CHAP. VIII.

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF EGYPT.

335

CHAPTER VIII.

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF EGYPT.

1. Fabulous period of history-Rule of the Gods-Name of Menes; supposed to be Mizraim-Believed to be a real person by the Egyptians, and to have founded Memphis. 2. This and Memphis-Egyptians from Asia-Memphis older than Thebes. 3. Precedence of Upper Egypt. 4. Earliest notice of Thebes-Absence of early buildings. 5. Contemporary kings-Arrangement of the early dynasties. 6. Uncertainty of the early chronology-Date of the Exodus. 7. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd dynasties-Menes and his successors. 8. In the second dynasty sacred animals worshipped; and women allowed to hold the sceptre. 9. 4th and 5th dynasties. 10. Civilised customs in the early Pyramid period-Mount Sinai-Shafre built the 2nd pyramid. 11. 6th dynasty-The prenomen of kings. 12. 7th, 8th, and 9th dynastiesThe Enentefs. 13. 11th dynasty-Contemporary kings. 14. 12th dynasty -Osirtasen III. treated as a God. 15. The labyrinth. 16. The 13th dynasty in Ethiopia. 17. Shepherd dynasties-The Hyk-sos expelled. 18. The 18th dynasty-The horse from Asia. 19. Thothmes I., II., and III., and Queen Amun-nou-het. 20. Conquests of Thothmes III.-His monuments. 21. Amunoph III. and Queen Taia-The Stranger kings-Con. quests of Amunoph III. 22. Country and features of the Stranger kings -Related to Amunoph. 23. Expelled from Egypt. 24. King Horus. 25. The 19th dynasty-Remeses, Sethos, and Remeses the Great-Attack and defence of fortresses-Pithom and Raamses-Canal to the Red Sea. 26. 20th dynasty-Remeses III.-His conquests and wealth-His sons. 27. 21st and 22nd dynasties-Priest kings. 28. Sheshonk, or ShishakConquers Judæa--Name of Yudah Melchi (kingdom of Judah). 29. Kings' names on the Apis stela. 30. The 23rd dynasty-Assyrian names of the Sheshonk family. 31. The 24th dynasty-Bocchoris the Saïte-Power of Assyria increasing. 32. The 25th dynasty of the Sabacos and Tirhaka. 33. The 26th dynasty-Psammetichus succeeded Tirhaka-Correction of the chronology-He married an Ethiopian princess. 34. War of Psammetichus and desertion of his troops. 35. Succeeded by Neco. 36. Circumnavigation of Africa-Defeat of Josiah. 37. Power and fall of Apries-Probable invasion of Egypt and substitution of Amasis for Apries by Nebuchadnez38. Amasis-Flourishing state of Egypt-Privileges granted to the Greeks-Treaty with Croesus-Persian invasion. 39. Defeat of the Egyptians-Conduct of Cambyses at first humane. 40. Egypt became a Persian province-27th or Persian dynasty-Revolt of the Egyptians. 41. 28th and 29th dynasties of Egyptians. 42. 30th dynasty of Egyptians -Nectanebo II. defeated. 43. Ochus recovered Egypt. 44. Duration of the Egyptian kingdom.

zar.

1. THE early history of Egypt is enveloped in the same obscurity as that of other ancient nations, and begins in like manner with its fabulous period. The oldest dynasty therefore given by Manetho is said to have been of the "gods and demigods;" and the list of kings

336

THE EGYPTIANS FROM ASIA.

APP. BOOK II.

in the Turin papyrus commences also with the rule of the gods, the last of whom was Horus the son of Isis and Osiris. And if in the seven last names that remain of that very imperfect papyrus the order of the gods does not exactly agree with Manetho, still there is sufficient to show that both accounts were derived from the same source, universally acknowledged by the Egyptian priests.

The rule of the gods has been supposed to be that of the priests of those deities, who governed the country before the election of a king, like the Judges in Israel; but all accounts agree in considering Menes the first king of Egypt. His name is mentioned in the sculptures of the temple of Remeses II. at Thebes, and in the Turin papyrus, as well as by Manetho and other authorities; and though the frequent occurrence of a similar name (as Manes the first king of Lydia, the Phrygian Manis, the Minos of Crete, the Indian Menu, the Tibetan Mani, the Siamese Manu, the German Mannus, the Welsh Menw, and others) may seem to assign him a place among mythical beings; and though he has been thought to be Mizraim, a personification of the "two Misrs," or provinces of Upper and Lower Egypt; yet he was believed to be a real personage by the Egyptians themselves, and the events of his reign were accepted as undoubted facts. He was represented as having changed the course of the Nile, and founded Memphis on the site thus artificially made for it, where he began the famous temple of Pthah (Vulcan); and the change he made in the habits of the Egyptians was recorded by a stela put up by Tnephachthus, the father of Bocchoris, in the temple of Amun at Thebes; which pronounced a curse against Menes for having induced the Egyptians to abandon their hitherto simple mode of life.

Some might be disposed to doubt whether This, or any city in 2. Upper Egypt, was older than Memphis; and, as the Egyptians were a people who immigrated from Asia into the valley of the Nile, might conclude that they founded their first capital in Lower rather than in Upper Egypt. The whole valley indeed was peopled from Asia; and to this day the inhabitants bear the evident marks of an Asiatic and Caucasian origin. Nor is it necessary to notice the longexploded notion of civilisation having descended, together with hieroglyphic writing, from Ethiopia-a country always socially and intellectually inferior to Egypt, and where hieroglyphics were only properly written when directly copied from it.

The colour and features, as well as the conformation of their

3.

4.

CHAP. VIII.

ANTIQUITY OF THIS, MEMPHIS, AND THEBES.

337

skull, show that the immigration was one of those where a new race took entire possession of the land, scarcely if at all amalgamating with the aboriginal population; and in this the difference between the later invasion by the Arabs is evident; for the old Egyptian character is still preserved, and the foreign Arab element has, after a lapse of many centuries, been mostly absorbed into that of the native race. There is always this marked difference between immigration and conquest, that in the latter the invaders are only a powerful minority, marrying the native women, and leaving the whole working population in the land; though at the same time it is evident that the foreign admixture has the effect of changing the features, and even the colour, of the succeeding generations, which are retained long after all the other elements are absorbed ; and this explains the resemblance of character in the ancient and modern Egyptians, and the fact of the varied features of the latter differing so much from those both of the ancient Egyptians and the Arabs.

The monuments at Memphis are undoubtedly much older than those of Thebes; but the precedence always given to Upper Egypt seems to prove that some other capital there was older than Memphis; and though no monuments remain at This, still, from its being the reputed birth-place of Menes, and the chief city of the Thinite nome, as well as the royal residence of the first or Thinite dynasty, it claims the honour of having been the oldest capital of Egypt.

Both Abydus and Hermonthis, as well as other cities, were older than Thebes, which is not even mentioned on the altar of King Papi;* and the earliest evidences of the existence of Thebes are the tombs of the Enentefs of the 9th dynasty, and the vestiges of temples built by Amun-m-he I. and Osirtasen. It is probable that Thebes succeeded to the smaller city of Hermonthis, as This gave place to Abydus; and the absence of early monuments of the 3rd and 4th dynasties in Upper Egypt may be explained by Memphis having been the royal residence of the then great ruling dynasties; while the monuments which preceded that age, from their insignificance, and the transfer of the capital of Upper Egypt to a new site, have not been preserved, or were destroyed at the period of the Shepherd invasion. Nor can any argument be safely derived from the absence of monuments of a particular era; for at the pyramids

* In the Turin Museum.

VOL. II.

Ꮓ

338

ARRANGEMENT OF EARLY DYNASTIES. APP. BOOK II.

there are no records of kings between the 5th and 26th dynasties, except the name of Remeses II. on the rock scarped to form the area half encircling the 2nd pyramid; and yet several hundred Pharaohs ruled during that interval, many of whose names are found in Upper Egypt. Again, no building remains of any early Memphite king, even about Memphis and the pyramids, except those monuments themselves and the neighbouring tombs; and with the exception of these, and the Labyrinth, some fragments and small objects, some stela, and the obelisks of Osirtasen I. at Heliopolis and in the Fyóom, nothing is met with of old times before the 18th dynasty. This may be reasonably ascribed to the invasion of the Shepherds, as the preservation of the early tombs may be explained by the feeling, common at all times, of respect for the dead.

The names of kings and the number of years given by Manetho 5. are not all to be taken as of consecutive reigns; for not only do we know, from the authority of Manetho, that there were contemporary "kings of Thebaïs and of the other provinces of Egypt," but the monuments themselves decide this point by the mention of the years of one king's reign corresponding with those of another; and by the representation of one king meeting another, generally as his superior; as well as by various statements in papyri and other documents. The manner in which the dynasties succeeded, and were reckoned, has been very ingeniously explained by Mr. Stuart Poole (suggested as he states by Mr. Lane); and by this scheme the difficulty of the great lapse of time required for so many consecutive Pharaohs, and the occurrence of synchronous reigns, have been reconciled. According to it the first nineteen dynasties were

With regard to the age of Menes and the chronology of the 6. Egyptian kings, all is of course very uncertain. No era is given by

7.

CHAP. VIII. UNCERTAINTY OF EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY.

339

the monuments; which merely record some events that happened under particular kings; and any calculation, based on the duration of their reigns given by Manetho, must be even more uncertain than that of genealogies. Any endeavour to make the chronology of Egypt conform to the date of the Exodus, or any other very early event mentioned in the Bible, would also lead to unsatisfactory results, since the Bible chronology is itself uncertain- the different versions of it assigning different dates to the same events. If therefore we wish to examine any portion of Egyptian chronology with a desire to ascertain the truth, we must look for facts rather than depend on what are merely accepted as established opinions; and be satisfied to wait for further information from such monumental records as may furnish us with astronomical data. Again, it is difficult to ascertain what periods accord exactly with those of other people; nor indeed, if we knew the very reign in which the Exodus took place, could we determine for certain its date; and even the time of Shishak who invaded Judæa cannot be fixed with precision. If therefore I abstain from assigning dates to all the reigns of the Pharaohs it is owing to the uncertainty of Egyptian chronology; though I am inclined to think that the arguments used by the Duke of Northumberland for placing the Exodus after the reign of Remeses II. have greater weight than my own in favour of the reign of Thothmes III.*

It would certainly be more agreeable to the writer, as well as to the reader of Egyptian history, if the dates of the accession of each king and the events of his reign could be described as established facts, without the necessity of qualifying them by a doubt; but this cannot be done and if it is necessary to break the thread of the history by conjectures, the uncertain nature of our authorities must plead an excuse. Indeed we may be well contented to have any approach towards the determination of events that happened in so remote an age.

:

[First, Second, and Third Dynasties.]-Menes, having rendered his name illustrious by improving the country, and even (according to Eusebius) by conquests beyond the frontier of Egypt, was killed by a hippopotamus, and was succeeded by his son Athôthis. The long reign of Menes, 62 years according to Africanus (or 30 according to Eusebius), and that of Kenkenes, 31 (or 39), seem to argue that even in the time of Menes, his son Athôthis ruled conjointly with

* Mentioned in Chapter ii. of my At. Eg. vol. i. p. 77-81.