No. 196); and stele of Antef, with an inscription of twenty lines in which the deceased describes his virtues and abilities (Bay 7, No. 197). As examples of the wall-paintings on the tombs of this period may be mentioned the slabs from the tomb of Teḥuti-hetep, a high official who flourished during the reign of Amenemḥāt II (Bay 2, Nos. 198-200; Bay 7, No. 201). To the same period, or a little later, belongs the sandstone obelisk which was set up to the memory of an Egyptian official of the copper mines at Şarâbît al-Khâdim in the Peninsula of Sinai (Bay 1, No. 202). The other monuments of the XIIth dynasty consist of altars, or tablets for offerings, of which a considerable number are exhibited in Bays 14, 16, and 17. Among the altars of the XIIth dynasty may be noted that of the Ha prince Usertsen, a superintendent of the prophets, sculptured with figures of vases and two tanks, and inscribed with an address to the living (Bay 17, No. 269). The altar is a rectangular, flat slab of stone, with a projection which was intended to serve as a spout, from which the drink offerings were supposed to run off into a vessel placed to receive them. In the altar small rectangular tanks were sometimes cut, but usually the surface was sculptured with figures of haunches of meat, bread-cakes, fruit, flowers, unguent vases, libation jars, etc., and on the edges and sides were inscribed prayers for funerary offerings of meat and drink and for things which were deemed necessary for the dead. The Egyptians believed that the material things placed on such altars possessed, like animated creatures, two bodies and spirits; their bodies were consumed by the priests and others, and their spirits by the gods. Some believed in the trans mutation of offerings. We now come to a period, i.e., that of the XIIIth, XIVth, XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth dynasties, which is full of difficulties. Not only is the order of the succession of the kings of these dynasties unknown, but authorities differ greatly in their estimate of the length of the period of their rule. Some say that the interval between the XIIth and the XVIIIth dynasties consisted of more than 500 years, and others that it was less than 200 years. The figures given by Manetho are as follows: XIIIth dynasty. From Thebes. 60 kings in 453 years. XIVth Xois. 76 in 184 (or 484 years). in 284 years. in 518 years. 5 (?) kings in 151 years. |