GLEANINGS FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT

BY

A. -H. Sayce

§ IV. — Near the Cataract of Assouân.

I hâve lately discovered an inscription South of the fîrst Cataract. It is engraved on a block of granité on the eastern bank of the Nile, facing the southern extremity of the island of El-Hesseh. I could find no other inscriptions in the immédiate neighbourhood. This new text is as foUows :

Si M

ri

Il ^^^u no

I believe it is the first time that a dated inscription of the reign of Ra-mer-en has been found. The inscription on the left reads, I think, « Beloved of Khnum the Great, » the Lord of the country of Râ-nefer », since the three lines m under o seemed to me to be due to an accidentai fissure of the rock caused by the engraver's tool, and not to form part of the character. In this case, Ra-nefer is apparently a name of the région of the granité quarries * .

In the inscription on the right, the island of Senem appears to be mentioned; I believe that no référence to it has been found in any other text of the Old Empire. As the country of Wawat has been shown by Brugsch to be the district which extended northward to the First Cataract on the eastern bank of the Nile, it would seem that the coimtry of Artht must be the corresponding district on the Western bank. The introduction to the text nc=5| ^ hl is identical with the phrase used by Uni when speaking of (( the chiefs of the countries of Artht, Wawat, Amam and Maza » in the time of Ra-mer-en.

About a mile to the north of the spot where the inscription I hâve been describing

(1) Peut-être doit-on lire

^Jcwjou^^J

is engraved, M. Wilbour found a stone, with a Greek inscription, built into the wall of a ruined Coptic monastery which subsequently became a Mohammedan mosque. The stone is in an inverted position, and was covered with plaster. This I removed, and so brought to light the following text :

This I venture to transcribe and to translate as foUows : (1) [Erased] [e]v$o?o[c]

*Ax[<5Xot>6oc] •ïtp[eT6uTepoc (?)J <ï>(X[c«)v] (2) xà ô â'eoç cpuXaJ (ôç) tûSk è7cix[eij^(a|xaTtJ ôjxoû toù[c] olxou< (3) "cûv iv aûx({» l'puffo, "^fxoç x^ itavoupY^^ ^^^ 8[ie8o6Tj|xev(?)] (4) iitapxov>[vxoç] *Ax[oXou6ou] Kdtrrpoo 4»(X[u>v].

« Famous is Akolouthos shekh (?) of Philaî, and God (our) protector, who hast, along » with this fortress, rescued the houses of those in it, when we were twice handed » over (?) to wickedness, Akolouthos being prefect of the Camp at Phiise. » It will be seen that the inscription belongs to the Byzantine period ; but we learn f rom it that there was a Castrum at Philse.

M. Wilbour and myself hâve again been examining the Famine-Stele at Sehôl. He adhères to his opinion that the first character in the royal cartouche is Kher or Ah, and it is quite certain that the last character czz) is to be distinguished from <=:> which is always angular in the inscription. In fact in the last line but one, < — > is used and interchanges with awwv. M. Wilbour and I hâve always believed that the second character is thés, and I would therefore now identify the king with the Aktisanes of Diodors (I, 60) and regard him as one of the Ethiopians who got possession of Egypt in the time of Ptolemy Epiphanes. His eighteenth year refers of course to his reign in Ethiopia.

Louxor, the 2 March 1893.

A.-H. Saycb.

PAR