaeologische Zeitung, No. 3, also alludes to the fact, that the monument was discovered many years ago by Mr. Renouard, without however any public notice of it having been given*; and adds, that independent of Mr. Renouard's discovery it was afterwards found again by Dr. von Eckenbrecher, and that at a still later time it was seen by M. Borrell of Smyrna, Charles Texier, Lenormand, De Witte, and others. Several years ago Baron A. von Humboldt received a drawing of this monument from M. A. de Herriat of Smyrna. Dr. Lepsius in whose hands it was placed, laid it before the Academy of Sciences of Berlin and read a paper upon it, in which he declared it, with Herodotus, to be a genuine Egyptian monument of the time of Ramses-Sesostris".

M. Kiepert accompanied Professor Welcker on his excursion from Smyrna and made a drawing of the monument, of which I have added a copy to this notice.

This is not correct, for Mr. Renouard, as Mr. H. J. Rose informs me,

has published a short account of the monument in Vol. IX. of the Miscellaneous division of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, printed as early as 1832, note to the article NATOLIA, p. 435.

5 Monatsbericht der Königl. Akademie zu Berlin, 1840. p. 39. foll.