_{Written by Julia Schulz}

Biography

Harriet Martineau (see fig. 1) was a British author and sociologist born on the June 12^th, 1802. In 1877, her life was published posthumously in her Autobiography including Maria Chapman’s Memorials of Harriet Martineau.¹ Her works encompassed many different formats such as essays, novels, journal articles and travelogues. Among the latter are the three volumes of Eastern Life, Present and Past² published 1848 in which she describes her experiences while travelling through Egypt, Sinai, Palestine and Syria in the Years 1846-7.³

Martineau and her travelling party, consisting of her friends Mr. and Mrs. Richard V. Yates and Joseph C. Ewart, spent ten weeks on the Nile and went as far as the Second Cataract.⁴ On their journey they met other travelers such as Edward W. Lane⁵, whom they met in Cairo.⁶ Martineau often refers to his Description of Egypt in her travelogue.⁷

---

Eastern life, present and past

Aswan

Approaching Aswan, Martineau immediately notices the ruins of the Coptic convent of St. George on a nearby steep. After mooring at the shore below Aswan the travel group visits the local market. Martineau describes in detail the goods sold, such as stuffed crocodiles, spears, ebony clubs, starbaskets, coins, walking sticks, ostrich eggs, baskets, famous dates (a major item of exchange) and slaves from Upper Ethiopia and Abyssinia.⁸

Visiting the old town and the landscape surrounding the First Cataract, Martineau states “that the Nile has changed its character, south of the First Cataract, has been made clear by some recent examination of the shores and monuments of Nubia”⁹ referring to Lepsius’ previous study on the watermarks. Ruins of temples, garrisons and fortifications from Persian, Greek, Roman and Saracenic times remain here.¹⁰

From the shore of the old town, Martineau’s gaze wanders to the island of Elephantine:

“The Island of Elephantine, opposite, looked as if just laid waste by an earthquake, scarcely one stone being left upon another of all its once grand edifices. On its rocks were hieroglyphic inscriptions, many and deeply carved. In a hollow of the desert behind us lay the great cemetery, where almost every grave has its little stone, with a Cufic inscription.”¹¹

The travel group embarks on a three-mile journey through the desert from Aswan to Mahatta. When visiting the village, Martineau experiences the strong currents of the First Cataract firsthand:

“The rocks are not sublime: they are too like Titanic heaps of black paving-stones to be imposing otherwise than by their oddity: and they are strewn about the land and river to an excess and with a caprice which takes one’s imagination quite out of the ordinary world.”¹²

After securing a boat for their later ascend of the Cataracts, they return to Aswan by land passing the quarries and the Arab cemetery:

“We diverged to the quarries, passing through the great cemetery with its curious grave-stones, inscribed in the Cufic character. The marks of the workmen’s tools are as distinct as ever on the granite of the quarries. There are the rows of holes for the wooden pegs or wedges which, being wetted, expanded and split the stone. There are the grooves and the notches made, by men who died several thousands of years ago, in preparation for works which were never done. There are the playful or idle scratches made by men of old in a holiday mood. And there, too, is the celebrated obelisk, about which, I must take leave to say, some mistakes are current at this day.”¹³

At the quarry Martineau shows great interest in the techniques and craftmanship used for the unfinished obelisk and gives a detailed description of it.¹⁴

The remains on Elephantine island, on the other hand, do not seem to interest her as her account of them is brief and concise. She notes that the granite gateway from the time of Alexander the Great¹⁵ is “the only erect work of interest”.¹⁶ Beyond that, there are many heaps of old stones and broken pottery to be found on the island.¹⁷

Philae

Their journey to Philae began in a boat. The travel group had some complications with the rapids of the First Cataract on their way, but eventually made it safely to the island. During their journey on the Nile, they visited Philae three times. The first time they reached the island at night, the second time was on the next day so that they could inspect the antique structures in daylight. When they landed on the island for the third and final time on their way back down the Nile, Martineau took a closer look at the ruins and mentioned amongst other buildings the Chapel of Esculapius, the Pharaoh’s Bed and a chapel for the god Nilus. On the southern shore was a sandstone pillar of which Martineau says a second has already been brought to England.¹⁸

They also explored the island Bigeh and found mainly inscriptions on the rocks, mostly from Pharaonic times. Some of them were inscribed by the tributary kings who ruled Thebes and some by pilgrims. Two columns of a Ptolemaic temple rebuilt on a Pharaonic foundation, as well as fragments of a sculpture and a painted wall are preserved on the island according to Martineau. She reports an arch made by Christians from the fragments of two sculptured blocks.¹⁹

Further Up the Nile

The travel group around Martineau travelled as far as the Second Cataract at Wadi Halfa. On their way back they stopped at many ancient sites. About the fortress Qasr Ibrim Martineau remarks:

“The chief interest about the town or fortress was in the mixture of relics,—Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Saracenic and Turkish. The winged globe, Greek borders and columns, Roman wails, Mosques and Turkish fortifications,—all these may be seen in half-an-hour’s walk, heaped together or scattered about.”²⁰

At Dakkeh, she mentions Inscriptions of Greek and possibly Coptic origin on the propylon of the temple:

“There are some Greek inscriptions on different parts of this temple; and two certainly which are not Greek. Whether they are Coptic, or the more ancient Egyptian Enchorial writing, it is not for me to say.”²¹

In her publication about her trip, Harriet Martineau not only tells of the experiences she had on the way, but also tries to give information about ancient Egyptian history.

Sources

---