WILLIAM JOHN BANKES' COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS AND MANUSCRIPTS RELATING TO ANCIENT N! BIA VOLUME I Patricia Hilary Usick A Thesis submitted to the University of London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 1998 BIQL LONDIN. UHIY. 2 WILLIAM JOHN BANKES' COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS AND MANUSCRIPTS RELATING TO ANCIENT NUBIA ABSTRACT The portfolio of fifteen-hundred drawings made by the wealthy and brilliant William John Bankes (1786-1855) and his artists, travelling and working in Egypt and Nubia between 1815 and 1822, constitutes an important early scholarly record. Of particular interest are sites and monuments in Nubia and the Sudan, many of which are now destroyed, damaged, or have been moved due to the creation of Lake Nasser. Together with Henry Salt, Henry William Beechey, L-M-A. Linant de Bellefonds, and Alessandro Ricci, Bankes produced plans, views, descriptions, and, above all, remarkably accurate copies of reliefs and inscriptions. This mass of information was never arranged and published. A catalogue raisonne of the Nubian drawings covers the sites running between Dabod and Naqa, including Gebel Barkal, Meroe, and Musawwarat; many virtually unknown at that time. The catalogue provides the data for an assessment of the archaeological and epigraphic significance of the record. In addition, the unsigned drawings can now be attributed to individual artists on stylistic criteria, and, using unpublished journals and correspondence, the two journeys of 1815 and 1818-9 can be reconstructed. Many previously unrecognised drawings can now be identified, and sections of texts of particular interest recorded on the drawings have been hand-copied in an appendix. Bankes' in the field Egyptology, his to the , role as a pioneer of and contribution study of decipherment are also examined. 3 CONTENTS VOLUMEI Abstract of the Thesis 2 Acknowledgements 6 THE MEN AND THEIR RECORD Prologue 7 William John Bankes' background and early years 9 The Rediscovery of Nubia 11 The Drawings 20 The Artists and Attribution 25 Ownership and Copyright 33 Bankes' Collection of Antiquities 36 History, Inscriptions, and Decipherment 39 Archaeological Discovery 43 TRAVELS Bankes' Early Travels 44 Bankes' First Journey in Egypt and Nubia 47 Bankes' Second Journey in Egypt and Nubia 59 The Meroe Expedition: Linant and Ricci 81 The Journey between Gebel Barkal and Meroe: Ricci, Linant, and Cailliaud 84 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD The Sites 87: Dabod 87, Wadi Gamr 92, Abisko 92, Qertassi 93, Tafa 95, Kalabsha 98, Beitel-Wali 103, Dendur 107, Gerf Hussein 110, Dakka 113, Qurta 116, Maharraqa 117, Wadi es Sebua 120, Shatoormah 125, Amada 125, Gamlay 129, Quban 130, Abu Handal 131, Derr 132, Ellesiya 134, Qasr Ibrim 135, Abu Simbel 140, Gebel Adda, Gebel el Shams and Abahuda Temple 148, Faras 151, Wadi Halfa (Buhen) 154, Views of the Cataracts 168, Semna-Kumma 168, Amara 171, Sai 172, Sedeinga 173, Soleb 173, Sesebi 175, Tombos 176, Kerma 176, Argo 177, Gebel Barkai 178, Nuri 185, Meroe 186, Wadi Banat 192, Musawwarat es Sufra 193, Naqa 197. 4 EPILOGUE Epilogue 200: Linant de Bellefonds, Henry Salt, Alessandro Ricci, Henry William Beechey, Giovanni Finati, William John Bankes. Bibliography Bibliography 213 ***** VOLUME II SUPPORTING DATA Appendix A: The Catalogue Title page 225 Introductory Notes: Terms and Abbreviations 226 The List of Drawings 230 The Drawings 249 Appendix B: Texts of Particular Interest from the Drawings Selected Texts 605 MAPS AND PLANS Map of Lower Nubia 675, Map of Upper Nubia 676. Plans: Dabod Temple 677, Kalabsha Temple 678, Beit el-Wali Temple 679, Dendur Temple 679, Gerf Hussein Temple 680, Dakka Temple 681, Es Sebua Temple (outer part) 682, Es Sebua Temple (inner part) 683, Amada Temple 684, Derr Temple 685, Ellesiya Temple 685, Abu Simbel Great Temple 686 Abu Simbel Small Temple and Rock-stelae , 687, Gebel el Shams Niche of Paser 688, Abahuda Temple 688, Buhen North Temple 688, Buhen South Temple 689, Semna Temple 690, Kumma Temple 690, Soleb Temple 691, Gebel Barkal: Pyramid-field 692, Site-plan 693, Temple B 500 694, Temple B 300 S 694, Meroe Pyramids: North and South Groups 695, West Group 696, Musawwarat es Sufra, key-plan 696, Naqa: Lion Temple 696, key-plan 697. 6 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Vivian Davies, Keeper of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum, for suggesting this study of the Bankes drawings and allowing me to do the research within his department, where all the staff have been unfailingly kind and helpful. I am grateful to the National Trust for the opportunity to work on the drawings and manuscripts, and to Tony Mitchell and James Grasby for all their enthusiasm and help. I also want to thank John Tait, my supervisor, for his kind support, and his infinite patience. I have greatly benefited from conversations with Harry James, and many colleagues including Norman Lewis, Marcel Kurz, Deborah Manley and Peta We have generously shared the benefits of their own research. Sarah Bridges of the Dorset County Record Office also deserves my thanks. A huge debt is owed to the indomitablework of Dr Rosalind Moss. 7 PROLOGUE William John Bankes (1786-1855) was a brilliant and remarkable man whose contemporaries feared he would dissipate his talent and very considerable scholarship by the breadth of his interests and his volatile personality. Educated at Harrow and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, he obtained his BA in 1808 and his MA in 1811. Rich, charming, and good-looking, as an undergraduate his conscious adoption of immense style, his wit, and his pretentious grandeur may have outshone even his fellow student Byron, who was to remain a close and lifelong friend. He was extremely well read in the Classics, including the Classical writers on Egypt and Nubia, and he eventually also made himself familiar with most of the later and contemporary books on these areas. By all accounts he made rather more of an impression in society than in Parliament, where from 1810 to 1812 he represented Truro as a Tory. In 1812 at the age of twenty-six, he followed in the footsteps of Byron and William Beckford to Spain and Portugal, to pursue a Bohemian lifestyle among the gypsies at Granada. He then chose the risk and adventure of travel in the Near East. He seems to have sought out danger and excitement, from clandestine trips to the forbidden mosque in Jerusalem to the very real perils attending early travellers in Egypt and Nubia. In the aftermath of Wellington's victories in the Peninsular War he was able to send home an important collection of paintings which he augmented by later purchases in Italy. During the years 1815-1819 Bankes travelled extensively in Egypt and the Near East where he accumulated a vast portfolio of notes, manuscripts and drawings. Their extremely high degree of accuracy makes them a very valuable record of the ancient monuments, many of which have since been damaged or lost. On his return, Kingston Lacy was extensively redesigned, rebuilt, and refurbished to form a splendid backdrop for his paintings. He used Charles Barry, ' whom he had met while travelling in Egypt, as his architect, but the work equally involved his own enthusiasms and expertise. Bank-es was forced to enjoy the fruits of his labours and expense vicariously since he was self-exiled in Italy in his later years. His departure from England in 1841, was to avoid the repercussions of what was the second court charge to be brought against him for a homosexual offence; an incident of indecent exposure involving a guardsman in Green Park. An earlier, similar, charge had apparently been dropped with help from the Duke of Wellington, a friend of the family. His reputation as a rather wild young monied aristocrat belies the extreme seriousness which he devoted to his scholarly interests. Unfortunately, despite constant expectations, his ultimate failure to publish has led to errors too numerous to cite in regard 1Later Sir Charles Barry. to his voyages and work. The chief of these is the supposed publication of his journeys as Travels in the East. 2 No such book exists. 'See Bankes 1986,171, Dawson and Uphill 1972,and Fiechter 1994,268 (bibliographie) where it is given as `Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria and Asia Minor during the years 1817 and 1818. Londres, 1823.' 9 WILLIAM JOHN BANKES' BACKGROUND AND EARLY YEARS William John was born on 11 December 1786, the second son of Henry Bankes and Frances Woodward of Kingston Hall (later to be known as Kingston Lacy), Dorset. He became heir to the house and estates on his brother's death in 1806.3 The family were well- educated, cultured, well-travelled, and by tradition represented the family seat in Parliament. The Bankes family had been prominent and wealthy landowners in Dorset since Sir John Bankes had purchased the estates of Corfe Castle in 1635, and then those of Kingston Lacy. After the devastations of the Civil War, in which Corfe Castle was destroyed, Cromwell restored the family fortunes. Ralph Bankes, who was knighted in the Restoration, married well and built a new family seat, Kingston Hall, designed by Sir Roger Pratt. Although his expenditure left him in debt, his will showed his concern for the education and travel of his sons, and the protection of his collections of books, pictures, and objects. Subsequent generations increased the estates, altered and improved the house and grounds, and added to the family treasures. Their fortune was augmented by the substantial income from their control of a graphite mine in Cumberland, thanks to the political manipulations and astute business sense of William John's grandfather Henry, who also consolidated his position by marriage to an heiress.