REIGN OF SESOSTRIS I THE BUILDING INSCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE OF HELIOPOLIS 498. This building inscription in its present form has a very interesting history. It is not preserved to us upon a great stela, to which such inscriptions were usually intrusted, but has reached us on more fragile material—a roll of leather. This had been used by a scribe in the third year of Amenhotep IIb for scratching down various data, either for the sake of practice or for temporary preservation; for they were often washed off and replaced by others. At present we can read, although half washed out, part of the legal proceedings of a sculptor against his own son, and notes regarding the receipt and issue of lumber. To one of these notes he has fortunately fixed the date, as given above. On the other side of the leather our scribe copied the beginning of the dedicatory building inscription of Sesostris I, placed by him on a great stone stelad in his temple at Heliopolis. In the time of our scribe the stela had already been standing five hundred years. It has since utterly perished, with the temple in which it stood, and thus the great king's building inscription has survived only in the accidental copy of a humble scribe. A hieratic manuscript, written in two columns on one side of a piece of leather; bought in Thebes by Brugsch, 1858 (Geschichte, 123); first published by Stern, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, 1874, 85 ff.; then by Birch, Egyptian Texts, 49-58. It has been translated by Stern, Records of the Past, XII, and by Erman, Aus den Papyrus des königlichen Museums zu Berlin, 59-63. My materials were the original now in Berlin (P. 3029) and a transcription by Erman. The above translation depends, with a few exceptions, upon his version in loc. cit. bNot Amenhotep IV, as read by Stern. See Erman, Aus den Papyrus des königlichen Museums zu Berlin, 87, 88. dSce § 5or, 1. 5. 499. In form the inscription was a poem, and its lines have been separated by the scribe by red dots, as usual in the Empire. The content is obscured by elaborate phraseology, but its drift is nevertheless evident. In his third year Sesostris I called together his court, and announced his purpose of erecting a temple to the sun-god at Heliopolis (§§ 501-3). The court responds with the conventional encomium (§ 504), and the king then deputes the treasurer to undertake the building (§ 505). An interval of time having elapsed of which there is no indication in the narrative, the ground plan of the building is laid out with the customary ceremony (§ 506). As usual in such inscriptions, there must have followed some description of the construction, material, and furniture of the temple, but the scribe unfortunately copied no farther. a 500. This was of course not the first temple at Heliopolis, but an extension of the old, undoubtedly on a much larger scale. A fragment of a building inscription from the same temple perhaps belonged to Sesostris I. It shows that he, or one of his name, built throughout Egypt. It reads: 1(For) great seals a msn't-stone necklace, a necklace (mny't), many Anuket: a món t-stone necklace, a seal a silver vase, a golden vase, a bronze vase, two copper vases, an ebony censer, a silver censer. (For) First of the Westerners, Lord of Abydos (Osiris): 3. a bronze vase, two copper vases, an ebony censer. (For) Onouris: in Thinis: a silver vase, a golden vase, a bronze vase, two copper vases, an ebony censer, a silver censer. (For) Min (Ypw): a silver vase, a golden vase, a bronze vase, two copper vases, an ebony censer, a silver a Engraved on two sides of a piece of a red grit-stone door-post, now in a native house by the Mosque of el-Azhar in Cairo. Published by Daressy, from a copy by Ahmed bey Kamal, in Annales IV. bḤs; all the vases herein recorded are of this form. cThe published text is evidently to be so corrected. -. (For) a necklace. (I) built a [censer] temple for Satet, for Anuket and Khnum, lord of the cataract, of 'sculptured la stone. (I) built a temple for Horus of Nubia (T-pdt) in the (nome of) Apollinopolis Magna (Wis-Hr)b He [made] (it) as his monument for Atum, lord of Heliopolis: silver vessels a golden dwd't, a silver 6c 8 5. 7. a royal statue of ―d for Sais. Buto, mistress of Pe and Dep, was fashioned, a copper bowl - A royal statue of Sesostris (III) for Pe -1 Nephthys (For) the Nine Gods in Khereha (Hr-h3): a copper bowl; Hapi was fashioned. (I) sailed upstream to Elephantine, offering-tables were given to the southern gods. (For) Hathor, mistress of Dendera: a golden 9. a (For) Hathor, mistress of Cusae: a hm'g't-stone necklace, a mŝn t-stone necklace This list of the king's good works for the gods doubtless comes from the Heliopolis temple, the building of which is recorded in our leather roll, as follows: 501. 'Year 3 Third month of the first season, day —, under The majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Kheperkere, Son of Re, Sesostris (I), triumphant. Living forever and ever. "When the king appeared in the double crown, Occurred the sitting in the audience-hall,f One took counsel with his suite, The companions of the court, asch, see IV, 231, ll. 6, 8, and 11; possibly we should render Sehe here with its usual meaning, "erect," and regard the following sign (the builder), as the determinative, and render "I erected." bSecond nome of Upper Egypt. The inscription here passes around the corner of the block; it is uncertain whether the two faces should be connected as above. dRemains of a cartouche. eInserted by the Empire scribe. f This hall (ddw) is mentioned also in the reign of Sahure (see § 239), where it was part of a house called: "Sahure-Shines-or-Appears-With-Crowns." The name also occurs in the Fourth Dynasty in the same connection (Sethe, Urkunden, I, 22, 1. 14), and must be an audience-hall. The princes at the place of -). One took counsel, while making them reveal: 502. He begat me to do that which he did, To execute that which he commanded to' do. He appointed me shepherd of this land. He recognized him who should defend" "it, b And that which the eye, that is in him, illuminates. "Doing throughout as he desires. I have 'rendered that which he exacted d I am a king of his character, A sovereign, to whom he - not. I conquered as a lad, I was mighty in the egg. He appointed me lord of the two halves,f As a child, before the swaddling-clothes were loosed for me, He appointed me lord of mankind, - "in the presence of the people. He perfected me to be occupant of the palace, As a youth, before my two - came forth. He gave his length and his breadth [to me]. Who have been brought up in his character, which he took. To whom was given the land; I am its lord. My fames has reached 13the height of heaven, aThe king. bThe sun; that which the eye illuminates is, of course, the earth. cIt is all obedient to him? dA very uncertain line. f Upper and Lower Egypt. *A mutilated line. gLit.: "Fame for me.... 14He has commanded me to conquer that which he conquered, Horus, who havea numbered 'his limbs.] 503. I have established the offerings of 15the gods, I will make a work, namely, a great house, For my father Atum. Heb will make it broad, according as he has caused me to conquer. 16I will victual his altars on earth, I will build my house in the __1¢ My beauty shall be remembered in his house, My name is the pyramidion, and my name is the lake,d Eternity is that excellent thing which I have made; The king 18dies not, who is mentioned by reason of his achievements. It is my name - which is mentioned in reality, Which passes not away because of eternal things. That which I seek is 2°the excellent things. It is vigilance in eternal things." 504. II. Then spake these companions of the king, And they answered before their god:e "Hu is [in] thy mouth, and Esyef is behind thee. O sovereign, it is thy plans which are realized, O king, who shinest as Favorite of the Two Goddesses, It is excellent to look to the morrow, And with excellent things, to (coming) time. a First person. "We expect "I,” viz., “I will make it broad according as he has made my kingdom broad." Sh, which occurs also as the place where a temple is built, in II, 890, 1. 24. dMeaning that these accessories of the temple will be memorials of his name. By a curious accident, the only witness to the king's building surviving on the spot is his solitary obelisk (at Maṭarîyeh-Heliopolis), surmounted as usual by the "pyramidion." eThe king. f Hu and Esye are the deities of taste and wisdom. |