Christopher Crockett Feb 15, 2017:

@Angela As was mentioned in a previous discussion, translating texts like this by 19th c. French academics can be be a challenging exercise --they are frequently maddeningly vague, imprecise, even contradictory. It's sometimes more like reading/translating poetry than "scientific" prose. (The German stuff is almost always more precise, but sometimes so convoluted in its density of thought as to present its own, nearly insurmountable problems, in both understanding and translation.)

In practice, I read this kind of material for my own use and understanding --which is quite different from having to make an "accurate" translation. In the former, one can "fudge" some of the more difficult parts, and make the guy's text fit what you *think* he means to say (according to your own ability to understand that); which is a far cry from doing a literal translation.

otOh, your author here (whom I have never read) appears to have been a major Egyptologist, a respected scholar, who (we must assume) didn't write nonsense.

My point is that it appears to me that there was an established French tradition in this kind of writing which valued "eloquence" over precision.

So, don't be discouraged.

angela3thomas (asker) Feb 15, 2017:

I'm inclined to think C. Crockett may be right as what follows sounds more like the "some evidence" is that there're explanations for the lack of evidence: The disks numbered...come from this necropolis. Two have no distinctive features, the other two were omitted from Garstang's book. Quoi qu'il en soit, nous constaterons que, dès la période memphite, le miroir ne peut être considéré comme étant à ses débuts, à moins qu'on n'admette que les Égyptiens en aient, du premier coup, trouvé la forme définitive. Jusqu'où devons-nous remonter? Les tombes d'Oum el-Qa'ab [Thebes] n'ont rien fourni, mais, de ce seul fait, on ne peut rien conclure. Note that the Thinite tombs have yielded little metal, but they were robbed in antiquity. Another paragraph follows that's just as vague. Then he moves onto the Middle Kingdom. Does this added context make a difference to anyone?