Sepulchral tablet of Sebek-aa, an overseer of transport, sculptured with scenes representing the presentation of offerings, etc.

[Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 4, No. 120.] XIth dynasty, B.C. 2600.

Rā (No. 105); relief, with a seated figure of the king and his prenomen (No. 106); relief, with a figure of a

king grasping an Aamu foe by one leg (No. 108); relief, with a figure of a hippopotamus (No. 110); relief, with a figure of a prince called Menthu-hetep (No. III); slab, inscribed Sma-taui, the Horus name of the king (No. 117); and a portion of an inscription referring to the overthrow of the Aamu by the king (No. 118).

To the period of the XIth dynasty may be attributed the following interesting tablets and reliefs: Relief, from the tomb of Sebek-aa at Kurnah (see Plate XXIII), on which are represented the preparations for a funeral feast, the figure of the deceased lying on his bier, etc. (Bay 4, No. 120). The cutting of the figures and design is of a most unusual character; and for the general treatment of the subject this stele is probably unique. Other tablets, probably somewhat later in date, are: Tablet of Khensu-user, set up by his son Seḥetep-ȧb (Bay 3, No 121), tablet of Sa-Menthu (Bay 2, No. 122), tablet of Menthu-hetep (Vestibule, North Wall, No. 123), and tablet of Mer-shesu-Heru and his friends (Bay 2, No. 124). The portion of a wooden coffin inscribed in hieratic with part of the XVIIth Chapter of the Book of the Dead, in Wall-case 87 in the Second Egyptian Room, belongs to this period; the text was written for one of the Menthu-hetep kings.

During the reign of Sankh-ka-Ra Menthu-hetep, who was probably the last king of the dynasty, an expedition, under the command of a general, Hennu, was despatched to Punt, by way of the Red Sea. The object of the expedition

was to obtain a supply of anti

о

or myrrh, which

was largely used for purposes of embalming. Hennu succeeded in reaching Punt, and in bringing back large quantities of all the products of that remote country. Details of the reign of Sankh-ka-Ra are wanting, but with, or soon after, his death the XIth dynasty and the Ancient Empire came to an end. The length of the period which elapsed between the close of the VIth and the close of the XIth dynasty is unknown. Some authorities make the interval between the VIth and the XIIth dynasty to be about 650 years, others less than 500 years, and others less still.

The following monuments probably belong to the period. which immediately preceded the rise to supreme power of

Amenemḥāt I, the first king of the XIIth dynasty: Black granite seated statue of Menthu-ãa, or Ãa-Menthu, an Erpā and Ḥa Prince, son of the lady Mert (Vestibule, No. 127); tablet of the lady Nefert-tu, set up in her honour by her son Menthu-hetep (Bay 1, No. 128), and the tablets. of User (Bay 1, No. 129), and Åqer (Bay 1, No. 130). The tablet of Antef, son of the lady Qehet, or Ḥeqt, and overseer of the king's cattle and preserves of water fowl (Vestibule, No. 133), and the important inscription of Antef, the son of the lady Mait (Bay 4, No. 134), and the Prayer of N-Antef-ȧqer to Anpu, lord of Sepau (Vestibule, No. 135), are all interesting, and are characteristic productions of this period.

213

CHAPTER XI.

MIDDLE EMPIRE.

Twelfth Dynasty. From Thebes.

About B.C. 2466.

Amenemḥāt I, the first king of the XIIth dynasty, appears B.C. 2466. anarchy, and, to have ascended the throne after a period of even after his accession, the members of his own household conspired against him. The king tells us, in his Instructions, how one night, after he had composed himself to sleep, a number of armed men burst into his chamber and tried to murder him. Leaping from his couch he attacked his assailants, and put them to flight. (See Sallier Papyri I and III, and the slice of stone No. 41 in Table-case C in the Third Egyptian Room.) Amenemhat drew up a survey of the country, and set boundaries to each nome, or province, and he framed a set of regulations for the supply of water for irrigation to the different towns. Work went on in the quarries of Hammâmât and Tura, and the king. restored the temples at Tanis, Bubastis, Abydos, etc., and founded a temple to Amen at Karnak. He built the fortified palace of Thet-taui near Memphis, and a pyramid

tomb called "Qa"

A

, at Lisht. He invaded the Sûdân, conquered the four great tribes there, viz., the Matchaiu, the Uauaiu, the Satiu, and the Heriu-sha, and made himself master of their country as far as the modern Korosko or Ibrîm (Primis). His reign was prosperous, and in his time "no man went hungry or thirsty." He associated his son Usertsen I with him in the rule of the kingdom in the 20th year of his reign.

Usertsen I was a great builder, and he rebuilt, or re-founded, the famous temple of Annu, the On of the B.C. 2433. Bible and the Heliopolis of classical writers, the sanctuary of the Bull Mer-ur (Mnevis). Before the temple

he set up two obelisks, the pyramidions of which were cased in copper; the one now standing is 65 feet high. He set up an obelisk at Begig in the Fayyûm, and carried on the works of restoration of the temples which his father had begun. In the 43rd year of his reign he invaded Nubia, and compelled the tribes to pay him tribute, which the official Ameni collected and brought safely to Egypt. Ameni was despatched twice subsequently to Nubia to bring back gold and other products of the Sûdân. The name given to Nubia in the inscription which records these facts is Kash

hence the Biblical Cush, which does not, however, mean Ethiopia in the modern sense of the term, but Nubia. Usertsen I built a fort and a temple at Behen, the modern Wâdî Ḥalfah, and appointed a "Governor of the South" to rule over Nubia, or the Northern Sûdân. The old copper mines in the Wâdî Maghârah were reopened, and new ones at Sarâbît al-Khâdim were also worked; the king built his pyramid tomb at Lisht, and associated his son with him in the rule of the kingdom a year before he died.

Among the monuments of his reign may be mentioned: A fine red granite stele on which are sculptured figures of Khnemu and Sati, gods of the First Cataract, and his Horus name, from Philae (Bay 5, No. 136); head of a colossal granite statue of Usertsen I, wearing the Crown of the South (Bay 1, No. 137); and a fragment of a chalcedony vase inscribed with the king's prenomen

(No. 67, Wall-case 138, Fourth Egyptian

Room). Of his officials there are the painted stele of Åthi, who died in the 14th year of the king's reign (Bay 3, No. 138); the stele of Neferu, the overseer of the royal water-transport at Behen, or Wâdî Halfah (Bay 3, No. 139), and two stelae and a statue of Antef, the son of Sebek-unnu and the lady Sent. Antef was a confidential servant of the king and superintended the royal private apartments in the palace; he died four years before his master, i.e., in the 39th year of the reign of Usertsen I. (See Bay 1, No. 140; Bay 3, Nos. 141 and 142.)

The reign of Amenemḥāt II was prosperous, but uneventful; and no military expeditions of importance B.C. 2400. were necessary either in the Peninsula of Sinai or in Nubia. There was a large colony of Egyptians at Şarâbît al-Khâdim, and a temple was built there in this reign to Hathor, the goddess "of the land of