REIGN OF KHUFU

SINAI INSCRIPTIONSa

I

b

176. The relief is like that of Snefru, except that the god Thoth is here added in the place of the Horus-name, and the king wears the double crown. Similarly also the inscriptions consist only of titles of the king. They are: Khnum-Khufu, Great God, Smiter of the Troglodytes

с

All protection and life are with him.

IId

Consists only of titles of Khufu.

INVENTORY STELAR

177. The references to the Sphinx, and the so-called temple beside it in the time of Khufu, have made this monument from the first an object of great interest.

aCut into the rock-walls of the Wadi Maghara. Text and relief: Laborde, Voyage de l'Arabie, Pl. 5, No. 2; Laval, Voyage dans la Péninsule Arabique, Insc. hiér., I, No. 2; II, No. 1; Lepsius, Denkmäler, II, 2, b, c; Ordnance Survey, III, 5; Brugsch, Thesaurus, VI, 1493 (inscriptions only); Sethe, Urkunden, I, 8; Weill, Sinai, 105.

bSee 168, 169.

The full form of Khufu's name; it means: "Khnum protects me." For the omission of the god's name cf. the similar usage in Hebrew, e. g., Nathan and Nathaniel. See Müller, Recueil, IX, 176.

dImmediately on the right of 1, and published with it.

eDiscovered by Mariette during his excavations of the Sphinx and vicinity (September, 1853, to 1858), in the little temple of Isis built by Pesebkhenno, east of the great pyramid; now in Cairo. Text: Mariette, Album, Pl. 27; Monuments divers, 53; Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, 413; Rougé, Recherches sur les monuments qu'on peut attribuer aux VI premières dynasties, 46; Birch, Egyptian Texts, 5, 6; Bunsen, Egypt's Place, 2d ed., V, 719-21. See also Mariette, Le Sérapéum de Memphis, 90, 100; Meyer, Geschichte des alten Aegyptens, 207, 208; and Brugsch, Thesaurus, V, 1231.

These references would be of the highest importance if the monument were contemporaneous with Khufu; but the orthographic evidences of its late date are entirely conclusive, and the reference to the temple of a goddess whose cult arose as late as that of Isis, as well as the title of Isis, viz., "mistress of the pyramid," prove conclusively that the present stela is not a copy of an older document. The fact that the priests of Pesebkhenno's time regarded the building beside the Sphinx, as the temple of "Osiris of Rosta” (R'-st3) is, however, of great interest, but does not determine for us the original character of that structure.b

a

178. He made (it) for his mother, Isis, Divine Mother; Hathor, Mistress of 'Nund The investigation was placed on a stela. He gave to her an offering anew, and he built her temple of stone again. He found these gods in her place.f

179. The inscription in the lowermost section of the sunken panel is also of importance in connection with $ 180.

Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, 364, n. 8.

bIt is well to recall that in the Empire the true character of the Sphinx had been forgotten or misunderstood. The same might equally well have happened in the case of the building alongside it. [Later: It is now known that the building is a monumental portal, the entrance to the causeway leading up to the second pyramid.]

cTop and left side; introduction same as top and right side (§ 180). dText has the three nw signs used in writing Nun.

eOf her titles to the land? It is probably this remark which led Maspero to conclude that this stela is a copy of an older document. The word translated "investigation" (sp't for s'yp't) occurs also in Dümichen, Bauurkunde des Denderatempels, 16, in the same connection; cf. Brugsch, Hieroglyphisch-demotisches Wörterbuch, 1206, and a better example in Brugsch, Thesaurus, V, 1223, top line (time of Ramses II).

fA reference to the statues of the gods enumerated in the sunken panel. The stela is really an inventory of such statues; see § 180.

The district of the Sphinx of Harmakhis (Hr-m-y' hwt) is on the south of the house of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid; on the north ofa Osiris, Lord of Rosta (R'-st3). The writings of the goddess of Harmakhis, were brought, in order to investigate.

- may he grow; may he live forever and ever, 'looking toward the east.

180. The sunken panel occupying the greater part of the stela contains only reliefs representing the statues of gods, belonging to the temple, and texts giving their names, the materials of which they were made, and their dimensions. The following texts occupy the raised margin and the edge:

eLive the Horus: Mezer (Md[r]), King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Khufu, who is given life. He found the house of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid, beside the house of the Sphinx of [Harmakhis] on the northwest of the house of Osiris,h Lord of Rosta (R-stw). He built his pyramid beside the temple of this goddess, and he built a pyramid for the king's-daughteri Henutsen (Ḥnwt-sn) beside this temple.i

The connection between this sentence and the preceding is probably that the limits of "The district of the Sphinx" were investigated as found recorded in "the writings (viz., the records) of the goddess." (It is possibly this statement also which leads Maspero to believe the document is a copy of an older one.) The same word (syp) is used in reference to the investigation of old titles, e. g., in Khnumhotep's tomb, Benihasan (§ 625, l. 44.).

fThis is also her title in the sunken panel.

The genitive n shows that "Harmakhis" as found in the same phrase in the sunken panel, has been omitted.

hThat this would identify the so-called "temple of the Sphinx" as the temple of "Osiris of Rosta" was early noticed by Mariette (cf. Le Séra péum, p. 99); but the fact seems to have been unnoticed, and does not find mention in any of the archæologies. The mere statement that the king "found" the Isis temple is unusual; one expects m ws: “in ruins as so very often, and this is confirmed by the statement of the left side: "He built her temple again."

iAccording to Herodotus, the middle of the three small pyramids east of the Great Pyramid, belonged to Khufu's daughter (Herodotus, II, 126). Henutsen is mentioned in a contemporary tomb at Gizeh (Brugsch, Thesaurus, V, 1231).

jAccording to this statement, the little Isis-temple east of the Great Pyramid was standing on the Gizeh plateau before any of the pyramids were built! If Maspero accepts this statement, he should add this Isis-temple to the buildings which he believes were the predecessors of the pyramids on the Gizeh plateau (Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, 365, n. 2).

EXAMPLES OF DEDICATION INSCRIPTIONS BY SONS

181. Many of the larger mastabas of the Old Kingdom contain long inscriptions by the sons of the deceased nobles relating their pious solicitude for the tombs of their departed fathers. In some cases the tomb was even built by the son after the father's death. All these longer inscriptions will be found herein; the following are only the more important shorter ones. They are all from the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties.

182. By his eldest son, the chief mortuary priest and scribe, Ptah: "I came that I might do this for him, when he was buried in the beautiful west, according to that which he spake about it, while he was [alive] upon his two feet."

183. One whose son shall do this for him, when he is in the west,c Ikhi (Yhy), he saith: "I did this for my father, when he journeyed to the west upon the beautiful ways, whereon the revered (dead) journey."

184. By his son, the overseer of the pyramid, "Great-is-Khafre,” the king's-confidant, Thethi (Tty), who made (this) for his father and his mother, when they were both buried in the western highland.

185. Revered by the great god, king's-confidante, Henutsen. It was her eldest son, the field-judge, who made (it) for her, to make mortuary offerings to her therein.

a From the tomb of Thenti (Tnty) at Gizeh; published by Lepsius, Denkmäler, II, 34, d; Mariette, Mastabas, 538; Sethe, Urkunden, I, 8 (from drawing No. 282, Berlin Museum).

bFrom a false door seen in the hands of a dealer; published by Sethe, Urkunden, I, 9, from Berlin squeeze, No. 1675.

CA reminder to the son of the pious son, by recalling what the latter did for his father.

dMastaba at Gizeh; now in British Museum, No. 80; published by Lepsius, Auswahl der wichtigsten Urkunden, 8D; Sethe, Urkunden, I, 15 (collated with Berlin squeeze, No. 661).

eCairo, No. 1691; published by Rougé, Inscriptions hieroglyphiques, 5; Sethe, Urkunden, I, 34 (copy by Erman).