20 PRIVILEGES OF WOMEN IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD 66 66 as was assigned to her in later days. Manetho tells us that in the reign of Ba-en-neter, the third king of the IInd Dynasty, "it was determined that women should "enjoy royal privileges, i.e., that they should not be disqualified from ascending the throne and enjoying all the dignity and state which appertained thereto." This is not to be wondered at, for the social position of women in Egypt was always much higher than in other Eastern countries; an Egyptian generally traced his pedigree from a maternal ancestor, as is the case with many primitive peoples, and the mother, or "lady of the house," enjoyed in Egypt a position of authority and importance rarely met with among other nations. NEB-MAAT, the With Seneferu, whose Horus name was NEB-MAAT, and who, besides, lord of the shrines of the goddesses Nekhebet and Uatchet, i.e., "lord of the South, lord of the North," called himself also the "Golden Hawk," or "Golden Horus" we begin Horus name the IVth Dynasty; this king, according of Seneferu. to Manetho, reigned twenty-nine years. It is noteworthy that the Tablet of Karnak begins with his name, a fact which seems to show that the compilers of such King Lists did not hold themselves bound to follow historical considerations in such cases, and that they allowed themselves to make whatsoever selection of royal names seemed to them best. Seneferu appears to be the first 22 SENEFERU AT WADI MAGHARA [B.C. 3766 king of Egypt who carried war into foreign countries on a large scale; and this fact is illustrated by an important relief, which is found sculptured on the rocks in the Wâdî Maghâra in the Peninsula of Sinai.1 Here we see a figure of the king, wearing a crown with plumes and uraei, engaged in the slaughter of a typical Sinaitic foe of Egypt; the king is seizing him by the hair of the head with the left hand, and is about to aim a blow on it 1 See the late Professor Palmer's Sinai from the Fourth Egyptian Dynasty to the present Day, London, 1878, and Lepsius, Denkmäler, ii. plate 2. The reliefs on the rocks at Sinai were noted by Niebuhr as far back as 1762. B.C. 3766] THE MINES AT WADI MAGHARA 23 with a mace which he holds in his uplifted right hand. Above the scene, in a cartouche, are the five names and titles of the king given above, and below is the inscription, "Seneferu, the great god, the subduer of foreign countries, "giver of power, stability, life, all health, and all joy of "heart for ever;" on the right is the Horus name of the king. It is improbable that Seneferu was the first Egyptian king to visit the Peninsula of Sinai as a conqueror, for we know that Tcheser,' a king of the IIIrd Dynasty, made his way thither, and that the famous turquoise mines, which were worked in the district, supplied him with materials for ornamenting the chambers of his pyramid. Seneferu, however, conquered the inhabitants of the country, and seized the mines, and built strong forts in the neighbourhood for Egyptian garrisons to live in, and to serve as places of refuge for the miners when suddenly attacked by the natives; the ruins of certain stone buildings, which exist in the Wâdî Maghâra to this day, have been identified by modern travellers with the forts of Seneferu. The spiritual wants of the miners seem to have been ministered to by the priests of the temple which was built there, and which was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and to Horus-Sept. The mines are said to have been worked by means of flint tools only, but some think that instruments of bronze were also employed. 1 See an article by Bénédite in the Recueil, tom. xvi. p. 104, where Tcheser's Horus name is figured; it was, apparently, first noted in the work of the English Survey made in 1869. 24 PYRAMID OF SENEFERU AT DAHSHÛR [B.C. 3766 Seneferu built a pyramid which he intended to serve for his tomb at or near Dahshûr, and another which must be identified with the Pyramid of Mêdûm, and is situated at a distance of about forty miles to the south of Cairo. Each pyramid was called Khā, a name which indicates the place where the dead king would rise with glory to the life beyond the grave, even as the sun rises with splendour on this world; but the pyramid at Dahshûr was distinguished by the addition of the word "Southern," i.e., ; the two pyramids together A were indicated by the phrase AA. The pyramid of Mêdûm, which has long been called “Al-Haram alKaddâb," i.e., the "Lying (or False) Pyramid," by the Arabs of the desert round about, was opened by M. Maspero in 1881-82, and other excavations were made on the site in subsequent years. The pyramid is over 120 feet in height, and consists of three stages, which are about 70, 20, and 30 feet high respectively; the stone of which it is built was brought from the Mukaṭṭam hills, but it was never finished. When opened in modern times, the sarcophagus chamber was found to be empty, and it was discovered that the pyramid had been broken into and plundered in the time of the XXth Dynasty, about B.C. 1100. It is a remarkable building, and it is quite unlike the ordinary pyramid tombs, although it is entered from the north side. Originally it consisted of a rectangular, truncated building with sides which sloped to a common centre |