huge stone stela, erected by Sesostris I nearly two thousand years before Christ, in his new temple at Heliopolis. The great block itself has since perished utterly; but the practicecopy made by a scribe, who was whiling away an idle hour in the sunny temple court, has survived, and the fragile roll of leather (§§ 498 ff.) upon which he was thus exercising his pen, has transmitted to us what the massive stone could not preserve.

5. That we possess any documents at all from the Old Kingdom (2980-2400 B. C.) is chiefly due to the massive masonry tombs of that age, in which they were recorded. The exceptions are inscriptions on foreign soil, and a few scanty fragments of papyrus containing accounts and letters. The vast quantity of such papyrus documents which once existed is evidenced by the constant appearance of the scribe with his rolls, his pens, and his ink palette, in the tomb reliefs. Such hints from the numerous reliefs in the tombs of this age are the source of our knowledge of the material culture of the time. The chief inscriptions which accompany them consist almost exclusively of the name and many titles of the owner of the tomb. Now and again the legal enactment by which the tomb was endowed and maintained is recorded on the wall. Such wills and conveyances are, of course, invaluable cultural documents.

6. Gradually the nobles were inclined to add a few biographical details to the series of bare titles. The first of such scanty biographies appears at the end of the Third Dynasty (§§170 ff.), after which there is a growing fondness for recording at least the chief honors received by the deceased from the Pharaoh, especially the furnishing and equipment of his tomb at the king's expense. The daily intercourse of the deceased with the king, the privileges which he enjoyed in connection with the royal person, or now and then the copy

of a letter from the king to his favorite-all these serve to make such biographies of inestimable value in completing our picture of the culture of the time. In the Sixth Dynasty these biographies become real narratives of the career of the departed noble, or at least of his most notable achievements in the service of the Pharaoh. The most important documents of this character are the biographies of Uni (§§ 291 ff.), and the nobles of Elephantine (§§ 325 ff., 355 ff., 362 ff.), one of whom has included therein a personal letter from the king (§§ 350 ff.).

7. As the aggressiveness of the Pharaohs increased, their foreign enterprises found record on the rocks in a number of distant regions (outside of Egypt proper), where they still exist. In the Peninsula of Sinai they appear in the First Dynasty (began 3400 B. C.); by the Fifth Dynasty (ended by 2580 B. C.) the officials who led such expeditions commenced to add their own records below the mere relief depicting the triumphant king, a scene to which heretofore only the name of the king was appended. From the Fourth Dynasty such memorials begin to appear in the alabaster quarries of Hatnub, behind Amarna; and from the reign of Isesi, in the Fifth Dynasty, they become more and more numerous in the quarries of Hammamat in the eastern desert, on the road from Coptos to the Red Sea. Practically all that we know, for example, of the power and deeds of the Eleventh Dynasty (2160-2000 B. C.) is drawn from records in these quarries.

8. They soon become so regular that their stoppage is almost certain evidence of an interruption in the orderly course of government in the Nile valley. Similar inscriptions on the rocks at the first cataract (§§ 316 ff.) begin in the time of Mernere, of the Sixth Dynasty (2625-2475 B. C.). The earliest inscription (§§ 472, 473) above the cataract in

Nubia itself dates from the reign of Amenemhet I, the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty (2000-1788 B. C.). Under the Empire such records on foreign soil appear also in Syria and Palestine (III, 297). Quarry inscriptions within the borders of Egypt do not begin until the Middle Kingdom, when we find them in the limestone quarries of Ayan (TurraMa'sara) just south of Cairo (§§ 739, 740); at the sandstone quarries of Silsileh they first appear under the Empire.

9. From the Middle Kingdom (2160-1788 B. C.) on, the memorial stela at Abydos are exceedingly valuable.* Officials on various commissions, whose business carried them to the holy city, improved the opportunity to erect memorial stones craving the favor of Osiris, the great god of the dead, for themselves and their relatives. Now and again such an officer narrates the circumstances which called him to Abydos; thus Ikhernofret, the treasurer of Sesostris III, records on his stela (§§ 661-70) not only the occasion of his visit, but also a copy of the royal letter which contained the command dispatching him thither.

10. In this age the tomb biographies become extremely valuable, because of their tendency to fulness and family details a tendency already visible in the Tenth Dynasty tombs at Siut (§§ 391 ff.). But unfortunately only the tombs of Middle Egypt, chiefly at Benihasan (§§ 619 ff.), are preserved. Royal monuments with inscribed records become more plentiful, especially in Nubia, where the boundary stelæ of Sesostris III (§§ 651-60) are especially noteworthy; and in the quarries of Hammamat and the mines of Sinai. Papyri of any kind in the Middle Kingdom are still none too plentiful. Literary papyri are well represented by

aThe great Old Kingdom inscription of Uni at Abydos hardly belongs to the class of memorial stelæ here designated. The inscription of Zau (§§ 344–49), of the Sixth Dynasty, however, should probably be included in this class; but it is unique in its time.

several magnificent manuscripts. Of business and administrative documents, like letters, bills, accounts and tax lists, we have examples in the Kahun Papyri, of which the second find, now at Berlin, is still unpublished. But papyrus documents of strictly historical import, such as we can include here, are still rare in this age.

11. Under the Empire (1580-1150 B. C.) the available documents both in quantity and quality for the first time approach the minimum which in European history would be regarded as adequate to a moderately full presentation of the career of the nation. Scores of important questions, however, still remain unanswered, in whatever direction we turn. Nevertheless, a rough framework of the governmental organization, the constitution of society, the most important achievements of the kings, and to a limited extent the spirit of the imperial age, may be discerned and sketched, in the main outlines, with clearness and fair precision, even though it is only here and there that the sources enable us to fill in the detail.

12. It is especially royal monuments which are more plentiful in the Empire, as compared with earlier times. The first and most important class of such documents is found in the temples-a source which in the earlier periods has totally perished. It was customary already at the beginning of the dynasties for the king to commemorate his victories in the temples. This custom led in the Empire to extensive and magnificent records on the temple walls, on a scale not before attempted. Such documents were less records than triumphal memorials, and as historical sources they are therefore very insufficient. They dealt with events with which all were familiar at the time of their erection, and hence specific references to the said events are rare, or, if present at all, are couched in such vague and

general terms that little can be drawn from them at the present day.

13. They consist chiefly in extensive reliefs on the temple walls, depicting the victorious Pharaoh in battle, capturing prisoners, or presenting prisoners and spoil to Amon. They are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory inscriptions, which unfortunately consist, for the most part, in conventional phrases in laudation of the Pharaoh as a mighty ruler. As the temples of the Eighteenth Dynasty have to a large extent perished, the priceless records of that imperial family have perished with them. We have three great series of reliefs: one representing the birth of Queen Hatshepsut (II, 187 ff.), and a duplicate depicting the birth of Amenhotep III (II, 841 ff.), while the third pictures the voyage of Hatshepsut to the land of Punt (II, 246 ff.). More valuable are the extracts from the annals of Thutmose III on the walls of the Karnak temple (II, 391 ff.), already mentioned, and a similar record of his son Amenhotep II on a large stela at Karnak (II, 780 ff.). The temple records of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties are much more plentiful; but they are almost exclusively of the unprecise character above described. Besides the great record of Merneptah's Libyan war, (III, 569-617), which is a much better source, they are chiefly memorials of the wars of Seti I (III, 80-156), of his son, Ramses II (IV, 294–391, 448–91), and of Ramses III, of the Twentieth Dynasty (IV, 1-145).

14. Another class of temple records is the building inscriptions. Apart from their value as records of building enterprises, they contain valuable references to the history of the builder. In a number of cases the early career of the builder and the manner in which he came to the throne are prefixed as an introduction to the record of the building itself. This is observable as far back as the building