2. Erection of the wall of the sun-barque at the south side [of the sun-temple: "Favorite-Seat-of-Re"].a

3. The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neferirkere; he made (it) as [his] monument [for]:

4. Re in the sun-temple: "Favorite-Seat-of-Re": г8 - loaves: for the evening sun-barque; and for the morning sun-barque -. 5. The Souls of Heliopolis: of electrum;

6. Ptah, "South-of his-Wall":

7. Buto of the South:

8.

stat

of electrum.

aThis is a sun-barque like that found at Abusir beside the sun-temple of Nuserre by the excavations of the Berlin Museum.

THE THIRD DYNASTY

REIGN OF SNEFRU

SINAI INSCRIPTIONSa

168. Although the Pharaohs had operated in the copper region of Sinai as far back as the First Dynasty, Snefru was later regarded as the great founder of the Egyptian mining there. He became a patron god of the region (§ 722), he gave his name to the roads and stations of the eastern Delta (§ 493, 1. 9), and officials boasting of their achievements there claimed that nothing like them had been done since the time of Snefru (§ 731).

Being the only existing inscriptional record of achievement by Snefru, this document is of especial importance. The relief to which the inscriptions belong is as important as they. It represents the king in the etef-crown, with upraised war-club about to smite a Bedwi, whom he has forced to kneel, holding him by the hair of his head.b This, of course, symbolizes Snefru's victory over the Bedwin of this region, during his mining operations here.

169. The inscriptions contain only titles and names of Snefru; they are:

King of Upper and Lower Egypt; Favorite of the Two Goddesses: Lord of Truth; Golden Horus: Snefru. Snefru, Great God, who is given Satisfaction, Stability, Life, Health, all Joy forever.

a Engraved on the rock-walls of the Wadi Maghara in the Peninsula of Sinai. Text: Lepsius, Denkmäler, II, 2 a; Laborde, Voyage de l'Arabie Petrée, Pl. 5, No. 4; Laval, Voyage dans la Péninsule Arabique, Inscriptions hiéroglyphiques, Pl. 3, No. 1; Brugsch, Thesaurus, VI, 1492 (inscriptions only); Sethe, Urkunden, I, 7, 8; Morgan, Recherches, I, 233; Weill, Sinai, 103.

bThis form of relief is as old as the early First Dynasty. Such a scene had already been left here by King Semerkhet, of the early dynastic age (Weill, Revue archéologique, II [1903], 231); and an ivory tablet shows King Usephais, of the First Dynasty, smiting a Bedwi native in the same way (Macgregor Collection, Spiegelberg, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, XXXV, 8).

Horus: Lord of Truth.a

Smiter of Barbarians.

A second, similar relief of Snefru in the Wadi Maghara is near the above.b

BIOGRAPHY OF METHEN

170. This is the earliest biography which we possess, and it clearly betrays its primitive character. It is impossible to determine with certainty the succession of the parts distributed on the different walls, and the language is so bald, abbreviated, and obscure that some of the narrative remains unintelligible. Apart from the fact that it is our earliest document of the kind, and the only one from the Third Dynasty, the biography is especially valuable because it deals with the geography and government of the North, narrating Methen's activity in the Delta, of the administration of which at this early period we otherwise know almost nothing. The narrative tells of his gradual rise, from a beginning as scribe and overseer of a provision magazine, until he governs a considerable number of towns and districts in the Delta. He also obtained in Upper Egypt the rule of the eastern part of the Fayum and the Anubis nome (Seventeenth). He was liberally rewarded with gifts of lands, became master of the hunt, and tells us the size of his house, with some account of the grounds; all of which, from an age so remote, is of especial interest. He died in the reign of Snefru; all his affiliations were with the families preceding Snefru, and he was naturally buried beside the terraced pyramid of Zoser, of the earlier part of the Third Dynasty.

aIn the palace façade, the so-called "banner."

bWeill, Sinai, 104.

cFrom his mastaba-chamber, found by Lepsius at Sakkara, and now in Berlin (Nos. 1105, 1106); published by Lepsius in Denkmäler, II, 3−7, 120, a-e; Schaefer, Aegyptische Inschriften aus dem Königlichen Museum zu Berlin, I, 68, 73-87; Sethe, Urkunden, I, 1−7.